Next up in our interview series is Forged in the North Photography, formerly Ryan and Heidi Studio. They do fabulous work and we know you’ll appreciate their talent and expertise in the business. Enjoy!
Tell us a little about yourself and your passion / business
We’re really designers at heart, being formally trained in architecture. Photography has allowed us to exercise our creativity, but just in a much more instant manor than architecture. We really enjoy meeting cool couples and traveling to interesting or remote places to shoot them. Finishing a project with beautiful images, that we’re really proud of, is really fulfilling.
Tell us about your style
We try to make our work romantic, emotive, and have a strong sense of place. We often shoot in remote / natural settings, and since our formal training is in architecture, we love playing around with compositions in urban areas as well. Textures, lines, and negative space influence us quite a bit when we’re shooting. But most of all, we like to just have fun and do our best to capture the love of the couples we work with.
Where do you find inspiration?
Architecture, cinematographers, and fashion.
How did you get started in Photography?
After college, we both bought our first cameras and started shooting for fun. Some friends asked us to shoot their engagements / weddings and it just snowballed from there. We’ve been in love with it ever since.
Was there a point when you decided to take a big risk to move forward?
It really never felt like a big risk. We were neck-deep in photography work when we left our previous careers in architecture. A large part of the decision to go full time into photography was the lifestyle of being your own boss, setting your own hours, and having more control over what you do day-to-day.
What do you think was one of the keys to your success?
One of the biggest things was shooting a lot for very little or no money early on. You have to take the initiative to shoot the couples or styles similar to what you want to get hired for. The good work doesn’t come in by chance – it takes a lot of set up to get to that point.
What does a typical day look like for you?
When we’re not traveling for shoots, we are typically editing all day from home. We often meet with clients in the evening. Sneaking in an episode of Mad Men at lunch is always nice too.
What are your 3 favorite pieces of equipment?
Polaroid 680, Canon 45mm Tilt-Shift, and RED Epic
If you knew then (when you started) what you know now what would you do differently?
We would probably scrutinize all the photos we show online even more.
How does RedTree Albums help you serve your clients better?
RedTree is instrumental to our business. We keep a few albums at our studio to show prospective clients. The material and print quality is so good, they are always impressed with them. In an age of everything being digital, its nice to have the option of getting a beautiful, tactile, keepsake of your wedding.
How do you design your albums, what software do you use?
We’ve used Adobe InDesign in the past, but are transitioning over to Smart Albums now to speed up the workflow.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
We would like to keep a nice balance of wedding and commercial work, and use the jobs we get as excuses to travel and explore parts of the world we’ve never seen.
