Mike Kelley

Owner / Founder

I'm a photographer based in Los Angeles, California who specializes in photographing architecture; I also have a mild airplane obsession.

http://mpkelley.com
I’m Being Asked For COVID Discounts – Help!

I’m Being Asked For COVID Discounts – Help!

Mike Kelley 5

M Asks: I’m getting quite a few requests for shoots starting late April / May. Everyone is pleading poverty, from £120m new openings (who I know had already budgeted marketing) to £10m refurbs. Every quote so far has asked for a reduction in fees. My own view is that I won’t lower my fee (mostly because my expenses & talent are same as pre-covid and I have a gut feeling that if I lower it, it will be impossible to raise later) but I am being super-flexible on pretty much all else.

Photographing Homes While California is Choked in Wildfire Smoke

Photographing Homes While California is Choked in Wildfire Smoke

Mike Kelley 4

For those of us living in California and the rest of the West Coast of the US, it’s been a crazy few months to say the least. Wildfire smoke has engulfed nearly every part of the region at some point over the past two months, turning skies grey and orange from Los Angeles to Seattle.

Many architectural photographers have continued to work through the fires and the resulting smoke – myself included – to great frustration and annoyance.

The Problem With Hyper Real Renders (And Photographs!)

The Problem With Hyper Real Renders (And Photographs!)

Mike Kelley 7

This short and poignant video by the B1M highlights the increasing propensity for renders to exaggerate the truth, leading to disappointed clients and impossible design goals for projects. Not only do these renders mislead the public, setting them (us!) up for a lackluster new building, but they also have ramifications for photographers tasked with capturing these projects.

How One of the Biggest Names in Photography and Visualization Deals With Attribution and Licensing

How One of the Biggest Names in Photography and Visualization Deals With Attribution and Licensing

Mike Kelley 19

DBOX is an international creative communications agency that creates campaigns in the sectors of luxury residential, hospitality, commercial, and cultural property. Specializing in both renders and photography, DBOX is at the top of the global architecture marketing game and were kind enough to sit down for a chat with APA to discuss their inner business workings, their frustrations, and their efforts to remedy an industry-wide scourge.

Still Lives: Making Photographs During a Global Pandemic

Still Lives: Making Photographs During a Global Pandemic

Mike Kelley 5

When you’re obsessed with something, say, architectural photography, you can’t imagine a life without it, so you’re going to find a way to do it no matter what. Even in the midst of a pandemic, even if you have to use an awful camera, even if you just underwent back surgery.

In October 2019, I decided to take a break from work to address stubborn back pain that hadn’t gone away in about six years.

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER (me) RIPS HIS PHOTOS TO SHREDS! (He Shouldn’t Have Agreed to This!)

PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER (me) RIPS HIS PHOTOS TO SHREDS! (He Shouldn’t Have Agreed to This!)

Mike Kelley 7

That’s more or less the title of a YouTube video I did with Jared Polin of FroKnowsPhoto DOT COM! I know, I know, Jared and I probably couldn’t be on further ends of the personality spectrum with his outgoing rambunctious videos vs my somewhat quiet and reserved personality but the end result is a pretty great educational video for someone just getting started in architectural photography (or someone who wants to watch Jared get very politely shredded!)

Improve Your Architectural Knowledge With A Free Course From Harvard: The Architectural Imagination

Improve Your Architectural Knowledge With A Free Course From Harvard: The Architectural Imagination

Mike Kelley 2

There’s no time like the present to sharpen your understanding of architecture given the current times we are living in – with millions (billions?!) of us in lockdown around the world, the amount of resources being made available for free is staggering. One of them, the Harvard course “The Architectural Imagination” may be one of the best investments you can make during this downtime.

Take The First Ever Global Architecture Photography Survey

Take The First Ever Global Architecture Photography Survey

Mike Kelley 4

The architectural photography community is spread thin across the world, yet we are a close-knit community brought together by the internet and our shared love of photographing homes, businesses, art, and design. Currently, there is little to no data available related to the way we operate and the most frequent questions that we receive on APAlmanac relate to how people across the world run their businesses and what they can do to improve their own businesses.

How to Get Credit For Your Images When Credit Has Not Been Supplied or is Incorrect

How to Get Credit For Your Images When Credit Has Not Been Supplied or is Incorrect

Mike Kelley 11

I photograph a lot of homes for a lot of different clients with a lot of different end uses for those photographs. While in a perfect world I’d get a photo credit every time my work was submitted, sometimes that doesn’t happen and it’s up to me to get it fixed. Whether or not you think photo credit is important (it is, don’t @ me), you should always have any errors or omissions in credit resolved as soon as you can.