standing here on this frozen lake...

it's christmas in california...

but it's especially christmas in virginia where there is not only snow but a beautiful frozen lake for me to slide around on. :)

...or i guess sit on, as the case may be. it was great to visit my grandparents' house where said lake is located up in madison, virginia because i have not been there in years. california livin has kept me far away from these places i used to visit so often.

i had a very merry christmas, especially since i was able to come home. being on this side of the country, however, has not only given me a new burst of inspiration for the new year but also supplanted my west-coast-is-for-me feeling with a maybe-i-should-move-back-to-the-side-of-the-country-where-i-belong feeling. who knows, in a year i might be in new york or dc. or maybe i'll move north from california and reside in seattle or san fran. wherever i end up, i'm becoming more and more sure that southern california isn't the place for me to stay much longer.

on that note, if any of you out there needs a roommate in a lovely cool metropolitan city in the next half year on then you should speak to me right away. ;)

in the meantime, i am still furthering my education and getting a detailed background in professional photography from a school in orange county.

i hope you all have the happiest of holidays. 2010 is sure to be a wonderful year.

[(Kevin Ma + Sunglasses) x Lady Gaga]/Ryan Burke Photography =

Photoshoot: Kevin Ma Sunglasses - Lady Gaga Fame Monster Inspired

Location: Orange County, CA (my apartment)

Date: Tuesday, Novermber 24, 2009

Kevin came to my apartment late Tuesday night for a project for a contest he is entering with his sunglasses. He had the idea to use Lady Gaga's new song titles as an inspiration and we drew sketches and went from there. These are some of the test shots/other shots from the shoot as well as the 5 photos that came out of it at the end.

final product:

Young in LA

Photoshoot: Jared's Apartment

Date: November 21, 2009

Location: Downtown LA near the Fashion District

Last Saturday, Celia, David and I drove up to LA for a shoot with Jared Allred and his friend's in his loft on Olive. Jared is a student at FIDM and an intern for Posso (spats). He and his friends are involved in the emerging young fashion scene in LA and in order to capture that, I set him up in a shot with his friends partying behind him. Some of these are set-up shots as well as shots of my friend Celia while we waited for Jared etc. to get dressed and ready.

halloween outfits

these are just a few of the halloween portraits from this year's many halloween outings. to see a gallery of halloween photos, visit Ryan Burke Photography and click on Halloween 2009

Lighting Test Shoot With Jessica

Today I set up the living room into a mini-studio and played around with lighting in anticipation for a bigger shoot on Thursday.

While the shoot was rather informal, we got a few nice shots out of it:

Jackie and Nick outshine LA

June 19, 2009
from the Getty to Santa Monica Beach



My friend Jackie asked that we do portraits of her with Nick before he moved to Mexico City for his job. We spent a lovely afternoon traipsing about LA taking photos and having delicious food.

like digging up the past

I love the Holga and I love medium format film. There is something incredibly special and antique about the look of these photos and the fact that you can still capture things that way today in a world of clean slick polished digital photography is really wonderful. I love the freedom of being able to do anything with a camera - hold the shutter open, double expose, triple expose, color flash!

It's about time i get back into this. These two pictures are probably two years old and I only just got them developed yesterday. I also bought new film which I have already started to use. I'm out of practice but I am still excited to see what comes out.