About Ryan Welsh

Inset photo by Audrey Bartron. Banner photo by Jon Lavinder. — Inset photo by Audrey Bartron.
Banner photo by Jon Lavinder.

I am a landscape, nature, and aerial photographer. Street, portrait, product, and architecture/real estate photography are also things I enjoy experimenting with.

I’m based out of Lake Stevens, WA, amid the beautiful Pacific Northwest of the United States. My partner, Tierany, keeps me sane. Our two floofs, Cayleigh & Abra, keep life interesting.

Photography

At the moment, my photography is a hobby of passion for me. I don’t really stick to any specific niches. I’ve been really enjoying landscape photography, but I’ll occasionally experiment with portraiture, and black & white work.

For a Bit of Historical Context

Photography began for me during high school. While cleaning I found my dad’s camera bag from his earlier years: an old Olympus OM-2 SLR with a hideous 70’s rainbow strap, an Olympus OM Zuiko 24mm f2.8 prime lens, an Olympus OM Zuiko 75-150mm f4 zoom, and an assortment of other gear. And it was all in great shape.

Apparently my dad was something of an amateur photographer back in his military days. Never had I known anything about this artistic side of my father.

I bought some film T-Max film and started shooting, spending almost everything I could spare on developing film and seeing how my practice was paying off.

A few years later, my parents bought me a Canon Rebel 35mm SLR, but I always went back to that old OM-2. There was something about that wide-angle Zuiko I couldn’t get enough of.

The Brave New World of Digital

I stuck with 35mm film through high school and college. When I graduated, I relocated to Seattle to begin my career in tech, eventually saving enough money to buy a Nikon D80 kit. I had a lot of fun with that camera for a few years. I had a website with a portfolio, and I had regular headshot clients in the local theatre community. But, I became discouraged with life happening and demanding every penny I saved for lenses and gear to try to turn my photography into a true side-hustle. I became too discouraged…

I quit shooting. I let my website domain expire and die. I told myself, “I just can’t be a photographer.”

Phone = Creative Outlet

Years later, cameras in smartphones began to be really useful and viable for hobbyist photography. I started to get the itch again. To keep myself motivated, I preached that “the best camera is the one you have on you” line, and focused on ways to make smartphone photography look good and interesting. I think I succeeded more than I didn’t. I’ve been very happy with some of the things I’ve achieved on a smartphone! I still love the camera on my Pixel 3 XL.

A Kick in the Ass From Excellent Content Creators and my Partner

Over the last year, I’ve been watching a lot of photography and videography channels on YouTube, and curating my Instagram feed with fewer memes and more excellent photographers at every level of their game. And I’ve been getting inspired.

I also learned that my partner, Tierany, has a very similar story to my own about photography. So as I’ve been stuffing myself full of inspiring content, she’s been consuming it right along with me, and we’ve been getting a serious photo bug.

Kitting Up for a Return to Creation

This year I’ve been prioritizing some of my budgeting to begin building up some gear so we can put our phones back into our pockets and start looking through the viewfinders.

In early February of 2019, we got the DJI Mavic 2 Pro for aerial work. I’m still making the time whenever I can as the weather gets better to practice flying and shooting.

In March of 2019, I invested in an Adobe CC subscription. Tierany and I have begun honing our skills with Lightroom and Photoshop – two incredible tools that neither of us has touched in the better part of a decade – as well as learning Premiere, which neither of us was familiar with prior.

In April of 2019, we took the plunge and purchased the new Fujifilm X-T3 kit, and a Fotodiox DLX Stretch M-mount adapter to use those old OM Zuiko lenses on the X-T3. I also rebranded my personal Instagram and Twitter accounts of yore, began reviving my neglected Facebook Page, and built this site with a new domain name. I’m trying to hold myself accountable, and I invite you to hold me accountable as well.

The Future…

This brings my story to the present. Right now, it’s all about practice, practice, practice. We now have the essential tools to perform the craft, it’s all about leveling up. But this isn’t all without a plan, even if it’s a loose one right now.

Eventually, we’d like to make money on this passion. We’re still feeling out where our niche is, but I could see us doing consulting for things like real-estate, product photography, headshots, etc.

Part of these goals is to make our investment with the drone profitable. And that means I have to become FAA Part 107 certified. I’m currently studying for that, and getting my certification by the end of 2019 is a goal of mine.

Other Projects

My partner and I run two other Instagram accounts together: @FlashpointSagas is all about our travels and adventures together, and @FloofArmy is our two cats. Because everyone likes cute cat photos. Learn more on my Follow Me page.

Follow Me

Medieval Reenactment

My partner and I are actively involved in medieval reenactment, through the Empire of Medieval Pursuits. We are co-Lords Consul of a primarily Roman and Viking themed branch within the Kingdom of Ardesca, called **Karma Legio**.
The inset and banner photos were at Winter War 2018, in Deception Pass State Park, WA. This was the first time I participated in armored combat as an archer beside my partner. She has a long history of fighting, and it was a sweet moment to get to take the field at her side.

Medieval reenactment dovetails with another passion: studying Norse runes.

I’ve never been good with learning languages, much less the characters of other languages that fall out of the Roman alphabet.

But a few years ago I was looking at some photos of old stone carvings with Old Norse runes on them, and some other archeological finds with runes carved into them, and these symbols really resonated with me on a level I couldn’t explain.

So, I began my research. Soon I was trying to learn the runes of the Elder Futhark.

What really shocked me was how quickly my understanding of them was sticking. It was the first time that something non-English, and non-Roman alphabet was well and truly committing itself to my memory with ease. And not just the phonetic values, but the crucial meaning of each rune as well.

I’ve kept studying since then, and expanded that into the art of runecasting, which is a form of divination comparable to Tarot reading.

Offering runecasting teaching to pass on what I’ve learned about the Elder Futhark runes, is a bit of a side-hustle I enjoy in my spare time.

This symbol which you may have noticed as my website logo is my personal bindrune: a runic symbol designed to represent me as a person. Similar to a signature, a monogram, or a signature.