About Dave Ryan Photography

I set up this website because I wanted a space where my photography could be properly seen and shared. Social media was great for that at one point, but over time, it’s shifted away from being about photography. Now, it’s more about advertising, short-form content, and keeping people scrolling rather than letting them just browse and enjoy images.

One of the biggest frustrations for me is the way social media compresses photos. Most platforms display images at less than 1.5 megapixels, stripping away the detail and quality that’s actually in the photo. Aspect ratios are restricted, and the way images are cropped or resized often changes how they look completely. What should be a full, detailed image ends up as a compressed, small version of itself, quickly swiped past and lost in the feed. On top of that, I don’t even get to choose what people see—algorithms decide that for them. Because of all this, I found myself posting less and less. I didn’t like how the platforms were affecting both the way my photos were displayed and the way I was thinking about sharing them.

So, instead of relying on social media, I built my own website.

I’m a web developer, so it made sense to create a space where I have full control over how my work is presented. Here, the focus is on the photos. They’re displayed properly, in high quality, and without the limitations of a platform designed for something else entirely.

Another reason for setting this up was print sales. I’ve had a few people ask if they could buy prints, and instead of going through social media’s shop systems, I wanted a better way to handle that myself. Now, prints are available directly here, without unnecessary middlemen or restrictions on how things are displayed.