THE COMPOSITION
I was reacquainted with Stephen Carter, the sales and marketing manager for NorDan Vindeur recently, and he asked me whether I could take some images of an installation of their windows in a new build in Howth. It was imperative that the images were taken either at dawn or dusk to really make the glazing pop.
THE PHOTOSHOOT
I had done my prep work for this house, establishing the exact location in Howth, working out where the sun would rise and at what time. Having liaised with Philomena, the owner, and agreed that 5am wasn't too early, I arrived to a property that had the 'wow factor' written all over it. Superb build, crisp clean architecture and wonderful attention to detail. I knew from the start this was going to be a pleasure to photograph.
Whilst I knew that the property actually fronted onto Dublin Bay with views to the Ringsend Power Station in the distance and thus had the sunrise behind it, I hadn't factored in that the sun wouldn't be visible due to the close proximity of neighbouring houses and, of course, the garden hedges. As a result the image I had in my mind wouldn't be possible, but, nonetheless, I worked my magic across the two floors and captured interior and exterior shots at various exposures to really show off the natural light that came streaming through.
It was important not to disturb the other occupants in the house, so the lights on the first floor were left off. Nonetheless, once dawn had broken and the birds had stopped singing, I ventured upstairs to shoot the interior and the views beyond. Whenever I shoot architecture, I strive for perfection, and symmetry plays a huge part in making images more impactful. Perspective is quite an eye grabber, you know, the viewpoint that really draws your eye into a photograph but it doesn't always work. The front on view of this house didn't really cut the mustard, primarily because my view point was ground level...that's where the tilt-shift lens comes in handy. There was a good sized wall just to the left of the property and I decided to shoot, with the tripod, from this vantage point and the results were rewarding.
As mentioned earlier, detail is everything in architectural or interior photography and it was noticeable that a number of the plants outside the property had suffered from wind burn during the heatwave in May so I little bit of work was necessary to paint back the green leaves!
I was happy with the overall results but we decided that another visit at sunset would be necessary to get the 'money shot' as it were. Sunset was at 9.30 that evening, so I knew we had an hour or so after that to get the property looking its best in the fading light but with enough blue sky to make it stand out. Of course, this time, we were able to turn on all the internal lights which add their own magic to an already stunning image. Shooting the sunset through the windows from an internal point of view added a particular bit of magic to the portfolio.
All in all a very successful and rewarding shoot.
RESULTS FROM THE DARKROOM
Credits:
@CelticPhotography2023