Dangerous Architectural Photographer

I don’t know that I’d classify myself as “dangerous” when shooting architecture but, as documented by my trusty first assistant Rory White (and his Swiss Army Knife iPhone), standing precariously on the roof a moving truck might qualify me as a little “risky.”

I spent the last two days just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee in a Sevierville on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains photographing Le Conte Hospital. We were greeted with snow, cold and sunshine. Thankfully we did most of our photography in the warmth of a beautiful new facility.

Maybe a more apropos word for this situation would be “improvise.” In the absence of a lift we were able to make use of a moving truck in the parking lot to get the elevation we needed for an exterior elevation shot. The sun was setting to my back and the building and sky were cooperating as best they could given the circumstances … dormant landscaping and frigid temperatures.

Getting the shot … whatever it takes.

The view from the ground via rear view mirror.

Note to self: Next time bring gloves so Rory doesn’t have to loan his out and freeze his hands.

- Kyle
ps. I’ll post the final images from this shoot at a later date after I process the images.

Nashville Arts ~ Valentine Food

The February issue of Nashville Arts Magazine just hit the stands this week. The creative team lead by Paul Polucarpou and Katie Sulkowski make for a fun group to work with.

This particular feature was driven by poetry from Alimentum: The Literature of Food and written by Paulette Licitra.

On the photography side of things our A-team lineup in the studio was fabulous food stylist Teresa Blackburn, innovative recipe developer Nancy Vienneau, and trusted first-assistant Rory White.

There’s probably a lot that could be said for chocolate truffles, berry cobbler, lemon cake, kiwi tart, chocolate banana parfait and tiramisu, but I’d prefer to let the images do the talking.

Berry Cobbler

Tiramisu

Tiramisu (outtake)

Chocolate Banana Parfait (outtake)

Chocolate Truffls

Chocolate Banana Parfait (outtake)

Lemon Cake with Lemon Liquor

Kiwi Tart

This was a fun assignment. Thanks to everyone involved.

- Kyle
“Yum … that was good!”

New Vanderbilt Hospital Critical Care Tower

Looking at the campus of the Vanderbilt Hospital you’d think there wasn’t any room to fit a new building. Somehow Earl Swensson Associates managed to fit this 200+ critical care tower and integrate it into existing facilities. Betsy and Ken were great to work with on this project, as was my first assistant Rory … always the can-do man on the job. Sandy, you were missed but you deserved a little break.

Probably the most interesting aspect of this shoot was getting into scrubs to enter the surgical area. We were quite the site. The technology in the bi-planner room was amazing. I can only imagine what it’s like while actually being utilized. See the special green lighting in the OR room below which is used to assist during operations.

Critical Care Tower Atrium

Vanderbilt Hospital Critical Care Tower Atrium

Vanderbilt Hospital Critical Care Tower Atrium

Vanderbilt Hospital Critical Care Tower - Nurses Station

Vanderbilt Hospital Critical Care Tower - ICU Room

Vanderbilt Hospital Critical Care Tower - bi-planer operating room

This facility is amazing. I enjoyed photographing it. However, I hope that I don’t have to go there for any other reason.

- Kyle

Food from across the pond

Following are images from an editorial gig for Home Life magazine which is a title produced by Life Way in Nashville. A fun project. Always a pleasure to work with my assistant Rory and food stylist Teresa. And, the art director was great to work with. Thanks Susan for an all around a fun assignment.

Feature Opener - British Food

Chicken Pasties

Bangers and Mash

Potato Wedges

Pudding Cake

There you have it … or as they’d say in the UK … “Bob’s your uncle!”

-Kyle

Trying to Share

I’ve been delinquent in posting recent samples from both food photography and architectural photography assignments to my blog. I’m attempting to remedy my lack of sharing this morning in an effort to start off 2010 on a good foot.

October and November of last year were the busiest I’ve experienced ever. I was fortunate, particularly in light of what so many others are experiencing in the current state of our economy. I spent most of December playing catch up with business matters and other marketing efforts.

Enough of my excuses, how about I show some work.

Stand by … see following posts.

- Kyle

Mega Megapixels

In a world of “more is better” I often find myself fighting for the “less is more” concept. (see Mr. Critical’s prior post) But today, I’m here to tell you, that more megapixels IS better … at least when you couple that with a medium format Phase One digital back, a Hasselblad camera and a superior lens.

First, let me say that not all megapixels are created equal. I’ll go into detail in a subsequent post. The main point is that a bigger sensor size makes for happier megapixels.

So, wanna see what comes from a 31.6 megapixel digital back?

Here’s the final image which is cropped close to full frame.

Here are a few images taken from the image at actual (1:1) size.

Can you see what I mean?

Stay tuned for more happy thoughts and opinions about megapixels.

-Kyle