Hi, there! My name is Heidi Ryder. I’m a photographer from Southern California and this is my photo blog. Here is where you will find shots from each of my sessions, including but not limited to: weddings, engagements, families, children, babies and pets. I may even post some personal photos from time to time, as well.
Feel free to browse through all of the images–and leave a comment or two if you feel so inclined! You can see more of my work in my official portfolio, which is also where you’ll find contact and rate information. Feel free to give me a buzz if you’d like to schedule a session for yourself! I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for looking--I really hope you like what you see.
I work with Danielle over at mystyle.com and she recently hired me to take some headshots for use on her business cards. Since she’s not an actress I was only loosely following regular guidelines for headshots, but the general idea was the same: Danielle needed to look like the best version of herself and her face needed to be the central focus.
Though she insisted that she wasn’t photogenic and warned me that she probably wouldn’t like any of the shots, I do believe that I have proven her wrong. She’s seen the results already and had more than a few favorites. Making someone like themselves in pictures always feels like a great accomplishment on my part.
She also tried to pretend that she didn’t like being a “model” at all. And I don’t know why, but I get the feeling she was lying about that too, the little vixen. Ha!
Whoa…Long time, no blog! Not gonna give a laundry list of excuses (like the one where I tell you about the fact that I’m getting married in six weeks and, boy, that’s hard work!) as to why I haven’t blogged any photos in a while. I have some stuff to post, I’m just not sure if I’ll get to it. I am trying to get back into the swing of things, so hopefully there won’t be any super long absences from me again!
Here’s a few personal photos of mine from the past weekend. Chris’ parents were in town for a wedding shower that was thrown for us. They got to meet my parents for the first time, which was super special and a long time coming. Everyone got along smashingly and we all had a great weekend. We took his parents to see the Griffith Observatory because they had never been and I hadn’t seen it since it was re-opened last year. It’s more impressive than ever, so if you ever get a chance to see it, I highly recommend checking it out. You don’t even need reservations anymore!
I hope you’re all having a lovely time doing whatever it is that you’re doing! Enjoy…
Hope all of the moms and moms-to-be are having a great day today. I woke up pretty sick this morning and so I wasn’t able to visit my own mom. Thankfully she seemed to understand and I will definitely see her next weekend. I created these images for her as her Mother’s Day gift. She never reads this blog, so I’m pretty sure they’re safe to post here even though I haven’t gifted them to her yet! Several months ago she asked if I had ever done any black and white images of flowers because she would really like some framed prints for her newly remodeled bedroom. I told her I hadn’t, but automatically decided that I would for her, I just didn’t tell her so. Hopefully when she receives these she will be pleasantly surprised. I chose two of her favorite flowers––cala lilies and orchids––and I added a rose in there for good measure. The rose ended up being my favorite.
These prints are also now for sale in my etsy shop (why let my mom have all the pretty?), in addition to a few other new ones that I snuck in there earlier in the week. Check out my shop!
You may remember Marjan and her husband Avi from their magnificent baby shower last month. This weekend I met up with them again because they wanted some baby bump photos before their little girl made her appearance into the world. Marjan is due next month and she couldn’t be more beautiful! A few of these images will be used in a coffee table book photo album that I’m putting together for Marjan and Avi from their shower––I can’t wait to deliver the final product to them.
I’m particularly enjoying the wooden nymph vibe some of these images have…seems very appropriate for baby bump photos somehow!
Last week, during the photo shoot with Kim and Johnny, we were wandering around the beach looking for a good location. The light wasn’t perfect yet and the beach was way more crowded than I had imagined. We were meandering in the sand for a while when I looked to my left and saw a brilliant green wall with lots of texture and personality. I started walking towards the wall quickly, murmuring to Kim and Johnny over my shoulder something about how I really liked that green wall and they should go stand in front of it. I think they both thought I was a little nuts.
But, the humored me and situated themselves in front of the wall. I fired off a few shots and checked them out in my LCD screen on the back of my camera. They were glorious. Not only did the green look remarkable but the shaded lighting made their skin glow. As a photographer, not only am I searching for light, but often times I’m searching for shade––which is something I don’t hear a lot of photographers talk about, even though I know we all do it.
After I posted the photos from that shoot I received a phone call from Kim. Her first words, “You amaze me,” brought a smile to my face, but it was her follow-up phrase that really made me proud: “You were right, that green wall was awesome.” It made me feel that I had achieved a small victory in some way by demonstrating through the images that I created that what seemed like a plain and somewhat ugly wall was really a thing of beauty.
Another small victory happened to me yesterday. I don’t talk here about the other types of work that I do, but in addition to taking photographs, I also work as a copy editor. Currently, I’m working as a contractor for the Style Network’s website, mystyle.com. There is a weekly feature on the site called Style Test Drive, wherein staff members review a product and write mini reviews. If you click on that link you’ll see all of them and notice that in all of the entries starting with Can JASON Measure Up? the staff photos are boring, poorly lit shots taken in front of a white wall. In the meeting the senior editor expressed her desire to spice up the test drive section of the site and asked for suggestions. I, of course, suggested beautifying the section with prettier staff photos. To make a long story short, I was asked to step in. The first test drive featuring my photos was published today and I am pleased as punch. The photos are exactly a quarter of an inch big, but they do look pretty! Tiny little photos and a tiny little photo credit (highlighted below with purple arrows)––I am so proud! You can take a look at the entry live on the site by clicking on the screen grab below.
Friday Song
Don’t think I’d post on a Friday without posting a Friday Song! This week I’m posting another oldie-but-goodie, though it’s likely you’ve never heard it. It’s by a rapper called Fat Lip who is an ousted member of The Pharcyde. I have to admit I’m pretty much unfamiliar with the lot of his work except for this song. But, I do love this song a lot. It’s pretty refreshing to hear a rapper talk about how uncool he is. You must also check out the video, which was directed by Spike Jonze.
Once upon a time I was 12 years old. The new girl at school, I often sat alone on the bus each morning because I wasn’t what you would call outgoing. Even though both of my cousins went to the same school and took the same bus and had been in the same school district since first grade, they had their own friends and I wouldn’t fit in with their crowds. So, I kept to myself and tried not to stand out, lest I let my awkwardness show.
One morning, though, a girl with dirty blond hair, golden eyes, flannel shirt and 8-hole Doc Martens motioned for me to sit next to her on the bus. Her name was Kim. She listened to Alternative music (remember when we called it that with a straight face?) and was cooler than I thought I could ever be. And we’ve been friends ever since. Kim has been my best friend for what now seems like forever. She’ll be the Maid of Honor at my wedding in July.
When she asked me to take photos of her and her boyfriend, Johnny, I was honored. Not only do I love taking photos of gorgeous couples, but I love hanging out with my Kimmy. Plus, Johnny compliments Kim perfectly so I was eager to celebrate them as a couple the best way I know how––through photos.
We headed down to the beach for a few hours to soak up some of that delicious sunlight I love so much. Kim and Johnny were happy to oblige when I yelled, “Okay, great…now totally make out!” from behind my camera. The most hilarious part of the day was that Kim had a very hard time keeping her eyes open. Every time she heard the shutter click, she’d blink. Roughly 60 percent of the images I took show her mid-blink. To make matters worse, many of the times she manged to keep her eyes open, Johnny would blink. It was a comedy of errors all day long. But in the end, we made a game out of it where I would tell Kim to close her eyes and then count down, “One…two…three…OPEN!” Her peepers would jump to alertness and I’d fire off as many shots as my camera could muster before she’d blink again.
Thank you, Kim and Johnny, for spending a day with me at the beach and for endulging in sushi with Chris and I. We had a fantastic day.
I’ve been a very bad blogger. Because my wedding is a little over two months away (eek!) I’ve been consumed with finalizing details, thus my little online corner of the world has been neglected. Never fear, though––I’ve got a couples shoot this weekend at the beach and I’m feeling pumped. I can’t wait to post my favorite images on Monday!
Also, yay! It’s Friday! Today’s song is by Architecture in Helsinki and can be found on their latest album, Places Like This. It’s a weird song from a weird band and if you know me, you know that’s sometimes how I like my music. Enjoy!
Architecture in Helsinki - Heart It Races
Ever since I started this blog not so long ago, I’ve had several people ask me if I would be selling prints of some of my non-portrait work in the future. At first I didn’t really give it much thought, but the more people asked, the more I considered until last night I finally put all of that considering into action and opened up an Etsyshop so that people can order prints quickly and easily. So far I’ve got nine images posted but there are more coming, and I will add new images as i see fit. Please have a gander at my shop and feel free to order one or two (or nine) for yourself or for someone who has really, really good taste!
Colorful architecture in Chinatown. I took this image in between shots at the faith + jason shoot.
Well, another work week has come and gone. I came down with a pretty nasty cold early on in the week so I’ve spent most of my time curled up in bed, feeling sorry for myself. I’ve been a human snot factory all week and spent more time than I care to admit daydreaming about all of the things I could be getting accomplished were it not for the fact that I felt like like death warmed over. I’m feeling well enough to get back to work today, though, so if you need me I can be found propped up in front of my computer, trying to act like a contributing member of society again.
Today’s Friday song is another cover. Chances are you’ve heard the original and it needs no introduction. The cover is done by Swedish indie-pop band, Shout Out Louds. There are many people who don’t like covers, but I always enjoy hearing a new take on an old favorite. I like to see how other bands reimagine a perfectly good song and make it their own. It’s not better, it’s different. I like different. Enjoy!
Shout Out Louds - Man on the Moon
I got to hang out in Chinatown this weekend with Faith and Jason, a gorgeous couple who wanted some nice portraits together and came to me with the task of making them look gorgeous in photos. I use the term “task” very lightly––as you can see from the photos below, these two have absolutely zero chance of looking bad––in a photo or elsewhere. This made my job ridiculously easy. They stood around being lovey-dovey and silly with each other and no matter what angle I shot them from, they looked fantastic. My favorite kind of subjects!
I decided to go to Chinatown about an hour or two before the sun began to set, hoping to get some of that delicious “golden hour” light, and boy, am I glad I did that. The light was nearly edible, which only served to make this fine couple even more photogenic. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day. Thanks to Faith and Jason for not being afraid to get silly with me in Chinatown!
