"A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH, IS KNOWING WHERE TO STAND."
-ANSEL ADAMS

     My name is Ryan Schmidt. My first camera was a gift from my Grandfather. A Canon "AE-1" 35mm SLR. It was a heavy and dense tank of a camera with a distinct and distinguished silver top and a film winder that took a tenacious thumb to advance. It weighed more than a brick and at the time he gave it to me was, in my hands, no more useful than one either. It was a gift, it turned out, far greater than the sum of its parts. 

     That camera, and those that followed, granted me the ability to experience, engage with, and articulate the world around me, in ways I could not have previously conceived. It was, and is to this day the best way I know to express myself, to bring joy to others, and to attempt to leave this life better than I found it.

     I have met and explored numerous inspiring, wild, beautiful, people and places over the years. The staggering colors of Autumn in New England. Hitchhiking through New Zealand. The Aurora Borealis over a cold frozen lake in The Yukon. Backpacking in The Brooks Range of Alaska. Professional Skiers and Snowboarders flying and spinning though the air on Mt. Hood, in July. Dusty enchanted weddings at Burning Man. The craggy and magnificent snowcapped peaks of The Rocky Mountains. 

     Life, love and adventure. Neither taken nor captured; things such as these can never be owned. With a camera, just the right angle, and a stroke of luck however, I can enable their echoes to reverberate through time.  

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