City Changes: Ben Rollins’ Images for Atlanta Magazine
Georgia-based photographer Ben Rollins recently worked with Atlanta Magazine to capture Atlanta’s current real estate market’s state of affairs. After a year of pandemic-induced isolation, the city is showcasing surprising new real estate development projects and distinct changes in how and where people have decided to live.
From swapping city life for suburban bliss to downsizing from a massive house into a cozy condo, the real estate market has been unpredictable and strange. However, the shift to life at home has caused the demand for housing and a better work-life balance to be stronger than ever.
Ben’s images, shot all across the city, work together to illustrate the massive changes that have happened in a short period of time due to the pandemic. Telling the stories of how (and where) people in Atlanta are choosing to live their lives, he takes us on a tour through the city and shows us new real estate developments in the city center, life in larger country homes, and even a family who chose to downsize to RV living.
While Ben has been working with Atlanta Magazine for many years, this was his first cover photo to feature a lifestyle image instead of a portrait shot in-studio, so it was special for him.
The editors at Atlanta Magazine and I have a great personal relationship that we have built for many years. They can always trust me to provide great images.
Ben shot the cover at Trilith studios, a new development south of Atlanta near where many Marvel movies were filmed. It features a girl smiling and walking her dog in front of a new construction home in the area.
The feature images were locations all around Atlanta, which I shot by myself. The cover image was on a separate day with my go-to assistants helping out.
Ben brought two assistants, four battery-powered strobes, and CTO gel with him to get the cover shot. The setup worked well and looked great, but after an hour of shooting, he decided to take a few images with ambient light.
I took a few images with no strobes since the sun was setting, and we had a lovely golden hour feel. The picture they chose for the cover was all-natural light!
After the shoot, he worked with a retoucher to do some light clean-up on the images and adjusted the colors to add warm, comforting tones to the final photos.
We photoshopped out a car in the background and cleaned up some rocks and scuffs. I also use Capture One to dial in my colors which helped warm the images up even more.
Credits:
Photographer: Ben Rollins
Photo Editor, Atlanta Magazine: Martha Williams
Art Director, Atlanta Magazine: Matt Love