by Ryan Ketterman on February 12, 2012
Last year, after photographing the Veterans Farm for Parade Magazine, Adam Burke (founder of the farm and a veteran himself) asked me to photograph the 2nd annual “Fight For The Veterans,” a mixed martial arts tournament raising money for the Veterans Farm. Of course I was excited to hear about the fight and was really looking forward to documenting the event and the fighters.
First things first, if you haven’t checked out the Veterans Farm you should. They are doing some great work, helping our veterans find a peaceful and meaningful path after returning from active duty and often times struggling with PTSD and other issues.
Ok, back to the fight. In addition to photographing some of the fights and the event that I wanted to capture compelling portraits of the fighters themselves, before and after their fights. I was trying to capture some unfiltered emotions: intensity, excitement and perhaps even nervousness. Pleasantly I was surprised to see how jovial many of them were. Winning and losing, most of them all were in great spirits, simply happy to be there putting forth their best effort. A good many of them were excited to have their photo taken. A few turned me down, more focused on their fights or just not interested in being photographed. However, the ones that did made for great portraits.
After such a great shoot one of the hardest things is editing down the photos to get the best of the best. Each image has its own merits. Here’s a few of my favorites that made the cut.
Also just wanna do a quick shout out to Monica and Frank for helping me make this shoot great.
The rest of the photos (the fight and the figthers) can be seen here: bit.ly/fightfortheveterans.
by Ryan Ketterman on November 21, 2011
In between travels last week Team Ketterman was able to get over to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. It was already dark, but because its the holidays they’ve got the falls lit up with some rather intense lighting. Naturally I set up the tripod and took a few shots. It was a tad bit cold for the Florida boy that I am, however it was still quite impressive.
Want a print? Sure, get one here.
So much moving water…
Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada
Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada
Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada
Niagara Falls as seen from Ontario, Canada
by Ryan Ketterman on November 12, 2011
This last summer I was commissioned by Florida Trend Magazine to create a portrait of Kevin Songer of Metro Verde for an upcoming issue. Often times I get editorial assignments rather last minute and details are typically light. I didn’t know much other than Kevin’s name and that we were photographing him in some sort of garden that was supposedly on a roof somewhere in Jacksonville. I contacted Kevin and we arranged to meet at the Breaking Ground Green Roof for a morning photo shoot.
When we arrived at the location and made our way up to the roof we were immediately taken by how large and how very lush the garden really is. We got all of the equipment up there and got set up (being careful to avoid electircal shock – water was everywhere from morning dew to the garden’s irrigation). Kevin was more than generous with his time and we learned a good bit about the garden. Among a plethora of beautiful flowers like the purple cone flower (a.k.a echinacea) they grow vegetables such as eggplant, okra, peas, butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, banana peppers and purple yard long beans. The garden itself (which takes up half of the roof of Breaking Ground Contracting) is irrigated with water from the A/C units’ condensation. It is totally off the utility grid. The other half of the roof is covered with solar panels. Catherine Burkee of Breaking Ground Contracting was also there. She and Kevin work together helping to school children about sustainable living.
You can see more of what they are up to on the Breaking Ground Green Roof blog.
Kevin Songer and Catherine Burkee of Breaking Ground Green Roof
The Purple Cone Flower, a.k.a. Echinacea.
Kevin Songer is at home among the echinacea.
Catherine Burkee of Breaking Ground Green Roof
Kevin Songer holds up Purple Yard Long Beans. He picked up a few while we were there and would toss them back into the soil to help seed more plants. I kept thinking they looked like snakes.
The Sunflowers were plenty on the roof, as were the bees.
The Purple Cone Flower, a.k.a. Echinacea.q
Kevin Songer and the fruits.. err, vegetables of his labor.
