Using the iPad preview photos while shooting the Philadelphia skyline.

It’s New Year’s Eve 2011, a time for looking back and looking forward. Photography has always been a technological medium. Digital has made photography both simpler and more complicated.

I use an Apple iPad with Shutter Snitch software to preview images from my Canon DSLR. Being able to see the images on its large 9 inch screen helps clients and me see and select images on a shoot.

The small size and weight of an iPad along with its day-long battery life make it a great choice for previewing images on location.

The best explanation of how to see up a Canon Wifi transmitter, a battery powered router and Shuttersnitch on the iPad is on Rob Galbraith’s web site.

This combination has been my favorite tool of 2011. I look forward to new and undiscovered tools in 2012.

Happy New Year.

"Field of Dreams" from Penn Gazette, Nov-Dec 2011

Recently the Penn Gazette ran a long feature on Penn Park, the University of Pennsylvania’s recently completed development of twenty-four acres for use as a public park and athletic fields.

Greg was given the assignment to photograph for the article. The assignment gave him an opportunity to capture a place and the people using it.

To illustrate the many uses of Penn Park and show it from many angles, Greg visited the park on four separate days. He also photographed it from a helicopter to show how the park sits in relationship to Penn’s campus and Center City Philadelphia.

Joggers using Penn Park.

Penn Park is a welcome addition of green space to this section of Philadelphia.

Soccer practice.

Rainwater that falls on the artificial turf of the athletic fields flows into underground cisterns that will store 2 million gallons of storm water annually. This water will help irrigate trees and grass on the site.

Penn Park offers many ways of enjoying the trees and open air.

Penn Park supports a series of athletic activities.

Spread from Pennsylvania Gazette's article on Penn Park.

Penn Park sits between the Penn Campus and Center City Philadelphia.

For Penn Gazette’s coverage of Penn Park, photographs from the ground are not able to tell the entire story. Greg hired a helicopter to gain a higher angle in order to show the size of the site and how it sits in relation to the Penn campus and Center City Philadelphia.

Penn Gazette Nov-Dec 2011 cover

Getting good images from the air is an exercise in team work between the photographer and the pilot. To photograph from a helicopter it’s best to fly with the door off. The cabin is very noisy and once in the air the only way to verbally communicate with the pilot is through a headset. The pilot also needs to stay attentive to any instructions he may receive from air traffic control, so chatty photographers need to keep their talking to a minimum for the sake of safety.

Greg getting ready to feel the wind in his hair.

Prior to hiring a helicopter, Greg shot the park from nearby high buildings, like Franklin Field. The view from there has power lines and the railroad line is prominent. The limitation of shooting this project from the ground led to using a helicopter.

View from the top of Franklin Field, Penn's football stadium.

For all the complications, costs, and considerations, aerial photographs show angles that photography from the ground cannot. Satellite images, while showing a view from above, do not have the same spatial quality.

Penn Park in relation to the rest of Center City Philadelphia.

For more on this assignment, see our post about photographing Penn Park from the ground.

Article on Emilio Parrado, Associate Professor of Sociology at Penn

Portrait photography is both an art and a science. Producing an exciting portrait involves both the art of seeing, plus interacting with the subject, as well as the science of employing lenses, lighting and technique.

In that spirit I have worked with the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) at University of Pennsylvania for several years. Twice a year they publish a magazine that features articles about faculty research and activities.

I worked with the writer and art director to create a photograph that would work for a two page layout and illustrate an article about Prof. Emilio Parrado’s research on the lives of Hispanic immigrants. As a visual symbol of a border, we used a razor wire topped wall near the university as a background. A low camera angle, strong off-camera lighting, digital adjustments to tone and color help establish the unsettling mood of this image.

Here are several other environmental portraits that I have shot for Arts and Sciences.

Josephine Park, Associate Professor of English & Asian American Studies

Josephine Park’s teaching and research focus on questions of representing Asian American experience. As one of the scenarios, I opted for an out of focus neutral outdoor background.

Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature

Victor Mair helped organize a large exhibition entitled, Secrets of the Silk Road, at the University Museum, as well as writing the exhibition catalog. Incorporating Asian art from the Museum into the background helps illustrate his involvement with Asian culture.

Robert Ghrist, Andrea Mitchell Penn Integrating Knowledge Professor (in Mathematics and Engineering)

The engineering building, Skirkanich Hall provides a spatially complex background for Robert Ghrist who teaches about multi-dimensional spaces beyond three dimensions.

Devesh Kapur, Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India

The historic arched spaces of the Fisher Fine Arts Library form a background for Devesh Kapur, Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India.

Carolyn Abbate, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Music

The fleeting reflections inside a curved stairwell at Irvine Auditorium helps create a simple but abstract background for this portrait of Carolyn Abbate.

Brent Helliker, Assistant Professor of Biology

Having Brent Helliker sit amongst plants re-inforces his interest in plant biology.

Antonio Merlo, Lawrence R. Klein Professor and Chair of Economics, and Penn Water Polo Coach

This playful animated portrait of Penn’s Water Polo Coach, Antonio Merlo, evolved from trying out several ideas by the pool.

New Entrance to Morristown Medical Center's Trauma Center.

The architects and construction company, who designed and built the new Trauma Center at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey, hired Greg Benson to photograph the new facility.

One of the challenges with this project was shooting the exterior, which is located on the north side of the building that does not get direct sunlight in August. Twilight proved to be a dramatic time to photograph the façade.

Hosing down the pavement helped add visual excitement to the photograph.

On the night of the shoot, the “Ambulance” sign was not lit up because the old Emergency Room entrance was still in operation. It would be confusing and potentially dangerous to have ambulances drop off emergency patients at a not yet functioning area. Using Photoshop, we were able to illuminate the unlit sign and made it glow red.

Treatment rooms at Morristown Medical Center's Trauma Center.

An emergency room runs on a 24/7 schedule. Scheduling the photo shoot before a busy facility opens is crucial for being able to take photographs of uncluttered spaces without people.

In a trauma center, utility and function are key, but good visual design can make a clinical place more welcoming and comfortable.

Nurses' Station.

Operating Room.

Entrance Vestibule.

Waiting Room.

Connecting

The Suburban West Realtors Association recently launched a campaign to attract new members and remind their more than 5,000 current members of all of the benefits they gain from the association. The association and their graphic designer envisioned a series of ads. Each would highlight one of the many benefits of membership.

Education

Their campaign is modeled after a similar one that was very successful for a realtors association in a different region, so the concept for each of the scenes to be photographed was already fully developed. Our challenge was to find distinct locations at the association headquarters and in the surrounding community that were different, interesting, and descriptive enough to successfully illustrate each of the ads.

Organization

Since the ads work as testimonials, actual members of Suburban West Realtors were photographed instead of paid models.

Resource

As always, when working with real people and not models, we make a specific effort to make everyone feel at ease in front of the camera, and give plenty of direction so that their poses have a feeling of purpose.

One Voice/Advocacy

Even with the minimal choice of locations available, through lighting and educated camera choices, we were able to deliver five images that successfully illustrate each of the ads and do not feel repetitious.

King of Prussia Mall on left and plant detail at One Plymouth Meeting on right

When S&H Interiorscapes worked with their design agency to develop a web site, we were hired to photograph several of  their clients’ spaces. S&H provides and maintains plants for commercial environments, including offices and malls. Our challenge was to show, at web size, how their plants not only add texture to these spaces, but transform them.

S&H Interiorscapes' Homepage

We scouted the prospective locations before scheduling final photography. Visiting the locations ahead of time helped us determine the best places to photograph, and helped us figure out what time of day and weather would be appropriate for the final shoots.

1055 Westlakes, Berwyn, Pennsylvania

Brandywine Realty Trust

Orchid in lobby of Brandywine Realty Trust

To highlight the quality of their work, we shot close-ups that show S&H’s subtle attention to detail.

1205 Westlakes, Berwyn, Pennsylvania

Radnor Financial Center

We were asked to help produce three very different on-location photographs for Popeyes’ annual report. We produced a photo with models, an environmental portrait, and an architectural twilight shot.

Lunchtime at Popeyes

The lead shot is a group of customers ordering lunch at the counter. This image had to fit to a specific tight layout and called for three professional models, a hair and make up stylist, and a wardrobe stylist. The location was only available for a few hours before the restaurant opened and actual customers started showing up. We photographed into a laptop so that we could immediately see the image in the final layout in Photoshop.

Franchise owners Amish and Ashish Parikh

The second image of the two franchise owners is an environmental portrait, a portrait that incorporates the subject’s surroundings into the image. The restaurant’s bright new graphics add visual interest.

Popeyes Restaurant at night

Our final image for the report was a twilight exterior architectural shot. We added strobe lighting to balance with the existing light.

All three images fit into a tight layout with curves and circles.

Townhouses on American Street in Philadelphia.

On May 28, an urban residential project that I shot a few years ago for Doug Culbert and Daryl Rothmund of Materiality was featured on the “world’s most visited architecture website,” Arch Daily.

This project in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties section has sleek modern design with metal panels, in contrast to the usual red brick Philadelphia rowhouse.

Balcony Detail.

Bi-level interior space.

Second floor bathroom.

Broad Street facade of Pennsylvania Convention Center.

My photographs of the interior are here.

The new expansion to Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Convention Center adds a dramatic facade on Broad Street near City Hall.

View of Convention Center with City Hall in the background.

Photographing in a busy urban area is a challenge. Cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, and pedestrians crowd the streets, creating visual distractions. Minimizing their presence allows the building to stand out.

Wide view of Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion.

As part of my preparation for photographing the center’s exteriors, I received permission from the Philadelphia Film Office to mark the 1300 block of Arch Street as a “no parking” zone for the day of the shoot. This enabled me to take photographs of the south-facing facade without parked cars distracting the viewer’s attention.

Arch Street facade of Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion.

Bridge that connects the new expansion with the existing Pennsylvania Convention Center.