Beauty in Brooklyn
33 Franklin is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen in Brooklyn. Stephen Conte creates absolute masterworks and it seems like his firm is starting to explode, I’m incredibly happy for him.
He hasn’t hired to me to shoot anything yet, since he seems to have a friend works with consistently.
I’ll keep chipping away at him, though.
This set was shot for Nooklyn, who was leasing out the (very fancy, very pricy) units. So while my scope of work was more closely aligned with real estate photography, I just had to spend a bit of time capturing the wonderful beauty of this building.
Real Estate Photos - Ultra-Wide, Ultra-Fast…Generally not Ultra-Quality.
The issue I frequently run into is when I’m sent out on a ‘real estate’ shoot, I have their perameters in my head, so I’m focusing on shooting wide and fast, so I don’t do as much staging as I need to really make some images shine. To that end, I really want to re-shoot some of these lounge photos with the chairs and table rearranged. I’d also really love to get some people in there.
Self Assigned Projects
I can’t count on anyone to hire to me to shoot those photos, I’m just going to have to assign myself that project and go do it.
No one is ever going to hire you to photograph the project of your dreams, because they cannot see your dreams. They cannot comprehend them. Unless you lay it out so clearly that they can see it. I guess that’s what’s in the pitch, right?
But showing is so much easier than telling. So already having made very similar photos to what you want to make is the key to showing people what you’re capable of doing.
I’m almost always trying to convince my clients to push a little harder on projects, to bring in a stylist, a model, props, etc, to bring more life to the space. Almost always it’s too much more to spend for something nebulous. So it’s becoming clear to me that if I ever want it, I just have to show it.
And maybe nobody’s got the stomach to spend all that extra. But someone does. They’re out there - the folks that want me to make the art I most want to make. I just haven’t found them yet, and they haven’t seen what I’ve got hidden within my mind. And it’s on me to put that out there.
There’s a lot competing for attention in this gym photo, and gyms are often difficult to photograph. Here, getting the light nice and clean on the ceiling might be my favorite part.
Scouting & The mindset you bring to a shoot.
Frequently I’ll just pull out my iPhone to take a few quick shots when my big camera is away in my backpack, or I don’t want to switch lenes. I often do this when I’m in a mindset ofI“I’m just going to take a quick shot, these conditions aren’t perfect, I’ll come back when they are.”
But every photographer call tell you, later never comes. You just have to get the shot you can get while you’re there.
And then, what happens inevitably, is you look back at your quick iPhone photo you put no effort into, and it’s amazing. And if only you got the proper camera out, you could have something truely specatular.
So, here are some photos I took one day while I was walking by, that I wish terribly I’d just pulled out my big camera to shoot:
