A resource for working professional photographers and design industry professionals featuring news, commentary, equipment resources, and original articles
There is a special place in Californian architecture marked by the renowned work of architect John Lautner. Kicking off his career as Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentice, Lautner fell into his own iconic style and took over the West Coast mid-century scene. Spanning from mod Palm Springs residences in Bond films to Coachella hotels (before it was cool, might I add), then passing through the hands of endless celebrities and L.A.
You’re having a great day, birds are chirping, sun is shining, life is good… Until you come across someone, or something, using one of your images without even the courtesy of credit. I’ve had enough, and I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’ve also had enough, so I’m going to show you how to get stolen and uncredited content removed from instagram.
MM Asks: What does your “typical” day look like?
MK: There is not really any ‘typical’ day. I shoot probably 1-4 local gigs a month (LA) and then usually do one bigger travel job every month. I divide my life into two kinds of days…days where I set an alarm (flights or shooting) and days when I don’t, hah!
Styling and propping is important for every architectural photo, and as anyone who’s photographed on location knows, some things are out of our control – such as the weather, the wind, the quality of construction, and the angle at which doors are installed.
Bare with me…this is an easy trick and costs nothing, assuming you already own some $3.99 A-clamps.
Cost-sharing is a common business practice in architecture and interiors photography that allows the photographer to make more money by providing more clients access to project images for less money. It may sound counterintuitive at first, but can be a simple way to create happier clients while significantly improving profit margins with little additional overhead.
A headliner on CNN, Curbed, Dezeen, and Architectural Digest, this week’s featured project has been widely talked about in the press and has made waves across the architecture community. A truly incredible undertaking, Zaha Hadid Architects‘ Bejing Daxing International Airport is a 12.9 billion dollar, 700,000 square meter masterpiece.
The photo credit is an important, yet sometimes elusive, piece of the professional architecture photographer pie. With the speed at which the photography landscape is changing, there are varying standards for getting photo credit in almost every situation. Here’s how I make sure I’m properly credited for my work, and how you can stand up for your own work to make sure you get credited as well.
I’ve lost count of how many times I thought that one dream job that I finally landed would steer my career in some lofty direction. This, finally, would show those top designers/architects/hotel marketing people that I can handle photographing a museum, church, multi-million dollar mansion, design icon skyscraper, or whatever shiny object was the object of my affection that day.
Alert! Alert! Great architecture inbound. This week’s featured project is Matthew Millman’s photographs of AIA CC Merit awarded House of Earth & Sky by Aidlin Darling. And where there is beautiful architecture, there is beautiful photography.
This series is steeped in strong geometric shapes and the golden light that early evening brings.
Have you ever spent the day on location only to return home to go through the day’s work and realize that some of the images have motion blur? This is probably one of the most annoying little things you may encounter when starting to work as an architecture or interiors photographer. Frustratingly, it’s not easily detectable on the back of your camera screen unless you zoom all the way into the image, and even then can be invisible, so it’s something you need to make sure you catch while shooting tethered which isn’t always possible.
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The first of October marks the start of Archtober which is a festival celebrating architecture and design organised by the Centre for Architecture. In its ninth year running, this year’s Archtober festival in collaboration with over 80 partners across NYC’s five boroughs are hosting a range of events from building of the day walking tours, workplace Wednesday tours, lectures, film screenings, architecture themed competitions and parties.
It’s official. I want to be Chase Daniel when I grow up. I could go on and on about his work forever, but it’s probably just easier to show you how beautiful, clean, and well thought out each of his compositions are. I drooled over Chase’s website for an absurd amount of time — scrolling through Japanese/Texas fusion restaurants, smokey bars, cowboy boot peddlers, cabins, and ranches.
At the start of 2019, one of my goals was to understand the nuances of architecture. More specifically, to understand the social issues around architecture in the urban environment. As a photographer who has been photographing architecture and interiors for a few years, I have been absorbed by the prettiness of my chosen discipline yet unaware of the social implications of architecture.
Sharyn Cairns is the Wonder Woman of Australian architectural photography. Her portfolio sports a healthy mix of work – from commercial projects, cuisine, and travel – but the crown jewels are certainly her interiors. She conjures up rich images with interesting light. Her photographs are texture heavy, yet honest and delicate feeling.
Every year now, Apple releases a new iPhone with a slightly better camera and slightly better features. From a year on year perspective, the differences aren’t significant. However, if you compare what the first few iPhone cameras were capable of versus now, the difference is huge.
I get multiple emails every day from retouchers looking to work with me; most of them are based in Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and they serve a need in the market for inexpensive high-volume retouching. The problem is the emails.
Here on Architectural Photography Almanac, we tend to focus on — well — architecture. Not to be overlooked though, is photography with an emphasis on the design of a space. This Project of the Week by Melbourne based Jack Lovel is great study on clean edits, simplicity, and the “less is more” aspect that shines when working with interior designers.
I had heard about Vancouver-based Andrew Latreille through another architect a few years ago and finally caught up with him last summer while he was in Melbourne visiting his family. As it turns out, Andrew had actually known about me through our shared hobby of cycling – a small world!
Fujifilm is currently my favorite camera company within the photography industry. I find that they’re one of the very few companies that properly pushing the boundaries and delivering feature-filled cameras at very reasonable prices. The Fujifilm X-T3, for example, is incredible value for money.
Lexi Taciak
Mike Kelley
Usman Dawood
Veeral Patel