Shutter Go Click Photography | A Year In Review 2019
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
Finally it’s time to sit down at my desk, gather my thoughts & all the coffee my blood stream can handle. While I stare at my screen blankly & try to encapsulate the year in creative wedding & portrait photography that was. Yes, yes I know, “RYAN WE ARE A COUPLE OF MONTHS INTO 2020 ALREADY!” But you know what? it’s ok to be fashionably late. It’s ok to take a step back & focus on the things that matter. I’ve done a yearly retrospective now for four consecutive years. I’ve forced myself to release it at exactly the years beginning or end. Toiled & stressed myself out with the weight of an entirely self imposed deadline. Unfortunately after switching my site those retrospectives are now lost in internet space. But it doesn’t do well to dwell in the past.
Now I sit here in my brand spanking new office space at 6:30am on this cold Winters morning. Sat in my jammies & cradling an over sized mug with only the sounds of waking birds singing amidst the intermittent gentle clack of my keyboard. It is here I begin to write this intro & finally have the chance to sit back & reflect. Like every year in review I’ve written before, I began this one by hitting the link to my 2018 retrospective. But in contrast to those previous years where I’ve taken inspiration from my successes & failures. This time taking a journey back to 2018 was one of sadness & empowering realisation.
2019 hasn’t just been the year I have become myself again. It has been a year of better self. A year of personal & business evolution. A year of change. A year of bone shaking, heart lifting, belly laughing, adventure accepting LOVE beyond compare.
If you are taking the time to read this. You are probably one of the people who had a hand in making the last 365 days such an important year in my life. The sun is rising now like a golden cliche. Bathing my office in cascading warmth like a fire for the soul. It makes me smile… & isn’t smiling just fucking wonderful.
This is my 2019. Your 2019. Our 2019.
Long Live Shutter Go Click.
Ry Xx
WEDDINGS
Shutter Go Click is a creative Sheffield wedding photographer. The artistic alternative to traditional wedding photography & portraits in Yorkshire & beyond. 2019 has once again been an absolute triumph of love struck strangers that bestowed upon me the privilege of photographing them on their most incredible of wedding days. People often ask me "Ryan don't you get tired of photographing weddings?" to which I always reply "There is simply nothing I'd rather do in my life."
I've said that sentence often but never truly absorbed the sentiment. I am entrusted by all of the couple who have had faith in my craft enough to invest in me as a person. A person who will in all essences be the visual voice that will communicate their memories for the rest of their lives.
& there's no one else I'd rather be.
Here's to Love.
SEE MORE WEDDING PHOTOS!
SEE MY WEDDING PRICING!
REVIEWS
STACEY & RICKY
Well what can I say about Ryan that he hasn't already been told a million times (I'm surprised his head fits through doors haha) but I shall make it that little bit bigger & say he is honestly the most amazing photographer, I believe not only is it his job but it is his love & passion and he takes pride in every single moment captured by him which shows in his work.
We met Ryan right from the start of our wedding planning, after seeing some of his work online we knew he was the one for us & meeting up with him just confirmed it even more, he is so down to earth (if a little crazy but we love him for it) he slots right in & becomes a friend right from the beginning with his witty banter & sense of humour.
We met up in York for our engagement shoot a year later, I was very nervous & not keen on posing for photos especially in public! but Ryan made it fun, even in the busiest street with everyone walking past probably thinking what the hell who are these weirdos, we didn't care, Ryan had us laughing & enjoying every single moment.. Even if we did walk miles & miles! but it was so worth it! Then another year later came the wedding day (yep we booked him way in advance as he's a popular guy, so get him booked now!),
Ryan & his partner in crime and other love Paige rocked up ready for the day and went with the flow, nothing was to much trouble for them both, they were incredible!! Ryan scooped us away for our pics at the perfect timings & knew just what he wanted after already scoping out the grounds he knew just what would look amazing (he can find beauty in a fence with barbed wire & a shadow casting overhead, but trust him & his unusual ways & it will look awesome! Haha)
We have got our photos back & just Wow we are honestly speechless to how much we love them & how perfect they are! Not your average boring wedding pics, they are, as my son would say, epic!! The one thing that can last a lifetime is your photos that make memories come alive every time you see them, so thank you Ryan our photos make us relive our day all over again in the most perfect way possible.
XANTHE & SIMON
Ryan shot our wedding a few weeks ago, & we have been absolutely blown away by what he has created for us. From the first initial emails & meeting, he was super friendly & so easy to get on with, putting us both at ease! His communication was second to none throughout the whole process & we weren’t left with any questions unanswered at all.
On the day Ryan arrived & slotted in to the proceedings seamlessly. He very kindly went between two houses to get photos of both of us getting ready (the groom getting ready shots are my favourite!!). He captured so many little details which we had both missed, which was lovely for us to look back on when our photos arrived. He was outstandingly professional throughout the day, but also made us feel so relaxed & made us laugh A LOT. It was just like having your mate take some amazingly fancy photos of you.
We were both so nervous about the photographs because we are awkward sods & can never take a good photo, but Ryan put us at ease as soon as he started working his magic. It was ace to see him get excited about certain shots & be so creative with our photos.
We have had so many comments about our wedding photos saying how amazing & different they are. We are so happy to have found Ryan & will treasure every photo forever. Honestly we can’t thank him enough for such a great experience!! We will be back in touch in a couple of years time for a family shoot for sure
HOLLIE & AARON
I’m not sure what I can add that hasn’t already been so perfectly described in all the other reviews on this page! My husband & I had a last minute problem with our original photographer & contacted Ryan (having seen his work in our venues wedding brochure) with only the slimmest hope he might be available - with me in a state of panic he responded near instantly & solved all my worries, even offering a personalised quote to meet our needs.
Now in retrospect I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way things turned out! We met Ryan at the Tetley where we were having our reception & chatted like old friends, by the time it all came round it was just like having another guest at our wedding! While you might not expect a city centre venue in the rain to have many opportunities for eye catching backdrops Ryan seemed to find the most extraordinary places to shoot our photos! He made us laugh & feel comfortable, such a fun experience (which is saying something for a person who doesn’t particularly enjoy having photos taken!).
He sent us previews the day following & it wasn’t long til we had the full album... pure magic. This man is a photography wizard. All our friends and family are in awe. So much more than a standard wedding photographer. There are no words to explain how much I would recommend him, I’m trying to think of another reason to have a photographer just so I can book him again (if only to hang out!).
Now my only problem is deciding which of the photos I want to hang on the walls! Massive love & appreciation. AMAZING - BOOK THIS MAN NOW
RACHAEL & COLBY
OKAY OKAY OKKKAAAYYYYYY!!!! This review is long overdue & is going to be extremely lengthy!!! I met Ryan a couple years ago at a photography workshop, I had no idea who he was when I met him but as soon as I got service & looked at his work I realised I had followed him for years!
Being a photographer myself I am extremely picky & won't spend money on a photographer unless I know it is going to be worth it and HOLLYYYY SHIT IT WAS WORTH IT!!! My fiance & I went on a trip through Europe, little did I know that he was going to propose on the trip & the photos we had planned to take ended up being our engagement photos but I wouldn't want it any other way!!!
I have drooled over EVERY photo that he has posted. The booking process was so easy!! We came all the way from Salt Lake City Utah! We had a short layover in London & Ryan took a 4 hour trip to meet us there & take the BEST PHOTOS EVER!!!
My fiance & I work with a lot of photographers but Ryan freaking ROCKED IT!!!! He was funny, he was kind, he made us laugh, he gave us direction the whole time. Literally the BEST experience EVER!!! We got sneak peeks before we even got home from our trip & they are seriously some of our favourite photos!!! SO ARTISTIC, so fun, & exactly what we wanted. BETTER than we could have ever expected.
Ryan Learoyd we love you & your talent!!! We will cherish these forever! BOOK HIM!!!
JESS & JOSH
We booked Ryan before we even had our wedding date booked as we were so set on him being our photographer. He captured the whole day in the most amazing way.
Our wedding photos are filled with all the love & happiness from the day whilst still being so natural. It was like having another friend at the wedding, he made us so relaxed, & is someone we want to share a pint with again.
I can’t express enough how amazing they are thank you so much. Everyone who has seen the video or the photos is so shocked - no one has ever seen wedding photos liked that before & everyone loves them. I genuinely think in a few years I’ll be showing off I had you for our wedding photos as you will be so expensive & famous & we got you before you exploded.
CHLOE & EDDIE
Where do I start? Ryan has been truly amazing in every sense of the word. Me & Eddie recently got married & Ryan did our wedding photography, from start to finish he has been fantastic.
When we started thinking about our wedding photographer we knew we didn’t want standard cliché pictures, we wanted something different, special & super creative. Ryan delivered on all of these factors, he works so effortlessly & puts you at complete ease.
We have just received our photographs & he has captured the feeling/mood/memories so beautifully. We will have these pictures forever & I’m so glad we had Ryan to photograph our big day.
I’m very proud of the pictures we have & our family & friends love them too. Thanks a million Ryan!
CHECK OUT MORE SHUTTER GO CLICK REVIEWS!
PORTRAITS
Alternative family & portrait photography in Sheffield, Leeds, Yorkshire & beyond. No more white backgrounds, from your home to wherever you roam. This is portrait photography... but not as you know it. Every year I'm taking on more & more incredible families & exciting portrait sessions. So much so that I have to say that family photography has become just as much part of my business as weddings. This year it's even taken me to California, but I'll save that story for the 2020 retrospective. YES!
Two funky ass weird maternity shoots saw me begin the series of "Who the Hell let me do a maternity shoot?" sessions. Will you be brave enough to be the third? haha. I also got to photograph the brand new Sappho wedding dress collection for the incredible Rolling in Roses. I headed to the desert (aka Thurcroft pit Rotherham ;-) for some badass big bike action with my beautiful partner Paige's gothic jewellery company Mysticum Luna. Not to mention the heap of magnificent couple sessions & lifestyle shoots...
The list goes on.
Here's to Family.
SEE MORE FAMILY & PORTRAIT PHOTOS!
SEE MY FAMILY & PORTRAIT PRICING!
WORKSHOPS
I do workshops too. Shutter Go... Workshops are Alternative wedding photography workshops & mentorships for the creatively minded. a chance to spend an entire day inside the depths of my brain. A chance to get a taste of the methodology behind that madness & escape the drudgery of convention. For ten years I’ve travelled the world telling the stories of the most badass love struck strangers with a camera & a prism in hand. Over that time I’ve been asked again & again to host a Shutter Go Click Photography workshop. Now that time has come…
I only wanted to impart any photographic wisdom upon the masses when I felt in myself I had something to give back to the community of like minded creative button pushers. When I had something to teach, something that was meaningful, something to pass on that was an embodiment of not just my style & aesthetic, but something that was me. I had no desire to teach a job that I had ultimately failed in myself.
So after the years have passed & Shutter Go Click by all accounts has been a success. I have carved a tiny path within this industry that has not only allowed me to express myself wholeheartedly as an individual. But above all else use a visual voice that has spoken to hundreds of love struck couples who have given me the honour of telling their story.
& isn’t that just bloody wonderful.
Experience. Evolve. Escape. I can’t wait to see you there.
STILL NOT CONVINCED?
Shutter Go... Workshops ~ The Theory of Creativity has without a doubt been an incredible success as photographers around the UK & beyond have travelled to The Chimney House Sheffield for a learning experience beyond convention. Don’t take my word for it! Read some of the feedback from my latest workshops below. Yes!
COME TO THE NEXT ONE
It absolutely blows my mind that the first three dates for Shutter Go Workshops ~ The Theory of Creativity have all sold out & I can’t thank people enough for travelling from around the world to be there. But don’t worry there’s still limited spaces available on the 21st September 2020 date in Sheffield.
FEATURES
Extra. Extra. Read all about it! Shutter Go Click Photography has been featured in a range of national & international publications in 2019. here’s a selection of my favourites from the past 365 days. YES!
GEMMA & JASON
ROCK ‘N ROLL BRIDE
“Gemma & Jason had a particularly interesting inspiration behind their wedding day – the desire to capture some weird, Victorian-style portraits!”
CHLOE & EDDIE
LOVE MY DRESS
“Ryan is funny, friendly and one of the nicest people to work with. He puts you at complete ease. His style is effortlessly beautiful and he finds the magic and the essence of the day in such a special way.”
LUCY & JAMES
ROCK MY WEDDING
“Shutter Go Click took Lucy & James off for some couples portraits, making full use of the exposed walls & mezzanine & even finding time to pop outside for some urban portraits on the streets of London.”
JO & ANDY
LOVE MY DRESS
“I actually don’t know where to start with Ryan. He is possibly the most tremendous creative talent & wonderful human ever.”
NICOLA & STUART
LOVE MY DRESS
“It’s so so hard to choose just one favourite moment from the whole day. But if I had to choose just one moment, it would be the time we spent alone with our photographer, who made our experience really special.”
EMMA & ELIZA
ROCK N’ ROLL BRIDE
“Emma’s advice to other couples planning their weddings is to “Just have fun! Loads of things probably won’t go to plan, but it really won’t matter cos you’ll have the best day ever.”
SEE MORE SHUTTER GO CLICK FEATURES!
SHUTTER GO… HQ
For the last year or so my office has been a dressing table with wobbly legs in a spare bedroom. But finally after a bit of saving, tearing up carpets & entirely decorating the room ourselves (This is an absolute lie) I’ve got an entire room in the house to call Shutter Go… HQ. I’m properly proud of managing to get this space together. Of course I’m even more grateful to Paige for giving up a room in the house for me to sit in my pants all day editing your delightful faces.
That desk & chair you see right there have been on my wish-list for the best part of a few years. So to finally be able to sit my coffee down & place my bum cheeks on my rightful throne, surrounded by badass prints & more plants than a garden centre is an unbelievable feeling. It doesn’t sound like much of an achievement having a proper place to work in. But those who are self employed know how difficult it can be to switch off when you work from home. Even more so when you don’t have a devoted space for said work. On an evening it allows me to close the door & just stop or at least try to. I can honestly say in the nearly 10 years I’ve been doing this job I’ve never had an office I love more & pleases my brain so completely.
MY PAIGE
Simple words like love, adventure, complete & utter happiness, bone shaking laughter & excitement could be used to describe the last 365 days with this girl but they are just words on a page. They are a grouping of letters used to portray a feeling. But the feeling I have for this single person cannot be written down. The reality is if you’ve made it this far through my year in review & managed to soak in every word & paragraph. Every slice of cool shit that I’ve done. Well I can honestly say that a large percentage of them wouldn’t have happened without my Paige.
This year has seen us travel around the country & beyond. I’m currently sat on around 30 rolls of 35mm film from our adventures & will get them developed eventually. Every trip, every journey, every memorable moment has only been felt because of this human. Not only has Paige become a huge part behind the scenes in my motivational & aspirational mindset. But she has actually shot alongside me during a huge percentage of the 2019 wedding season.
Sorry I don’t use second shooters. This is my baby & you’ll have to claw the camera out of my cold dead hands before I let someone else infiltrate my business. I’m not going to lie that’s pretty much been my distorted thought process since the beginning of Shutter Go Click. But over 2019 my mindset has somewhat altered. Paige wasn’t coming to weddings with me because she wanted to hijack my business. She wasn’t coming to fracture my delusions of egotistical grandeur. She was simply coming with me because she wanted to be with me.
Paige would work for 12 plus hours straight with limited food, fuck all payment & smile all day. Dance when the reception began, hold bags for guests & play with the kids. She would look after me & make sure I stay hydrated, even hug me when I needed it. That is what kind of woman she is.
& all because she simply wanted to be by my side.
Of course Paige doesn’t do this for a job. Hell she is already a successful business owner in her own right. 2019 saw me helping her run her Mysticum Luna stall at Download & Bloodstock Festivals. Knee deep in mud selling gothic jewellery I don’t have the slightest clue about. But still we smile together. I’ve learnt how to not only let someone into my business but how to let myself be a better human being. We are each others business support. We are one anotherS number one fans. Any opportunity I have to be with Paige is just an absolute fucking privilege. No more no less.
So what has Paige been doing at weddings with me? I’m not going to share in full as that deserves it’s own post. But here’s a little teaser.
SHUTTER GO… CINEMATICS
COMING SOON…
THE FUTURE
I ain’t no fortune teller & I ain’t got no crystal ball. But one things for certain, the future excites me more now than it ever has. Yes there will be more weddings, more portraits, more badass frickin workshops. But it’s the unknown that I find most tantalising
& I embrace that unknown without fear like a rattlesnake in my pants.
I am Shutter Go Click
& this was our 2019
Ry Xx
