Almost every guy has experienced those moments of unexpected hardness. For many, the occurred in school, usually during an especially boring class. For me, it was Mr. Shaw's economics class. His monotone and long winded lectures had me day dreaming, quite often about Colin, the ginger haired guy around the corner from where I lived who I used to watch play basketball in front of his house. Colin was often without his shirt, and I loved his freckles which beautifully dotted his pale white skin.
Those unexpected times of hardness, especially in the middle of class, were unpredictable, a both immensely enjoyable and just a little bit stressful. I had those same feelings after receiving Texas photographer Trey Fox's images of Seamus92. I contacted Trey after seeing the images I used at the top for pic of the day. I instantly thought of Colin after seeing the shot of Seamus, although unfortunately I didn't get to experience seeing Colin as beautifully naked as Seamus is in Trey's capture.
Usually when I contact a photographer about a shoot, I expect to get back a series of images along the lines, and with the theme of the image that inspired me to write. With Trey's work with Seamus, I got a little bit more. The nude image I first saw, ended up being one of the tamer images in the batch. Most of them in fact, were a little harder than the images I usually post. But like most images of unexpected hardness, a way must be found to enjoy the moment, yet insure things get brought down before being discovered.
Thankfully Trey Fox fully understood my dilemma. Given the image that inspired my contacting him was on Model Mayhem, Trey was unable to post most of the edgier images himself. The entire shoot in fact, was not really planned, but instead one that came together because of circumstance. Despite the way it all came together so suddenly, the unexpected pairing of Seamus with model Ted Byrns produced a series of images Trey was pleased with, especially given with the contrast between the two models.
Trey was in Chicago for a fashion shoot which fell apart at the last minute when the stylist pulled a no-show. Trey was there, all ready to shoot with all of his gear and a great location at his disposal. Seamus, one of the models was also there prepared to step in front of the lens. What to do... what to do.. They taked, and decided to use what they had to pull together a fetish shoot. They recruited Ted Byrns, a friend of Seamus and he brought along some of his own gear and the rest was improvised as they went along.
'I really liked the thought of doing a fetish shoot in this beautiful home. I thought it would make great contrast. You don't see a lot of fetish shoots in a really contemporary setting. I love contradictions like that. When I met Ted I was also excited because of the contrast between the two of them: Seamus the twink and Ted who is more bearish. The shots of them together are some of my favorites. They look both great swapping roles!'
Ted Byrns
'In several of the shots I used a really shallow depth of field because I wanted to pull the viewer's eye away from where it naturally wanted to go. I wanted to lead you down a path and then rip it out from under you when you realize that's not where you're supposed to be looking. It's my way of beating the viewer's eye into submission. I wouldn't normally do this for an editorial shoot, but it was a fun experiment here. Rules are meant to be broken right!?! I also wanted a softer look so the images wouldn't have that "porn" look. I loved working with both of these guys and would absolutely love to
work with them again when we've had a little time to brainstorm and properly prepare.'
When you're thrown a little unexpected hardness, one of the good things, is you have to find away to both enjoy it, and at the same time deal with. Trey's images inspired me to do something I have thought of doing for awhile. In the blogs first few years, I had a second blog for over-flow, images that wouldn't fit in the original post. I decided to resurrect the over-flow concept, and the blog. So... now, when I have too many images for a piece, or when unexpected hardness arises, it can flow smoothly onto a new pages. You can check out the first over-flow featuring Seamus and Ted HERE:
