Architectural Photography Almanac
A resource for working professional photographers and design industry professionals featuring news, commentary, equipment resources, and original articles
Many of my introductions to world-famous designers happened through conversations with friends who are very heavily entrenched in the design sphere. The introduction to Dieter Rams came by way of a friend, John Bastiras, who is perhaps the only person I know who possesses a vast knowledge of Australian architecture in the world of cycling (my other love).
While I continue to wait (now, somewhat impatiently) for DJI to release the latest edition of their Mavic Pro series, I thought I’d share a video Dezeen produced about the impact drones will have (or perhaps already are having) on our lives and the way we relate to each other across space and the cities we live in.
Shew! Can you believe the second birthday of APALMANAC’s first published article is coming up? Call us nostalgic but we’ve been reflecting on our growth — not just as a website, but as a community. It seems as if the shroud surrounding the tiny niche of architectural and interiors photography has been drawn back, revealing an incredible network of people who are eager to share advice, workflows, pricing, and business strategy — and we are so proud to play a little part in helping expand that community.
Early last year, I had interviewed Pennsylvania based photographer, Jeffrey Totatro. Since 2008, Jeffrey has been hosting an architectural photography workshop in collaboration with the Palm Beach Photographic Centre.
The four day workshop will consist of two 2-hour long sessions each day and include time for questionsDue to the current COVID pandemic, his 2021 workshop will be hosted virtually over Zoom.
Let’s face it, 2020 was rough. And while the new year will by no means see a complete return to anything resembling normal – there are certainly reasons to be hopeful. Vaccines are already beginning to be distributed in many countries and, more specific to our line of work, the construction industry seems to be picking back up.
When it comes to RAW photo editing software there are two major players: Lightroom and Capture One. I am always open to learning new software and I have tried to transport my whole editing process from Lr to C1 a couple of times before. C1s latest upgrade had a lot of marketing around it, so I decided to check the new features.
The Architecture & Design Film Festival has taken its screening online this year due to covid. Starting November 19th, the ADFF will be presenting their final session of the year. The final session will feature 15 full-length films that come from 13 countries across both hemispheres, including a couple of short films by Jim Stephenson whom I had interviewed earlier in the year.
After a Summer hiatus, the BAAM podcast is back with an extraordinary episode featuring one of my favorite photographers, Simon Devitt. BAAM hosts Barry MacKenzie and Andy Macpherson include a particular treat at the beginning of the episode, which is an incredibly insightful introduction by one of Simon’s clients, architect Paul Owen of Owen Architecture.
Copyright infringement is a prevalent issue among photographers. There have been several articles on APAlmanac discussing copyright infringements in various forms. I have noticed that whenever copyright is discussed, it is more from the North American perspective rather than an Australian perspective.
Recently, Aputure announced its latest LED-based 7 watt smart light bulb, Accent B7c. There are a plethora of smart bulbs on the market but what sets this smart bulb apart from that rest is that it was specifically designed for filmmakers and addressing three use cases: Implementing high colour fidelity based on the RGBWW specification and flexible colour temperature (2000K to 10000K), 100% flicker-free operation and wireless connectivity through Bluetooth Mesh network.
Sky replacements have long been standard practice in architectural photography. However, the existing tools to do so remain, in my opinion, somewhat haphazard. Some skies are an easy slam-dunk, capable of being replaced in a few clicks using something as simple as the Tragic Wand or Quick Selection tool.
The guys at Roehner + Ryan are much admired around here, not just because their photographs are off the wall gorgeous, but because they are such bulldogs for the architectural photography industry. Jason and Dan are great advocates for proper pricing, sharing knowledge, and lifting our little community.
I am absolutely infatuated with tall buildings. Mike Kelley has his airplanes, I’ve got my skyscrapers. Or so I thought. For more than two decades, China (where I am based) has experienced unprecedented growth in the number of constructed high-rise buildings, but alas we may be seeing the end of an era for skyscrapers in the Middle Kingdom.
When Canon first released the EOS R, one of the most compelling things they did was to also release an EF to RF mount adapter with a drop-in filter feature. This meant that you could adapt tilt-shift lenses to your EF camera and use drop-in filters whenever it was necessary. The only problem was Canon’s limited amount of filters available on the market.
Rumor season is over. On July 9th, Canon will be presenting their whole new lineup of products highlighting the RF mount system via live stream.
The event — REIMAGINE — invites us to hear from Canon Ambassadors and experts on the biggest product launch yet. Canon branches have announced simultaneous transmission times on their websites:
–Europe: July 9th at 14:00 CEST.
Adobe has just updated its “photography plan” applications, Lightroom and Camera Raw with some great new features. Aside from the usual performance improvements, Adobe has (finally!) changed the user interface found on Adobe Camera Raw, integrating it seamlessly with Lightroom. Additionally, they have rolled out a couple of brand new features: ISO Adaptive Presets and Localized Hue Editing.
Back in 2016, I had this dream of wanting to photograph projects in the US and I had very little knowledge of how American architects commissioned photographers moreover what their style/requirements were. What I had observed was that there was a distinct difference in interior architecture between styles between New York and Australia which often dictated how projects were photographed.
We are in the midst of a digitalization era where information is shared faster and in greater amounts than ever before. In order to guarantee the future of photographers, designers, and creators careers, proper copyright and credit on digital platforms must be a latent topic of discussion among the community.
Back in 2016, I remember the opening scene to Marvel’s Dr Strange trailer which showed a snippet of the Manhattan skyline and as an architecture buff, I couldn’t help myself grin when I noticed Bjarke Ingles’ W57 project firmly asserting itself in the scene. I have always been fascinated by the work of Bjarke Ingles because his architecture transcends the traditional notion of architecture we have become accustomed to.
Veeral Patel
Justin Szeremeta
Lexi Taciak
Brandon Vogts
Dane Alonso
Usman Dawood