The Newrealms Media Story



How did this all begin?

How did a fat, nerdy guy with a camera become such an in demand photographer and videographer? It all started at a young age of course.

Ever since I can remember, I was always fascinated with cameras. The very first picture I remember taking was a Polaroid picture of my Transformers blanket at the tender age of 3. From there, my love for cameras was established. I remember getting a film camera for my birthday when I was in junior high school. When I was at Kelley’s Island for Woodward High School’s band camp, I was more fascinated by taking pictures of the desolate cabins that came straight out of a horror movie than I was taking pictures of my friends. Not to mention, I loved taking pictures of Lake Erie to and from the ferry ride to Kelley’s Island.

Then as a way to kill time in high school, as all of my credits were in place to graduate, I took a photography class. We were given black and white film cameras. We had to develop our own rolls of film. It was a learning experience, but I shifted my attention towards digital after high school.

During high school, I self taught myself how to edit video and write screenplays. I only had Windows Movie Maker at the time, but I knew right then and there I HATED Windows Movie Maker. iMovie it is not.   

In 2006, I started booking a band called A New Factor (now known as Edge Water Drive). I had to do everything: book their shows, take their pictures, edit video, made sure it sounded good. At the time. I didn’t consider myself a great photographer, but rather a guy pushing a high school band to be something more.    

By 2011, I wanted to be something more myself. I was writing a sitcom about working in a fast food restaurant and writing a feature length comedy loosely based on my shitty love life. I then stumbled upon the prospect of DSLR filmmaking. I looked at all of the possibilities of DSLR’s, and I spent $1200 on a Canon T2i, including all necessary gear. At the time, I had only wanted to make short films. I had toyed with the idea of being a photographer as well, but i was still more about making films.

It was this picture that said “Ryan, take this seriously!” It was in this timeframe that I met other likeminded people like me. So I started taking pictures. I met someone who would help me build my name up. I would take her pictures at all of her gigs and then I filmed scenes of a music video for her. She relocated to Chicago.

I needed to fill the void of her absence.

In May of 2012, I took part in my first Collingwood Arts Center group shoot. It was there I knew I had fallen into something else. I had started to get a demand as a model photographer. Then things started to pick up.

I would go one to shoot a potential Miss Ohio for the Miss America pageant. Andre
Savage of GameSavvy Late Night asked me to shoot promo shots for them. Then Fail and Deliver, a rock band out of Toledo, asked me to shoot promo shots, which as of September of this year, I am now a published photographer twice over. More recently, rapper Raine Wilder featured one of my photos on his shirt

I came a long way from the guy who promoted a high school band (who now goes by Edge Water Drive) to becoming the multimedia guy I am today.