Meet Mark Ritter | Photographer and adjunct professor of chemistry

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

Hi Mark, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Well it was the convergence of several things. One, I was at the end of my career of full-time teaching. Two, I’ve had a gift for photography and I thought instead of just shooting pictures maybe I could shoot pictures and make a little money as well. So at the end of my high school career I gradually started photographing more and more and photographing subjects that bring in money. . For example, family portraits, senior portraits, dance productions, etc. But the thing was that for the entire time I had to enjoy it. I mean really what’s the point of getting into a business if you don’t like it. And I knew from the beginning that I probably couldn’t make tens of thousands of dollars a year doing it and I was OK with that! It took a lot of the pressure off and allowed it to be even more of a wonderful creative outlet for myself And I knew that if it ever failed completely, life would not end. I could still photograph anything but I wouldn’t have to worry about how much money I was making as I could always fall back on my retirement. Thankfully I’m still making money off photography! And I still love it. And I’m still sharing it with others. And I’m still investigating new avenues and genre. The creativity involve knows no bounds.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Well starting off with Portraiture was probably a good idea. I had to learn to interact with people in a professional way. I wasn’t teaching students anymore I was interacting with adults and talking about fees, and contracts. This is really new to me and I’m glad I got that out of the way. The problem with my particular case is that I’m a male photographer in a female dominant genre. Most people would go with women photographers. . And there were a lot of of them. My competition was two fold- I was trying to fight the stereotype of being a male photographer possibly photographing female students. That’s not the best stereotype that’s for sure. And like I implied above portraiture was saturated in my area. So so many photographers. So I had to branch out into real estate, and construction, and legitimate modeling, but also try my hand at surf photography, which I’m good at. And dance photography which I just keep getting better at. So the pressures put on me to remain relevant and get hired forced me to go into different areas of photography. My next one will probably be storytelling for individual small businesses around here. I think the bottom line in this whole section is that I’m evolving. I have to in order to survive. Which is fine! I enjoy the challenge.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well if my best friend was not acquainted with California and came to visit me I know exactly what I would do. I would plan a week visit in California. Which would probably involve driving up the coast as far as I could. I’ve done that several times and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Our whole coastline is otherworldly. By the way the trip would include stopping at lots of the little cities along the way and maybe spending a day or two in particular places. But I’m in love with California having been born and raised here. And then I would wanna share that beauty with friends that are coming in to stay with me.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My very closest friends are constant encouragers for me. So when I don’t get a particular job or I don’t sell enough pictures to parents and so on, they’re always there to remind that tiny setbacks have never meant anything in the past. And being part of a creative occupation never ever guarantees you that anybody’s gonna like anything. That just comes with the territory. They keep me humble and they encourage me to try new things

Website: https://www.ritter.photo

Instagram: @markalanritterphoto