Photographing Every Departure at LAX's South Complex: "Wake Turbulence"

I just spent about 16 hours shooting and putting this image together, and I've written a little blog post, below, detailing some background information and how I did it. While not specifically related to architectural photography, I still find it interesting enough to write and post about, so you'll have to tolerate the tangent this week.

PurePhoto, who sells all of my fine art works, has graciously agreed to offer prints of the shot in 18x36", 27x48", and 36x64" sizes on Hahnemuhle archival fine art paper. I have to say, the shot is truly stunning in large format and anyone who appreciates aviation, infrastructure, travel or imagination could easily spend countless hours getting lost in it. To order prints and view availability, click hereor head to my galleries on PurePhoto.

Los Angeles is a city steeped in aviation history and technology. Over the years, Los Angeles and Southern California have played host to some of the largest aviation companies and activities the world has ever seen. From designing and building Lockheed's top-secret reconnaissance planes to building some of the first large-scale passenger aircraft and having Maverick buzz the tower only a shrot drive south at Mirarmar, aviation is everywhere in this region. Our main airport, Los Angeles International (LAX) is one of the busiest airports in the world and countless airlines use it as a focus city for both international and domestic operations. 

The idea for this photo wasn't some grand thing years in the making, or planned over months. It was simply a clear day in LA and I felt like a total dork sitting inside on the computer. I had to do something. The day before, I was with my friend David Huff at LAX for lunch and some plane-watching, but the smog was out in force so nothing too special happened in terms of photography that day. Since I am generally interested in making photographs that aren't just snapshots of a single moment, I had a thought that it would be interesting if I could seem to capture more than one plane in flight at once. And from there, this idea was born.

This has been done before, yet slightly differently. Ho-Yeol Ryu created a similar piece set at Hannover airport. This showed that what I wanted to do could be done, albeit quite differently. Ryu used planes of all liveries and countries, and took a bit more of an artistic approach in his rendering. My intent was to capture only planes that flew out of LAX - highlighting and emphasizing what an incredible airport that this city has. It's really fascinating to look at all the planes heading in different directions, ferrying people all over the world, all originating from Los Angeles. In this shot alone, there are planes heading to destinations on six continents - either direct or via multi-stop routes on the same flight number. Guangzhou, Auckland, Frankfurt.

In order to capture the shot, I set up a tripod and photographed every single plane that flew across my frame anywhere from 3 to 10 times. Using sandbags to ensure that the camera didn't move and coming as close to peeing myself as I ever have in my 26 years of existence from not wanting to leave my camera unattended, this resulted in over 400 images from which the composition is built, but not all of them were used. Here are a few of the individual, completely unedited, frames that I used to put the entire thing together, so you can get an idea of how many different frames it took!

As you can see there were a number of issues to contend with. Heat haze, the changing angle of the sun, and other traffic on the ramp all had to be mitigated. The best way I found to do this was using masks and selections in photoshop to isolate every single plane in the final image and then piece them all together one by one, nudging them slightly so that they all lined up. I took some liberties with the positioning of each of the planes in order to make a more compositionally interesting photo. True aviation geeks may say this is sacrilegious, but it makes for a more interesting and easy to view shot. Everything is still somewhat accurate in terms of pitch angle and takeoff sequences, but like I said, in order to make it 'read,' I had to take some liberties. 

And that's how it was done! PurePhoto, who sells all of my fine art works, has graciously agreed to offer prints of the shot in 18x36", 27x48", and 36x64" sizes on Hahnemuhle archival fine art paper. I have to say, the shot is truly stunning in large format and anyone who appreciates aviation, infrastructure, travel or imagination could easily spend countless hours getting lost in it. To order prints and view availability, click here or head to my galleries on PurePhoto.

Still with me? Here's an interesting aside. At the time of writing this post, this image has received over 350,000 unique hits on reddit, totalling over 110gb in bandwidth. This makes it the most popular aviation-related in image in reddit history! Not bad, for a nerd like me.

Tigertail Ridge, Brentwood: Architectural Interiors With Susan Jay Design

A few weeks ago, I wrapped a great project with the renowned Susan Jay Design in Los Angeles. On a ridge in Brentwood, with views overlooking Los Angeles' famous Getty Museum and Century City, this location was truly a stunner. Expansive views over all of LA, coupled with a fun yet restrained interior made this one of my favorite shoots of the year, despite the many challenges we faced. The home featured plenty of interesting architecture and angles, and while it is quite a sight for the eye, it can be particularly difficult to photograph. Faced with tight quarters and big windows which required a lot of light, we took nearly 12 hours to create just as many images.

Waiting for the right time of day is crucial - as fighting the sun through those big windows is just asking for trouble. We wanted the interior to appear soft, natural, and livable, so time of day was crucial to avoid harsh light and shadows interfering with our own light.

As has been repeated ad nauseum thorughout history, architectural photography is 90% moving furniture and 10% photography - and we did plenty of moving furniture on this shoot. Endless amounts of books were moved, couches tweaked, chairs tweaked, tables pulled out, and put back in - all to try and tame the color and shape that were present everywhere. With big windows comes busy backgrounds, and making everything work together seamlessly takes a bit of patience (with some good humor thrown in, of course).

This mid-century gem was a real treat to photograph, and added a few nice shots to my portfolio. With interesting lines, incredible furnishings and one of the best views in LA, there was no going wrong with this location.

Photographing The Architecture of Los Angeles From Above (Part 2)

It would appear that I've been bitten by the aerial bug - quite hard, in fact. What began as a half baked idea to shoot real estate and architecture from a helicopter turned into a full-fledged fine art book. So that's the new goal - take 15, 20 flights, amass a huge collection of black and white photographs, and get it together in a big, heavy, thick coffee table book, as it's something I've always wanted to do. I've been keeping an eye peeled for my latest personal project and thankfully, this one is right in my own backyard. 

Los Angeles is a thing of terrible beauty; and sometimes downright misery from street level. But once you're up in the air, it transforms entirely into something else. There are endless opportunities for composition with all of the lines of intersecting freeways, surface streets, and architecture. Every time I have flown in a helicopter now, I make a loose plan to get some shots I've pre-selected with Google Earth, etc. The problem that I have is that the shots I plan on come out just okay, but the shots that I don't plan for absolutely shock me with how awesome they are. That might sound cocky, but some of this stuff is beyond what I'd ever thought I'd be capturing.

Shooting like this is definitely refreshing and a nice change of pace - it's one thing to put something together from a tripod, 10 lights and Photoshop, but it's something else entirely to be shooting something so alive. Nobody will ever recreate these images - and they exist for only a fleeting second. Trying to coax the light and mood out of them in post-processing is just eye-opening - things that you never notice from the air become simply magical once the files are worked over a bit. 

So, here's to this next project of mine. I've got a lot on my plate, as always, between my Iceland project, Pan-Am project, and now this, but these are just too cool to pass up, and I might as well strike while my iron is hot. I'm hemming and hawing over kickstarting this project or just doing it on my own, I'm not really sure yet. Time will tell!

In the meantime, I've been invited to sell these prints throughout a few select stores in LA as well as online through PurePhoto. You can check out the full gallery and order prints, if you're interested, by clicking here.

Photographing Fig House: Los Angeles' Coolest New Event Space

It's true: I get to see some seriously cool locations. One of my favorites has to be the recently completed Fig House in Los Angeles. Located in Highland Park, Fig House touts itself as a bespoke events venue, catering to a wide range of clients; they do everything from weddings to corporate parties to photoshoots and everything in between. Fig House is exciting and fresh, and a definite change of pace from what I usually shoot. With an eclectic mix of styles (everything from 1920s Hollywood to art deco with modern LA touches) it was a nice challenge to capture it all. I absolutely loved all of the color and variation throughout the space. 

I opted to shoot this in a more natural light style - this place just came alive with color owing to the huge sliding glass door windows emblazoned with stained glass by Judson Studios. Since the design was full of color and a mix of styles, adding a ton of light wasn't going to do any favors: it would only make the scene busier. I'm all about lighting to the space - and what that space calls for in terms of photography in order to make it look the best that it can.  No need to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to, right?

Next door to Fig House is Roomforty, a catering and restaurant service with a charm all it's own. While this was merely an accesory to the Fig House shoot, I absolutely loved the decoration and design of the tasting room, where potential clients can get a taste of the food made right on site or friends can gather to have a private meal of their own during a function at Fig House. 

And of course, what blog post would be complete without mentioning the perks of being an architectural photograhper? Roomforty's food, as expected, was absolutely jaw-droppingly delicious.

Aerial Photography Over Los Angeles: Shooting The City's Architecture From Above

Of course there are thousands of ways to photograph architecture from ground level, but an entirely different feel can be conveyed by photographing from the air. I've taken a few trips recently in a chartered Robinson R-44 to photograph homes in the LA area, and I've also taken some time to create images that I will sell as prints in a few interior design outlets and chains throughout California. 

Being such a huge aviation geek, shooting from the air is a total treat. Hanging out of a helicopter at a thousand feet, cruising at 80 knots with the door removed and the wind blasting by is always such a rush. There are a few things you have to keep in mind, of course, as this is an entirely different environment compared to shooting on the ground. No lens hoods, as the 80+mph wind would rip them right off if the lens poked beyond the canopy glass. You can't change lenses, because the slightest fumble would result in a very expensive drop (those cabins are TIGHT, and with all the wind and bouncing around it would be very easy to drop something and lose a lens, or kill someone below) and you have to know exactly what you want to shoot before heading up. At the low price of 10 cubic dollars per minute, loitering to get the right angle or find the right house is going to cost you. Pre-flight planning is super important! You want the right light, the right weather, the right orientation, the right elevation, and the right composition. A big ask!

Of course, it all takes a skilled pilot to get you where you want to go on the first try. It's best to work with someone who has flown a photographer before and understands their needs with regard to light, timing, altitude, and so on. None of this would have happened without the understanding and patience of my pilot, who is able to manage all of my ridiculous photographer demands (up! down! left! right! do an orbit down there!) on top of dealing with the insanity that is LA airspace. 

But what I'm most excited about aren't the photos of homes that I've been doing (which, make no mistake, are hugely enjoyable and I love the results) but the photos that result when I let my creative juices flow a bit. A few weeks ago, there was a relatively large forest fire on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Knowing that this low-lying white, diffuse smoke could make for some fleeting and ethereal shots, I decided it would be a great time to get up in the air. Luckily, the conditions didn't disappoint at all. It was an expensive gamble, but one that definitely paid off. I don't think I've ever seen photos of Los Angeles that look just like this - which is something I always strive for. Why make the same photos of the same landmarks that everyone else has done a million times? 

The conditions have to be right, but when everything comes together, the results are very unique. I'm selling prints of these images at HD Buttercup in Los Angeles, as well as on www.purephoto.com - where you can also see most of my personal work for sale.

Stay tuned for more - as I have a few more flights planned in the coming months, both in LA and in other areas. I'll be revamping my website shortly, too, with dedicated galleries for many of my photos which haven't seen the light of day. Lots of exciting things on the horizon here.

Photographing The Apartments of South Los Angeles

You'll have to excuse my absence over the past few weeks: things have just been immensely busy and it's all I can do to stay on top of my post work. Late nights have never been so frequent!

Over the past few weeks, I've had the pleasure of working on one of the most fun assignments ever: working with a management company to photograph some of LA's famous dingbatty, mid-century, garden, kitschy apartments. To be honest, the style of architecture is all over on some of these, so if anyone knows what they would technically be called, I would love to hear it. Anyway, these assignments are incredibly rewarding for a number of reasons. 

First, they are the complete and total opposite of what I normally shoot. I'm used to shooting homes and offices in tip-top condition; they're usually straight and true, with no cracks in walls or bars on windows. They're often in secluded, quiet parts of LA, where I don't have to put myself or my gear at risk of damage due to cars whizzing past. I usually have to coordinate with one homeowner or building tenant, which makes getting lights on easy. In many cases, there are over 20 tenants who need to get their lights on for us. There are pedestrians and cars everywhere - curious onlookers and the occasional cyclist coming inches from knocking my whole setup over.

We often close down the entire street in front of whatever property we are shooting - which gives us some room to work - but sometimes, this just isn't possible, so composition can be severly limited. Space is also deceptively tight, here, which means it really needs to be nailed with only one shot per location. The technique here is fairly standard light-duty strobist-type work, but the heavy lifting is really in the post. I'll get some before and afters up pretty soon (new website in the works) but some of these have hours upon hours of cloning, rebuilding, and, well, imagineering put into them.

Below, a few of my favorites, and soon to come, a whole new batch. When we're done with the entire lot (20-something of them at last count) I'm going to try to get these into a gallery of sorts or have a book made. It would be cool to see these printed in large format.

 

How To Photograph Real Estate, Interiors, And Architecture: Where Art Meets Architecture

After over six months in production, I am happy to announce that my tutorial 'Where Art Meets Architecture: How To Photograph Real Estate, Architecture, and Interiors' is finally available! I partnered up with Fstoppers.com to create a comprehensive eight-hour tutorial which covers so many facets of architectural and interior shooting.  I wanted to give my readers and followers the first chance to purchase the tutorial, which is available for $299 (click here), before it goes open to the public, pending Fstoppers.com's migration to a new server this week.

I will explain each and every technique that I use to produce my photographs. The full photography tutorial is broken down into three chapters, each covering the tools necessary to succeed in the different niche markets within the field of interior photography. So no matter if you are an experienced photographer or have never taken your camera out of auto mode, I'll take you from shooting basic bedrooms all the way through my complicated light-painted exteriors. 

We've created a ten-minute trailer for the tutorial, which breaks down everything inside it and gives a brief look into my workflow, which can be seen here:

Here's what I cover throughout the tutorial:

Real Estate Photography: In the Real Estate section, I take the time to teach you everything you need to know about this genre so you can kick start your career and start producing images for real estate agents, listing agents, and general property management. All of the basics will be covered in this chapter including:

• How to get started with minimal gear
• How to bounce flash effectively
• Using natural light to your advantage
• Properly composing your frame
• Choosing the correct focal length
• How to retain exterior window views
• Two, three, and four light setups
• Correcting pincushion and barrel distortion
• Fixing converging lines in Photoshop
• Creating a final image completely in camera

 
In addition to getting started, I'll also talk candidly about how I have found success in the real estate market, and how you too can build a money making business shooting properties for sale.

Architecture and Interior Photography: This chapter focuses on how to create photographs for higher paying clients like architects, home builders, interior designers, and magazine editorials. With the ground work already laid down, I will focus on streamlining your workflow and pushing your images into actual works of art. While on location at an actual architect’s personal home, I'll take you step-by-step through eight flagship images from initial capture all the way through the final photoshop editing process. We have also included a full Photoshop PSD file of a twilight exterior images so you can follow along as we go through photoshop.

• Twilight Exterior Technique
• Advanced light painting and compositing
• Tethering to an ipad/iphone
• Using scrims  and flags to control reflections/specular highlights
• The “Moody Interior Twilight Shot”
• Faking warm sunlight
• Staging furniture for strong compositions

Commercial and Advertising Photography: In this final section, I'll take you on the set of two commercial spaces and demonstrate how to produce perfect images for restaurants, hotels, wedding venues, resorts, and other commercial clients. Emphasis will be placed on meeting your clients needs and lighting images according to the use of the space.

• Creating twilight images while a restaurant is open for business
• Incorporating people into your photography
• Lighting multi room locations
• Replacing details in Photoshop
• Lighting large banquet halls
• How to create an inviting atmosphere

 
In addition, I also touch on commercial project pricing, licensing, and dealing with clients in a way that keeps everyone happy and creative energy high.

If you are interested in purchasing the DVD, you can click here, which will take you to our e-junkie store, where it is available for $299, which in my opinion is a great value. I have watched it a few times and every time I watch it I think about what a steal it is! It took me years to figure all of this out and to hone my craft to the point that its at today. Unfortunately, my partner, Fstoppers.com has been absolutely slammed with traffic from a few of our posts that went viral, which we are working on getting fixed right now, and I am releasing this to just my loyal followers until it goes public at the end of the week.

I hope you like what you see - we've gotten a handful of glowingly positive reviews from watchers, which is great to see after all of the work that went into it. If you have any questions at all, feel free to shoot me an email or reply to this post and I'll get back to you!

Belgian Country Style Interior And Architecture in Pacific Palisades, CA

About a month ago we wrapped up photographing an amazing home in Pacific Palisades, one of Los Angeles' hidden and lesser-known neighborhoods. This home was all about the stories: from the reclaimed wood in the ceilings and floors, to the tiles that were imported from France and originally made in the 15th century, the house just exuded an incredible charm everywhere you looked. 

Shot over the course of two days, we created a series of about 10 staged and lit photographs and a number of portraits of the builder. This was without question one of my favorite homes that I've ever photographed - wherever you looked there was something worth shooting. There was no expense spared, and the home was an example of how incredible something can be when no corners are cut. 

The kitchen, designed and built by Bulthaup, is simply magnificent. The exposed wooden trusses in the ceiling are reclaimed and hundreds of years old, and juxtaposed with the modern and sleek lines create for a strikingly symmetric yet inviting space. Capturing this was tricky, as the powder-coated beam in the center of the home proved tricky to work around. However, that beam itself is a work of art - as it is this one column that supports the weight of the entire home. The entire downstairs is an open layout and flows seamlessly from space to space, something that's tricky to capture. In order to pull it off, we had to compose and light very carefully.

I may sound like a broken record here, but we were just awed by this home. The staircase, seen below, was entirely floating and not attached to any wall sans the outer radius. It was quite an engineering feat to pull off- and we worked hard to capture both the engineering and mood of this area. My stylist, Dana, who will be getting her own write up soon, stood in as a model for us, too.

The upstairs was quaint yet airy and light. Vaulted ceilings and an indoor-outdoor bedroom let the outside in effortlessly, though capturing it proved difficult. With such a difference in exposure between the ambient exterior light and interior light level, we had to find a way to balance both yet attain a natural and airy feel. With nowhere outside to put lights, I opted to composite this photograph which resulted in the perfect feel.

Lastly, a killer basement theatre was installed with - yet - again - reclaimed wood and tile throughout. Everywhere you turn in this house there's a story, from centuries-old reclaimed wood to tiles dating from the Napoleonic era of France, it was a pleasure to be allowed into this home for as long as we were and to take our time capturing all of the details and spaces throughout.

We've submitted this project to a number of shelter magazines, so hopefully in the coming months we'll have a few nice tearsheets to share. Till then...fingers crossed!

Mpkelley.com Now In Stock at HD Buttercup!

Some of my fine art prints have been made available at HD Buttercup, a showroom for all things interior design, located in Los Angeles and San Francisco. For those who don't know, I also partake in quite a bit of attempted fine art photography forays, some of which can be seen here. It's been awhile in the making but I've finally been picked up by a big store like this and I'm so excited to see where it goes. 

So, fingers crossed here, that this awesome piece mounted with plexi and an amazing frame makes a few sales soon. It's great to see something that I'm passionate about finally start making a bit of money for me. Seems like all those one-off trips to the end of the runway at LAX are starting to pay off.

Newport Beach: Architectural Landscape Photography Assignment

I just spent a full week working with Christopher Taylor, a Newport Beach, California based landscape architect, photographing multiple spaces that he designed for his clients. Christopher is a long-time player in the Orange County landscape architecture scene, and his work ranges from sprawling villas to tiny courtyards, so it was fun to shoot so many varied projects in such a short time. We worked to shoot eight projects over the full week - which was tough, with a full schedule, but luckily the weather cooperated and we were able to pull it off. 

 

It's always nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and head to Orange County to shoot for a bit. Due to the nice weather, I even got a chance to sneak in a quick beach day before heading back to process the images, which was much needed, considering the work that is shooting eight locations over a full week.

It was also great to work on some new and interesting subjects. While most of my work on a day-to-day basis consists of architecture and interiors, shooting landscape architecture presents it's own set of challenges to deal with. When photographing interiors, you usually have plenty of control over the light (either by waiting for the right time or lighting interiors through windows, supplemental lights, etc), and the same can be said about exteriors (twilights, at least) but with landscape architecture, you are really at the mercy of the weather except in a few scenarios where you might be shooting details or an enclosed space where a flash can be placed appropriately enough to mimic sunlight. This really requires planning the day out in advance - I often woke up early to get some softly lit shots under that famous Southern California June gloom - which provides a nice soft light - and then shooting until the light burned off. It's in the transition period between fog and sun that will really give some awesome results. From there, I waited for the sun to align itself just perfectly for the full daylight shots, and then usually went and grabbed a bite and recharged before heading back for the golden hour and twilight shots (which, thankfully, I was able to control a bit better!).

Despite the frantic pace of shooting, I was more than pleased with the results - as was the client. I got one of my favorite testimonials out of the job, too! After delivering the images, I was surprised to see a quick reply in my inbox (this is a direct quote, mind you!): "OMG!! You're Perfect. I love you! (In the most professional of ways, of course!) Damn me for not calling you sooner!" And that was all I needed to hear to put a big smile on my face.

Below, I've included a few images (some paired with behind the scenes photographs from my iPhone to back them up). I'm looking forward to working with Chris again in the future, and hopefully these images will serve him for a very long time to come.

Me with my favorite tripod!

During....

And the finished image, after post processing.

Shot in total darkness...

During...

And after post processing....

And some architectural details...
 

And lastly, the setup that makes photographing all this stuff possible!