2022 Word of the Year

January 24, 2022

Do you choose a word of the year? A word that guides you in your photography and/or life in general? I know many photographers who do this. This is something new for me just in the last couple of years.

I have chosen words that I felt applied to the way I wanted to approach both my photography and my life. In 2020, I chose the word “Internal” as my year started off with some challenges where I had to rely on my internal instincts even when they led me to some tough and uncomfortable decisions. 2020 proved to (obviously) be a challenging year and my word continued to guide me through making business decisions in the face of a pandemic as well as looking inwards with my own work.

Following the crazy of 2020, in 2021 I decided on the word ‘present’ as my word for the year. I chose this as my word because I wanted to spend the year embracing each day fully, being fully PRESENT in the moment, whether I was out exploring and photographing or spending time with my kids.

This year, I have chosen the word MINDFUL. More than ever, I feel like it is so important for me to make mindful choices in how I spend my time and where I put my energy. Just like last year, I want to be fully present in the moments I am in nature and home with my family. Quality over quantity when it comes to my imagery, photographing what makes me happy. And as I move forward with the business and education side of my photography, being mindful of choosing the projects and opportunities that bring me the most joy feels critical, especially with my kids’ childhood seeming like it is flashing before my eyes. Sometimes life can feel so busy and chaotic that my mind is distracted away from being fully present. Being mindful of choosing the right projects and not overcommitting myself feels critical to happiness at home and fostering full enjoyment of photography and the people I get to connect with through this art.

Being out in nature, photography is always a mindful activity for me, bringing me fully into the present moment. The longer I engage in this art, the more mindful and thoughtful it becomes as I slow down and let nature speak to me. I look forward to embracing this practice and approach in the coming year.

If you have chosen a word of the year, what is it and why did you choose it? I’d love to hear about it!

Kristen Ryan is an award winning and published landscape photographer and educator residing in the Midwest suburbs of Chicago. All images are available for purchase in the Fine Art Store or by request. Kristen leads ladies landscape photography retreats in the Tetons, Glacier NP, Hilton Head, Chicago, and the Canadian Rockies, offers private mentoring . New online educational materials are coming soon!

3 Ways to Celebrate Your Work from 2021

January 15, 2022

It’s 2022 and a brand new year! As you set new goals and look forward to what will hopefully be a great year, it’s a great idea to look back on the past year and celebrate all your successes, growth and the beautiful memories you captured in your images.

There are three things I like to do toward the end of the year to reflect back on the moments and images that I have collected since the last New Year’s Day.

The first thing I like to do is scroll through my Lightroom catalog and look for any favorite images I haven’t edited yet and create a collection of them so that I can be sure to work through them early in the new year! There are always images I don’t get to right away or images that I may have overlooked during the first run through.

As I work on a seascape presentation coming up for me early this year, I went back to some images from earlier in 2021 and discovered a small collection of images I love that I had yet to edit.

The second thing I do is go through my edited images and choose my favorites. Then I make a collection and sometimes create a slideshow. Seeing them together usually adds to my sense of accomplishment and renews my gratitude for all the moments I was lucky enough to spend out in nature.

A collection of some of my favorite horizontal images from 2021!

Or instead, or maybe in addition to annual favorites, maybe gather a collection of images from a particular trip or project that you worked on. For example I could create a collection of my abstract images or backyard images, two of my projects from 2021.

Finally, I choose some of the year’s images to print. Whether I print some large to hang on the wall or smaller to put in a few frames, printing always gives me a newfound appreciation of my work. Seeing some of my images in print is a great way to wrap up the year and give me motivation for the year to come!

Probably my favorite image from 2021 that I’m printing large on metal!

Before you move onto setting goals for 2022, I hope you take the time to reflect on and celebrate all the amazing moments experienced and images captured in 2021!

7 Tips for Finding Inspiration

January 17, 2020

As we begin a new year and new decade, what are you doing to find inspiration? Sometimes it can be hard to stay inspired in our craft day after day. Some people thrive on having a very focused project. Others like to shoot as inspiration comes to them. This can also vary with our stage of life or stage of photography too. I used to thrive on having a project and a “due date” in my first few years of learning. Now I prefer to shoot when I feel the inspiration and try not to feel pressure to create on any kind of timeline.

Whether you are feeling motivated or looking for inspiration, here are 7 tips for finding inspiration in the new year!

1) Go for an early morning walk. Morning walks have been somewhat thrust on me by my walk-loving golden retriever. However, I find that the routine of our 2 mile walk after the kids are off to school is more than just a good active and mind clearing way to start the day. Much of the year, our walk occurs within a couple hours after sunrise and as we walk, I am always noticing the way the light shines through the neighborhood. There is nothing unusually beautiful about our neighborhood, but just noticing the way it lights up the dew drops on the grasses or filters through the trees leaves my mind feeling inspired as I frame images in my mind. On a couple of occasions, I even grabbed my camera when we got home and went in search of the same beauty slightly closer to home. I wonder what you’d find in your neighborhood in the morning light.

The bokeh I envisioned among the grasses day after day while walking the dog in the morning light!

2) Take a field trip to a local park, arboretum, forest preserve, or city! Make an effort to plan a day or even a couple hours visiting a local area of beauty. Maybe you bring your camera or maybe you just leave it at home and spend the time observing with your mind. Sometimes when you go without your camera, your eyes will see even more opportunities to come back to at a later date. Occasionally, when we have our cameras, we can get stuck on the first opportunity we see and miss the other beauty we might have explored. Go alone for quiet thoughtfulness or grab a friend and make it a social outing! Do you have a place you haven’t visited lately?

One of my favorite local spots to visit when I need a creative fix!

3) Listen to inspiring music. The best photographs make us feel emotion. The best music does the same thing. For me, listening to certain music brings specific types visions to my mind and others take me back to past memories or stages of my life. Instrumental music will often bring visions of nature for me; such as waterfalls or rustling trees, etc. Listening to music that makes me FEEL something deep inside inspires me to want to capture images that also make me FEEL emotion. What kind of music inspires you?

4. Get out at night, sunrise or sunset! Getting outside to witness nature during sunrise or sunset when the light is dynamic and colors are golden is sure to help revive your inspiration. The quiet of sunrise always revives and calms my mind as well. Getting out to shoot at night, when everything looks different is a great way to find inspiration. Night is more unexpected and we can create some interesting images that have a stronger impact that the same scene might during the day. Our cameras often capture colors and scenes at night that we miss with the naked eye. Where is a place that you have never explored with your camera at night?

Chicago has a magic that comes alive at night!

5. Explore a different genre. Maybe the landscape is drab and dreary in the winter and is leaving you uninspired. Look for some details that are enhanced by beautiful light or atmospheric fog. Grab some flowers and experiment with macro photography inside or try food photography. Try some self portraits and experiment with light and composition. Sometimes just picking up the camera can yield inspiration. Is there a genre that intrigues you in which you might explore some more?

Macro flowers Kristen Ryan Photography-001.jpg

6. Learn or practice a new technique. Get those Neutral Density filters and tackle long exposures or try some panning on the water or trees. Spend some time learning new creative post processing techniques while you are uninspired to shoot. Post processing is one of my favorite things to do on the dreary winter days. In fact, sometimes I’m thankful for those dreary days because otherwise I might never get my editing done! What technique has been on your to-do list to master?

Merge of a long exposure for the clouds and quick shutter to freeze the foliage!

7. Plan a trip and/or Explore a new place. If nothing else works to inspire my creativity, traveling or exploring a new place always does. Certainly it is most desirable to travel somewhere exotic or extraordinarily beautiful but even less extraordinary places that are new to you can awake your mind to the beauty of the world. Even a day or weekend away in a new place can inspire creativity. And if you come back home to feel uninspired again, at least you have some images to experiment with in post processing!

Milky Way over the Barn Kristen Ryan Photography-001.jpg

Kristen Ryan is an award winning and published landscape and fine art photographer and educator residing in the Midwest suburbs of Chicago. All images are available for purchase in the Fine Art Store or by request. Kristen leads ladies landscape photography retreats in the Tetons, Chicago, and the Canadian Rockies, offers private mentoring and teaches an online landscape photography workshop, The World Around You.

My Top Goal Recommendation for 2020

January 10, 2020

Happy New Year! A new year and a new decade is exciting and can be a time of reflection over the past year and decade as a well as a time of new beginnings and resolutions for the year to come.

I have never been one for a lot of new year’s resolutions as I tend to do things as I decide them. But with my birthday and New Year’s Day within a few days of each other, it does tend to be a time of reflection for me. In addition, the downtime that comes with January in Chicago stimulates my motivation to organize, plan and tackle projects! Afterall, what else is there to do in the cold of Chicago winter?!

While there are many great projects and goals you could jot down on your list for 2020, there is one top recommendation I have to start your year. PRINT your work!

Three great reasons to print your work TODAY!

1) Raise Your Confidence! One of the best things you can do to raise your confidence in your work and increase your motivation and inspiration is to print your images. When the prints are delivered it is like Christmas when you open up an expected present! Seeing your images in print and being able to hold them and put them in frames or on your walls creates a feeling of pride.

2) Celebrate your work & nature! It can be so easy to get caught up in collecting our images on our hard drives and simply sharing on social media in those small tiny squares that don’t do justice to the scenes or creativity we have put into our art. It does not sufficiently celebrate our vision and talent or the beauty of the world we live in.

3) Cherish the Moments & Memories ~ Those images you hang on your wall are a daily reminder of those moments you spend immersed in nature creating your art. Print those images BIG and hang them on a prominent wall. Or create a collection and print them in a beautiful book or album to display in a frequently inhabited room of you house.

If you are like me, you press the shutter because the light, the scenery, and the moment is speaking to you in such a compelling way that you must take that moment with you forever. Your printed images will take you back time and time again. As I walk into my kitchen, I’m transported to the final and magical sunrise during my first hosted Magic in the Tetons retreat. And I remember the afternoon I watched a moose graze along Schwabacher’s Landng for a couple hours. The canvas of the Milky Way reminds me of a great night at String Lake with the ladies from my second retreat. And sunburst illuminating the golden meadow in my family room I feel elated by a magical autumn afternoon hiking out to the Snake River with my mom in the fall of 2012. These are just a few of the images that hang on my walls.

So as this new decade beings, I challenge you to choose at least one or more images to print!

And I’d love to see which image(s) you choose if you care to share :)

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