chris straley (photographs)

Shoe Shine?

2010-03-10T07:15:00.001-08:00

Right when I got off the plane in Puerto Rico I was approached by this man. He said, " let me shine your shoes, shiny shoes means happy feet and happy feet means happy man.". I laughed and said you can't shine canvas Vans and instead took his photo.

Virgin Islands

2010-03-09T07:50:00.001-08:00

I am currently en route to the British Virgin Islands. I will be spending 10 days hopefully scoring waves and shooting wakeboarding. The trip will consist of 4 surfers and 3 wakeboarders. I am pretty excited to shoot wake as it is something I have been wanting to do for a couple years now. I really need to thank the guys at Fuel TV and Red Bull for making this possible. I have an extremely hectic flight schedule getting there as I booked my ticket so late. It is kind of cool shooting wake as it isn't dependant on waves so really the only variable is weather which looks good.

I will update on how the trip went on my way back home.

CONGRATS TAJ

2010-03-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Taj Burrow for winning Quiksilver Pro in OZ as well as Burleigh Pro and Pipe!

Alana Blanchard for Reef

2010-03-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

So a while back I went over to Hawaii with the Reef team to photographs there newest athlete Alana Blanchard. We had marginal weather with rain, wind, and some sun light. Everyone at Reef was happy with the images that were delivered to them a couple weeks ago. Here are a couple out takes.

Week with the Champ!

2010-03-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Since my last blog post I have been pretty darn busy. I just got home from spending two weeks with the current world champ Mick Fanning. We had a great time. It is always so inspirational to hang out with someone like Mick. The waves were pretty fun. Nothing amazing though. We did a couple sessions at D-Bah, Snapper, and some fun little beach breaks. I was primarily there to shoot with Mick for an upcoming catalog. I am glad to be home, and know I am editing images. I am currently working on a campaign that I can discuss in a couple weeks when I get the OK from the agency, but things are looking really good. As for the coming weeks, I am trying to get on this wakeboard trip to British Virgin Islands in a couple weeks. That could be really cool. And then I am off to Central America for about two weeks for a Reef photo shoot. I will keep you up to date. I may also try videoing some of the planning meetings so you can get an insight at what goes on in the planning for these international photo shoots.

02.05.2010

2010-02-05T20:24:00.001-08:00

So I am just about to land back in San Diego after spending the past five days on the island of Oahu working on an upcoming ad campaign. The trip was interesting. We had crazy weather with 15 mph winds all day, rain and clouds which really made photographing challenging. But we ended up getting some really cool stuff. I am pretty happy that with this last minute trip we were able to walk away with some images that can be used for the next couple months until I head to the carribean to start a new campaign. I would like to once again thanks Cody and Lindy for trusting all my semi crazy ideas to make thus all possible. I will be updating my blog within the next couple weeks with images from the shoot as well as a little video.

New Year!

2010-01-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

I probably should apologize for not posting a blog entry for about three weeks or so..... These last couple weeks have been so crazy. California has seen the most rain it has gotten in years, my office flooded, I was stuck in a studio shooting sandals and now I am off to Hawaii for a week to work on a new ad campaign. So that was the short version. Here is how my last couple weeks have really gone. I have been getting up for the past two or three weeks at about 6am to hunt for surf. It is hard. Hit and miss with getting good waves and I have been missing this year. Oh well. I finally got the studio up and running and minus the small river I had during "the white squall" everything is ok. Last week was spent in a dark warm place photographing sandals with the guys at Libre Design for Reef. We shot some really cool stuff and although time consuming I had a great time. This week was filled with meetings (coffee with Cole Barash, meetings with Libre and Aframe, meetings with Spy Optic and Reef and now I am just editing images for an upcoming Surfing Magazine article). Next up is packing my bags for Hawaii where I will be spending the week shooting Alana Blanchard for an new ad campaign as well as hooking up with a couple other guys too.

New Business Cards

2009-12-30T21:05:00.000-08:00

So after all the hype I was trying to create regarding a new look a while back has finally paid off. As many of you have seen my updated website I also wanted to show you the amazing business cards Libre Design out of Encinitas designed for me. I am so excited and proud to give these out. Let me know what you think.....

Alana Blanchard

2009-12-30T20:40:00.000-08:00

So while in Hawaii I had an opportunity to work with Alana Blanchard. She is a young up and coming female surfer from Kauai. She is an amazing surfer and competed on the WCT for women this year. I have spent some time with her and her family in the past in Europe as well as at there house in Kauai. Above are a couple images I shot in about 10 minutes I had before she headed to town to hang out with some of her friends. She is easy to work with as you can see in the images above. So I am currently working on opening a small office space in Encinitas where I can meet with clients and possibly sell prints. I will post some images of the space and post the address so you can stop by if your in the area!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T19:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all!

Mahalo Hawaii

2009-12-17T21:02:00.001-08:00

So I just finished up with another two week stint on the north shore were I captured what was said to be the best image of Mick Fanning celebrating his world title. I have so much stuff to do, work on, and think about in the next couple days. I will update this as soon as I have time to breath. Until then....

Aloha

2009-11-26T18:36:00.001-08:00

So I just returned home today after a two week stint on the North Shore of Oahu. Normally the North Shore is a cake walk having crystal clear water, sunny skies, and light winds. This trip on the other hand had brown water from all the rivers breaking open, bad winds, and cloudy skies. I worked hard though and nailed some really cool photos for an coming coming Reef catalog. Also while I was there I worked on a little personal project shoot portraits of the top pros in a little studio I built. Things went well but I didn't get everyone I wanted to get. While I was there I also nailed down three more athletes for the Famous campaign. It went great as well and those ads should be out within the next couple months. I had time to work on some surf culture stuff for my personal book as well, but not as much as I would have liked.

So with that being said, I will more that likely be heading back over to the North Shore to nail down more personal work as well as document my good friend Mick Fanning hopefully winning the world title! I have so much going on the next week or so until I head back over to Hawaii.

I will update with more images that I shot!

Date Shake

2009-10-08T21:39:00.001-07:00

So my wife and I did a little road trip out to Palm Springs last weekend for a friends wedding. Here are a couple images from the Shields Date farm. Enjoy.

Water Tower

2009-10-03T16:20:00.001-07:00

Here is a photo I shot with my iPhone the other day while riding my mountain bike at the water tower. It was amazing: double rainbow, sun, rain, clouds and the moon! The word amazing can't even describe what went one.

New website!

2009-10-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

So after blogging, tweeting, and facebooking I have finally updated my website. Libre Designs did an amazing job choosing a font, color palette, and logo for the new look. Yesterday I just saw the final proof before print of my new letter press business cards and custom dvds. I can't wait to see the final product in my hand. My website isn't fully done as I am currently working on a new sport portfolio where I will showcase, biking, kayaking, free diving, running and some other sports. I can't promise when that will be up, but I will be updating the blog with out takes from those shoots. Please check out my new site, spend sometime on there and let me know what you think.

hey DJ play that song!

2009-09-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

Shot some photos of a couple of my friends who are amazing DJ's. Paul Fisher and Leigh Sedley really rock the house. I shot some pretty neat photos of these guys for them to have and promote themselves with. Hope you enjoy.

Website Sneak Peak

2009-09-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

So I have finally gotten to the final stage of launching the new site. My website designer is tweaking the final little bits before it goes live this weekend. Everything is looking good. I am pretty stoked as I will have quite about more content on the site. So posted above is the direction that I am taking with the business....bright colorful and fun. Please comment and let me know what you think!

G'day mate....

2009-08-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

This past week I got home from a last minute trip to the Gold Coast of Australia. I went over there to work on getting some images of Mick Fanning for Reefs new ad campaign as well as Rip Curls wetsuit campaign. Well I did both. Got some great action images of Mick as well as some cool lifestyle images as well.

Below is the view from my bathroom. Honest to god. Pretty cool to wake up on the 17th floor of a sky rise and this is what you see. I am heading to El Salvador for my final Reef trip of the year from September 4 through the 11th. Then I am free for a while. I will update later in the week with some screen shoots of the new website. Came out killer. Putting the final touch on images and the new look. Should be launched this week!!!

Richard Avedon in San Diego

2009-08-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Laura and I went down to check out the Richard Avedon exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art. Avedon was one of the first fashion photographers in the United States and basically the Annie Leibowitz of the 60's through 2004. I was impressed as he seemed to photograph everyone before they " made it big ". Here is a photo I shot of a wall of his prints. Go check it out as it is super cool!

Australia or bust!

2009-08-18T17:05:00.001-07:00

So I am currently about 30,000 feet in the air about an hour out of Sydney. Pretty excited as I am spending the next week chasing waves with Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson for a piece for one of the surf magazines. Should be fun. I will hopefully be updating my blog if I have Internet and some good photos. Well until next time!

US Open

2009-07-26T18:44:00.001-07:00

So it has been a while. I have been pretty darn busy working on getting images together for the new site. It is coming along really well. I just finished up a five day stint up in Huntington Beach shooting the US Open of Surfing. It was fun. Above are a couple moments I captured. Just want to say congrats to my good friend Brett Simpson for winning the event and taking home $100,000 bucks.

Get organized

2009-06-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

So I know I have been mumbling about a new look, website and other stuff for a while now, but it is finally coming. I have a meeting this week with Justin over at Libre to finish things up. We are collaborating on some really cool stuff and just finished a kick ass Reef project for the womens swim campaign. Just wanted to let yo know most o my focus is going into a new brand for myself. Talk soon.

chris straley
chris straley photographs
www.chrisstraley.com

Just a test

2009-06-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

chris straley
chris straley photographs
www.chrisstraley.com

Bali

2009-06-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

So we just left the most amazing place. It is called Desa Seni. It is an eco friendly resort that grows all their own organic fruits and vegetables. They have delicious meals and great fresh fruit drinks. The rooms are these really funky Javanese huts that have fully been restored and modernized. This place is truly amazing with a capital A! Below are some photos of the grounds but they don't do the place justice. I will update with more surf and some video I have been shooting while I have been here.

Freedom III

2009-06-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

So about a week or so I got off a two week boat trip to the Indonesian Island chain called Mentawai's. It was awesome. I had a fun crew, an amazing boat and some really good waves. So guys were calling some of the best waves they had ever had. So below are a couple images, I am saving the best for all the magazines that are going to eat this trip up. right now I am currently in Bali hanging out with my wife and friends. We are having a blast. I will try and update with some Bali photos tomorrow the following day. Until next time....