Unpublished

To celebrate the blog turning one—the very first post went live a year ago last Monday—I thought it would be fun to share a few of the photos that were never published. I asked Rob to dig through the archives and come up with some of his favorite shots that didn’t make it onto the blog. A few just didn’t make the cut, some are interesting behind the scenes shots or Rob indulging his artistic side, and a couple are, well, just funny. There’s a story behind every photo, however, and I hope you enjoy them.

1. No Trespassing

This photo happened after wrapping the shoot for this look. We’d been taking pictures downtown all morning and were heading back to the car when Rob said, “Hey, dude. Will you just humor me for a second?” He’d spied this vacant lot and had a vision. Getting in required us to slip through an extremely narrow opening in a chain link fence—definitely trespassing—but I’m all for living dangerously in the name of art! Followers on Instagram may remember having seen this one already.

2. Burned Out

I generally like to keep our locations practical, which accounts for this photo not appearing in this post. I’m not usually, you know, just hanging out in front of some burned out doorway. Nevertheless, when Rob said, “Hey, man, stand in front of that freaking burned out door,” I did. And he made a pretty cool photo.

3. No Ifs, Ands, or…

I get a lot of questions from readers wanting to know how Rob and I choose the locations for our shoots. What’s really interesting is that you can basically stand anywhere and make a good photo. It’s all in how the photographer composes it. To illustrate that point, you’d have never guessed that we shot this look next to that sign if Rob hadn’t seen it as an opportunity…

4. SUV

I believe in quality over quantity. And even when there are more strong pictures from a shoot than the five or six images I usually publish, I will always leave some out rather than have too many in a post. This is an example of one that I unfortunately decided to leave out of this post.

5. Chasing Light

If there’s one thing I’ve come to appreciate more than anything in the year since starting the blog, it is amazing light. The time of day, the way the light bounces off of certain materials and structures, and so on, can mean the difference between a good photo and a great one. It’s honestly made me something of a light junkie. We’d just wrapped the shoot for this look when some fantastic morning light began to illuminate the brick wall. It was so good, in fact, that we actually tried to reshoot the entire post. But the light was fleeting and lasted less than a minute. At least we got a couple shots out of it.

6. Standing On Top

This one’s a bit of an anomaly in the sense that we never take pictures with lights but for a shoot that almost didn’t happen, Rob wanted to be prepared. We were scheduled to shoot a collaboration with Reiss on top of the Four Seasons, but the threat of a terrible rain and electrical storm forced the venue to cancel on us at the last second. Then as we were looking for alternate locations, the skies cleared and we got the call that we were back on. I’m really thankful for that because I really love the photos we made that day.

7. Running Man

Nearing the end of a long day, when we shot six looks since we needed to be padded with content before both we both went away for the holidays. I was getting tired. Things happened. Click here to see the original post.

8. Shady

There are times when Rob will say to me, “Hey, man. Do this.” And I do it without asking questions. He’s got a great eye and is flexible enough to be able to change up on a dime if inspiration strikes. Though, there are times when he’s just playing a joke on me. Click here to see the original post.

9. Home Studio

I remember the day I showed up to Rob’s house with a tailor bust and grey suit jacket and told him to make a cool photo for a quick guide to men’s suit options. I was pretty much like, “Here you go, buddy!” and left. Haha, sorry, dude! I always love when photographers document the method they use to achieve a certain photo and here’s the setup Rob came up with in his home studio to make the photo we used for that post. And kudos to Rob for the killer pocket square fold!

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I have to say that it is truly an honor to get to work with an artist like Rob on a regular basis. His skill, attention to detail, and ability to take a vision and execute is second to none. It’s been a great first year and we’re already rolling well into the second. Cheers, buddy!

Which of the unpublished photos was your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Stylishly Yours,

Brian
He Spoke Style

Photography by Rob McIver Photo.