Tag Archive for: photography

Luxury Real Estate Photography in 2020

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One of the best parts of being an architectural photographer is being able to see so many beautiful spaces. One of the most fun and diverse subjects we shoot is luxury real estate. From high-rise condos, to sprawling desert villas the range of luxurious spaces covers a broad spectrum of lifestyles and personalities: from lavish and indulgent socialites to Vegas cronies to stately suburbanites. It is satisfying to both the eye and the curiosity to be able to peer inside the closed doors of the well-to-do. Have a look at some of the photos we’ve been able to create in the first half of 2020.

Pedestrian Grade Separation Construction Photography

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A “pedestrian grade separation” is a wordy term for a footbridge, a crosswalk, a flyover–which over a street like Las Vegas Boulevard, is a very valuable thing. Combine a street with perpetual gridlock with a sea of sometimes sober sightseers and you concoct a cocktail for catastrophe. So one of the most worthwhile city investments on the Strip for safety and efficiency could be to keep walkers away from rollers.

Building a footbridge over one of the busiest and most famous streets in the world is no small task though. There are considerations for safety, traffic, and a need not to disrupt the business of fun on the strip.

Granite Construction recently commissioned us to capture some progress photos of their project to build an elevated crosswalk from the Park MGM to the Hard Rock Café–over the busy, and functioning, Las Vegas Strip. Since the work crews are not allowed by the city to work on the Strip during midday, we starting shooting around 6:00AM and took advantage of the early morning light (and cooler temperatures.) Our task was to capture the progress of the build, the process of the build (to be used in future proposals), and to secure some shots of the crew themselves. Take a look!

Selling a House with Photos

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Making a house sell with photos is a process. It always helps to have a good looking house to shoot, but more than that, it is important to have it clean, uncluttered, and, if not professionally staged, arranged in such a way that furniture and décor don’t distract from the image. Shooting for real estate means presenting a space in a way which shows possibilities, which makes the viewer think of all the things they would do with it. At the same time, shooting for real estate also means maintaining the character and personality of the home.

We recently had the chance to shoot this older Vegas estate home which was recently renovated and made into a California-style Spanish-modern mini-estate (whoa-there, hyphens)! With wide-open space inside and out, the house feels bright and airy–with warm wood touches that make one feel right at home. Here, our goal was to capture the spaciousness of the interior and to sell the stand-out features of the home including abundant windows, a spiral staircase and modern kitchen. Delivering over 100 images, the seller had options in selecting the best images for the MLS. We narrowed it down to 5 for this post.

Take a look!

A white room with a brown built-in bookshelf with a spiral staircase wrapping around in with black railings.

One Stunning Office Building in Summerlin

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A six-story office building at twilight with beige and grey exterior, three glass balconies, with palm trees and desert lanscaping in the foreground with rich blue skies and the Las Vegas Strip in the background.

4:30AM must qualify as one of the most horrible and unpopular hours of the day. Great things don’t happen at 4:30. Even for a town like Las Vegas, by 4:30 most of the fun has already happened, and for anyone else awake at that hour, it either means you have a new baby or you have a cruel employer. But on occasion, a very early hour lends itself to some great photos.

VCC, the contractor tasked with building the Two Summerlin office building in Downtown Summerlin, just across from Red Rock Casino, needed some great portfolio images of the brand-new beautiful  building just completed. Since we wanted to shoot the space at a dramatic twilight hour but dusk put the setting sun directly behind the building creating less-than-flattering light. Consequently, we opted to shoot at dawn, putting us at the site at the aforementioned unsavory hour.

A six-story office building at twilight with beige and grey exterior, with palm trees and desert lanscaping and the top of a parking structure in the foreground with rich blue skies and mountains the background.

What’s more, shooting the building from the ground simply didn’t do justice to the stunning new edifice. From the adjacent parking garage, one is too close to shoot the full building–even with a wide-angle lens. So we enlisted the help of a scissor lift atop the parking structure to allow us to both move back and move up to capture a beautiful perspective of the new tower.

A six-story office building and adjacent three-story parking structure in daytime with streets and landscaping in the foreground.

Start on the third floor of a parking structure and go up another 20 feet in a scissor lift and some great perspectives result.

An office building elevator lobby with shiny tile floors and walls and a green, orange, black, and purple piece of abstract art hanging alongside a stainless steel elevator door.An office building restroom with beige and white tile floor and wall and a beige synthetic countertop with three basins in the foreground and a stainless steel stall door in the background. And elevator interior with shiny silver walls and a grey glass center panel with the words "Two Summerlin" written in white and white LED lighting atop.We also shot the small, but beautiful elevator lobby, the restrooms and the elevator as well, and we thought the photos are certainly worthy of posting.

An off-centered perspective of a six-story office building at twilight with beige and grey exterior, three glass balconies, with palm trees and desert lanscaping in the foreground with rich blue skies and the Las Vegas Strip in the background.

This final shot is a personal favorite; though the building isn’t centered, nor is the whole structure within the frame, it splits the building and distant Vegas lights nicely and distinctly places the tower in its neon-desert environment.

US Bureau of Reclamation

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Workers hoping to get a job on the massive Boulder Dam (now called Hoover Dam) began setting up squatters camps near the chosen work site in 1930. These camps of prospective dam workers might be called the first citizens of Boulder City–a town assembled specifically to house the administration and workforce of the largest public works project in American history. Boulder City was built in a triangular shape and at the peak was the Bureau of Reclamation Administration Building, overlooking the town on one side and the subsequent lake which would be formed by the Dam’s construction. The Administration Building oversaw the successful completion of the Dam and continued to house those overseeing both the operation of the dam and the management of the resources it provided. For nearly ninety years the Administration Building operated without a major renovation–until in 2018 when the Bureau of Reclamation finally completed a full and long overdue restoration of the historic Administration building at 1200 Park in Boulder City.

Upon completion of the restoration, the US Bureau of Reclamation gave us the fantastic opportunity this summer to photograph the building in its fully-restored grandeur. From its iconic exterior to the bathrooms inside, nearly everything was redone, and nearly everything was photographed. Over two days we shot the carefully reconditioned structure both inside and out and delivered over 100 images of the beautiful new environment in which the employees of the Bureau of Reclamation now work. Below are a few samplings of the images we captured in this great project.

While in the previous exterior photo we enhanced the building with some supplemental lighting, we also included some much more natural images in the end bundle. The dramatic skies at dusk here are no sky replacement and all the light is ambient, giving a fairly perfect idea of what the building looks like on a long August night.

The conference room acts as both a normal meeting space, but can also double as a command center in times of crisis. We wanted to capture this particular space both in daytime, with all its natural light and at night to showcase its abundant and modern lighting.

 

In multiple parts of the building the preexisting materials were kept to echo the building’s historic roots. Here we see some exposed brick kept in a Bureau restroom.

On the tastefully restored patio the unique placement of the Administration can be appreciated as one can peer down upon Lake Mead, the child of the Boulder Dam Project, which delivers water and electricity to Las Vegas and numerous western states.

Variety and Creativity in Commercial Real Estate Photography

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We have the regular opportunity to photography commercial shopping centers which are for sale. When shooting, we don’t have the luxury of a controlled environment, with shoppers, cars, weather, and all the complications of shooting during business hours. Nonetheless, we often have the task of creating professional images in this less-than-professional environment. In addition, we get requests to feature the setting of the shopping center, such as being adjacent to the strip or having views of the valley. At Lake Mead Crossing, the setting included the dramatic desert mountains surrounding the complex. With large, big-box retail buildings, seeing surrounding landscape can be a challenge–after all, the mountains, though large, are 20 miles away. So while we provided strong wide-angle images of the major retailers at the property and its luscious landscaping, we walked backwards and pulled out a longer lens to allow the desert mountains to peek over the buildings and add context to the images. Shooting in both daylight and at the beautiful twilight hour, we were able to provide the agency’s designers a variety of images for their sales materials for the property. Producing a diverse set of clean, beautiful and authentic visuals for our clients is not only one of our biggest goals, it’s creatively challenging, and a lot of fun.

 

 

CON/AGG, ACFAS, and ExhibitorLive! 2017

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An elevated perspective of a Danfoss White Drive trade show exhibit with red carpet, white tables and counters with multiple red vertical displays throughout and a suspended banner with their logo above and a pony wall with a black and blue print of a gear in the foreground. Photo edited so that the outside area is darkened and colorless.

We’ve had the chance to photograph some beautiful exhibits at different conventions and trade shows in Las Vegas during the first quarter of 2017. From construction exhibitors at CON/AGG (CONExpo), to medical device makers at ACFAS, to conventioneers at ExhibitorLive!, we’ve shot a diverse array of trade show booths and we want to share some of the photos we came away with.

To draw attention to the most important features for our clients, we process these images and “turn down the lights” so that all the background distractions are muted, yet the exhibit is still visibly in the convention space. We typically deliver our clients dozens of images, usually taken in a 30-90 minute window. Have a look!

 

Trade show exhibit with an orange and white color scheme, a suspended rectangular banner with four faces above and multiple product displays within and a two-story platform in the background. Photo edited so that the outside area is darkened and colorless.

Czarnowski trade show exhibit with a wood-paneled exterior and low decorative planter as an exterior border with classical art on a wall in the background and edited so that the outside area is darkened and colorless.

A trade show exhibit from an oblique angle with a red wall in the center, rectangular red banner floating above and red carpet with modern white tables, chairs and kiosks edited so that area outside the booth is darkened and colorless.

A centered photo of the Stryker booth at ACFAS 2017 with hanging banner, welcome counter with LCD screen, and four vertical signs all with the Stryker logo--edited so that background is dimmed.

SEMA / AAPEX 2016 Las Vegas

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An angular view of the ACDelco tradeshow booth with a suspended grey banner and graphic blocks as walls with barstools, tables, and displays inside.

Stunning trade show booths have been the subject of some of our favorite work over the past few months. SEMA and AAPEX came to Las Vegas at the end of October / beginning of November and we had the chance to shoot some incredible exhibits. At AAPEX, the ACDelco booth featured ipads with virtual reality apps installed which allowed visitors to aim the tablet throughout the booth and view the exhibit as if it were an early 1900s auto parts shop. It also featured 3D printed auto parts which could be placed on flat-screen displays which recognized the part and brought up interactive information on the part including specifications and videos.

At SEMA, Chevrolet’s massive booth at the heart of Hall C in the convention center was a tribute to the Camaro, featuring several classic Camaros including the worlds first, and the worlds fastest. The exhibit also offered attendees the chance to check out the array of Chevy accessories and Chevy engines along with a few choice trucks and a prototype utility vehicle.

 

The inside of the ACDelco tradeshow booth with a red circular medallion on the floor, white seating to the right, computer kiosks on the left and in the rear the ACDelco logo suspended on a banner.White sofa seating facing tables with auto parts encased in transparent cubes in the foreground with a red suspeded banner above emblazoned with the ACDelco logo and the words "Quality Auto".An ACDelco caliper atop a solid transparent cube resembling glass with the ACDelco logo and part numbers etched into the cube.An elevated angular view of the Chevy booth at SEMA with classic Chevy Camaros lined up in the foreground and the Chevrolet logo emblazoned on a dark grey banner floating above.A prototype chevy utility vehicle behind stantions in a grey circular carpeted area with a video screen, two vertical displays with Chevy parts attached and the chevrolet logo in the background.A Chevy engine on a pedestal atop tradeshow carpeting with a fauz brick wall and garage door in the background.

IGT Exhibit at G2E

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The IGT logo on a circular frame surrounding a video chandelier which hangs above slot machines at the IGT booth at G2E 2016

The IGT exhibit at G2E was a very Vegas booth for a very Vegas show. We had the privilege of shooting IGT’s massive booth at the Sands Exposition Center at the end of September. With a 100-yard curved video wall, three paneled-video “chandeliers” and flashy new products including a 4D interactive slot experience, the exhibit was a hit. With the help of a 10-foot ladder, we were able to get a birds-eye feel of the space which was crowded with banks of slot machines ready for anxious attendees to try out.

An elevated perspective of slot machines and video chandeliers at the IGT booth at G2E 2016.The red chair from The Voice in the foreground with The Voice slots in the background at the IGT booth at G2E 2016

Sofas and tables on an elevated deck beneath a curved video wall at the IGT booth at G2E.An illuminated circular frame with an interactive video screen inside and the IGT booth in the background at G2E.

2016 Photography for Mark Tracy

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We’ve been shooting for Mark Tracy of Chemical Space for over a decade. Consequently, we’ve seen just about everything he’s designed. That said, we can say with a bit of authority that his recent design of a home in The Ridges shows his skill at designing clean, modern living spaces as well as any project he’s done. With stunning materials and open layouts, Mark is the quintessential executor of a Vegas space, making a comfortable, livable home which can quickly convert to a upscale party venue.

 

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