As you can imagine, this shoot was a blast, but what you don’t need to know is, I stayed there all night…because I stayed and shot the “EXTREME MIDGET WRESTLING” show. But like I said, you don’t need to know that…unless you wanna buy some pictures. Anyway, pictured here is this beautiful VIP area. They’re working with amazing local designers, (which are named in full description below), to create the interiors..space ships, paintings, the bar itself, the walls…everything is one of a kind works of art. Very cool. The Ritz is closed this month renovating the whole place with this kind of energy…I can’t wait to see it!
A few shots of the Green Room as well…this is where the Artists are made comfortable by the venue during the show. I remember seeing lists on the net of artists requirements for food and beverage during a stay from great bands from the 1960’s…there were some eyepopping requests! There are two apartments back here too…I couldn’t get in those that day though because the midget wrestlers were there sleeping. And quite frankly…I didn’t want to disturb them and get ‘em mad at me. I haven’t wrestled for years.
How I Photographed This:
For this kind of work a tripod is necessary, and a variety of lenses. My wife divorced me because I spent all our money on lenses. Now she’s gone, but I’ve still got my lenses. She has furniture. I have no use for furniture. You have to keep moving furniture…I hate moving furniture, moving furniture is insane. You may find this hard to believe, but there are people out there constantly moving their furniture…I know a couple. “Leave it there,” that’s what I say “You’re wearing out those legs.” Anyway, I still have my lenses, so in some of these wide angle shots I’m probably using some of my favorites, the Canon EF 14mm 2.8L USM, and the anon ECF 1635mm II USM.
The tripod is necessary when your using ambient light for long exposures, which are needed to mix the right kind of light for the interior of a room. I might do something here called bracketing, where you take multiple exposures on a tripod, of different lengths of time, some are dark, some are light…you mix them all together in photoshop to get the most detail out of a pic.
And yes, I am using my lenses to photograph furniture. …I love furniture. Some of my best friends own furniture. I’m good for furniture. Actually, I’m known around town as a furniture guy.
The Ritz describes their VIP area, the Stella Lounge
The Stella Lounge is a private VIP area inside The Ritz with an exclusive bar featuring North Carolina inspired cocktails made by a mixologist for your tasting pleasure. The lounge is decorated by modern art created specifically for the space by Chapel Hill based artist Lewis St Louis. Neon strands and panels by local Raleigh fabricator Nate Sheaffer decorate the overhead space, walls and breach into the lobby area giving this space an exclusive feel. Finally, a viewing platform spans the outside of the space with incredible sightlines to The Ritz stage featuring National Touring artists.