My Traveling Life

Hello, and welcome to Natural-Beauty Photography Escapes. Some really quick basic information about myself. My name is Ryan Schutte, given to me by loving parents who have been married since 1973. I was born in 1977 in a small community and lived here nearly all my life.

When I was born, we lived in the country 2 miles west and 1 mile south of Verdon (a town of 200+ people). We soon moved to Falls City (a town of around 5,000 at the time), which was about 12 miles away. Just after starting school, we moved back to less than 1 mile south of my original home. Several years later we moved in to Verdon and then our house caught fire when I was just starting high school and we ended up moving 2 miles south of Verdon. After high school, I went to Kansas City for college for a couple years, then moved back home, 2 miles south of Verdon. That's where I've been since.

While I was growing up, we never traveled much. Through high schook, I had never been more than 150 miles from home other than to go to Sadelia, MO to visit family a few times and to Winter Park Colorado for our Senior Sneak Trip to go skiing. After high school, I had the opportunity to travel a little more. On my own, I have taken a trip to Denver, CO for the National Gymnastics Championships (and got to meet Dominique Moceanu - my favorite gymnast - and actually rode in a van with her to a party she attended after Nationals thanks to a great friend from Hawaii). I also started to take a trip to Helena, MT to meet a friend, but only made it to Mitchell, SD before my transmission went out of my car. I hadn't ever heard of the Corn Palace, so it was an interesting night before having to tow my car back home the next day.

I have taken a couple trips with friends and colleages. Shortly after starting my computer store in 1999, I went on a business trip with another local business owner to Dallas, TX to learn about a higher-end type printer that he worked on. When I started the portrait portion of Natural-Beauty, I took an employee with me to Missoula, MT to learn the basics of using studio strobes at Rocky Mountain School of Photography. I also went to Chicago in 2010 for a Photography and Photoshop Seminar.

I have also had the opportunity to take a couple trips with my family. Before my sister got out of high school, my mom and I took her to Chadron, NE for a summer camp. This may not sound like a big trip since it's still in Nebraska, but it's from one corner of the state to the opposite corner - it's about 550 miles while a trip to Dallas, TX is only about 585 miles. Another trip that I took with my mom was to Fayetteville, AR. While my mom was in class a couple days, I explored the city. My biggest, and favorite trip to date, was in 2006 when I became a brother again. My parents adopted a young boy from China and I flew with my mom and one of my sisters to go get him. Before picking him up, we toured Beijing for a few days. I won't say too much here about this AWESOME experience (which I'm hoping to repeat when my brother is 16 or so), but you can find out as much as you want about it in our Escape to . . . China blog entries right here on this site.

I enjoy watching the Travel Channel for future travel ideas. I think they used to have better shows than they do now, but there are still some that are fun to watch for ideas. However, during my travels, I would love to hear from actual people. I think it would be great to get suggestions and recommendations from regular people like myself as I'm going from place to place. That's one of the things I'm hoping to accomplish with Natural-Beauty Photography Escapes.

After asking for help and recommendations from all of you, I feel I should give something back. That's the next way that the Natural-Beauty Photography Escapes website helps. We'll show you photos of the different areas I travel to and give you the opportunity to purchase some of the best ones. We're also going to keep you informed with blogs as we're traveling where you can interact if you're watching during our escape, or read all about it afterward. I would love to get to the point that I'm taking a vacation each year to post about... maybe it will happen if you and your friends show enough interest!

If there is anything else you would like to know about me, check out some of links to the right on this page. Feel free to ask me questions, I'll answer almost anything. My personal facebook page is public so anyone can see it, but I don't accept friend requests unless I know you in some way. You're more than welcome to check in on it regularly though.