Featured Photographer: Chris Arace

When I joined Flickr back in October 2006, I was immediately blown away by the great photographers I found. Their work has truly inspired me and continually pushes me to improve my own photography. In my Featured Photographers section, I’ll be showcasing some photographers that are among the best I’ve seen. I hope their work inspires you as much as it has inspired me.

The first photographer I’d like to showcase is Chris Arace. We became Flickr contacts some time ago and, ever since then, I always look forward to seeing his newest photos in my RSS reader.

I had a hard time deciding which photo of Chris’ I wanted to showcase since there are so many fantastic photos in his photostream, but after much deliberation, I decided on the following photo:

The colors in this photo absolutely pop right out at you and the composition makes these toys seem larger than life.

More about Chris after the jump…

Chris currently lives in Lake Orion, MI. Instead of profiling him in my own words, Chris was gracious enough to provide a brief bio that I couldn’t possibly improve upon:

“Like so many others, once I placed my hands on the grip of a camera, I have not been able to put it down! I make shotlists for myself while I daydream of shooting. It is my documentation, my footprints, our world. God has displayed his perfect creation all around us, in plain view. He has blessed me with a passion and drive for creativity. It is nothing short of my duty to share it with you

“I am an Art Director/Designer in the internet world. A College for Creative Studies Graduate, a friend and fellow creator.”

I’m also going to share a quick story on one of the ways Chris’ work has influenced me. A couple months ago, I was discussing the prospects of a career in photography with my girlfriend. I explained that, if I were to become a full-time photographer, I’d only want to shoot photos that I wanted to shoot… that I would be reluctant to become just another wedding or portrait photographer. This, of course, limits a lot of my options when trying to build a decent income stream with my camera. That is, until I saw some of Chris’ wedding shots. I liked them so much that I remember immediately showing my girlfriend some of them and saying “if I could take wedding photos like that, I would happily do it for a living”:

In closing, please check out some of Chris’ photos. He is truly a talented photographer. You can view his work at the following URLs:

Arace Photographic
Chris Arace - Art Direction and Design Work
Chris’ Flickr Photostream

I hope you enjoy his work as much as I have…

Thank you Chris!

As a side note, this was originally intended as a weekly feature, but I decided I really only wanted to pick a photographer whose work truly compels me to feature them, rather than simply trying to meet a weekly quota. If you know of any photographer whose work truly inspires you, let me know!

Tags: arace-photographic, chris-arace, photographers, wedding