The Atherton Project. Ep 1

The Atherton Project is in its 3rd season and it should be a good one. Gee, Dan, and Rachel are siblings who race around the world on their bikes. If your reading this their also faster than you!

video here!

TSP New Era Hats

TSP New Era snapbacks are here and just in time for summer! Caps come in a grey on black color way and feature a custom embroidered soldier on front, TSP text on back. Quantities are very limited so get yours before they’re gone!



Order Here!

44 Days and Rolling. 6th and final recap

Let the recap do the taking.

44 Days and Rolling Week 5. All the way across the country.

I've always heard about highland mtn bike park from the movies and magazines but I never thought I would make it up to New Hampshire. The best way to describe highland is "buff".


See some buff for yourself...

44 Days and Rolling Week 4 recap. Lets get drunk

The crew had a little R & R time that was spent in Denver for a few days. We found ourselves up in Ft. Collins at the New Belgium Brewery putting the taste test room, to the test. If you ever get a chance I highly recommend it. After our buzz died down we made the 25 ish hour trek across the country to North Carolina.

Week 4 recap story here

44 Days and Rolling week 3 recap. Yeah Utah

This week the crew set of for Utah. Everyone's northwest white skin had taken a beating at this point but we weren't complaining to bad. If your a mountain biker and you haven't been to Utah, shame on you.


Check out the recap here...

44 Days and Rolling week 2 recap

Here's a recap of what went down on week 2. I got to go back to Woodward West which is always a blast because of the world class talent and hospitality that surrounds the place.


Week 2 recap here!

44 Days and Rolling

I got a call from Brandon over at Freehub Magazine about 2 months ago asking if I wanted to cover a cross country trip he was planning. After months of freezing in the cold I saw it as a great opportunity and jumped on board. 6 weeks of pure biking!

Check out the trip here!

I'll be back

I admit. I went off the blogging train for a long time. The winter has been come and gone and it was a great one with Toy Soldier Productions once again. Hopefully many images will make it to print this next year!!

Inspiration in the form of technology

Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes, sports, and personalities. A video like this personally helps me re light the creative fire. For some it inspirational, for others its crap. Take it as you like.

Click here to ride the wave

Fan Photo Friday

A few weeks ago I had submitted a photo to norco bikes for a contest held every friday. This was selected for the front page of the website

Image details
Canon 5d Mark ii
Canon 16-35 2.8 ii
ISO 400 f/2.8 138 second exposure

Dayton Clothing Company Hat Photo Shoot

A few days ago I did a product shoot for local badass clothing designer Alex Dayton. His brand Dayton Clothing Co was launched in 2008 and evolving with each new line.

Tools for the shoot:
Canon 5d Mark ii
Canon 24-105 f/4 lens
(3) Pocket Wizard Plus ii's
(2)Alien Bee 1600's
1 bogen super clamp
1 Manfrotto light table

I placed one alien bee clamped to a chair under the semi clear mafrotto plastic light table and one light at a 45degree angle to illuminate the rest of the hat and to also blow out the back ground. Clear masking tape was used to make a jig so each hat would be uniform in the photograph.

To order one click here

Toy Soldier Productions Tee Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago I was contacted to shoot photos for the new Toy Soldier Productions Tee shirts. After some location scouting I choose an area called the Story Mill. It's an old mill that is no longer in use but it's extremely iconic to the area. I knew I wanted to shoot at night but the original setting was on a red brick wall. It was a game time decision to move 20ft around the corner to the white brick wall. Overall I think the images turned out great. It was a tough shoot because of the amount of people that showed up and it was tough to move around.

Here's a link to the video edited by the best editor in Bozeman, Andy Hahn.

Industrial Cotton from Toy Soldier Productions on Vimeo.

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Industrial Cotton from Toy Soldier Productions on Vimeo.

images can be seen here.

cheers, Ryan

Polarmax Ad Campaign

Well I skipped class today because music appreciation 101 really isn't my thing. I did however receive a phone call from Donny, an art director at Polarmax. This company specializes in technical base layer clothing. The photo is going to be used in 30+ stores nationally for display racks and for posters. I'll upload the final poster as soon as it gets sent to me.

cheers, Ryan

www.polarmax.com

Toy Soldier Productions Photo Shoot DVD cover

The fall has been extremely busy but there's no complaints. I've never seen my image replicated so many times until the Toy Soldier Production dvd's came in. It's nice to see a seasons worth of work paying off.

www.toysoldierproductions.com

www.ryankirkphotography.com

Red Bull Rampage

10 Tips to photographing an event: Red Bull Rampage

Launched in 2001 and held annually through 2004, Red Bull Rampage brought the creative, unrestricted ethos of freeride mountain biking to the contest arena while staying true to the sport's core ideals. Poised on a sandstone ridge in the brutal landscape near Virgin, Utah riders were free to chose whatever line they dared between an established start gate and the finish line 1,500 vertical feet below. Exactly what happened between those two points has become legendary.

1.Dirt: If your worried about your camera and everything you own being covered in dirt,don’t show up.

2. Credentials: Unlimited access is key to composing images. Contact your local magazine or know someone who knows someone. Free lunch is provided with the press pass.

3. See Tip 1.

4. Business Cards: Everyone from publishers to team managers are on hand and the event. Exposure is everything.

5. Clothing: With highs of 103 degrees is obvious to wear shorts and a t shirt. Yet wearing the same outfit for the entire 4 days of photographing makes you more recognizable to riders and other photographers that you meet during the event.

6.Pre-Visualize: There are thousands of ways to photograph the numerous lines and features. Pick your areas and produce quality not quantity.

7. Equipment: Two cameras are key. The remote camera is locked onto the tripod with the wide angle lens and can be triggered by pocket wizards. The main body varied from the 100-400 and the 24-105.

8. Luck: Somehow randomly meet a writer for the biggest European bike magazine and have him be stoked to run your images.

9. Sell aka Luck #2: Submit images to the magazines and get paid for the time. It’s important to review the submission guidelines prior to submission.

10. Individuality: Don’t be concerned about what the other photographers are doing. It’s impossible for someone to duplicate your style.

www.redbullrampage.com

-ryan

Freehubmag.com Behind the Lenz article

Hello again world. I was contacted a few days ago by the guys over at freehubmagazine regarding a new segment they're starting up called behind the lenz. I learn best from articles like this because it is a way for me to pick other photographers brains. Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way and continues to help me.

Here's a link to the post here!

If you haven't already been to Borders or Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of the printed coffee style copy of FreeHubMag I strongly suggest it.

Thanks again FreeHub and now go out and shoot photos!

-Ryan

Sneak Peak

After finally digging thru the thousands of images and picking out the bangers for submission I came across a shot that makes me want to ride. It's a shot of Brandon Watts (editor and pilot of freehubmag) on a wall ride feature in Moab, Utah. The amount of vert involved is pretty awesome and the amount of blowing sand into my eyes, mouth and camera gear during this shot is equally impressive. Be sure to check out freehubmag.com in the next week or so when they launch their next web issue!!

cheers

Toy Soldier Productions Photo Shoot-Cooke City

The idea sounded perfect after a few drinks and a quick confirmation on weather from mother nature for the following day. The plan was to leave at 4am to get to Cooke City at 7am to meet up with Shane Stalling(Aka the boss) and his buddies to show us around. I was joined by skier Cody Perin and Toy Soldier Productions filmer Justin Brodin and we set off. If you ever get a chance to drive thru Yellowstone National Park, take advantage of the amazing scenery and seeing wildlife up close. When I say up close I mean we almost hit a few hundred between driving there and back.

Without killing bambi we met Shane's crew at the Super 8 and he began doubling everyone back there. The sled in was around 6 miles and I about puked every 100 yards from the festivites of the night before.

The jump had already been built the day before by Shane and Tyrel so we just showed up and it was on. Phil knocked his shoulder out on the biggest air of the day. It sucks it was first hit but at least he overshot everyone by double digits. Cody was dialed on landing his dub 7 but sent it a bit deep on the attempt and ripped the toe peace off the ski and split it in half.

Winter not over yet!

Happy Shooting

Toy Soldier Productions

Toy Soldier Productions Photo Shoot

Every once and a while it's nice to have a stress free product photo shoot involving attractive people and fresh tall Tee's. With the studio to ourselves we got to work. Actual shooting took less than half an hour and another half an hour or so for set up and break down. Side note (professional models make the world of difference, thanks Megan!)

to order a shirt follow this link right here...

toy soldier productions feature film, Come Find Us will be release in the fall of 2010. Trailer Here!