As most of you know, my mainstay of work, since I went digital in 2000 has been architectural photography. And while all of what I shot during this 10-day period was instigated by architecture requesting clients, the work itself was on the interesting fringes of it. Let me share with you the 4 majors projects that made these last 10 days more than a little interesting.
Project 1: The 3 Rail Trails
The first project was to photograph 3 Rail Trails for GPI. The assignment was to not only capture the trails in fall foliage but include people enjoying the trails.
Fighting the Weather with a Little Photoshopping
Referring back to last month’s blog about limited windows of nice weather, shooting the trail was no exception. After getting the assignment on Wednesday, Oct. 24th, I wanted to shoot as much of their 7 projects in the sunny days prior to the Nor’easter forecasted for Saturday, Oct. 27th. Which meant shooting on mid-week days, when there was not a lot of traffic on the trails. The image above was one of the most beautiful fall sites but after waiting for a long time. No bicyclist came through. So I ended up merging the cyclist from the image below (one of those times where digital edits are necessary).
Putting the Public in Your Photography
Funnily enough, normally a client often wants no people in the pictures, as peoples’ clothing date images and, if they are too prominent, often require a model release. Getting a model release often takes the spontaneity out of the image as people act differently. Ironically the next assignment below was looking for even more people. Lots of people. To the point where I ended up merging files to get even more people into a shot. All the shot where taken from public roads or sidewalks and I worked to keep faces to a minimum and or under 10% of the total image area. This is generally considered enough to not need a model release, but it’s also important to understand this can be a grey area.
Project 2: Capture the Hustle and Bustle of Cities
The next assignment was to capture the hustling and bustling of Portland ME, Portsmouth NH, and Mohegan Lake NH (just north of Manhattan) for a real estate investment firm looking to promote areas they want others to join them in investing into. Again, working to get the shot prior to “Stick Season” before winter hits.
Adding and Subtracting Photography Elements
Here’s a couple of shots from Portland ME. The first is the final shot, which included merging different groups of people to make it even more robust plus removing electrical, telephone, and support wires in post-processing, while the second is the original shot.
Portsmouth NH required staying over Saturday night as the clouds came in and forced the need to resume photographing in the morning. Here are a couple more shots from the next day.
Project 3: Cape Cod in a Helicopter
The next assignment was to photograph the length of Cape Cod from a helicopter. A drone could simply not get high enough, and I’ve always preferred using choppers for aerial photography. The images are for timeshare resort’s sports facility for a wall behind the receptionist desk that will be renovated in the future. They will give the receptionist a way to point out key areas to visit.
Project 4: American Heritage Museum
What, you thought we were done? The adventure continued with an assignment to photograph the Collings Foundation's American Heritage Museum for JM Coull, who have been working on the project since September of last year.
And all this was while I was still capturing more photography on “normal” projects, from simple building photography to ones that require a bit more legwork and finesse, like finding a higher angle to capture the wall-washing crown lights that had just been upgraded.
What interesting project might your firm have that I could work with you on? Reach out and contact me to get started. I might even share some more crazy tales of the many photography projects I’ve work on.