Hello blog! It's been a while. I haven't forgotten about you, it's just that I've been quite busy. But now that I'm here, let's not stand on ceremony and get to it.
Earlier this year I had the opportunity of working with amazing interior designer James Rixner. James' work was recently featured on the cover of New York Metro Chapter Of ASID, Summer 2018. Our last photoshoot was incredible and James created this beautifully warm, elegant yet breathable space that his client commissioned. I was lucky enough to shoot it and what an awesome experience!
One of my favorite things about being a photographer is the creative passport it extends me. The metaphorical key and access to places I wouldn't normally be in unless I had friend who had a friend who was invited to a party that they’d invited me to, or something along those lines.
It's an interesting way to explore the inner worlds of some very successful people. To see how the other half lives. And the great thing about it is that after the project is complete - usually between one to five days, I'm back to running back and forth between homes that don't belong to me. Places that have been organized, aestheticized, and detailed to perfection. And for someone with a little more than a healthy dose of SMS (Symmetry Matters Syndrome) it can be a nice little balance between the entropic and anti-entropic worlds I'm exposed to on a daily basis.
However, it's not all about the visual side of things. There's also the story part. Learning about the place, what it was and how it became what it became. It's a funny thing architectural photography, as it can be often isolating. It's just you and your camera and your devices trying to recreate a certain mood and emotion through natural and artificial lighting. That's all that photography really is when you think about it. You're always trying to manipulate light to suit your vision, so you can convey a feeling through an image.
The second most important thing is your composition. I always found photography easy to learn. It's definitely not rocket science. And being born with an an eye is certainly something I learned to rely on. It's intuitive. But practice is what ties everything together. Because you're always thinking about angles and lighting and how certain things would look so much better if you just move this light an inch over. Shift this camera up a bit. It can be terribly annoying when watching movies because you're always trying to figure out the DP's intent for lighting up a scene. And that takes you out of the movie sometimes. But I found that only happens with shitty movies. Because great movies have a way of stealing your attention from beginning to end. That's the magic of cinema, right?