Red Chair Series
Hey guys! I'm sure that some of you are shocked that I'm writing a blog entry a week after my last, but I'm hoping to be better about writing and publishing them on a semi-regular schedule. I'm probably doing better with posting images on my Instagram account (http://www.instagram.com/reyj.photography), but I always seem to have my phone with me. Of course, I'm definitely excited to be finishing up this entry since it will conclude my thoughts regarding the December 2013 photo shoots. So yeah, that's really exciting!
But first, a quick update on life.... Not much is going on. I'm slowly preparing myself for the upcoming promotion and everything that it will entail. Sure, it's not going to be a major change since I've been the acting manager for that area for a while, but I'm thinking about some of the things that I want to work on as the official manager. Of course, it will also entail continuing with some of our major projects, including a statewide conference and some media projects. And, of course, I'll be looking to fill some vacant positions. But overall, I am looking forward to officially taking the helms and figuring out the direction that we need to head. It's exciting, terrifying, and thrilling! All at the same time!
I'm also finding myself taking time to enjoy the smaller things in life. Normally, I would be spending part of my weekends working on work-related projects, but I'm definitely trying to take them back. Like I said in a previous entry, I'm definitely looking forward to having a better work-life balance and having more time to do the things that I want. Of course, I'm finding myself going to the movies to have a little escape from reality. Like today, I totally geeked out as I watched the latest Star Trek film - Star Trek: Beyond. While I agree that it was definitely on the fast pace, there were some beautiful and captivating imagery throughout the film, especially the conception of Yorktown. That interpretation of what a city would like in space definitely appealed to the architecture photographer in me. Absolutely stunning! But, I will say, that my favorite part was watching the U.S.S. Franklin take on the tidal wave of bee-like drones as they blasted the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." And, it totally cracked me when the crew referred to the song as being "classical" music! Those scenes were definitely my favorite from the film, and almost makes me want to watch it again on the big screen!
Finally, I'm finding myself obsessing over Beck's latest song right now. It definitely took me a moment to figure out who it was after first hearing it on 101X. It didn't really strike me as a song that the station would play, but so did Twenty One Pilots' "Heathens." I'm probably just not listening to the radio enough to know how the music trends are shifting and blurring nowadays. But yeah, I'm definitely loving "Wow" by Beck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZlbahhoEIo). It's just an infectious song that makes me smile. "It's my life, you life/live it once, can't live it twice/so nice, so nice". "It's your life/you got to try to get it right/look around, don't forget where you came from". Yeah, I'm definitely Beck's latest. It's definitely worth a listen!
Anyway, on to the reason that you guys are here!
Red Chair Series
While I was working through the various photo shoots in December 2013, I found myself falling in love with one of the chairs in the hotel suite. I had chosen the hotel suite because of the modern-looking furnishings and the amount of space that was available. But there was this red vinyl chair that kept grabbing my attention as I was prepping the space. It was just a bold piece of furniture that I wanted to use as a prop, but I didn't intentionally set out to do a series focusing on it. I just got lucky! You can check out the Red Chair Series gallery at http://www.reyjphotography.com/redchair.
Brent
Brent was the first model that I photographed in December 2013. Like in most of the images, the chair is not the primary focal point, but is a great backdrop to frame the model against. In the image below, I like how Brent's body is curled against the chair and how his arm is griping the top of the chair. It definitely creates an interesting composition and some interesting lines to direct the viewer's eye. Finally, I love the sensual feeling within the image as Brent's attention is focused on himself and not the camera. It helps to create the sense that this is a private moment in time. It's definitely one of my favorite images from his photo shoot.
DA
I absolutely loved working with DA throughout his photo shoot. He definitely brought his game to the shoot, even though it was late at night. However, I loved several of the images that came from the collaboration. In the gallery (http://www.reyjphotography.com/redchair), I have several images of DA set against the large red vinyl chair. However, I loved the image below and wanted to highlight it in the blog. The chair created a great backdrop as DA showed off the tattoos the muscle tone in his arms as he gripped the top of the chair. To me, it definitely served to highlight DA's body while looking great.
Jeremy
As you guys know, the photo shoot with Jeremy was definitely one of my favorites from that month. It wasn't every day that I was able to photograph a dancer. Of course, it also made it difficult to select the images that I wanted to highlight in the galleries and blog entries stemming from his photo shoots. The same could be said for this gallery and entry since there are eight images included in the gallery. However, I ended up choosing the image below because of the pose. While I like how the majority of the chair is visible in the image, I absolutely love how Jeremy is posed in it. You definitely get a sense of Jeremy's height and flexibility from how his right leg is resting on the arm of the chair. But like the first two images, I love how Jeremy's attention is not focused on the viewer and how he's looking off into the distance. To me, it creates some visual interest as the view is left wondering what he was looking at. The image below is definitely one of my favorite ones from my entire catalog.
Enrique
I'm definitely happy with the images that came from the photo shoot with Enrique, but the image below is definitely one of my favorites. Of course, I love the shape and strong lines that the upper portion of the red vinyl chair creates. I also like how the buttons on the back of the chair creates a phantom arrow and points the viewer's eye towards Enrique face, but I may be imagining that phantom arrow. At the very least, the buttons mimic Enrique's position as well as creating a leading line up towards his face. However, I love Enrique's pose and single-minded interest in his phone. Of course, I told him to act like he was taking a selfie with his phone - not sure if he actually took a selfie while I was capturing the image. The age of the selfie. Nonetheless, the image below is definitely one of my favorites from his photo shoot.
Jacob
Finally, I wanted to highlight one of the images with Jacob posing on the chair. Like the images above, I definitely loved the strength of character found within the chair. I absolutely love the crisp bold lines and how they stand out against Jacob's skin as well as the backdrop. Yeah, I was definitely in love with the chair and am definitely looking for a similar one to have in my home! Of course, I also like how Jacob's posed in the chair. I love the casualness of his leg thrown over the arm of the chair. And, like the others, I like how he's not paying attention to the camera and has his gaze directed towards the distance. It's definitely one of my favorites from his photo shoot!
Closing
I definitely loved how a prop can bring together a series of images. In this case, I chose to center a gallery (http://www.reyjphotography.com/redchair) and blog entry around this gorgeous red vinyl chair. As I've mentioned above, I fell in love with the bold, crisp lines of his back and how it held its own against the backdrop. However, it definitely helped to accentuate the models' bodies and show them against an interesting item.
It was also hard to withhold some of the images from the galleries dedicated to the each model. However, as I was posting the gallery focusing on Jeremy, the idea of the Red Chair Series definitely sprang into my mind. From that point, I purposely withheld several of the images until I could post them in a unified gallery. I'm definitely happy with how the gallery turned out as well as how the red vinyl chair pulled together the images from six different photo shoots.
Overall, I'm definitely happy with it. And, like I said, I'm definitely looking for a a similar chair to have in my home. Who knows, maybe I'll have another photo series focusing on a similar object. Nonetheless, I'm definitely keeping my eye out from stunning pieces that would look amazing in my images!
Again, thanks for checking out the website and blog! I definitely appreciate it that you guys are taking the time to scope out my work!
If you want, you can also check out my Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/reyj.photography. I'm posting images to my Instagram account on a daily basis.
If you are interested in setting up a photo shoot, you can email me at [email protected]