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Kyle Rivas | Photographer

@rivas.media

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Low profile photographers for high profile needs.
Corporate Events + Headshots + Pro Sports
KC Native | Diehard Chiefs + Royals Fan

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Pruned for Purpose 🌹🏆👑💫

Feeling incredibly grateful and honored to receive the Young Professional Athena Award. 🤎✨ I know the work, the growth, and the dedication it takes to get here, and I’m proud of the person I’m becoming along the way. Thankful for every opportunity, every lesson, and everyone who has poured into me. I’ll always lead with gratitude, but I’ll never downplay the work I put in to get here.

Such an honor standing next to the legend @angieknightonlong Owner of @kccurrent 🙏🏽🤞🏽🩵🤍

Thank you to the @kcchamber for this prestigious award! 🥹

📸: @rivas.media

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Chiefs vs. Broncos — Home Opener 🏈

Looking back at this game, I felt like I was all over the place. And after going through the images (and my watch telling me I walked 11 miles 😬), I realized… I was.

But that’s kind of the point.

Gameday didn’t start for me on gameday. It started the afternoon before, dropping off gear and photographing the stadium looking its best.

When you’re younger as a sports photographer, you spend so much time chasing that perfect peak-action shot. And you should. But eventually you realize that sometimes a few blades of grass can be the hero shot somebody on the marketing team needed.

I try to approach every assignment by looking beyond the key players. I want to tell the whole story and create the supporting images that help everything come together.

The grass through the viewfinder. The empty seats. The sky lighting up behind the stadium lights. The things happening around the action instead of just the action itself.

That’s where photography really starts becoming fun.

And seeing beyond the obvious goes further than details.

We’ll put remote cameras in unique positions and let them run on intervalometers, knowing one camera might produce 7,000 frames. Maybe only 5–10 matter. But one of those five could become an image the organization uses for years.

Of course, chase the iconic shot of the player everyone is watching. But keep an eye on everything happening around you, too.

Give the unexpected two seconds of your attention.

Sometimes that’s all it takes to make an image that shows you’re not just photographing what happened — you’re telling the story of it.

#ChiefsKingdom #SportsPhotography #NFLPhotography #KansasCityChiefs #BehindTheLens

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Chiefs 2026 Production Day — Experimental Set 🏹🔥

The Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” felt like the only appropriate soundtrack for this set. This team is looking to sabotage a few seasons this year… and it starts tonight against Denver. 😤

Getting to these final images wasn’t easy — for the team or for me. This was honestly one of the more challenging sets I’ve been asked to create. Mentally, creatively, technically… all of it.

The concept sounded simple: add motion.

The execution? Not so simple.

Every image was created in a single exposure, while balancing motion, flash, two completely different lighting setups, live image transmission, a full creative crew watching the results come in, and some VERY short windows with the players.

With Patrick Mahomes, I had roughly 45 seconds. 😅

For the black set, I went with a more traditional shutter-drag technique — popping the flash at the beginning of the exposure and dragging the shutter anywhere from around 1/10 to 1/2 second to let the movement build around the player.

The white set was a completely different beast.

I used a continuous video light to expose the player’s movement while an assistant held a flash close to the player. I kept the trigger in my hand and manually fired the flash during the exposure to freeze the player exactly where I wanted them.

Funny enough, it’s a technique I’ve used on wedding dance floors for years.

Never thought I’d be doing it with NFL players. 😂

That’s one of my favorite things about photography: you never really know when something you learned years ago is going to become the solution to a completely different problem.

This set pushed me WAY outside my comfort zone, but that was the point.

Experiment. Make something different. Embrace a little chaos.

Now it’s time for football. 🏹🔥

#Chiefs #ChiefsKingdom #SportsPhotography #ProductionDay #BehindTheScenes

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Preseason: Kansas City Chiefs V Seattle Seahawks🏈

This was a messy game for me.

Not because anything went wrong. It was intentionally messy.

Why would you intentionally create a messy game? Simple: to learn.

You spend the first half of your photography life learning the rules. You perfect them, understand them inside and out, and maybe break them a time or two just to see what happens.

But every once in a while, you get the opportunity to shoot a game on a big stage with practically nothing on the line.

Low stakes create opportunity.

For this game, I wanted to focus on light and shadows. I wanted to force myself to photograph details, get in tight, and tell a different story.

I also wanted to take some of what I learned from watching photographers from around the world work in our stadium during the World Cup and challenge myself to see a place I’ve photographed hundreds of times a little differently.

The game on the field wasn’t the most important thing to me.

I focused on the fans. The stadium. The light. The details. And finding something different every chance I could.

I got messy at times.

But I could only get messy because I’ve spent years learning how to shoot a game the “right” way.

If you’re a younger photographer, celebrate learning to shoot a game the right way. That’s a really hard thing to do.

And if you’ve been doing this for a while?

Get out of your shell every once in a while.

Get weird. Get uncomfortable.

Get messy.

#SportsPhotography #Photography #KansasCity #CreativePhotography #BehindTheLens

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IRONMAN 70.3 Northern California 📸🏊‍♂️🚴‍♂️🏃‍♂️

Photographing an IRONMAN is no easy feat. This one had a few extra curveballs because it was an inaugural race. Fortunately, we were surrounded by experienced people who know how these events should flow.

A few things I’ve learned that help me survive—and be successful—on a very long race day:

Scout the course. You may not have time to see every mile, but knowing where your best shots are likely to come from makes a HUGE difference when you’re making decisions on the fly.

Communication is everything. Especially with the people helping you move around the course. At 5 AM, we weren’t even sure we’d have moto drivers, so our marketing coordinator and Ryan, our video guy, had already made a backup plan.

The motos worked out…then 20 minutes later we nearly left Ryan on shore when our boat started motoring away while he was taking his shoes off. 😂 We got him. Eventually.

FOOD. I check the hotel for a fridge and microwave, then grab coffee and breakfast the night before that I can reheat at stupid-o’clock in the morning. Aid stations help, but when your next real meal might be 1 PM, preparation is king.

PACK LIGHT. I normally carry two cameras on a BlackRapid harness, but once I’m on the moto, almost everything comes off. Extra body, belt, drone, lenses, batteries—all stored away. Anything attached to you can become a hazard getting on and off a motorcycle.

My new Think Tank PressPass 10 was perfect for this race. Drone, controller, extra lens + a modular battery pouch without carrying a full backpack around all day.

And finally: relax and embrace the chaos.

No race day goes perfectly. You’re there to create marketing material—or, as I like to call it, glorified sporty vacation photos. 😂

Things will go wrong. Plans will change. Boats may leave without your video guy.

Roll with the punches, solve the problem in front of you, and have some fun with it.

That’s part of what makes these days so damn enjoyable. 📸

#IRONMAN #IRONMAN703 #IRONMANPhotography #Triathlon #TriathlonPhotography

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Havana Nights. Turned All the Way Up.

For longer than we can remember we have wanted to do a Havana meets Miami party! Full of neons, bright colors, flamenco (always accidentally spelled flamingo) dancers, vintage cars! Maybe it’s our obsession with the Real Housewives of Miami. Maybe it’s our need for heat. Honestly who cares where the inspo comes from as long as it turns out this sexy!

Party Host - @pricebrotherskc
Planner and Creative Director- @quintessentialeventskc
Photo - @rivas.media
Venue - @kcstarlight
Catering and Bar - @levy.restaurants
Band - @lostwaxband
Floral - @studiofloralandevents
Lounge Furniture - @yourstrulyeventrentals
Caricature - @finetooners
Hats - @thebrandedowlhatco
Dancers - @thenextpaigeagency
Games - Jake’s and Aces
Magicians - @toddlamanske and @pickpocketgene
Linens - @nuagedesignsinc
Car - @unionclassics49

#havana #havananights #corporateevent #eventdesigner #eventdesign

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📸🏈A look behind the shot…

Remote cameras are one of those tools that let you be in two or three places at once — but the idea always has to come first. This is an idea I’ve been slowly building for a while now.

Last season, while we were running timelapse videos, I spent a lot of time mounting cameras on our lights. When I’d scrub through the footage later, I’d catch these tiny, unexpected moments — fireworks in the distance, the stadium lights dimming for the 3rd quarter — and that’s what really sparked my interest.

The problem?
I can’t dedicate an entire game to standing under one remote camera waiting for a single frame. I mean… I could… but @chiefsphotog probably wouldn’t love that. 😂 The other challenge was that the angle I wanted lived in a spot where mounting and accessing a camera just isn’t realistic once the game starts.

So instead of fighting physics, I leaned into math.

Digital is cheap.
Let’s use the intervolometer the same way we use a DJI Osmo for timelapse — but in still frames. I set the camera to capture one frame every 10 seconds for the entire game and just… let it run. No pressure. No babysitting. Just fingers crossed.

Out of roughly 1,600 images, I tagged 10 keepers while walking back to the photo workroom. Here are two of those frames.

And before someone asks — yes, I could have used a PocketWizard and triggered the camera manually. But when the stadium goes dark and the players run out, I need 110% focus on what’s happening in front of me, not what’s hanging above me. My hands are already full, my exposure is changing fast, and the last thing I want is to abandon a live moment because I’m fumbling with triggers.

I’ll take 10 minutes of scrolling after the game over missing a moment during it — every time.

Stress-free > stressed out. Always.

Settings:
Camera: Canon R5 Mark II
Intervolometer: 10 sec
Aperture Priority
f/8 • 1/400 • ISO 4000
WB: 5000K
Canon 8–16mm Fisheye

#sportsphotography #remotecamera #intervolometer #behindthescenes #photographylife #learnphotography #photographytips #stadiumlights #gamephotography #prophotographer #photographyeducation #creativeprocess #timelapseinspiration #equipmenttalk

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Thanksgiving Game: Chiefs vs Cowboys 🏈📸

For all the young photographers dreaming of shooting college sports—or maybe one day the NFL—learn everything you can right where you are.

I shot hundreds of high school and college games before I ever stepped onto an NFL field, and I’m glad I did. In this league, one mistake can be your last time inside a stadium. The margin for error is that small.

Most people don’t realize how fast an NFL gameday moves. “Pure chaos” is pretty accurate. Traveling games are a little less wild—no partnership activations or stadium obligations—but once you step off that bus, you rarely stop moving.

This game was no different.

One thing that helps? The giant hard-case trunk @chiefsphotog had built for us. Instead of flying with 7–8 Pelicans and hoping nothing gets lost, 90% of our gear travels in one massive trunk the team transports. Gear is packed 3 days before, moved 2 days out, then special ops loads it onto the plane and places it in the tunnel by the locker room.

We typically arrive 4 hours before kickoff. From there it’s:
• Unpacking & assembling gear
• Syncing camera clocks
• Assignments
• Stadium scenes & team arrivals

Once players arrive, it’s go time.
Arrivals → transmit→ pregame workouts →transmit→ repeat for bus #2

45 minutes before kickoff, players return for warmups. While we’re shooting, we’re transmitting images in real-time to our editors back home. There’s zero chance to edit while shooting—our workflow has to be seamless and fast.

Then it’s pregame intros, and from that moment on, it’s nonstop action. 📸🔥

And through all of it, you stay hyper-aware. Zones move. Boundaries change. Staff, media, and players are everywhere. Nobody wants to be the one who clips a coach or bumps Pat during warmups. Legit fear. Spotters help, but you never want to need them.

If you want to shoot at this level, master awareness, master your craft, and master your environment. Once the game starts, there’s no room for hesitation.

#ChiefsKingdom #NFLPhotography #BehindTheScenes #SportsPhotography #ChiefsVsCowboys #GamedayWorkflow #SonyAlpha #KCPhotographer #PhotographerLife #SportsShooter #NFLGameday #ProcessOverEverything

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Chiefs v Colts 🏈

📖 Some of us wear our differences on the inside.

For most of my life, I didn’t know I had dyslexia. I just thought reading wasn’t for me. I could read words — but getting through a whole book? That didn’t happen until I was 32. And that book was an audiobook… 🔊

For years, I thought I was lazy. Or distracted. Or just not smart enough.
Turns out, I was trying to navigate the world without the right map — the one most people are handed early on.

Dyslexia isn’t about “seeing letters backwards.”
It’s about how the brain processes language, memory, and sequencing.
It’s reading the same line three times and still not absorbing it.
It’s knowing something deeply but struggling to put it into words.
It’s forgetting a word you’ve used a thousand times and inserting the wrong one in the most public moments.

And when you live with it — especially before you know what it is — it can make you feel like you’re constantly behind in a race no one else seems to be running.

But here’s what I’ve learned:
Dyslexia doesn’t mean broken.
It means different.

It teaches you to problem-solve in unconventional ways.
It makes you look for patterns others miss.
It pushes creativity — because you have to approach problems differently.

Most days, I still blank on names or words I know cold. I carry a notepad to remember the simplest things. I make mistakes often… But instead of beating myself up like I used to, I remind myself: I’m not failing. I’m just wired differently.

Some of us wear our differences on the inside.
If that’s you… just know you can still do incredible things. You might not process the world like everyone else — and that’s exactly what makes your perspective powerful.

#DyslexiaAwareness #ADHDLife #DifferentNotLess #Neurodiversity #MentalHealthAwareness #KeepGoing #KyleRivasMedia #PhotographyLife #PhotographerLife #EventPhotography #SportsPhotography #KCPhotographer #KansasCityPhotographer #SonyAlpha #GettyImages #BehindTheScenes #LiveEventPhotography #VisualStorytelling #CreativeLife

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🏈Chiefs v Raiders- Full speed ahead…
Let’s clear up a myth real quick. Better gear ≠ better photographer. 👎

Yes, nice cameras and lenses can make your photos cleaner, faster, and help you catch moments you might miss otherwise. But they don’t make you see differently and they sure as heck don’t make you a better storyteller. That’s something that you have to learn and practice at day in and day out.

When I didn’t have all the gear I wanted, I had to get creative. I had to find new ways to make simple stuff look interesting — play with light, motion, reflections, tight angles — anything to make a story come alive. I also had to learn to work with what I have, not what I want.

That’s where real growth happens. Not with what’s necessarily in the camera bag — it’s the way you see and the way you challenge yourself that makes what’s in the bag shine.

When I shot weddings, we planned for everything… but the best moments were always the ones nobody saw coming. The random laugh. The tear. The light that hit just right. You can’t plan that — you just have to feel it. Same thing with sports or events. If your ever wondering when you get to the end of a shoot why you feel like something is missing, maybe you need to ask yourself, what was I focused on most the day, the gear or my intentions.

So if you’re out there grinding with a starter camera or even your phone — keep shooting. Keep experimenting.
Because one day you’ll realize your photos don’t look like anyone else’s.
They look like you.

#PhotographyTips #CreateDontCompare #StorytellerFirst #YoungPhotographers #PhotographyMyths #VisualStorytelling #ShootEveryday #PhotographyJourney

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🏈💪 Chiefs vs. Lions

Photographers won’t want to hear this… but getting it right in camera matters more than ever.

When I transitioned from shooting weddings and engagements back into sports and events, I tried sticking with RAW — but in a fast-paced world, RAW just isn’t built for speed. It can actually hurt your results when turnaround time is everything.

A wise man @chiefsphotog once taught me that when you execute an image properly in the moment, everything else gets easier. Especially when clients need photos fast. Whether it’s Getty, the KC Chamber, the Arthritis Foundation, or the Chiefs, the quicker I can deliver high-quality work, the better.

That’s why I focus on control — Kelvin, shutter speed, composition — I’m almost always running everything in manual mode. Yeah, especially Kelvin (I’m looking at you all my Auto WB folks) I shoot JPEG and aim to get my images as close to finished as possible in camera. Just small tweaks afterward.

And it’s not about limiting creativity — it’s about learning the rules, mastering them, and then breaking them with purpose. That’s when photography really starts getting fun.

#EventPhotography #SportsPhotography #KyleRivasMedia #KansasCityPhotographer #GettyImages #PhotographyTips #InCamera #ShootManual #PhotographerLife #KCPhotographer #BehindTheLens #OnAssignment #ProTips

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Ironman Maryland 🏊🚴🏃‍♂️

When I was younger, photography felt like a competition—who could get the shot, who could capture the moment no one else did. I’d compare my work to others, beat myself up when I missed something, and quietly celebrate when I nailed one that others didn’t.

But over 20 years into this career, I’ve realized photography was never a competition. It’s one of the most subjective mediums out there. One person can look at a photo in awe while another shrugs it off. And that’s okay.

These days, I don’t measure myself against anyone else. The question I ask after every event is simple: Did I outwork everyone? Did I stay that extra mile to see the sunset shot instead of heading home early? Did I run up the hillside for a different angle instead of settling for the easy one? Did I keep going when my gear broke, knowing I could call Sony tomorrow to get it fixed, rather than letting it ruin my day?

Because at the end of the day, your attitude can either make you or break you. You can complain and get stuck—or you can acknowledge the challenges, keep moving, and keep creating. Clients happy, more work ahead, and lessons learned along the way. That’s the measure I care about now.

#IronmanMaryland #IronmanTriathlon #TriathleteLife #SportsPhotography #EventPhotography #KyleRivasMedia #EnduranceSports #TriathlonPhotography #MarylandEvents #IronmanLife #PhotographyMindset #DoTheWork #OutworkEveryone #BehindTheLens #SportsPhotographer #EventPhotographer

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