Recent architectural shoots proved a big change from shooting flowers…..challenging yet fun!
What’s Different?
Photographing flowers is an organic process. To a large extent the flowers find their own rhythm and tumble through the frame.
Conversely photographing architecture requires a lot of lining up to ensure the image captures the same symmetry as the building itself. It’s a more technical approach. A wide angle lens instead of a macro lens is required. See RAGGC Clubhouse images below.
The columns of the clubhouse are a standout feature. The putting green gives context. And grounds the building giving tonal contrast to the otherwise light drenched interior.
Materials – The unique brick work is an interior as well as exterior feature. Timber features too and in the club room brings a mellow traditional atmosphere. It contrasts and compliments the overall contemporary aesthetic of the building. Both materials convey a sense of solidity and permeance. Flowers however have a transitory fleeting life.
What’s the Same?
Form – when photographing I’m often looking for a “letter of the alphabet”…..or some sort of underlying geometric form (circles, semi-circles, rectangles). In the Clubhouse light fittings, coffee tables and planters are circular. Even the columns are circular, with their exquisite bespoke brickwork. So to with flowers the more form a bloom has, the stronger the composition becomes. Repeated forms create a more coherent design.
See Metalier Coatings circular baton Installation in Westfield Mall, Newmarket, and circular forms of the Peonies below.
Form is further accentuated by colour and contrast. Click image to enlarge.
Whatever I’m photographing I prefer to shoot using only natural light.