18 Buildings in 3 Months

18 Buildings in 3 Months

I recently finished a particularly large architectural photography project for an Austin client of mine, the Kucera Companies.  This entailed coverage 18 office buildings all in NW Austin.  What I estimated to take about a month ended up being a 3-month long project.  I enjoyed every moment of it, even during those trying times when people would walk into my shot after 3 failed attempts at getting a clear shot of a lobby.

A few things I learned from this large project:

–Communication is key.  It was unclear at first what sort of exterior photos they wanted, and after sending some samples and getting some feedback I learned that the client wanted twilight images only.  From now on this will be discussed with all future clients.

-Photographers in public space can draw attention, confusion.  A lot of people’s reaction to my presence was “Well, that’s an interesting subject…”  The solution is a media badge, which is extremely helpful for clients to provide.

-Parking lots don’t always empty out.  I showed up at some odd hours to many of these properties, expecting there to be no cars in the lot.  Alas, some offices were open late or had stray cars left overnight and therefore it was necessary to remove some cars via Photoshop.

-The importance of timing and patience.  Some of these buildings were very busy, multi-office spaces.  It can be frustrating to set a shot up, get the lighting and exposure all correct, only to have the elevator doors in the lobby open as soon as I’m ready to take an ambient exposure of the room.  Patience was key in these situations, as was good timing as I always use my timer when on tripod.

You can view my work from this project live on Kucera Companies’ web site: www.kuceraco.com

All of the photos (minus a couple properties) on the first page Property Listings page are my work from this project.

Here are a select few images from the project: