Commonwealth Building Inc. launches new website with photos by Elisif Photography!

Winter is leaving! The sun already feels warmer and I'm ready for spring. Now is a great time to schedule your photography needs for the next few months. Send me an email or call me to so we can book a time convenient for both of us.

Business is going well. 2020 turned out to be my third best year ever as a photography business! I'm looking forward to even better things in 2021. This year has started off well, with my busiest March ever.

I have two photos in the Newton Camera Club virtual exhibit - Tree Farm in Cathlamet, WA (see below) and Driving on the Zakim (next to last in the show)

Commonwealth Building, Inc. Launches New Website with my Photos

I spent much of 2020 taking photos of projects built by Commonwealth Building Inc. (CBI). It was so much fun! They were creating a new website and needed lots of photos of work that they have built. Despite COVID restrictions, we were able to safely do shoots of a large variety of buildings, including retail, office, and restaurants. In fact, in some ways it was easier because there were fewer people to work around in these spaces.

Above is an image from the offices of Soso at 121 High Street in Boston. Below is Top Shelf, a store at Assembly Row in Somerville. In fact, CBI has been building out many stores and restaurants at Assembly Row. Did you know that Assembly Row is named for the Ford Assembly plant that used to operate there?

This Carhartt store below was just spectacular at dusk. Shooting at dusk makes the interior show up clearly from the exterior - showing off both at once.

CBI does wonderful work and it was a pleasure working with the CBI team. Below is a beautiful store they built at The Square at Chestnut Hill called Porcelanosa.

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more. Please contact me for an estimate on your next project!

Alba Restaurant in Quincy, built by CBI

Cat Connection Shelter to open April 5th!!!

Many of you know I support the non-profit cat rescue group The Cat Connection. Exciting news! After many years of work, we are finally opening a shelter! It is at 167 Chestnut Hill Ave. in Brighton. Although we are still Waltham based, we are shifting to Brighton as well, where we found a wonderful space, spent the year remodeling it, and are ready for our first cat!! Find out more on our website.

Architectural Photography in the time of COVID-19

Elisif Photography is open for business! I have spent a lot of the time in isolation catching up on all my projects, improving all my business procedures with new project management tools such as Gantt charts, and doing lots of networking via video conference. I've now joined the Boston Society of Architects, American Society of Media Photographers, and several chambers, rotary clubs, and networking groups.

I have a COVID-19 policy and have started doing photo shoots now that things are opening up. It is actually a good time for architectural photography with so many buildings mostly empty outside and inside. My COVID-19 policy includes everyone wearing masks at all times on a shoot, assurances beforehand that no one is showing symptoms of COVID-19 or has been in close contact with someone who is sick, minimizing the number of people on each shoot, and wearing gloves or using hand sanitizer and washing hands often. As photo shoots are planned, I make sure my clients and I are all comfortable with the safety precautions in place before the shoot. On one shoot recently, my client had someone follow along to clean everything I touched as I straightened a space to make it neat for photography, which I think worked very well.

As I schedule shoots out the next few months, I want to make sure I can serve all my clients' needs! Please contact me for scheduling. This is a great time to do shoots with fewer people to disturb in occupied spaces, and of course a great time to photograph empty newly completed spaces or spaces for lease.

Exhibit Opening this Friday 6pm-8pm - BSA Space, Atlantic Wharf

Happy New Year! 2019 was an amazing year and I'm looking forward to a busy and exciting year for 2020! I started off the year right with a shoot in Manhattan for Newton architect Stuart Parsons on Jan. 2nd, a beautiful condo overlooking the Hudson River. Looking forward to serving all my clients' needs for photography this year!

"The Architecture of Time" Exhibit Opening
at the Boston Society of Architects

Please join me this Friday between 6pm and 8pm for the opening reception of the new photography exhibit at the BSA Space at 290 Congress Street (Atlantic Wharf). The BSA Exhibit includes pieces by many different photographers, featuring "photography that represents creative perspectives on the built or designed environment dealing with time or history through an architectural lens."

I was lucky to have two pieces selected for inclusion in the show.

This was shot at the beautiful Metropolitan Waterworks Museum by Cleveland Circle. If you haven't been there you really must check it out. The Great Engines Hall, pictured here, houses coal-powered, steam-driven pumps three stories tall that were used to pump fresh water to the city of Boston in the 19th century. They are beautifully preserved by the museum.

The second photo of mine that was selected for the exhibit is "St. Louis Street Impression" which I shot while riding along a street in St. Louis in my sister's car, looking out the passenger window and recording this panorama on my phone. The car moved faster than the panorama could be recorded, so it jumps and gives more of an impression of the street than a clear record. I've since been taking these types of moving panoramas in other cities to see if they result in photos that represent some aspect of each city's architecture or environment.

I hope you can join me for the exhibit opening! Many of the other photographers chosen are my fellow professionals, students from the New England School of Photography, and amateur photographers from around the area. The last exhibit had a high level of quality and so I expect this will be another great exhibit at the BSA!

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more. Please contact me for an estimate on your next photography project!

Thankful for my clients! Exhibits Dec.5 & Jan.10, and I'm on TV

During this season of Thanksgiving, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Year's, I am so thankful to all of my clients for an amazing year! I love my job - taking photos of my clients' beautiful work. May all of you, my clients, friends, family, supporters, colleagues, networking partners, have a safe and meaningful holiday season!

Elisif Photography in Two Exhibits and on Newton Cable TV!

I'm on TV! The Newton Camera Club was invited to be on Jay Sugarman's NewTV show "Museum Open House" to talk about our exhibit that is up right now at the West Newton Cinema through Jan. 25th. Three of us from the club, Marshall Goff, Nicole Mordecai, and I, taped the show with Jay, talking about our work and the work of other members. You can see this half hour episode on google drive. Although I was nervous to do it, it was a great experience and went pretty smoothly. I couldn't believe how young the staff taping the show were - the cameraman and director were both local high school kids!

Save the Date: January 10th opening of the BSA (Boston Society of Architects) Exhibit "The Architecture of Time" at 6pm at the BSA Space, 290 Congress St., Boston. Two of my photos were accepted!

Exhibit Opening THIS Friday Night in Waltham:
Lincoln Arts Project's Small Treasures

All are welcome to join me at the opening reception/holiday party for the invitational exhibit "Small Treasures" at the Lincoln Arts Project in Waltham. I have five very small (4x6) pieces in it - see below. These are part of my "Scale Series" showing one or two people in a large architectural setting. Pieces in many different media, not just photography, will be on exhibit. All pieces had to be smaller than 10 inches (thus "small" treasurers) and priced at <$200 - a good place to shop for unique holiday gifts!

The event is Friday December 6th from 6pm to 9pm at 289 Moody Street in Waltham. I'll be there for at least the first hour or two. At the same time, the gallery next-door, Monique Rancourt Artisan Gallery, is presenting "Ornaments for the Ear," a holiday exhibition of contemporary earrings.

Walking by the ICA, Boston

Two Paths, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis

Stairs, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland

Looking Up, St. Louis Arch

Phone Call by the Red Cube, NYC

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more. Contact me for an estimate on photographing your next project!

You're invited - Exhibit opening reception Sunday 3-5pm

I hope you are having a wonderful fall like I am! I would like to invite you to come see the Newton Camera Club exhibit at the West Newton Cinema. I have two images that were accepted into the show: "St. Louis Street Impression" and "Tadeo Ando Courtyard, St. Louis." Please join the me at the cinema for our Opening Reception this coming Sunday from 3 to 5pm! We will have lots of refreshments and most of the club members who have pieces in the show will be there to answer questions.

I'd love it if you could make it! The show will be up through the end of January, though, so if you can't make the reception, please stop by and take a look some other time. Might be a good way to find a holiday gift for someone!

The image above is "St. Louis Street Impression." It may be a bit hard to see this small. In the show it will be 35 inches long. If you want to know how I created it, stop by the opening reception! Or email me to ask if you can't make it.

This is a photograph of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation building in St. Louis, designed by architect Tadeo Ando. I love the clean lines and simplicity of his work.

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

BSA Summer Shindig tonight - come see the exhibit!

The BSA is having their Summer Shindig tonight from 5:30pm to 8pm and it is free and open to the public. Let me know if you can make it and you can come see the exhibit, including my photo! More info here.

As you know, I have had a photo accepted to the Boston Society of Architects Juried Exhibition running June 2019 - January 2020! The photo is the one titled "Urban Slot Canyon" that I shot in Toronto (see below). I am honored to have an image included in the exhibit and look forward to seeing the other images chosen!

I call this image "Urban Slot Canyon, Toronto." I moved quickly from seeing it to shooting it, grabbing my cell phone. They say the best camera you have is the one you have with you and I'm certainly glad I did have one with me!

This alley shows the inhuman scale of skyscrapers. The woman is dwarfed by the space and seems insignificant, lost in a no-man’s-land. The advertisement on the next street gives relief and a place where she will emerge back into the human-focused street level of these massive buildings.

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more. Contact me for a quote on your next project!

You're Invited! June 6th 6-8pm opening at the BSA

I have had a photo accepted to the Boston Society of Architects Juried Exhibition running June 2019 - January 2020! The photo is the one titled "Urban Slot Canyon" that I shot in Toronto (see below). I am honored to have an image included in the exhibit and look forward to seeing the other images chosen! The opening reception is June 6th 6-8pm at the BSA Space at 290 Congress St. (Atlantic Wharf). Please join me! The exhibit is entitled "New Visions of Designed Environments." Please RSVP here (you don't need to print tickets).

I call this image "Urban Slot Canyon, Toronto." I moved quickly from seeing it to shooting it, grabbing my cell phone. They say the best camera you have is the one you have with you and I'm certainly glad I did have one with me!

This alley shows the inhuman scale of skyscrapers. The woman is dwarfed by the space and seems insignificant, lost in a no-man’s-land. The advertisement on the next street gives relief and a place where she will emerge back into the human-focused street level of these massive buildings.

Having a Great Spring

I am having so much fun taking exterior photos for my clients with the trees and flowers green and blooming! So many interesting things I've photographed this spring - a renovated wharf, a new glass top on an historic building, an inspiring event about diversity in the real estate industry, Pier 4, an office where the beautiful letters spelling the company's name filled a 2-story lobby vertically, the latest build-out for Wayfair, and an X-ray observatory center!

I hope you have all had a great spring too!

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more. Contact me for a quote on your next project!

Hope Schreiber Photography - beautiful nature photography!

I have been using Squarespace for my own website and to create websites for two fellow photographers. I offer this as a service now, in a narrow case – for anyone who wants to use Squarespace to make a simple photography website.  Besides my own site, check out the two I helped with – www.aopp.photos and www.hopeschreiberphotography.com to see the beautiful work of these two Newton Camera Club members who are talented, artistic photographers.

Hope Schreiber takes amazing nature photographs. You may have caught her exhibit a few years ago of her ammonite photography at the Newton Free Library. She has been collecting ammonites to photograph for many years, pulling the most beautiful details and colors from these fossils. She has also traveled to Costa Rica and the Pantanal where she has photographed amazing wildlife. Her images are always so sharp that you almost feel you are right there. But most spectacular are her photographs of bats in Arizona - in flight!

Congratulations to Hope on her two photos selected for NANPA’s Top 100!!

The Story of a Photo Shoot

In October 2017, I had an exciting two-day shoot with PCA in North Conway, NH.  Working closely with PCA’s Marketing Director, I photographed the renovations of the existing Settler’s Green shopping complex, the new shopping area called Streetside, and three restaurants, Barley & Salt (shown below), Wicked Fresh Burgers, and White Mountain Cupcakery.  We went to each area multiple times, catching the light as it changed and including people or shooting a space, so that we had a lot of options when selecting photos to use.

Barley & Salt has a beautiful combination of wood and tile.  Sometimes people from my client’s office serve as models, sometimes we shoot spaces empty, and sometimes we just catch the people who happen to be there at the time (usually blurred as they move through the space or move their heads).

Conveniently, the hotel I stayed in was just across the street, so I could come and go for dusk and dawn.  And I can attest to the great food at these places!  It is a new experience to eat dinner at places I'm photographing.

Some storefronts were not yet occupied, but at night, the exterior lighting made it all come alive.  Photo shoots can’t always be timed to happen when conditions are perfect – this area needed to be photographed in the fall while the grass and trees still looked good, even though not all the retailers had moved in and the shoppers were still learning about the new stores.

At Wicked Fresh, the burger place, I loved the way the words on the windows created shadows on the wall and floor, adding a text dimension to an architectural shot.  The red accents of the chairs and the napkin dispensers, as well as the umbrellas outside, provided a way to tie the image together.

Wicked Fresh had a great combination of corrugated metal and wood, and included a garden of house-grown herbs which you can see on the back wall past the counter in the image below.

This shoot was exciting because there was so much to cover, but we needed to capture it in just a few images for the architects’ website and proposals.  I enjoy the challenge of giving a feel for the place and a sense of the design through the photographs.  The more my client can tell me about the story of the design and construction, the better I can show their work in a way that tells that story.

---

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.  

Photo Tip of the Month: What Time of Day to Go?

How do you find the best light for photographing a building or waterfall or other site?  I have three iPhone apps I can recommend:  LightTrac, Golden Hour, and Sun Surveyor.  These apps can help you figure out the best light for a given location on a given day.  LightTrac shows you the direction of the sunlight overlaid on a satellite view of the place you want to shoot.  It gives you the angle above the ground as well, so you can tell when the sun will rise above a building that may be across the street from one you want to shoot.

The app Golden Hour gives you the times of sunrise, sunset, golden hour, and blue hour – it can help you decide when to go to get that magic blue sky.  Sun Surveyor gives you augmented reality projections over a live camera view and a map with street view, as well as providing information about the position of moon and the Milky Way, which is great for night shots.

I use these apps not only for photo shoots for clients, but also for trips abroad such as my trip to Italy last year, so I could take light into account in planning my itinerary (weather permitting of course).

Yacht races, Chinese houses, and an upcoming exhibit!

I'm booking out shoots through the end of the year now, so it isn't too late to get on my schedule. Time is running out for exteriors, though, as the leaves will fall off the trees before you know it!

You’re invited! I have two photos in the Newton Camera Club exhibit at West Newton Cinema! One is a detail of the Yin Yu Tang house at the Peabody Essex Museum (see below) and the other is a beautiful portrait of a father and baby. Not my usual architectural work! Please join me and about 25 other photographers with over 60 images at the Opening Reception Nov. 4 from 3-5pm at West Newton Cinema. The show will be up at the cinema from Nov. 4 to Dec. 31.

Yacht racing, Car Show, Recent Shoots

What does a photographer do on her day off? Take more photos!

My brother-in-law was visiting in May and he loves the Volvo Ocean Race. The Volvo Ocean Race is a round-the-world yacht race held every three years. This year it stopped in Newport, RI, so we went to see it!

Thank goodness it was a rainy day – so the crowd was just large instead of enormous. There was a spot set up where you could see the racers heading to the boats. My brother-in-law is a photographer too, but he didn’t travel with his best camera, so I brought my longest lens and we pretended he had hired me to take photos for him that day – it was fun. I morphed into a sports photographer and got this shot below of the winning MAPFRE team, captained by Xabi Fernández.

To see some really stunning yacht racing photos, check out Newport photographer Onne van der Wal.

Summer for me is the time for classic car shows. I’m not into the engines so much as the beautiful designs cars used to have. Now we put a premium on aerodynamics for fuel economy, which is so much better, but I do love to see how crazy or crazy-beautiful the old designs were. Below is a Nash Ambassador Custom I saw recently at the Waltham Lions Car Show. I love the way the light shows the smooth curves of the car.

I also kept busy with lots of work over the summer and into the fall! Here are some recent shots - Vivo Apartments in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge, and a residential back yard designed by landscape architect Terry Kinsler.

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

I also enjoy shooting corporate events. Do you have a holiday party or annual meeting coming up? Perhaps you'd like photographs for social media!

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: TAKING PHOTOS HAND-HELD

How do you take sharp pictures when you don't have a tripod handy, or are shooting moving subjects or in a dark environment?

• Keep your shutter speed high enough - a good guideline is to use a shutter speed that is at least 1/ the focal length you are using. For example, if you are using a 24mm lens, you should be able to shoot handheld as slow as 1/24th of a second. Shooting at 300mm, you'd better keep your shutter speed faster than 1/300th of a second.

• Crank up your ISO. Don't be afraid to use ISOs up to 800 or even 1600, depending on the age of your camera. Most images from newer cameras are not too noisy with higher ISOs. A higher ISO can allow you to get the faster shutter speeds you need for handheld.

• Open up your aperture or zoom in with your feet so your focal length isn't as long. You will lose depth of field with a wider aperture, but it will allow you to get at least your subject sharp enough.

• Steady yourself by keeping your elbows in, having a wider stance, leaning against something, and controlling your breathing. Even if you are just using your phone for photos, you can make yourself more steady to get sharper pictures in low light.

Not too late to join the NAIOP Bus Tour next Wednesday!

Spring is in full swing! I am loving this weather the wonderful grass and trees and flowers it brings. This is my May newsletter, so why am I sending it out in June? Because all my clients have kept me so busy! Thank you!!

Please remember you can unsubscribe from my newsletter anytime by clicking on “unsubscribe” at the bottom.

Don't Miss the NAIOP Bus Tour Next Wednesday!

One of my clients is NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development organization, as I’ve mentioned before. They once again chose me to take photos of Boston-area architecture, especially new buildings, for the bus tour. It is a privilege to get to do it – they give me a list of all the exciting new projects happening in the Boston area, and I get to preview them and take photos before everyone sees the projects on the bus tour. NAIOP uses my photos in the glossy spiral-bound guide to all the buildings we will hear about on the tour, and in banners displayed at the morning speaking event before we board the buses.

There is still time to sign up to take the NAIOP Bus Tour on June 6th!

More cores are going up in the Seaport all the time.

This year we will be touring Post Office Square including Congress Square, the Seaport, South Boston, Dorchester, South End, Fenway, and Allston/Brighton. The tour is a combination of time spent on the actual buses touring while local experts point out notable commercial real estate changes to each area, plus stops at specific buildings for tours and talks on foot. The stops this year include One Post Office Square, The Beat (Boston Globe), Landmark in the Fenway, and Boston Landing.

One of the neat new developments happening now is Congress Square. It is just north of Post Office Square and south of the Old State House. They’ve put a glass top on one of the historic buildings, and I think it looks pretty cool! Plus they are restoring the old buildings on that block while updating the interiors.

It is sort of like the building is wearing a little glass hat, and it also echoes the glass building across the street (Exchange Place), blending the old and the new. Keep an eye on this development – they will be putting shops and restaurants in the little alley between buildings called Quaker Lane.

Back to the NAIOP Bus Tour - At Boston Landing, there will be tours of the Warrior Ice Arena, the commuter rail station, office/lab space, and new residential developments, followed by lunch.

Then we’ll have an after party at Avison Young at 200 State St. The whole event runs from 7am to 4pm and there is lots of time for networking included.

Guess where this new hotel is? This used to be the Days Inn on Soldier’s Field Road! It is now the Studio Hotel Allston, a boutique hotel. They have a pretty colorful lobby.

The NAIOP Bus Tour is a great way to learn about what is happening in Boston in the building industry, and also a great way to see new architecture going up. Join us next week!

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

Have you ever gotten a bounce from my elisif@elisif.com email? If you ever have trouble, a good backup is elisif@gmail.com or contact me through the form on my website. Also, did you know there is a new Chihuly glass sculpture in town? It has actually been here for a few years, but you may not have seen it since it is in the lobby of a new residential building in the Seaport, 100 Pier 4. If you go into their lobby, they may let you take photos.

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: Printing Photos – What to Consider

When you are printing photographs, either your own or professional photos used as part of a marketing piece, keep in mind these things to look out for:

• Printed photos often look darker than they do on your screen. This is partly inherent to the media – your screen is backlit so it gives the photos a nice glow. A print relies on reflected light, and so you may need to brighten a photo for printing.

• Photos often lose contrast when printed – I usually boost the contrast so they really pop off the page when printed.

• The type of paper you use makes a big difference in how a printed photo comes out. On matte paper, photos can look flat and low contrast. Fine art paper brings a certain depth to the images. Glossy paper can be great for shiny subjects. No matter what the paper, make adjustments after doing test prints so the photos come out their best.

• Ask for a proof – if using a commercial printer, ask for a proof to make sure they are keeping an eye on the quality. They do such high volume work, they may miss things that you could point out in a proof – things they can fix for the final version.

Photographing 19th Century Machinery

I’m hoping winter is finally over, after the “light sleet” today. I’ve never heard sleet described as light. I can’t wait for the flowering trees to get going and for color to reappear.

The Metropolitan Waterworks Museum

I recently gave a presentation at Newton Camera Club and in my networking group, PRANG, of photos I shot at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill. If you haven’t been, I recommend it. The museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays. It is amazing to see the huge steam engines that were once used for pumping fresh water into the city of Boston. The station was built in 1887 and used until the 1970s when Boston’s water supply was switched to the Quabbin Reservoir.

Taking photos of machinery is something I love to do – especially the way machines were built in the 19th century, with great attention to design. It is a challenge to find shots in a busy environment – simplifying so that each shot makes visual sense to the viewer. I spent hours at the museum (as part of a workshop with other photographers), looking from many different angles to find combinations of shapes and colors that worked.

The shot below is one where I took the interesting parts of multiple pipes and junctions and stacked them visually to make a harmonious composition.

One thing I like about machinery is the challenge of making beautiful shots from such large, imposing, utilitarian landscapes. Finding the delicacy among the heavy-duty parts. To me, doing such a photo shoot is like meditation – spending a lot of time looking and not speaking, getting the best angles and finding all the shapes and lines. I try to bring that same feeling into my commercial work, looking at how a space flows, how the shapes stack up vertically and horizontally when translating a three-dimensional space into two dimensions in a flattering way, while also making the space comprehensible to the viewer.

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

One of my residential remodeling clients, GreenEdge, has a fun tradition. When we take photos of new kitchens, bathrooms, or additions, we put a wooden hippo sculpture in each shot (or at least most of them). Then on their website, it is fun to try to find the hippo in each shot! The hippo didn’t make it to every shoot, but many of them. Find the hippos in this beautiful white home.

Photo Tip of the Month: TOP THREE THINGS FOR IMPROVING ANY PHOTO

The top three things to adjust to make a photo come out its best are exposure, sharpness, and cropping or framing.

1. Exposure
Getting the exposure right is critical to making a good photo. These days with digital photography and cell phones, it is simple to edit the photo and make it brighter or dimmer as needed to make the exposure right. What is the best way to tell if the exposure is right? Look at the brightest objects in your photo, particularly things that are white. Is it a true white, or are they coming out gray? Look people's faces - are they easy to see? Are the shadows too dark and murky? Lots of software is available for correcting exposure. I use Adobe's Lightroom, but most photo apps will work fine, including those on cell phones where you can edit photos in just a few clicks.

2. Sharpness
It is so important to get your subject sharp (except in those cases where you are making an artistic choice for your image or subject to be blurry). If you do not get it sharp in the camera, there is not a lot you can do to correct it afterwards. There are lots of sharpening tools in photo editing apps, but they won't really help if your subject isn't sharp to begin with - they can really only be used to enhance the sharpness that is already there. The only real exception is blur from moving the camera during the shot - Photoshop has some ways to correct that blur. But it is best to get it right in the camera. When you are selecting an image to use for social media, printing, etc., always look for sharpness first.

3. Cropping
Framing your subject well can really increase the impact of your image. If you are photographing an animal or people moving in the frame, leave extra space in front of them, space the viewer imagines they are moving into. If you take a portrait of someone, don't leave too much space above their head. Fill the frame with your subject - get close. It is fine to leave space when you take the photograph, but afterwards, look at all the edges of the frame - are there parts of the image that just don't add anything? Too much sky or too much foreground? Can you crop out distracting elements? If so, it can really add to the power of your photos.

Does this look like spring?

Does this look like spring? The first day of spring is here but there is still snow on the ground!

Ok yes, I did take this photo two weeks ago, but there is still snow on the ground and more coming. But soon it will look more like this!

Putting People in Architectural Photos

For many years I believed that architectural photos were best done with no people in them at all, to maintain focus on the lines and shapes of the architectural space. But the last few years I've been adding people to my shots where possible - sometimes as a stranger crosses through the space, sometimes using models (i.e. my clients or assistants who join me on the shoot).

100 Summer Street Lobby in Boston, shot for Columbia Construction

Having a person or two in the shot gives a better feel for how the space is used, and after all, architecture is built to be used by people, not to be kept empty. Consider this shot by Ezra Stoller (scroll down to the last photo). The curves of the TWA terminal at JFK are beautiful on their own, but with the people in the space, it becomes more than curves and lines - it becomes a space that people use. The people give the space a three dimensional feeling, when it might otherwise look flat and hard to understand.

Republic Fitness at International Place in Boston, shot for PCA

We are people, so when we view images, we want to be able to picture ourselves in the space. Having people in the photos draws your eye and gives the architecture the human scale for reference. A blurred person can also fill a space that has less architectural interest. The direction the person is walking can help emphasize the flow of the space.

MCLE shot for PCA

When I take photos with people in them, I take note of my shutter speed (shooting in aperture priority to get the depth of field I want). Then I instruct the people how quickly or slowly to move to create just the right level of blur. Sometimes it is trial and error, so I shoot a lot of options to get the result the client and I are looking for.

Of course with Photoshop, it is relatively straightforward (I won't say easy) to take blurred people from one shot and place them in another - that way adding more people than might have been there in just that one version, or picking and choosing the best blur for each person.

Finally, people in a space can make it more lively and bustling!

Longwood Center shot for Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

I love going to NAIOP events in Boston. NAIOP is a great way to network with people in the building industry (also called the A/E/C industry - architecture, engineering, construction). So far this year NAIOP has had events about the new construction near North Station and Bulfinch Triangle, about providing amenities in buildings to draw peoples' interest in working there, a new restaurant (Mastro's) in the Seaport, and a wonderful tour of the offices and sets of America's Test Kitchen on Dry Dock Avenue. If you want to stay informed about what is happening in the city and meet all kinds of people in A/E/C fields, NAIOP is a great way to do it.

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: DETAILS

How much of a car do you need to have in a photograph to know it is a car? Just a rear-view mirror? Maybe even just the outline of the gas tank door. When you are taking a photo of something that draws your eye, think about photographing just part of it - you don't always need the whole car, the whole building, the whole tree or flower - photographing details can lead to simpler photos, and simplicity has great impact. Try to capture to the parts of the image that really appeal to you - what is it about it that made you want to take a photo? Was it a specific curve, a bit of contrast in color or light? Simplify to that detail and see what amazing and unexpected results you can get.

Hotels need photos too!

Photographing Hotels

One of the types of buildings I like to shoot is hotels. Every time a hotel does a remodel of their rooms or lobby or restaurant or meeting spaces, they need new photos for their website. As a fan of hotels (I love a nice hotel room as much as a place I'm visiting for vacation!), I enjoy finding the best way to show the design of the lobby, the pleasantness of a room, the decor, the amenities such as pools or fitness rooms.

Above is the lobby of the Loews Hotel Boston, which I shot for Columbia Construction after they had remodeled the lobby and restaurant. Photographing an entire hotel can take a full day, and I have worked out the timing for capturing the spaces when there are the fewest hotel guests around. My goal is to disturb the guests as little as possible.

Above is the bar/restaurant area of the Loews Hotel Boston. We had a work around contractors that day, but the photo came out beautifully in the end. Having the chairs turned toward the camera makes a big difference in making the place look welcoming.

The Courtyard Copley Hotel, also called the Exeter (historically), had me take photos of the beautiful exterior, as well as the lobby and rooms when they were remodeled a few years ago.

The hotel managers work with me to make the room look inviting - including fresh flowers and champagne. I choose angles that help show the layout of the room. I know as a guest of hotels, I like to see what the whole room looks like in photos before I choose the place.

If you know of any marketing managers at a hotel, please send me referrals!

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

Last night I judged for NECCC - the New England Camera Club Council. NECCC has monthly competitions among all camera clubs in New England who wish to enter. I was one of three judges - we had keypads to enter scores between 3 and 10 for each image. The sum of the scores fits in the usual range of scores up to 30 points. Boston Camera Club was hosting the competition this time. I usually prefer judging for an individual club, when I can give comments as well as a score, but this competition allows me to see such a range of great photos from all over New England. I learn from other photographers when I judge, as well as teaching others.

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: WHITE BALANCE

What is white balance? It is a setting on your camera as well as in post-processing software. Cameras are so smart these days that most people shoot on Auto White Balance (AWB) most of the time. If you are shooting nature, you will have a combination of direct sun (daylight white balance) or cloudy light (cloudy white balance), and shade (shade white balance). If you use flash, the white balance would be very similar to daylight. Interior light is often much warmer than daylight. But your camera will look at the entire scene and decide on an average color temperature and try to set the white balance accordingly.

In post-processing, you can adjust the white balance to move it more toward a cooler temperature (daylight) or a warmer temperature (interior light). Many interiors that I shoot include both daylight coming in through windows and various different color temperature light bulbs in the space. I adjust the color balance to match the majority of the light, and then either let the windows go a little blue, or do some selective adjustments of color temperature with the adjustment brush in Lightroom.

Love & Fate Exhibit Opening

I am honored that five of my images have been selected for an exhibit called Love & Fate! The exhibit is showing from now through March 15th at the Monique Rancourt Artisan Gallery/Lincoln Arts Project on Moody Street in Waltham. The opening reception is from 6 to 9pm this coming Friday night at 289 Moody Street in Waltham. There is a large parking lot behind that block of stores and restaurants.

Please join me for the opening if you can make it! See below the write-up of the exhibit from the curator, Waltham artist Sarah Leon.

Join us Opening Night for a evening of Art and Serendipity.

Love & Fate is an exhibit of black and white photography with insightful and unexpected interpretations. See the work, meet new artists, learn about your fate with a tarot card reading, and find new works in the Monique Rancourt Artisan Gallery. You may learn a lucky secret, make a new connection, or find a gift for yourself and your Valentine.

FEATURED ARTISTS:
Ariel Kessler
Beth McCutcheon
Chris Maliga
Elisif Brandon
Jon Washer
Marshall Goff
Nicole Mordecai
Peter Morse

Readings courtesy of the wonderful Paige Zaferiou of Paige Z's Tarot and Tea! We are so delighted to have her working with us. $10 per reading – remember to bring cash!

Check out the event on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/events/2004276176479381/

Peace and Joy for the Holidays

I am very grateful to all my clients for their business this year! I’ve been lucky to photograph many different spaces and places. Thank you for a successful 2017!

Above: Christmas tree and streamers in the atrium of 125 High Street, where Tishman Speyer hosted the NAIOP holiday party.

Did you know I take photos at corporate events as well as photographing architecture? I have provided photography for NAIOP (the Commercial Real Estate Development organization formerly known as the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks) events since 2010! NAIOP is wonderful to work with; not only do I meet a lot of my clients through NAIOP events, but also I learn so much about what is going on in the Boston area building industry. For NAIOP, I take candid and posed shots of people networking, people presenting individually or on panels, or people in groups posing or on tours of local buildings.

I love to capture people engaged in interesting discussions and find it very satisfying to get good shots of as many people at the events as possible. My goal is to make you look good!

Recently, I did a shoot for the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. They held a 25th Anniversary celebration and conference for their Department of Population Medicine. Their founders were honored, as well as researchers and fellowship students, at their offices in Landmark Center and in Fenway Park’s Dell EMC Club. The photos below are from NAIOP events and the Harvard Pilgrim event.

Having professional photography of your event is essential to creating high quality images for social media – sharing event photos on social media is a must these days and a great way to bring attention to your company, your cause, or your institution.

Is your company or institution planning an event? I’m booking now for events in the first six months of 2018! If you book an event shoot with me before January 31, get a complimentary two-minute video slideshow set to music for social media.

Above: Photo of the Schrafft building lobby at its grand opening after its transformation into a residential/mixed use space. Shot for Flately through JLL.

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

I have recently joined a new networking group through Meetup.com. The group is called PRANG – Professional referral and networking group. We meet weekly at 8:30am on Wednesdays in Waltham to learn about each other’s businesses. We took the best ideas from other networking groups and formed this new one. Ask me for more info if you would like to join us!

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: FINDING THE UNUSUAL ANGLE

The photo above is one I took recently at the Central Reform Temple’s Chanukah Cantata, A Light Through the Ages. What a beautiful celebration! I have been taking photos for CRT on and off since 2010. This is the first year I found this unusual angle, after a suggestion from a member of the choir.

When you are taking photos of anything, an event, a person, a fire hydrant, a flower, a building, think about unusual angles. Move around the subject and see how it looks from different perspectives. Get down at ground level for flower shots. Photograph a person from the side, to see the faces of who they are interacting with. Look straight up at a building to get extreme angles. Try everything. Break out of the mold of standard shot-making. You never know if something will work until you try!

New Pier 4 condos – photographed for my client Tishman Speyer

Also, keep an eye out next week (due out Nov. 22) for the new issue of Boston Common Magazine – my photos will be featured there as well! It will be another article about the Pier 4 development.

In September, Tishman Speyer hired me to take photos of the sales office for the condos being built at Pier 4. The photo above shows one of the sample kitchens and living-room setups, so potential buyers can walk through and get an idea of what the finished condos could look like even while construction is still going on. The sales office is at the tip of the Pier 4 property, so the views are similar to what the views will be from the condos once they are done. It's a spectacular location.

As part of the sales office, there is a memory wall, showing the history of the site where Anthony’s Pier 4 was situated for so many years. So many people remember having dinners at Anthony’s, which was an icon on the Boston waterfront. I had dinner there once with my husband and his parents. Now Pier 4 is taking on a new life, and when construction is done, there will be a one-acre public park at the tip of the pier that everyone can enjoy.

It is hard to believe how quickly the Seaport has changed. Every time I go there, a new building has sprouted up! Once more retail opens up, I believe it may be quite a lively place. I definitely plan to check out the new movie theater once it opens, plus I'm enjoying all the great restaurants in the area, such as Tikkaway Grill (above, shot for PCA) and Committee (where NAIOP has held several events), and Temazcal at Liberty Wharf. District Hall also provides a great coffee shop, after-hours meetup space, and event space. All in all, I enjoy the new Seaport area, especially the easy access from the Pike, and the new parking garages I’ve found. Once there are more shops, it will buzz.

Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.

Three news items:

• Three of my photos are in the Newton Camera Club exhibit at the West Newton Cinema, and the show, featuring 60 images by 25 different photographers, will be up through Jan. 27. Great place to shop for holiday presents. Thanks to all who came to the opening reception!

• I am honored to now be the Teaching Assistant for the Digital Printing evening workshop at New England School of Photography (NESOP). The class is large enough that the teacher needs help answering all the technical questions while she focuses on the creative questions. It is great experience for me, and allows me access to NESOP facilities.

• In fact, speaking of access to NESOP, now is the time if you want prints made as large as 24x36 for a very reasonable fee. I do custom printing at home, and now can use these large printers just a block away. Email me if you are interested.

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: Taking good photos of people at events

When you attend a wedding or reunion or a work event, do your photos come out well? These days everyone shoots photos with their phone, and cell phone cameras are getting better and better. Here are some ways you can improve what you get at events, even if you are just using your phone:

• Have your subjects turn so the light in the room is hitting their face, rather than having the room lights behind them.

• Take multiple shots! Someone is always blinking. If you take three of four shots of the same people, at least one of them is bound to catch everyone with their best expressions and their eyes open.

• Capture moments where your subjects are interacting with each other, not just posed and looking at the camera. These days cameras are everywhere, so everyone knows how to pose – but what we really treasure are capturing those unguarded moments between people.

Upcoming NCC exhibit with three of my photos!

The Newton Camera Club is having its annual exhibit in November-December at the West Newton Cinema and I’m honored that three of my photographs were chosen by the curating committee! The opening will be Sunday Nov. 5 from 3:30-5:30pm. We will have lots of food and most of the photographers will be there (including me!). When you go into the cinema, just tell them you are going upstairs to the exhibit opening, not a movie.

The photo above is a shot I took last summer, which I call “Tall Ship in Boston Harbor.” I was downtown to take dusk shots of Tikkaway Grill for a client, and it was just after the Tall Ship event, so I went over to the harbor a block away to see if any were still there. There was one!! The sky was beautiful so I caught the city with the ship and some people walking by.

My second shot in the exhibit is a shot I took just last month of Toronto City Hall. I was thinking of Ezra Stoller’s iconic photographs of modernist architecture when I took it, thinking of where the people were, how to frame it with an interesting foreground, middle ground, and background. The buildings were designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell in 1965, but they remind me so much of Oscar Niemeyer’s work, including the Empire State Plaza in Albany. I tried to capture all the interesting curves.

My third image is a rare nature scene for me – frosty plants from a personal shoot last winter at Medfield State Hospital. What a cold day!

I hope you can make it to the exhibit opening! If not, let me know when you think you'll stop by and maybe I can join you.

PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH: FINDING INSPIRATION

Where do you go to find inspiration? What draws your eye? Do you ever try to capture it in a photograph? These days everyone has a camera with them, on their phone, and the saying is, your best camera is the one you have with you.

To improve your photography, keep shooting all the time! Give yourself assignments or have a friend give you one (ex. spend one day only photographing things that are yellow, or try to notice and photograph circles for a day). You’ll find you start to look at ordinary objects in different ways. Find what you enjoy shooting most. And go see exhibits of photography and artworks in other media for inspiration.

Working with an Architectural Photographer

Tips on preparing for a shoot with an architectural photographer:

• Think about what views you want to capture
• Is the place clean and tidy?
• For an exterior, tell the photographer which side of the building is most important to get in good light, so she/he can decide the best time of day to shoot it
• Are all the lightbulbs working and can they be turned on?
• Are there broken blinds? (There is nothing uglier than broken blinds!)

Thinking ahead about these details can make the results much better, and avoid last-minute surprises or retouching to be done.