From My Shoot Today

manaheim · Sep 3, 2008

I'm sure everyone on TPF is just dying to know what I do professionally in the photography space. Well, wait no more!

While this isn't all I do, it is the primary source of my photography income... taking pictures of buildings! God I'm just overwhelmed with the excitement of it all! Who ever said photography wasn't glamourous!?! :lol:

I actually do quite enjoy this work, but it is kind of funny that it is a big part of what I do. No studios, no sexy models, no photojournalism... buildings.

The worst part is that some of the buildings I shoot are horribly ugly, or at least just totally uninteresting.

Though there was that one time where the entire interior of the building looked like it was being run like a frat house. :lol:

That was hysterical. I should post some of those pics... one dude had about 12 portraits of Max Headroom on his wall and a gigantic array of munchies available on TV trays.

Anyway... the pictures... C&C Welcome, of course.

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johngpt · Sep 3, 2008

Chris, you get to do this for a living?

My father had made his living as what was called in those days, a 'commercial' artist. Everything photoshop does now for those making a living, he did with pen, ink, airbrush, velum (for masking).

While many would have thought his images were quite mundane, the artistry behind it, the technical expertise, were superlative, as in your images.

invisible · Sep 3, 2008

I have a friend who does the exact same thing (his clients are architecture and design magazines, and architecture firms). I can totally see this set in a magazine, or at the very least in well-designed real estate brochures. The foliage is a bit distracting in some of the photos, but what can you do? You don't get to choose your subjects when doing these assignments, do you?

Also, nice job of exposing these. Your subject is almost all white, and your shots were taken with harsh light. (Do I perceive a lack of yellow here?)

By the way, what kind of wide-angle lens do you use?

manaheim · Sep 3, 2008

johngpt said:
Chris, you get to do this for a living?

My father had made his living as what was called in those days, a 'commercial' artist. Everything photoshop does now for those making a living, he did with pen, ink, airbrush, velum (for masking).

While many would have thought his images were quite mundane, the artistry behind it, the technical expertise, were superlative, as in your images.

Oh I think I know the very kind of art you are talking about. I've actually looked through a lot of it to get ideas for how to shoot my sites. Some of it is really amazingly well done.

No, I don't do this for a living... yet... at the moment, this is a relatively active side job. (Fortunately my normal job is pretty flexible) I do know a couple people that do this for a living. One of which is my direct competitor, and he's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than I am. :lol:

I'm getting there, though. I'm considered "the inexpensive guy", which is fine for me for now... esp since inexpensive is far from cheap. :lol:

Thanks for the kind words on my images!

invisible said:
I have a friend who does the exact same thing (his clients are architecture and design magazines, and architecture firms). I can totally see this set in a magazine, or at the very least in well-designed real estate brochures. The foliage is a bit distracting in some of the photos, but what can you do? You don't get to choose your subjects when doing these assignments, do you?

Also, nice job of exposing these. Your subject is almost all white, and your shots were taken with harsh light. (Do I perceive a lack of yellow here?)

By the way, what kind of wide-angle lens do you use?

Yellow is the color of the devil! :lol:

Thanks very much for the kind words!

That's some pretty high praise. I'm blushing! :blushing: :lol:

You hit the nail on the head in the latter case... these are for Commercial Real Estate brochures. Architecture magazines hadn't occurred to me. I should look into that... though I'd bet they don't pay nearly as well. Would be nice to be published, though.

Thanks on the exposure. I was pretty pleased with that... white building, bright light... tough situation. That polarizer and some careful settings seemed to work out really well. The trick with these shoots is you REALLY want that bright blue sky and a well illuminated building... ideally with either light puffy (or no) clouds. It's kind of a nightmare, and you gotta check the building orientation before you hit the site to make sure you know when the sun will hit it right, etc. Pretty interesting. The worst is when you have to shoot a smaller building in the city surrounded by skyscrapers. :lol:

Light? What light? Oh you mean the stuff washing out the skies in the background? Oh yeah, great. Thanks! :lol:

You really do get stuck with some oddball buildings and weird foliage and such. The last site I shot was an absolute train wreck. The client was actually convinced that the building was a totally different color... and didn't like shadows on the parking lot! NO SHADOWS!!!! I'm like "errrmmm... the building is red... not gray... and shadows are caused by that big fiery sphere in the sky... I think they call it a SUN." Bizarro.

I could probably rattle off 20 bizarro stories... like the time I was shooting a Hotel and I walked into the room that was supposed to be an unoccupied double, and found two people having sex. Whoops? Wait, wait... can you just hold that a sec while I break out the zoom lens? Thanks! :lol:

Aaaaaaaanyway...

btw, to answer your question, the lens is a the 10-20 Sigma F4-5.6. Great lens. It has some limitations, but if you are aware of them it is an excellent tool. Widest glass you can get without going fisheye, which is great.

Thanks again, guys!

manaheim · Sep 4, 2008

Oh also important to note... I always make sure my car is in one of the shots. :lol:

If you look at that last one you'll see a blue VW just to the right of the flagpole. That's my baby. I figure, hell, if there are gonna be cars in the shot, one of them may as well be mine.

johngpt · Sep 4, 2008

Chris, great eyebrow! :mrgreen:

manaheim · Sep 4, 2008

johngpt said:
Chris, great eyebrow! :mrgreen:

Thanks...

THORHAMMER · Sep 5, 2008

johngpt said:
Chris, great eyebrow! :mrgreen:

Fantastic ManBrow

manaheim · Sep 5, 2008

THORHAMMER said:
Fantastic ManBrow

hahah...that reminds me I need to shave that.

Course, I could instead work towards this:

Man I'm losing it this week.

BoblyBill · Sep 5, 2008

This series is Seriously BONZO. I like the how you framed these and though the building is not all that interesting you have made it so... Great job, IMHO.

manaheim · Sep 5, 2008

BoblyBill said:
This series is Seriously BONZO. I like the how you framed these and though the building is not all that interesting you have made it so... Great job, IMHO.

Thank you, Bill. I very much appreciate it!

Cheers and Bonzo!

johngpt · Sep 5, 2008

BoblyBill said:
This series is Seriously BONZO. I like the how you framed these and though the building is not all that interesting you have made it so... Great job, IMHO.

Oh...
Yeah...

That's right, this thread started out with buildings...

LOL