David Papazian is an experienced Architecture and Home/Garden photographer, who, despite his years of experience, is always taking on new challenges and clients. For this project, he was contracted by a new client, Vanillawood. They are a husband and wife architecture and interior design firm based in Portland, which handles all stages of home remodeling from architectural and interior design to build out and furnishing. For this project, Vanillawood remodeled a home off of a Lake Oswego canal just outside of Portland. They put David in charge of documenting the finished product. David also utilized his long-standing relationship with Portrait of Portland, an architecture and lifestyle magazine covering the Portland metropolitan area, and sold them usage rights for a magazine spread.
Like many relationships, whether personal or business, David and Vanillawood met thanks to a friend.
This is the first shoot that I did for Vanillawood. They reached out to me because I knew somebody that had started working there. So I got my initial portfolio review with them thanks to her. I’ve been working with Portrait of Portland, on the other hand, for many years.
Both David and Vanillawood are California transplants in Portland. Perhaps it was their shared “California roots,” that solidified their working relationship and helped them understand one another.
Working with Vanillawood was a good fit for me and has been very inspiring because they’re pretty trend setting in their designs. They bring a lot of California influence to their locations — everything’s light, bright, and contemporary style. Although I’ve been in Portland since 1981, I’m originally from California and I haven’t lost my California roots.
With years of experience as an architecture photographer, David methodically scans and processes the space in which he will work.
I’ve been doing this for years. I go out and I take scouting photos with the client of the project just to get a feel for the location, the rooms, and the lighting. We aren’t shooting the exact angles, but I spend about an hour taking the scouting photos. Then, I give the client a web gallery.
Documenting the nuances and subtleties of a built space takes time as well as the vision to understand and accentuate its complexities.
You just can’t walk into a property and just start shooting. This isn’t like real estate photography where you just show up, knock on the door, shoot for an hour, and then you’re gone. We’re shooting for a magazine quality client. You need to really absorb the space, get a feel for it, and kind of live in it for a while — and then get an idea of how you want to capture it.
Good work needs an audience for it to be appreciated. On this full-scale remodel, there were many parties involved who needed marketing collateral of their hard work. To that end, everyone had an interest in sharing the cost of David’s work.
The goal and intent of the images was for marketing for several cost sharing participants. Vanillawood was the main participant but we had the stone fabricator, the windows, the solid surfaces fabricator. There were other participants who bought usage of the photo.
The remodel was completed just before the onset of the ordinarily rainy and gray Pacific Northwest fall season. David was fortunate to have pleasant sunny weather and ideal conditions for working with natural light.
It was a two day shoot in November. The summer is always nice, but in the Northwest and Portland you always have to contend with the weather, especially as we get into the fall. We were fortunate to get nice weather in November.
Not only was the weather great outside, but the energy inside was also upbeat and positive. It seems everyone was feeling a bit of California bliss.
The energy on set in the house was great. There were quite a few people on set. There were two of the design associates from Vanillawood who were there helping with staging, the homeowner, and my assistant as well. They always play music so it’s pretty lively. The homeowner has some spunk to her. I love spunk. It translates into just good energy overall on set.
Capturing natural light is a crucial aspect of high-quality Architecture Photography. The challenge and art is doing so consistently throughout a project without the need for heavy retouching.
It’s very rare to have lights on for magazines. And so when you go from room to room you want to have your consistent colors. You don’t want a lot of shifting of green coming through the window or any other colors that would kind of contaminate the color on the walls.
David understood the need to balance the tone and contrasts of light throughout the shoot.
Vanillawood wanted to have the same kind of a high key look throughout this particular house. They didn’t want it to be moody, but they did want more graphic and striking camera angles to capture the bold use of stone as you can see in the fireplace. The views outside had to be incorporated into the environment, but we had to make sure to balance indoor and outdoor light to be realistic.
Contrary to most architecture photography, David also had to be ready to capture moving objects within his frame.
We had to be on our toes during the shoot. The house is on a canal that flows into Lake Oswego. There were some boats that were unexpectedly coming out from the canal, and we needed to get those boats in the background. The timing of the nautical traffic was fun to work with. It was kind of a bonus to have the boats come through.
David’s many decades of industry experience give him a unique perspective into the world of design and architecture, and have prepared him to artfully capture the design and mood of a space.
I think the key when you’re shooting architecture or interiors is to get a feel for what the architect and designer had in mind when they laid out the house. Whether it’s the way the natural lighting comes through the room, the choice of colors on the walls, the furniture, rugs, choices, or if they want it to be bold or kind of muted. Every shoot depends on what we’re trying to pull out in the mood of the shots based on what the client or the designer wants.
Even after another successful shoot, David reflects on the need for flexibility, an open mind, and the desire to always learn more.
You’re never satisfied one hundred percent with any shoot no matter how many years you’ve been shooting. I’m entering my 43rd year of photography. On this shoot, I learned about dealing with personalities of those you haven’t worked with before. You have to get in a groove and a rhythm. Every location I shoot and every project you need to get in a rhythm. On this one, I had to get in a rhythm with a new client, and learn how to shoot for them on a tight schedule. With a two day time period, you want to keep things flowing because if you stall then suddenly you’re behind.
See more of David’s work on his website.
Credits
Assistant: Max Burt
Further Reading
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