Ryan and I have collaborated on shoots for nearly a decade now, so I was super stoked when he reached out to me to work with him on his new clothing line, @ransomsupply. Though we were shooting in Columbus, Ohio, he wanted the shoot to feel like it was shot out west. When it comes to desert landscapes in the midwest, your options are rather limited. Fortunately Columbus has a wonderful saltyard that I regularly shoot at when the client wants something different.

We started shooting in the late afternoon and got that golden hour light, but due to the early setting sun we were quickly working in the dark. I wanted the images I shot at night to feel related to the images shot in sunlight so I lit Ryan with an unmodified strobe, giving the images a hard shadow like the sunlight. However, rather than trying to fake the sunlight on such a large scale (I would’ve need a dozen lights) I opted to gel my strobe cyan and create a completely different looking image. The blue-lit sand took on a glacier look which I thought complemented the desert vibes of the sunlit part of the shoot.

One more note about Ryan. Not only does he have an amazing aesthetic and brand sensibility but he has an even bigger heart. He has partnered with @nationwidekids so that every sale of his “See the Love” tee, a colorless version will be donated, along with fabric markers, to kids in the behavioral health pavilion. Art therapy for kids plus supporting local. It’s all the things. Hit up his site soon because everything is selling fast.