A resource for working professional photographers and design industry professionals featuring news, commentary, equipment resources, and original articles
T asks: Does a photographer HAVE to shoot real estate to get into architecture? I have a wedding photography business that has produced a six-figure income five years in a row so I don’t need real estate to pay the bills. However, I definitely want to move out of weddings and into full-time architecture over the next, let’s say, 5-10 years.
In this edition of Three Links I Love: Adobe, the New York Times, and Twitter have partnered to attempt to solve an ages-old problem plaguing artists everywhere. A wonderful article from the NYT about how to give advice that actually matters, and Ezra Stoller’s new monograph hits the shelves.
For the last four or five years, I have tried to produce one annual workshop for aspiring architecture and interior photographers. While I hope that they are technically helpful and the students come away with new skills and knowledge, one thing that I’ve noticed is that every year each workshop inevitably transforms into a session of group therapy for all involved.
Helsinki, Finland. A place riddled with funky architecture and rich design. Heck, there’s even a great band named — well — Architecture in Helsinki. This week we dive into a great piece of modern Nordic design by ALA Architects’. Enter, the Oodi Library. This relatively new yet iconic building has been the star of many photographs, but one architectural photographer, in particular, made me really fall in love with it.
I have been following Anjie Blair’s work on Instagram for a couple of years and have been lucky to witness her career and work evolve into something that could be described simply as magnificent. Anjie hails from a wonderful part of Australia called Tasmania, and today we talk to Anjie about from losing her dream job, finding her way into photography and now transitioning into architectural & interiors photography.
I never thought I’d type the words “competition heats up in tiny geared head market” but alas, competition is heating up in the tiny geared head market. In a space that has been dominated by Manfrotto and Arca Swiss for, as far as I can tell, decades, new competitors are beginning to pop up – one of which is Chinese company LeoFoto, who recently announced their G2 geared head which seems to be a direct shot across the bow of Arca Swiss.
In order to grow your photography business, you must constantly be re-assessing and re-evaluating how you are doing business. One integral part of your business is how you price your services and capabilities; doing this incorrectly and undervaluing or overvaluing what you provide can be your downfall as a professional.
It’s finally feeling like autumn on America’s East Coast, which means an ushering in of all things dark, autumnal colors palates, and a craving for cozy. The embodiment of all those feelings is this series of interior design photographs by Haris Kenjar. Haris is the king of impossibly cool vignettes, and this series shows us why.
I can comfortably say that I’m not the most talented photographer that I know. I know plenty of photographers that are extremely talented. The kind of work they produce is simply astounding and I’m consistently impressed by them. The issue is that many of these photographers tend not to be as successful than many other photographers I know who may not be as capable.
Earlier this year during the Melbourne Design Week, Turkish born, LA-based visual artist Refik Anadol had given a talk about his experiences in merging art, science and technology together to explore architecture using machine-made moving images. The core of this work focuses on machine intelligence which is a topic that I had briefly explored during my undergraduate studies and have had a great interest in.
Anybody who photographs buildings knows about geared heads; they are simply the foundation upon which we build our images. For as long as I’ve been a photographer, Arca Swiss has set the gold standard in high quality geared heads and they recently announced an addition to their lineup: The Core 75 Leveler, which appears to slot nicely between the C1 Cube and Core 60 Leveler.
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.
Mike Kelley
Lexi Taciak
Veeral Patel
Usman Dawood
György Palkó