November 20 2008 / 1 Comment

Whaddaya Know, Joe?

Joseph Askins over at Yo Chicago just posted a nice write up of the Emerald Lofts, which I shot a few months ago with John Roberts Wiltgen.  It was only the second project I had done with the studio, but their work was a pleasure to shoot and John, himself was a hoot to work with.  As we were standing in the bar, contemplating how we were going to handle the shot, I turned to John and said “this needs people, lots of hip, young people.”  Fortunately John’s staff and their friend’s fit the bill perfectly and helped us stage a party that kept going long after we had packed away the last inky.  It’s amazing how many stylish twenty somethings you can get to show up just by offering free drinks….

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November 19 2008 / No Comments

Recent Work

My clients have been wonderful in supporting my new venture and I feel quite fortunate to have so many strong relationships.  It’s great to be able to work with many diverse and really creative people.  Also, I should congratulate the recent award winners!  Harley Ellis Devereaux took a Chicago AIA Interior Architecture Award for Abelson Taylor; as did Brininstool Lynch for the Claremont House.  The Claremont House was also featured as the cover of Chicago Architect.  Skidmore Owings & Merrill won a few ASID Awards this year, including one for the interiors of UBS Chicago and for the chair Jaime Velez designed in Formica cladding (which was really a joy to shoot).

Below are some samples from recent shoots.  I’ve been working with Arca Swiss cameras for so long that my new one already feels like an old friend, and it is a perfect marriage to the Phase 1 digital back.  I stopped using film about 20 months ago and it took 39 megapixels of data to convince me to give up the ghost.  The new medium really is outstanding.  Though there have been some technical…..ahem, challenges along the way,  the final images are clearly of greater quality.  The tonal range, color rendition and sharpness, coupled with the work I’m doing in Photoshop make me feel like I’m producing the best images of my career.  This is the level of quality that I have been chasing for the last 15 years.

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November 13 2008 / No Comments

Housing Berwyn

Below are a few images from an ongoing series of mine exploring the neighborhood around my house.  There has been a lot of photography in recent years exploring suburbia and specifically the sociodynamics of family life.  It’s mostly about putting the mundane in a fishbowl and saying “look how interesting the boring people are!”  I’m not quite sure what my series wants to be yet.  Its speaking to me very quietly, just little tidbits here and there.  But I’m listening….

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November 11 2008 / No Comments

Cool Stuff

If you haven’t been yet, head on over to Arch Daily to see what’s cool and new in the world of Architecture.  From a cantilevered mid-rise in Denmark to the Norwegians modern take of woodland cottages, some of the most interesting recent structures can be found on this site.

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November 6 2008 / 1 Comment

Night Vision

I was just shooting this building for SOM last week and as the day ran into night, I decided to take advantage of the atmosphere and incorporate a little more of what I’ve been exploring in my personal work.  I’ve been intrigued by night photography for years but have only recently begun to apply it to my commercial work.  This one was actually late dusk.  There was just a little blue in the sky.  The tonal range is achieved through layering and masking 4 separate exposures.  I’ve layered as many as 8 exposures on really tricky images, which only convinces me further that I need faster processors and more memory!

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