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Commercial Photography and Video are the primary services offered at RYK PHOTO and DESIGN.
My mom in the front window.
South River Train Station shot in 2023
Our Studio has moved to north of Huntsville Ontario. Canada Post delivers every day.
A view of our back yard.
The history of RYK PHOTO and DESIGN starts with Ryk Narell attending three different colleges and universities dealing with photography and creative thinking. At that time there were no digital cameras so one had to be quick and accurate with their shots to avoid the costly film and darkroom time to process it – if it didn’t turn out. This led to a discipline that was held by only the Top Guns of the time. They had no computers, no digital camera back previews of their shots and no YouTube to figure things out. What they did have was a very happy clientele offering paychecks to the photographers who got it right consistently. Ryk Narell was one of those. He even got his pictures published in Flare and Vogue.
To 2021
To fast forward us to todays events we have all the new hardware with 45 mp cameras and 4000 watt seconds of flash and everything necessary to put them together. Also now is the computers on steroids to handle the mega sized pictures and the video that is produced. And by the way there is the photo/video editing software (Adobe Creative Suite). Always updated to bring out the brilliance in photography and video.
Types of Photography
There is some questions as to how a commercial photography expert has so much fashion in the portfolio. The reason is Ryk chose the the most difficult subjects to excel in. Fashion and Jewellery. When a designer/manufacturer/distributer has 200 outfits to be shot in a day and published 3 days later things get very serious. There is no time for a reshoot. It has to be right on.
Jewellery is very precise and the beauty and elegance of the piece must come through, as well as the sparkle of the diamonds and gems.
That Logo???
There is a story behind that logo.
The original cameras were view cameras.
The photographer had to look through the lens of the camera with a dark cloth over their head. When he was ready to shoot he would close the lens, install a film holder into the back of the camera, pull out the slide and prepare to shoot. As he is now standing beside the camera he now directs the subjects to smile. So they all turn their heads to him and smile. The final photo had the subjects gazing off camera at the photographer and smiling. Someone came up with the idea of attaching a little toy bird to the lens of the camera. Now the photographer could say smile and “Watch the Birdie”.
A very talented and clever commercial artist whom I commissioned to create a logo for my debut studio came up with a masterpiece. It had my name surrounding the Birdie and in Kodak colours.
I once had a cheeky assistant who told me that logo was just too old fashioned and I really needed something more modern and up to date.
So I promptly sat her down in front of the camera and shot her eye.
I redesigned my own version of “Watch the Birdy” in 5 minutes.
Commercial / Advertising / Corporate / Industrial