About

The Artist

Hello my name is Ryan Daffurn. I am from the town of Sonoma in California. I take a camera with me almost everywhere, most often photographing landscapes and travel scenes. I love photography and enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle fueled by a fascination/infatuation with nature. Through photography I am able to blend my passions, personality, and lifestyle; and find pure joy in not only the final product of my creative process, but the process itself. If I had to explain my photographic style or technique, I would say that the factors contributing to my discovery and continued enjoyment in the practice of photography would be- technical geek, perfectionist, outdoor enthusiast, art enthusiast, introvert, science geek, travel enthusiast, family, culture, and social network. I feel fortunate to have found something in which so many of my personal attributes and interests can be utilized, and provide such satisfaction.

I often say to the collectors of my landscape work, "Remember this moment with me", as many of these photos show some of the best moments of my life; moments in which I found myself looking around and thinking "Wow, there is no place in the world I would rather be right now." I hope you enjoy my work, please reach out using the CONTACT link to say hello or inquire.

- Ryan Daffurn

(long version)

INSPIRATION

When I was very young and curious about everything possible, my Dad would provide me with very long explanations to all my questions. As a child with a short attention span, I learned to dislike these long explanations and started prefacing my questions with a request for the "short version" in a addition to the answer. So I got what I wanted, but the problem was I found out that some questions simply have no short answer that isn't vague or dependent upon circumstance and situation. This idea of the "short version request" became a pretty funny inside joke with our family over the years, so in honor of my father, and for anyone actually interested in more information about me and my photography, here is a "long version" of my biography:

I grew up and still currently reside in a very beautiful place, Sonoma California. The northern-most part of the bay area is a haven for artists and it's no coincidence that many artists call this area home. The countryside is full of vineyards, groves of oak and redwood trees, rolling hills of grass with mountains and valleys inland of one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. I am very fortunate to have been raised in this area and there is no doubt that my exposure to the natural world around me at a young age played a big part in the development of my passion for nature photography and active outdoor endeavors.

My parents met in San Francisco in the 60's and soon-after moved to Sonoma to start a business and raise a family in the quiet town atmosphere Sonoma provided. They both enjoy the outdoors and traveling to see new places. On family trips we would go camping and fishing, hiking and skiing. When traveling to new places we would always explore the natural features and experiences of locations rather than urban ones. As a quiet and shy young boy I was fascinated by plants and animals, rocks and streams, mountains and valleys; and at the same time, scared and intimidated by the unknown that lies out there, by weather and animals, and mother natures' power. The differences between the comfort of life at home in civilization and the wild and raw natural world sparked much curiosity in my mind and inspired me to venture further and further into to the wilderness as I grew older and more intrigued by what lied out there.
Skiing and later, snowboarding played a pivotal role in developing my let's say "outdoor confidence" and beginning my lifelong passion for mountain environments. I have been snowboarding since the age of 9 and would consider it the strongest passion in my life outside of now, photography. As a young child my family would take trips up to the Lake Tahoe area with other friends and our parents would let us kids venture out on our own to explore, taking lift rides to the tops of mountains that seemed to me to be "the top of the world". Over and over again we'd cruise around the mountain environment finding a new gully to ride down on the next run, a new set of trees to navigate through, a steeper face to slide down, deeper snow to get stuck in. It was these early experiences in life exploring the mountains and the respect they commanded, admiring the views as weather moved in and out, and learning how to manage the sometimes-extreme conditions that gave me the confidence to later start exploring high places without the benefit of a chairlift to the top and built the foundation of my love and admiration for nature and wilderness environments.

HIKING & ATHLETICS

I am a hiker who enjoys world travel and seeing all the wonderful places and things this world has to offer. I am also a huge sports fan and still play recreational league sports and plan to as long as my body will allow. Team and individual sports and outdoor activities have probably had the most profound impact on my life than anything else. My best friendships were formed and cultivated through youth and collegiate sports and the athletic mindset has never and will probably never leave me. The camaraderie and respect and life lessons I have learned and experienced through sports and outdoor activities is immeasurable. I probably would have not gotten interested in photography at such a young age if it weren't for the athletic lifestyle I was living at the time, and continuing today.

In high school I started hiking nature trails in local State Parks and eventually herd rumors that some friends were scared to go along with me because my hikes were more like long "adventures". My first mountaineering experience was a guided trip with a few friends on Mt. Shasta my senior year of high school. We had no idea what we were doing and luckily had guides to educate and help us through the learning phase of outdoor navigation and safety. We were first-timers attempting an (unknown to us, ambitious) winter ascent of the mountain and ended up only making it about half way up before getting caught in a whiteout storm in which we couldn't see ten feet in front of us. It was really scary but a great learning experience and really paved the way for me and my friends to pursue further backpacking and mountaineering trips. I have since made trips to the high sierras and few in Washington and Alaska with many more in mind. I am an avid hiker and winter-camping snowboarder. I enjoy the easier routes with some scrambling mixed in, not trying to set any speed records or focused on establishing new routes. I enjoy the views and simply enduring the weather and exhausting hiking is enough for me.

THE CAMERA

Although I didn't pick up a real SLR camera until my late teenage years, I feel as though it was only a matter of time until fate placed the darn thing in my hand. It was an inevitable "match made in heaven" that would have occurred at some point down the road even if I hadn't signed up for an elective class in photography to fill out a few college credits. I wasn't really big on reading for pleasure at a young age, always more of a visual entertainment guy. I played a lot of video games and these days I tell people my video game is "Adobe Photoshop".

Looking back at my teenage years, I remember always carrying a point-and-shoot disposable film camera with me whenever possible and my friends and I also enjoyed experimenting with big hefty video cameras to record our snowboarding adventures or even just hanging out. I can see now that I had a serious interest in recording and cataloging moments of my life even at an early age, and if I dig through some seriously old boxes of photo prints there are even some sunsets mixed in with the guys jumping off rocks with snowboards attached to their feet.

I'm also part of the first generation of computer users in school and was in 3rd grade when the Apple 2E's arrived with good old programs like Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. By the time I arrived in high school, Adobe Photoshop was offered as a class and I took my first course using it to make logos and design product packaging. There weren't any photography references during that class, just design projects. If you wanted to learn about photography at that time you had to go across campus to the dark room that stunk like chemicals and for some reason I never sought out that class during my time in High School. At that time, I was more interested in artistic computer programs and art classes that were focused on drawing and painting. Funny, because I sometimes tell people that I can't draw or paint worth a damn (which is very true, you should see my stick figures) so I use this crazy light-capturing gadget to create my drawings and paintings. I also was more interested in shop classes in high school, like metal and wood shop and agriculture class, so it wasn't until a few years later in college that I would pick up my first SLR camera.

Looking back now I feel that is was just a matter of time until I found something to mold all my passions into one and find a perfect outlet for my creativity; the tool that put it all together...

ROLE MODELS

I took my first photography class in the Eastern Sierras, at Cerro Coso College in the town of Mammoth Lakes in 2001. My professor would always comment on my work during critiques, "Well this looks good, but if you look at Galen Rowell's work he does this, or he does that." After hearing this over and over again and not knowing who this guy was or anything about him I took the time one afternoon to venture south to the town of Bishop and see the work of the late Galen Rowell at his gallery. Walking through the gallery I was truly amazed. I couldn't believe his ability to record moments in nature so accurately and never had I seen such great color photography from many of the places I held so dear to my heart. Another factor was that these images were also created by someone with the extreme athletic ability he obviously had. The perspectives, the angles, the vibrancy of colors... I felt like I was looking through windows to the outdoors. I had seen these colors and forms in nature on my own adventures in the outdoors but didn't think it was possible to replicate them so accurately on film; giving the viewer the feeling that they were standing there next to him, gazing at the same (in his words) "visual splendor" as he was taking the picture. His work had a profound impact on my life that day and gave me the confidence that I too could capture the moments I was witnessing in nature on my own adventures if I kept practicing.

I am so very glad that I visited Galen's gallery that day and so very sad that not even a year later Galen and his wife Barbara were tragically killed in a plane crash right there in the Eastern Sierra on their way home from an Alaskan photography adventure. As a young Bay Area native just getting started with outdoor photography, to get introduced to his work was like being introduced to the bible. He'd been everywhere I wanted to go, not only in California but basically in the whole world and had published books about many of them. He had pictures of San Francisco and the Bay Area, Yosemite and the High Sierras. Pick a mountain you want to climb, he had a great picture of it and had probably climbed the hardest route to the top or maybe even was the first to ever do it or do it in a particular amount of time or climbing style. It is hard for me to fathom all the great sights and moments this one person experienced in a lifetime, and that most people would be content to have only included a handful of these in their own life. Over the last 20 years I have very much enjoyed reading many of the great articles he wrote throughout his career and books he had published. I wish I had gotten the chance to at least shake his hand and say thank you for indirectly inspiring me to get out and explore the world with camera in-hand.

Being a native Californian I have always been well-aware of the work of the legend, Ansel Adams. Even at a young age it's almost impossible to avoid seeing an Ansel Adams photograph at some point during your childhood. I vividly remember spending long periods of time as a teenager in a store called "Prints Plus" that was probably nestled in every shopping mall I ever visited in the 90's. "Prints Plus" sold posters of famous photographs, paintings, and artworks that you could browse in the store and have mounted and framed on the spot. Time and time again I found myself looking through the Landscape section which always featured some of the famous works of Ansel Adams (okay, I looked at the "models" section quite a few times too). The clarity of Ansel's large format images, the contrast of the dark blacks and bright whites, and featured locations of my home state always boldly stood out to me more than any of the other photographs. Looking back now it's easy to see my interest in photography long before I ever picked up a real camera. Ansel Adams imagery probably sparked the original flame that became the focus of my life's artistic journey and whenever I visit Yosemite National park I always make time to stop in the Ansel Adams gallery and re-visit the work that I have seen time and time again but never seems to get old.

These two individuals effect on my passion for photography over time has led to the development of my own personal style in which I equally enjoy both color and black & white imagery. I capture images using an SLR camera in color and then choose specific images to offer the option of Black & White in addition to the original. Most times I strongly feel that images have one version I prefer over the other but sometimes that decision can be very tough. Usually these images end up being the ones that I am most proud of, probably because they evoke some of the influence that each of my two favorite photographers have had on my passion for photography.

MOTIVATION

Some of my family members and many of my friends have served for this countries' armed forces in one way or another. As a teenager, I took a trip up to Idaho to visit my grandfather who was my last grandparent left. I was going to spend a few days visiting and during that time drive him to the local VA hospital for a routine checkup. I had no idea at the time but this trip would end up having a profound impact on my life. As we pulled into the hospital, there were the words engraved on a large granite slab "Here you can see the price of freedom". Once checked in and seated, we ended up having to wait quite a while to be seen by the doctor and during that time we talked with many of the other veterans sitting around us and watched as several people came and went. There was young and old, there was healthy and broken, and there was extremely broken. And broken could be physically or mentally, or both. I could hear the sincere respect in their voices for one another and the honest interest in each other's stories and history. It was a very humbling experience and clear view into the very sad and ugly "price" of our freedom. As we left that day I felt I a better understanding of the freedom we so often hear and read about and for many, take so lightly.

I consider it an honor and luxury to be given the freedoms to pursue an artistic endeavor that isn't say, "saving the world" or protecting people or healing people like doctors and scientists but I take the up most pride my work and dedication to my craft to somehow and hopefully pay tribute to all those who have and currently do. I like to think that I am using my freedom to say with pride that "here you can see the benefit of freedom", and show that I am using my lifetime to capture through photographs some of the beautiful things in this world worth protecting and preserving, and that so many people have sacrificed for us to be able to enjoy, to enjoy safely. My generation is all so fortunate to be able to pursue careers in whatever we choose and explore the wonderful places in nature thanks to prior generations before us.

Passionate people have a gift. This gift is not talent and it's not money to pursue their passion, and it's not tools to further their passion. It's the passion itself, the interest, the desire, the happiness and content they get from doing the one thing that they are driven to do from inside. As I get older I only feel the desire to create photographs getting stronger and it's been very satisfying to see my art progress from 20 years ago, to now. It's easy to be motivated when you think that these great moments with perfect light are happening all over the world at every second of every day but the hard part is researching, prioritizing, and simply putting in the time and effort to have yourself in the right place at the right time and be there waiting for them. I feel almost obligated to take the art form as far as I can because I know that not everyone has something in their life that they feel so strongly connected to.

I have heard some pretty funny things come out my friends' mouths when watching me create photographs as a really great scene is unfolding in front of me... like, "Man, you really get off on this s**t huh?" Another friend calls it "going out and getting weird" when I leave the house with camera bag in hand. And how can you blame them? Photographers look pretty dang funny sometimes standing or crouching or laying down in precarious places in many times less than desirable weather conditions.

I have met so many great people in my life and feel very fortunate to have a great deal of good people in my network of family and friends. I am motivated to keep pushing along with my art because I know some of them really appreciate and enjoy my work. I get so much satisfaction when I hear someone I highly respect give praise of my work. I could hear a hundred people say that nature photography is boring or that my photographs are lame or a waste of time, but when one person I respect has something good to say it makes up for everything else. In Galen Rowell's book Mountain Light, he wrote about how many people view the dangerous climbing and adventures he undertook as irresponsibly risky and basically death wishing, but how he had people he knew and respected express that if they too had the physical abilities and time that they would be doing the same things. I'm not trying to say that in any way what I do with the camera compares to climbing K2 or some rock face with no rope attached like he did, but I can totally understand how the network of people you hold dear to your heart can provide motivation to do things that others might consider crazy or pointless.

My parents instilled in me a love for the outdoors and exploring the wonderful places of the world and I intend to hold on to that for the rest of my life. As a young person approaching my 40's, I can't stress enough the importance and value I have received from just spending time and listening to older generations, from friends and family to people I met and spoke with for 30 minutes and haven't seen again. I can't tell you how many times I hear the same old saying "life is too short" and to take advantage of your time because it flies by and all sorts of variations of this sentiment. These little things help push you along here and there when you need motivation. Exposure to these kinds of relationships in my life have proven to sometimes be the difference between an average picture that became a great one, or a picture that was actually-created when it might not have, or perspective on the day when nothing really panned out but knowing that tomorrow is another day and to stay with it.

I also find motivation in the fact that as an outdoor photographer my subject is always changing. The weather is never the same from one day to the next and as time goes by certain places may change or even cease to exist. I have seen this in the (what seems like) short 20 years that I have been taking photographs; in my small town where trees that existed when I first started have since fallen, locations in certain State or National Parks that once were relatively untraveled are now frequently traveled and sometimes tarnished by poor treatment of visitors. The historical perspective of photography is powerful and keeps me coming back to certain locations and continually seeking out new ones to document great moments in life that someday might be different or not possible. The power of the here and now because there might not be a then is a constant reminder for me to grab the camera and get out there shooting!