Sunset rule wins again.
The 20 minutes after sunset rule wins again.
I was shooting an exterior of this apartment pool in Tucson last week. I always ask the client to arrange with maintenance to have the pool lights in the pool and the perimeter lights forced on at least 30 minutes before sunset. Normally these lights are on solar cells or light sensors and turn themselves on when the sun light dissipates and the ambient light gets dark enough to trigger them on. Inevitably, they turn themselves off way after sunset and too late for the perfect twilight shot. I was watching the sun go down and as it approached 20 minutes after sunset, I was concerned that this scene was going to be boring. The sun must not behave the same in Arizona. But I shot my bracketed shots anyway, and because I was so close to the pool, I decided to shoot and upper image and then shift down with my 17mm tilt shift lens and shoot a lower image so I could stack them together in Photoshop to get more room for the top and bottom of the image.
Entrada Real in Tuscon twilight exterior real estate student housing photography
Aerial Drone
How many times have I been shooting a structure and wishing I could get just 20 feet up rather than shooting from the ground?
ThinkEast Apartment Aerial architectural photo with Mavic Pro 2 Austin
Alas, this is just what the drones offer us. Not only do they offer a different perspective on a structure, but we can add video to leverage aerial motion and feature the surroundings. Add a bit of moody music and you have a very compelling representation of a property. My drone of choice is the DJI Mavic Pro 2 with the Hasselblad camera simply because I can pack it in my photo bag and travel with it on planes. The camera delivers a superior still image as well.
Drone Photography and Video by Johnny Stevens
FAA Licensed Drone Pilot
FAA Registration FA3347KRKA
Calming Professionalism
This is a nice review from Diana for whom I shot her wedding – something I normally do not do.
“My husband and I chose Johnny Stevens as our wedding photographer. To sum up Johnny at our wedding in two words: calming professionalism. This being our first experience with weddings, we felt overwhelmed with managing the never-ending minutiae. All of our friends told us to expect disastrous last-minute catastrophes. While some aspects of the wedding were chaotic, Johnny was a calming presence in the midst of the storm. He delicately balanced between knowing which shots would look good (he’s the professional after all) and asking for our input (it was nice to feel like our opinion was valued). He shot our rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the pictures he captured, which he turned around to us within a week. The pictures ranged from the standard family and wedding party shots, to fun candids of all of our friends dancing and celebrating. We were so happy to share them with all of our guests. Most importantly, he made us feel completely at ease on our special night. To demonstrate Johnny’s professionalism and personalized level of care, I would like to share an anecdote: we had told him that we wanted to get shots of the wedding party before the ceremony at a nearby park. The day of the ceremony was unusually hot for the time of the year, so we panicked and decided to switch to an interior location at the last minute. The staff at our hotel told us that there were no locations which we could use for our photos. Unbeknownst to us, however, Johnny had befriended the hotel management on the previous day, and they were able to open up a beautiful space in which to take the pictures. You will not find that level of service with any other photographer.”
Rust Rapture installations
Rust Rapture installations.
Two new installations of my abstract photography collection called Rust Rapture.
First is a 42 x 36 canvas print of “Aqua Marine” a close shot of the front fender of a 1935 GM Truck rat rod. This is hanging in the Den of Ryan and Whitney Hsu in Winston Salem.
“Aqua Marine” rust rapture canvas print in Winston Salem
“Fusion” rust rapture canvas print in Winston Salem
The second is “Fusion” which I extracted from the driver door of a 1940 Buick rat rod. This one is hanging in the entry foyer of the home of Robin and Wayne Mosle in Washingon, DC. This is a 60 x40 paper print on Epson Luster Paper.
“Fusion” rust rapture canvas print in Washington DC
abstract photographer austin “Fusion” rust rapture canvas print in Washington DC
Both of these prints are interesting because they each have an anchor point to give you a sense for what you are looking at. Fusion has a small door knob in the top left. And Aqua Marine has a bit of the headlight on the right.
Hobbit Huts in Austin
Hobbit Huts in Austin.
This is a different sort of architectural photography project. Patrick Dougherty is an sculptor who builds these huts out of sticks. When I read about these he was building at Pease Park in Austin, I just had to go do some photographic spot lighting and see if I could get that glowing Hobbit Hut feel out of them. This is what I got after masking 40 layers in Photoshop. Patrick’s home is near Chapel Hill, NC. He installs these all over the country.
Hobbit Huts at Peace Park in Austin photographed by Johnny Stevens
Fusion – abstract photography
It is not often that I print my Rust Rapture pieces on paper – normally I print on canvas because they print up so well in large formats like 2 x 3 feet. This client asked for a large format print on epson luster paper so they could frame it for their front foyer. This piece is called Fusion. It is from a 1940 Buick Rat Rod. These abstract photographs are all derived from the exteriors of old vintage hot rods whose exteriors have been left to the demise of mother nature – the heat, rain, sun and belt sanders. The resulting patinas are spectacular. Often these print can be hung in any direction but on Fusion, there is a door knob – yep that is a door knob in the top left which sort of need to be in the right place.
Mosle Installation of Fusion Abstract Photography
Portrait session and making a composite portrait
For Nolan’s final training session of the semester for the Independent Study Course for which I am a mentor, I had Nolan conduct a Portrait session and making a composite portrait with my friend Lane Orsak. Lane is an author, artist, collector and marketing consultant. We wanted to create an image that would represent him as an author – maybe even to use in his most recent book. We lit Lane with a key light with umbrella and a kicker light behind him with a Westcott softbox. Then I went around the room behind him and lit several angles on the couch and painting on the wall and we layered all of those spot lit scenes into the master Lane image.
Lane Orsak formal male portrait session making a composite portrait photograph in Austin
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library
As a photography exercise and as part of the curriculum for my mentee from the Westlake High School Independent study course, I decided on an Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library. Nolan and I spent the day there and I taught him my methods of shooting real estate architectural interiors. You can find no better photo ops than the new Public Library. It is a spectacular feat of contemporary architecture. Nolan shot 5 brackets of a top image and the same for a bottom image and then we photo-merged the two together to get a portrait aspect ratio and then we painted in the exposures we wanted from each bracketed image. Here are the 2 images that make up the final master image.
Austin Public Library Architectural photo bottom half
Austin Library architectural bottom half
Austin Library architectural final image
Additional architectural images Nolan shot on location at the library:
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library bookshelves
Architectural photo shoot at the new Austin Public Library breezway
The new Austin Public Library breezeway 2
She is shooting me shooting two guys shooting the moon rise
Shooting others while shooting the moon rise
While at Hilton Head last week, while we were on the beach the moon began to rise over the ocean. We braved the sand fleas and hung out to watch. While I was shooting my brother and friend shoot the moon rise, though you cannot see her, there was someone behind me and she is shooting me shooting two guys shooting the moon rise. Sort of surreal.
Shooting 2 guys shooting the moon rise
