David Patterson Navigates New Challenges in Blue River for Luxe Magazine

Given that Steamboat Springs, Colorado-based photographer David Patterson had done work for Luxe Magazine before, he had a good idea of what to expect. Nonetheless, his shoot with Associates III posed several new challenges, including, among other things, a painting that just couldn’t be moved.

After meeting just once on a preliminary conference call, David and the design team from Associates III were sent to a contemporary home in Blue River, Colorado for a two-day shoot. The freelance photographer arrived feeling nervous and excited.

Coming to a project where you don’t know the design team and you have a short amount of time to produce content … there’s a little bit of nerve in that.

The shoot had been handed off to David and the design team from Associates III with art direction from Luxe Magazine occurring remotely. Although the teams had gone over scouting photos prior to their arrival, communication with the art directors once they were onsite was limited to text messages and sending laptop screenshots.

Naturally, one of the key images would feature the living room, but in this living room a large painting of the homeowner’s family hung above the fireplace. The editorial staff were concerned that the painting was distracting and had hope to cut it out. Because the painting was such a specific piece, it would have been difficult to replace with a substitute piece of art from the design team. What’s more, removing the painting would have required laying stone. Other options, including post-production, weren’t on the table because of the schedule.

Though the art directors did not want the painting in the shot, David shot the living room with the painting in full view, as well as from the outside at an angle that obscured the painting. As it turned out, Luxe Magazine ended up running both photos.

It goes to show, if you think it’s worth shooting, shoot it because you never know.

In shooting the bedroom, David encountered another challenge. The bedroom had initially been shot through the doorway, but, ironically, the article’s editorial emphasis on how the inside connects to the outside was lost from that angle. David knew that he would need to come up with a new visual solution that appealed to the design team and corresponded to the editorial content.

His solution was to shoot the bedroom from an angle that showed the room’s large windows leading to a forest outside.

When you walk in, you see what you’re going to do and it’s a huge relief. I’d seen scouting photos and I knew what could happen, but until you’re standing there and see it with your own eyes, you’re like ‘oh I can see it’ or ‘crap I’m not sure how to deal with this, but we’ll figure it out.’

The most unpredictable challenge David faced was the weather. The design team scrounged to find elements to style the modern picnic table on the house’s deck, and by the time they had finished styling the table, it had begun to rain. Between shots, the design team intervened to wipe the pooling water off of the table. As the weather flipped between sunny and rainy, David was able to capture the scene’s stunningly unique lighting.

The design team was great. Game for any idea. All hands on deck. To have people that were engaged all the time was a treat.

See more of David’s work at davidpattersonphotography.com.

Explore our global network of photographers on our Find Photographers page!