Meet Ryan Skelton | Atlas & Ink Photography

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan Skelton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryan, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I believe that having an interest in or appreciation for the business side of photography can be incredibly helpful if you want to become a professional photographer. I have always been interested in entrepreneurship and once I felt my photography skills were good enough to charge for, it felt like a natural progression for me to start my own business. That being said, starting a photography business was overwhelming more for advancing my abilities than for financial reasons despite me having a preexisting interest in business. It was very important for my progression and confidence as a photographer to make the leap and tell people you believe you’re good enough at something to charge them for it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am sure my style of photography fits neatly into a preexisting genre however I would not know personally which genre it belongs to. I do not like to use social media for influence and rather try to gain all of my inspiration from observation and my love of photography books. When it comes to the moment of releasing the shutter, I am ultimately driven by some base instinct of aesthetic that I intentionally do not over-analyze. I get very excited when that primal opinion stumbles upon taking a photograph that I think someone will enjoy for years. I always seem to remember periods of my life and my loved ones’ lives through a photograph that acts as a sort of book cover for that time. I want to take those photographs. To capture a moment that shows something special or unique about that person that sums up who they are at that moment. That is what I am most proud of achieving.

My journey to where I am was fairly predictable. I fell in love with photography due to my first love, traveling. At some point, I realized I was seeing too many beautiful and unique things to keep solely in my memory and starting photographing my travels as a mean of documentation. That quickly grew into an obsession and documenting those memories became one of my traveling priorities. I had always received a lot of compliments on my photography but never thought much about it because I was in such beautiful places, it was hard not to take a good photograph. That began to slowly morph when my interest ebbed from landscapes and flowed into people and culture. This is when my photography motivation changed from capturing a place to capturing a time.

I think I got to the place I am today in photography by being very honest and critical of my own work. I think it is very important to be able to break down a photo and determine what makes it good or bad (according to my personal preferences). This is not scientific or absolute of course because it is a subjective art that has no real boundaries of quality but I still feel it is important to have a conviction on what makes a good photograph and compare your work to that. I also started, like every other artist, by stealing. I found the type of art that spoke to me and I emulated that to the point of plagiarism. This is how I learned techniques and principles that led to a confidence eventually allowing me to photograph my own interpretation of the world.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I probably make a better photographer than tour guide but I do have my favorite places still. I love Atlanta and the individuality that we have down here and how proud we are of that. We know we live in a unique place that has a lot to offer across many fronts. I personally however, prefer to travel outside of the city and to my happy place in the mountains. If I had a friend fly into Atlanta, we would definitely start by heading to Decatur and grab a libation at Leon’s and then probably Brickstore. Then off to East Atlanta for some Vietnamese at So Ba and then over to Octopus Bar.

Next day, would be best served on Lake Lanier, relaxing on a dock in the sun and occasionally going out on the boat for a little wake surfing. I don’t think North Georgia is very well known to those not from around here and would definitely make that our next stop. A little hiking and camping around Three Forks and the Appalachian Trail make for a great short get-away. Continuing northward, I love Cloudland Canyon and if you’re already in the area and want to try out the best bouldering in the region, you can’t do much better than Rocktown.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My Shoutout would surely go to the other half of Atlas & Ink Photography, my wife Katie. She was the only one whose opinion of my photography mattered and her honest assessment and encouragement of my work was the only reason I ever gained the confidence to start a business in the first place.

Website: https://www.atlasandinkphotography.com

Instagram: atlas.and.ink.photography

Image Credits
All photos by Atlas & Ink Photography