Picture this: Ryan Montgomery, a 41-year-old Cathedral City resident, contractor and Palm Desert High graduate, has always had an eye for landscapes. Born in Duluth, Minnesota and having spent summers at a cabin in Gordon, Wisconsin, he used to play around with his mom’s disposable cameras. When he and his mom moved to the Coachella Valley when he was six, the stunning midwestern sunsets morphed into the expansive and tantalizing desert skies.

An amateur photographer for years, he honed his skills on an iPhone and only got his first DSLR camera six years ago, at the behest of his girlfriend Mandy. His hobby became a passion, woven together with his love of the outdoors and fervor for trail running and triathlons. With iPhone limitations and eager to improve, Ryan did research online and taught himself. Great landscape photography involves a keen eye, composition, lighting and access to magical vistas, but Ryan’s special photographic sauce is that he can get to spots most people don’t dare explore, scrambling up hillsides far from the hubbub. “I like to give people a different perspective,” Ryan says. 

His work is getting attention and he is starting to make prints for a portfolio and working on a plan to get representation. These days he’s pretty busy remodeling homes and gets out with his camera a couple times a week. He lives with Mandy, his toy rat terrier Boots and a 23-pound cat named Samurai (Sammy for short). Soon he’ll be taking a Covid-delayed bucket list trip to French Polynesia to explore the beauty of Bora Bora and Morea – yet another spectacular subject and an entirely different environment. 

Follow Ryan’s work on IG @ry_montgomery