Roger Wade Studio, Inc.

There are many preparations to be made before photography production can begin and it is best to think through the following points before the day of the shoot. Before a shoot can begin, we will need to know all the parties and contact info that wish to be involved in the photography production. This should include office and after-hours numbers in case it is necessary to contact a client during the shoot. We also need to know contact information for the building owner and maintenance personnel if applicable. In most cases a signed confirmation and cash deposit will be required prior to commencement.

Questions that need to be answered before the shoot include: How much documentation of the project is desired? Will all participating parties want the same shots or are different shots required? How many interior and exterior views will be needed? Which rooms and spaces should be photographed? What about vignettes and detail shots? Twilight shots?

Summer Splendor

Screened Porch With Fall Colors

When choosing photography date(s) one should have an idea of the quantity of photography required and the length of time involved to produce it. In a typical eight-hour day we can photograph about 14 views. Twilight shots may require an extra half day or overtime to complete. Other considerations include whether or not the site will be occupied during shooting and if the owner, client or representative will be on site. The time of year a project is photographed can have important ramifications on the “feel” of the photography and the message being conveyed. Seasonal considerations include the typical weather for the time of year being photographed, tree color, flowers, snow and seasonal decorations.

Winter Twilight

Spring Greens Add Color And Life

There are also important site considerations that the photographer should know about beforehand. How is the site situated in relation to morning and evening sun? Do trees, buildings or other objects cast unseemly shadows or block views? Will construction and landscaping be completed before the day of the shoot? Will building materials and equipment be removed?

Thinking about the important aspects of a shoot beforehand and knowing the answers to these critical questions ensures that everyone is well prepared and in agreement on what needs to be accomplished when the photographer arrives.

Next up: Day of the Shoot. The conclusion coming soon…

Architectural photographers, like all artists, own the copyright to their work. Photographic fees are actually a client’s cost to license the rights to use a photograph in a certain way for a specified period of time. Rights packages vary by the type of usage and the value that the architectural or interior photography brings to each client.

Master Bathroom

Many of our clients choose to purchase marketing and promotional rights, which covers usage such as brochures, web use, portfolio and display prints. Some purchase additional rights such as editorial use, which allow them the ability to submit to publications and grant magazines the right to publish the photography without compensation to the photographer. Industry exclusive use enables the licensee to be the sole user of the photography, prohibiting the photographer from licensing use to others in the same industry. This exclusivity comes as an added value to the licensee, however, and it is more costly than non-exclusive use.

Rear Elevation with Terrace and Pool

Purchasing the minimum amount of rights, tailored to each client’s specific needs, provides the best possible value in the photographic investment. If you provide us with a description of how the photography is intended to be used, we can determine the correct licensing package for you.

Coming Soon: The Day of the Shoot

If you have a project that you would like documented, the first step is to send us a description of the space including its name, location, size, style, construction materials, environment and any other pertinent information. Scouting photos of the exterior angles and interior rooms are very helpful in developing a production plan and give the photographer and stylist valuable information for determining the amount of preparation and styling needed for different views.

Scouting Photo of Overall Elevation

Scouting Photo of Property Scenery

In most cases, there are many different parties that have worked together to create an architectural space. Architects, builders, designers, contractors and sub-contractors all have a need for professional documentation of their craft. Many times, interested parties can “cost-share” a photography shoot to save money on the production of the images. Splitting the expenses of a shoot can be a great way to lower the cost and maximize the value of your photography. We’re happy to contact project participants to determine their level of interest in obtaining photos of their work, if supplied with contact information.

Scouting Photo of Great Room

Scouting Photo of Downstairs

Our studio has extensive editorial contacts at many national and regional magazines across the country. As a major part of our client services, we are continually submitting projects we photograph in order to gain exposure for our clients. If you are wondering if your project has potential for publication, send scouting shots to us and we will be more than happy to visit with you about the possibilities for placement.

Stay tuned for our next installment on photography licensing.

Photographing an architectural space is a large undertaking - requiring planning, communication and resource management among multiple parties. A typical shoot generally takes a day or more to complete, depending on the size of the space and the quantity of views ordered. To assist our clients with the preparations for photographing an architectural project, we have put together some information explaining different aspects that should be addressed prior to a shoot and what to expect during photography production.

Great Room Towards Fireplace

Front Entry

I will be publishing a series of blog posts over the coming days concerning the following topics: The Project and Interested Parties, Licensing, Before the Shoot and Day of the Shoot. We hope these articles will answer many of the questions common to photographing architectural spaces and help you prepare for your next project. A little pre-planning and foresight can go a long way in making sure that a photography shoot goes off without a hitch and everyone is happy with the results. We look forward to hearing from you and servicing you soon.

We have found the perfect photo book. A small publishing company is producing coffee-table style books exclusively for professional photographers and designers. They offer many different styles of books, from leather hardcovers to full bleed softcovers. Their product line comes in a variety of sizes, page finishes and with up to 100 pages per book.

The books can be used for many different purposes - wedding memories, landscape photography, resale or marketing. We have used them for several different projects and recently had them make us a 20 page 7×7 softcover promotional piece highlighting Roger’s architectural photography and we were very pleased with the results.

Full Bleed Cover

Pages 16 & 17

This relatively new, but quickly growing business model of high quality, small order, print-on-demand self-publishing has enabled photographers, as well as authors, designers and small businesses to surmount the price barrier of publication and to get their message seen by a larger audience via a professional and polished product.

Although a bit of design knowledge and Photoshop expertise are often requisites for individuals or companies looking to self publish, the results can be fantastic and very customizable to individual needs.

If anyone is interested in the idea of making a book to showcase their professional work, we are new representatives and are pleased to offer our professional services in designing and creating your vision. Please contact us for more information.

It’s the end of November. The leaves have fallen, the skies are gray and each day is a bit darker and colder than the one that preceded it. With the final chapter of this tumultuous year being written in the coming weeks, we look with quiet optimism to the future and what it has in store and reflect on the family and friends around us for which we will be forever grateful.

From all of us at Roger Wade Studio, we wish you and your family a very special Thanksgiving Day.

    For each new morning with its light,

    For rest and shelter of the night,

    For health and food, for love and friends,

    For everything Thy goodness sends.

        ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

John Hendricks, AIA, of Hendricks Architecture in Sandpoint, Idaho, managed to find time between designing stunning mountain homes to write an interesting post on his blog detailing the importance of interior designers, their role within the design process and how they can actually save you money in the long run:

Interior designers specialize in choosing color schemes, as well as selecting furnishings, fixtures and finishes. Anyone who has ever attempted to do something as seemingly uncomplicated as selecting coordinated fixtures for a home, or choosing interior finishes that work well together knows that the sheer number of choices is overwhelming.

Researching and shopping for fixtures can be incredibly time consuming, and having someone come to you that knows how to select and source these products is a huge time saver. I have seen homeowners attempt the task of decorating a large house, only to be overwhelmed and eventually taking over a year to furnish it incompletely. Interior designers are not free, but they can complete the task in a much smaller amount of time, and can actually save owners on costs. These cost savings may be in the form of cost discounts, more cost effective fixtures, and “time is money” savings.

Interior designer Jane Scott worked closely with Hendricks Architecture to achieve a cohesive vision for this understated but striking mountain home.

More photos of the property here.

Front 3/4 Elevation

Living Room Towards Kitchen

Big Sky Journal, for those of you unfamiliar with the publication, is a delightful regional magazine showcasing Northern Rockies living at it’s finest: arts and architecture, fine dining, fishing, ranching and all the things that make Montana and the West such a wonderful place to live. The 2009 Fly Fishing issue features one of Roger’s projects situated on a secluded stretch of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River in Island Park, Idaho. World class fishing and magnificent wilderness were the driving forces behind the creation of this fly fishing retreat.

Anglers come from around the world to fish the waters near Island Park, Idaho. The Henry’s Fork — selected by Trout Unlimited members as their favorite river — is the main draw, but add the South Fork, the Snake River, the Madison and the Yellowstone, among others, and the area is the stuff of dreams and superlatives.

Jackson based architectural firm, Ellis Nunn & Associates, together with Pioneer Log Homes of Victor, Montana created this 6,000 square foot handcrafted log home to maximize the watery views and the experience of intimate river living. See more photos here or check out BSJ’s online article.

3/4 Elevation Through Aspens

Bunk Room

Further down the Snake, near the iconic Western town of Jackson, Wyoming, sits a 7,600 square foot rustic lodge surrounded by natural wetlands and tall cottonwoods. Inspired by historic log architecture, another venerable Jackson architectural firm, Carney Architects, designed this residence to blend with the delicate flora and fauna contained on the property. From the 2009 Spring/Summer Issue:

Inside, the home has a scale that is as cozy as a historic log cabin may have been a century ago. There are no cathedral windows or giant logs to dwarf the human scale here; only the great room seems expansive, as it was designed for entertaining. Yet the dining room, kitchen and study, which flank the high-ceilinged great room, feature lower ceilings to create intimacy.

Rear Elevation at Twilight

Family Room

Haven’t seen enough? View more images of this residence here.

My last post on February 9th seems like a long time ago…and just like yesterday.

We flew south on March 6th to Orlando, FL to position ourselves, as usual, for our shooting tour of the southeastern states. The few shoots that we had anticipated photographing in the SE were all put on hold until fall, a clear indicator of the economic times. But as luck would have it, two of our clients, McLaughlin & Associates Architects and Studio Waterman, decided it was time to photograph their latest project collaboration in Hawaii, and so we worked out the details of scheduling a shoot on the Big Island.

All went smoothly with travel and shooting, in spite of the skies being not so picture perfect, due mostly to a Hawaii weather condition termed volcanic smog, or vog for short. We managed to get lucky with enough vog breaks to get the exteriors we needed, including some fabulous sunsets, which perhaps we owe, in part, to the vog.

Outdoor terrace looking out to pool and views of the Pacific Ocean at sunset

Great room looking out through pocket door to the Pacific Ocean

Dining lanai looking towards terrace, infinity pool and the Pacific Ocean at twilight

See more Hawaii photos here

As always, we sniffed out some pretty good food spots. AND THE WINNERS ARE…

For breakfast we stocked up on the local island fruits, Kona coffee, macadamias and banana bread we purchased at the Kona farmer’s market right on the main drag. Who could ask for anything more?

For lunch, the consensus was Ceviche Dave’s, a tiny little joint tucked into a small plaza behind Kona’s Home Depot. Obviously not meant for tourists, this is off the beaten path, and in fact we discovered it through our iPhone application Urban Spoon, a God-send for road warriors like us. Dave serves up a fresh catch of the day in several different ceviche flavors. We opted for the sampler to get a portion of each, then went back for seconds of the Tahitian style ono in coconut milk, with green onions, parsley, bell peppers and cucumbers. Google Ceviche Dave’s for a mouthwatering read!

The dinner winner has to be a late night treat, after shooting twilights, at the Four Season’s Lava Lounge. We shared two snacks from their pupu menu, a delectable barbecued shrimp skewer and black angus “sliders” - cute mini burgers you can gobble up in one bite. Now, you realize that with all of the other meals of incredibly fresh fish and island grown accompaniments, this Lava Lounge food HAD to be awesome. It was!

Now back in Orlando, we are spending most of our time marketing and working on our website. We return to Montana on May 9th, shifting from 80 degrees and sunshine weather to 40 and rain. Time to toughen up and get back in the saddle again.

Aloha~

Hitting newstands now, Architectural Digest’s April 09 issue features two of Roger’s recent projects. Beginning on page 125, a Japanese minka house in northern Arizona serves as a Zen-like weekend retreat for a busy couple from Phoenix in Southwest Satori. From the article:

“If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?” The rhetorical question was posed by Dogen, the 13th-century Japanese scholar and founder of the Soto branch of Zen Buddhism. Nearly a millennium later, the sentiment is built into the design of a remarkable house in northern Arizona: a faithful iteration of a Japanese minka, which translates very loosely as “a residence for average folk.” Today the word minka can be used more generally to describe any house that features classic Japanese design elements.

Front Elevation

Engawa

In Rustic Redefined, a Toronto, Ontario home showcases the work and talent of our clients, architect firm Locati Architects and interior design firm Locati Interiors. The house began as an idea by the homeowners to reimagine a dilapidated cabin falling down on their property. Reimagined indeed. The result was an amalgamation of materials which invoke the aesthetic of the wild west: reclaimed timbers, rusted steel, logs, Oklahoma fieldstone and barnwood.

“An architect shouldn’t give himself away at the front door,” says Locati, paraphrasing Frank Lloyd Wright. “A house should have a sense of discovery.” This one does. The low-ceilinged, rectangular entrance hall barely hints at how the interior volumes expand, radically and intriguingly, in the rooms ahead. Some of these, such as the family and dining areas, feel so open as to seem barely contained.
“As you move through the rooms, you get a sense of space and light,” says Locati. “The ceiling starts to open up. The floor steps away. The rooms widen.” The interior space reaches its apex in the great room, with a vaulted ceiling that rises to 24 feet. Strong horizontal elements, including a hefty mantelpiece that cantilevers from the fireplace of Oklahoma stone, offset the room’s upward thrust, making it feel “open but still cozy,” says the wife.

Front Elevation

Great Room

The story begins on page 156 or you can read it online. View more pictures of the property here.