A recent shoot of a mixed-use office and residential project for Mark Fairhurst Architects (www.mark-fairhurst.co.uk). The building is located next to the busy train tracks into London Bridge station. We found a good vantage point on an adjacent block, to put the building in context as dusk fell. And we took a few interior shots in a magnificent apartment - the perfect flat for a railway enthusiast.
Using flash in interior photography
I recently spent a day photographing a beautifully refurbished Victorian house in south London for Hughes Developments (full gallery on their site here).
The owners had created a country home feel in a house that is just 5 miles from the centre of London. Maybe because they're just a few miles from some of London's biggest and best outdoor spaces - Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common - they'd asked Hughes to create a boot room for them. It was a tight space to photograph, and though I'd shot the rest of the house using almost exclusively natural light, with a bit of feature lighting thrown in here and there, this required a bit of extra light to make it work.
Shooting through the doorway into the boot room was just about the only way to go, as it was a very narrow space. Little natural light was getting into the boot room, and not from a flattering direction. The room lights would probably have worked, with a bit of tweaking in post, but flash allowed me to create more interesting light that modelled the joinery, wellies and coats more attractively.
Shooting through the door also offered the advantage of allowing me to hide the Speedlite in the side of the room the camera couldn't see. I used Pocket Wizards to trigger the flash. The lens is a Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8.
Here's the various lighting scenarios and the final, processed image:
Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, UCL by Ian Ritchie Architects
in Photography
The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour is a research centre of University College London. It is housed in a new building designed by Ian Ritchie Architects and engineered by Arup, with a wavy translucent glass facade running along Howland Street (and some great public-facing displays on neuroscience under the portico). I was in the area at dusk last night, and enjoyed watching it reflect the colours of the busy streets and darkening sky.
DF/Mexico, Tottenham Court Road by Softroom
A couple of weeks I ago I shot the second DF/Mexico restaurant to open in London, on Tottenham Court Road. The architects/interior designers are Softroom, the lighting design is by Kate&Sam. The photos were also commissioned by the restaurant for their own promotion and have been used by several blogs and reviewers.
More pics on my site here. We were too busy shooting to sample the food, so I really must go back for some tacos, they certainly smelled good...
Newport Street Gallery by Caruso St John
A few pictures of Damien Hirst's brand new Newport Street Gallery, designed by Caruso St John. Just because I was nearby, on a lovely afternoon, and it's such a beautifully box-fresh building.
“The construction of Newport Street Gallery involved the conversion of three listed Victorian buildings, which were purpose-built in 1913 to serve as scenery painting studios for the booming local and West End theatre industries. With the addition of two new buildings, the gallery now spans half the length of the street.”
Turning out the lights
It was a real pleasure to shoot this South London loft apartment for Poulsom Middlehurst a few weeks ago. Or more precisely, one half of a one-room loft apartment, as the client was in the process of moving back in and we had to push his bags and boxes to one side of the space and focus on the other!
The big roof lights let in a huge amount of natural light. Luckily it was an overcast day so we didn't have big contrast ratios and shifting shafts of sunlight to contend with. We opted for a clean, unoccupied look and the white walls and bare wood floor looked great bathed in that soft light.
We didn't need any additional lighting so we could use our time to concentrate on the shapes and structures of their ingenious design. Sometimes it's great to turn the lights out and keep things simple...
Café Viva, Peckham
I recently did a shoot for Café Viva in Peckham (www.cafeviva.co.uk), just around the corner from my house. They have just had a refurbishment and will use the photos for their forthcoming website. I can personally recommend the banana bread with yoghurt, which I happily consumed a few seconds after photographing it.
Recent work for Ratliff/Landells
I recently photographed four projects for Ratliff/Landells Architecture, a studio based in Margate and working across the South-East and London.
They had a fantastic range of architecture for me to shoot, from a house extension to the monumental entrance way to a major business park.
The photos are now published on their re-launched website: www.rl-a.co.uk
