The Person behind the lens

Hi! If you don't already know who I am, my name is Riley Schutz (pronounced 'Shoots') and I am a 21-year-old photographer originally from the small metro Vancouver city, Maple Ridge, British Columbia. I have been drawn to travel and all things outdoors since I was a young boy. Recently I have realised how much I have grown as a human from my time spent exploring the few corners of the World that I have been fortunate enough to see, and have decided that I want to share it beyond the Instagram captions and stories that I share on my social media channels.

I tend not to take life too seriously all the time which leads to some pretty fun and memorable times. I truly believe that creating memories is at the forefront of the majority of the decisions I make.

Spontaneous road trip to Jasper? - Yes!

Wanna drive to Vancouver tonight to see Guns n Roses and skip school? - Definitely!

While at times I can be quite laid back, I also love having plans and I can never sit still for too long of a period. I always have to be doing something - which is partially how this blog came about as I am sitting here in my university's coffee shop writing this; with nothing - that I want to do - before my morning class.

I first picked up a camera in 2017 when I visited Australia to visit my extended family (there will definitely be a blog post about this trip). After spending hours photographing the surfers and waves crashing along the shores of Manly Beach, I was hooked and everything started from there. Upon returning home I started an Instagram account to share my photography and created my first website to share and showcase my images.

From 2017 to 2019 I continued to hone my photography skills while backpacking through the North Shore and Coastal mountains back home, visiting the Canadian Rockies with my father, and watching a ton of YouTube videos about different photography techniques. Flash forward to 2020 when I booked my first photography client.

I spent the month of August 2020 visiting and photographing over 100 construction sites, both active and finished, in the British Columbia lower mainland. My days started at 5:30 every morning and I would drive to my first location of the day and shoot from about 6:30/7 AM to 2:30/3 PM before heading home to edit that day's batch of images for the next 2 hours. I was hooked.

The rest of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 I took a gap year where I continued to grow my photography business and photo portfolio. During this time my buddy, Louis, and I were also planning a cross-Canada road trip to help move him to Nova Scotia for University.

In July of 2021, we loaded down his two-door Jeep Sahara with all of his belongings and my two duffel bags full of everything we needed to live on the road for seven weeks. This trip ended up being a life-changing trip for me as I realized that traveling on the road, sharing my experiences, and all-around just living, is what I want to do with my life.

After an incredible seven weeks on the road, I had to return home to pack and move to Kamloops, where I am located now.

As previously mentioned, I am in my third year of university at Thompson Rivers University and I am completing my bachelor's in Tourism Management, majoring in Entrepreneurship. The last three years have been an amazing time where I have met some amazing people, collaborated and worked with some other very talented artists and content creators, and created lasting relationships in both the photography and tourism industry.

While it may sound naive, or over-shooting, my goals after I am done school are to create a life and profession where I am paid to travel.

The last few months of personal challenges I have been through have shown me that I need to see new places, meet new people, and gather as many new experiences and memories as possible. I am hoping that the start of this blog will continue to improve and grow my travel writing skills and attract an audience that supports me with my future endeavours.

I have lots of ideas for this blog space and I am super excited to share my travel stories, tips, and other useful information that you can take with you and include in your travel plans and experiences. I also plan on sharing some of my photography tips and tricks that I have gathered and developed in the last six years that have worked for me to create stunning imagery and document my travels.

Until the next blog post, stay wanderlust,

- Riley