Where are they now: Ryan Deboodt

A seed planted in elementary school grew into a passion that took Ryan Deboodt to the jungles of Vietnam and beyond.

Deboodt was born and raised in Kimball with three brothers and a sister. As a youngster, he attended a rocketry and photography summer workshop. Little did he know at the time that a fun, summer diversion would someday become his career.

"I was maybe in fourth grade at the time and we went to Oliver Reservoir to take photos," Deboodt said.

Though that workshop was his first taste of photography, his interest wasn't piqued for years.

"My passion for photography really took off while taking a photography class in high school offered by Mr. Meyer," he said. "After that my brothers and I would set up a darkroom in a bathroom in our house to develop and enlarge our photos."

Though he earned a degree in computer science following his 2001 high school graduation, Deboodt's career followed a path more suited to his specialty in image and video processing.

"I don't directly use my college degree. However, my specialty was in image and video processing so it helped with my understanding of the more technical side of photography and photo processing," he explained.

Following college, first at the University of Wyoming and then at Clemson University, Deboodt moved to Germany to develop video editing software.

"After college I was on a bit of a travel craze; living in Germany made it easy to travel to many different countries and I always carried my camera with me. While I enjoyed travel photography, I definitely wasn't passionate about it," he said.

Another move, to the jungles of Vietnam, made it clear to Deboodt that his hobby, really his passion, could be his career.

"Once I moved to Vietnam with my wife and discovered the wonders that the jungle hid, the enormous caves and amazing wildlife, I knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Photography was a passionate hobby for many years, through college and beyond, until I got my big break," Deboodt said.

His big break came, a couple of years ago according to Deboodt, when he released his photos and a short film on Hang Son Doong, the largest cave in the world.

"It went a bit viral, to say the least, and my work was seen around the world. In the US it was on CBS, NBC, ABC, National Geographic, Discovery, and Smithsonian," he said. "With this I was able to make the much needed contacts to pitch future work as a freelance photographer and filmmaker. Unfortunately, the days of being a staff photographer are long over and nearly everyone works freelance, with a variety of magazines and other media outlets."

Though he said he doesn't really have a specific mentor, another career changing moment for Deboodt was when he assisted National Geographic photographer Carsten Peter.

"In the future, I hope to continue photographing and filming these natural wonders and exotic wildlife. One of my bigger goals, going forward, is to inspire people that these places and animals need to be protected," he said. "The best thing about my profession is being able to see these incredible, unique, and beautiful places and then being able to show them to the world. I've sadly seen, too often, places that have been overdeveloped, which has destroyed ecosystems and is detrimental to the wildlife living there."

Currently Deboodt lives in China with his wife, Kelli (Thuman) Deboodt, who is also from Kimball. Deboodt continues to perfect his passion as he and Kelli, a special education teacher at the International School of Beijing, await the birth of their baby.