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.

Architectural Photography: Light Painting A Winery From a Half-Mile Away

I once again loaded up the car and headed away from Los Angeles to the Salinas Valley to photograph the Hahn and Wrath Wineries, both of which are located around an hour from Carmel in an amazing setting. Shooting these wineries presented a number of challenges, and I'm going to talk a little bit about how I overcame them. I know I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately, but hopefully this post makes up for it. 

First, let's talk about the shoot I did for Hahn Wineries in Soledad, CA. The client had a few ideas for shots that they knew they wanted, and they more or less left the rest up to me. I was given a tour of the grounds, and immediately settled on a few shots, and scratched my head over a few more. They had mentioned that they wanted a few great shots of their tasting room, which is one of their big attractions for visiting customers. The problem was that the tasting room is elevated about 20 feet off the ground on a steeply sloped hillside, and was entirely surrounded by trees on the high side. Any hopes of me creating an architecturally interesting photograph from the ground were quickly dashed, and my options seemed to be severely limited to either renting a helicopter (expensive) or using some extremely tall and unstable pole to shoot from the slanted ground below (a bad idea, and generally unsafe). 

While walking around and talking to the client, they pointed out a ridgeline on the other side of the valley where they often took customers on the tour to see the entire layout of the winery and its vineyards. I was initially reluctant to try to shoot from this vantage point, as the small size of the tasting room would require some serious telephoto reach and would eliminate nearly all of the architectural appeal of the building. On a whim, I asked if we could take a ride up to the ridgeline to see if we could gather any other shots, and it turned out to be a pretty great vantage point from which to shoot the tasting room. 

While I didn't end up zooming in that far (we ended up shooting at 50mm) the shot actually looked like it might work. While you lose some of the architectural details of the tasting room, you do get an incredible view of the grounds and the sense of scale becomes immediately evident. I made a decision to make the twilight shot more about the entire winery rather than just the tasting room, which I will admit was a little daring on my behalf. 

After choosing where to take the photo from, it was just a matter of playing the waiting game until sunset. Once dark enough, I had my assistant Jaron  head back to the tasting room armed with a big light and a walkie talkie.

Because of the distance involved and the fact that I was standing on the side of a valley, we weren't able to use PocketWizards to light the scene as I usually would. This was simply too far, and I didn't want to try to wrangle multiple PocketWizards in relay mode from my position, down to the valley floor, up the other side of the valley, and again to the tasting room. Too much time and effort for something that franky just didn't seem like it would work. So we tried another untested method - I would talk to Jaron on the walkie talkie, count backwards from three, and open the shutter for a long exposure. He would (ideally) then pop the flash manually while the shutter was open for the 3 or so seconds I'd set it to, and the sensor would record the flash pop. Here's one of the frames that was composited so you can see what I'm talking about:

I'm happy to say that we were somewhat succesful. For this exterior view, we delivered two shots - one with light trails, and one without. I wanted to give a sense that you might be able to take a sunset winery tour in the ATVs provided by the facility, and even though the client didn't request it, I thought it was a cool add-on with minimal work involved, so I threw it in anyway.

So, all that effort - do you think it was worth it? It's certainly a unique shot, the likes of which I don't have in my portfolio and it was something I don't think I'll be trying often. Another challenge for me was dealing with the fog that rolls into the valley and the haze that forms as a result. I'm not sure if it gives this photo a bit of mood and a sense of place, or if it just distracts. 

Below are a few more images from the job - my personal favorite is the image of the tasting room, shot with a Lowel GL-1 hotlight in complete darkness. 

Architectural Photography in Phoenix, AZ: Desert Landscapes And Pastel Colors

One of the best things about being an architectural photographer is definitely the amount that I get to travel. I recently packed up the car, blew Los Angeles a kiss, and headed to Phoenix, Arizona for a week to photograph five custom homes by a builder based in Scottsdale. The client, C5 Builders, was looking to improve their advertising presence by upping the quality of their photographs.

While these homes were finished between 2005 and 2011, they didn't look dated to my eyes at all. They were such a breath of fresh air to photograph:  low, flat roofs and plenty of clean lines make for an architectural photographers' paradise. My favorite thing about these homes were definitely the exteriors. While here in LA we're blessed with plenty of interesting exteriors, it's great to shoot a totally different style, and Phoenix has plenty of unique exteriors due to its climate and the desire of many architects to integrate the home into the desert landscape in such a way to not disturb it at all. Many of the homes are planned to precisely follow the existing landscape - in many areas, it is forbidden to dig more than a foot or two into the ground, and you are encouraged to build around the beautiful Saguaro cacti that populate the area. If you need to remove one, you must replant it locally, and in many cases homes are designed entirely around old growth Saguaros because of the delicate arms. It's much, much easier to relocate the young Saguaros, or spears as they are known, due to their lack of arms. If you must move one of the big guys, it takes tons of special equipment and is often done at great cost. 

Photographing out here definitely requires a number of alterations to workflow, as well. Because we were shooting in the spring, which is apparently the season when Rattlesnakes are the most active - we were always on the lookout (and the listenout, if you will) for that signature rattling sound. In many cases my tripod was set up in untamed desert - not many people buy into the whole concept of a manicured lawn in Phoenix - and plenty of small wildlife darted in and out of my tripod legs. It was definitely something that sat in my mind the entire time, which isn't helped by the fact that I have miserable hearing to begin with. 

Another challenge, not only to building these homes, but to shooting them as well - is, of course, the cacti that are everywhere. I'd been to Scottsdale before, but I didn't venture too far out into the desert, so I wasn't really worried about running into a cactus. However, on this trip, there were plenty of occasion where I was setting up right in the middle of a grove of cacti. It was on my second shoot of the week where I learned pretty quickly that I needed to be super, super careful where I was walking. I was taking some daylight exteriors of one home and inadvertantly brushed my left hand against a Jumping Cholla (click here for more info). Anyone familiar with these will tell you what an absolute pain in the butt they are. The thorns are covered in microscopic barbs which run in an opposite direction, so once they're in your skin, it takes one hell of a yank to get them out, which just tears up your skin even more. Since the needles are very thin and grow in clumps, once you get one stuck on your hand, you're pretty much screwed. It took about a half an hour to remove 30-some Cholla needles from my hand, and by the time the ordeal was over, my hand was shaking uncontrollably and there was enough blood on it to make an impromptu trip to donate it at the nearest Red Cross. In the heat of the moment, I totally forgot to get a picture - next time, I'll be sure to, though I'm secretly hoping there never is a next time. Ouch.

Despite the blood, sweat, and tears (first time I've ever used that expression literally), I was extremely happy with the images created on the trip. Once again, I had to adhere to a grueling shooting schedule - five homes in five days, and when all was said and done I'd shot over 60 gigabytes of material. 

Before, after, and plenty of Saguaros...

My definite favorites are the exteriors, since like I said, these are all so unique and I don't get to see anything like it in Los Angeles. A few of them underwent rather drastic changing in post-processing, as it seemed that clouds threatened the shoot every night. There were a couple nights where the gathering clouds made for some dramatic pastel sunsets which were great (as in the first couple images) but for a few nights the cloud cover was completely blocking any color from the sky, which something I definitely wasn't prepared for as Phoenix is one of the hottest and driest places I've ever shot. Just goes to show you that you can never depend on anything, even when you're shooting in the desert and blue skies are the norm. 

Before and after, with some Phoenician clouds...

That's why I always preach that good skills with post processing and lighting can get you out of a bind - together those skills will ensure that you can deliver the results you want EVERY. TIME. Especially when clients are counting on it and you've traveled a good six hours from home to do it...

In addition to all of my rambling, I'm happy to announce that I've partnered with Fstoppers.com to release a ton of behind-the-scenes footage from my trip to Phoenix. It's in post production right now - and as I type this, we're putting the finishing touches on it. I had no idea how long it would take to cut together a fifteen minute long behind the scenes video, but we're getting there! So apologies for the wait - as it's been about two months in the making. Til next time...when I fly across the country and experience some Southern Hospitality!