Architectural photography in Texas for Park West College Station

Architectural photography in Texas for Park West College Station

Sometimes the mere size of a student housing property will make me stop and cry. When I arrived at Park West in College Station late in the morning, after realizing that there were actually 3 pools as I drove around this massive property I knew that I would be adding another night at my hotel. Sure enough, to shoot aerial drone photos, tripod photos, drone video and gimbal video, took every bit of two days. The video ended up coming together beautifully.

Park West College Station drone photo

Park West Rooftop Pool College Station

See the video here:

Architectural Photography and Aerial Drone Photos for Barshop & Oles

Architectural photograph of HEB Lakeline AFTER EDITING

Architectural Photography and Aerial Drone Photos for Barshop & Oles

As a professional architectural photographer in Austin Texas, I am always looking for ways to improve my photographs. For Barshop and Oles Company I recently had the chance to think outside the box. For this photograph of HEB at Lakeline Mall in Austin, I decided to merge 10 photos of people walking in and out of the store and mask each of the customers in so that the store looked even more busy than it was. Since the sky was an ugly hazy gray I replaced it in Photoshops with the new SKY REPLACEMNT tool which is absolutely a lifesaver when editing exterior photographs.

Architectural photograph of HEB Lakeline BEFORE EDITING

Architectural photograph of HEB Lakeline AFTER EDITING

The client also wanted two aerial cityscapes – one of Austin and one of San Antonio, and asked me to try to blend the two into one photograph. The composite image has Austin on the Left and San Antonio on the Right. And of course I added a pretty sky to the blended image.

Austin San Antonio Cityscape blended

BEFORE EDITING Aerial Cityscape of Austin

BEFORE EDITING the composite of Austin on the left and San Antonio on the right

Emulating the still life photographic style of Paulette Tavormina

At March 19, 2020
By Johnny Stevens
In architectural photographer austin, Fine Art, Floral, Photography, professional, scenic, still life
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Emulating the still life photographic style of Paulette Tavormina

One of my Westlake students for whom I am a photography mentor for the Independent Study Program at Westlake High School wanted to shoot a still life. I have always admired the work of Paulette Tavormina. Her fine art photography rises above the crowd of fine art photographers. Here is an example of her work.

Paulette Tavormina Roses+and+Figs_2013

My student, Jake and I moved some furniture around in my living room and built a black backdrop to cut out the ambient light. We lit the scene from several different angles with a Westcot mini strip light and painted in the lit areas in Photoshop.

Set up for Floral Fine Art photography austin Johnny Stevens

Here is what we ended up with.

Floral still life Fine Art photography Austin Johnny Stevens

Converting the Living room for a Studio Portrait

At February 25, 2020
By Johnny Stevens
In architectural photographer austin, Austin photographer, Photography, portrait, portrait photography, professional, strobe, studio
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Converting the Living room for a Studio Portrait makes you think about setting up a permanent studio somewhere. I did this for my Westlake High School mentee, Krishan so he could learn the basics of portrait photography. Our set up was a 3 point lighting setup – a main light, back light and a bounce card for the fill light. Skylar was our model from San Marcos.

Portrait photographer austin texas home studio

Testing the Crop loss with Canon TS-E 17mm lens on Canon Mark iii versus on the Sony A7R with Matabones V adapter

At March 02, 2019
By Johnny Stevens
In architectural photos, architecutral, Austin photographer, Canon, lens, professional, real estate photography, Sony, Tilt shift
0

Testing the Crop loss on with Canon TS-E 17mm lens on Canon Mark iii

and on the Sony A7R

The Canon 5D Mark iii with TS-E 17 mm tilt shift lens professional photographer austin

My buddy Marc Swendner and I got the idea of testing the focal Canon TS-E 17mm tilt shift lens on both my Canon Mark iii and with his new Sony A7R with the Metabones V adapter ring. Both of us shoot architectural photography and since he bought the new Sony A7R he wanted to see if the new Sony camera would support the TS-E 17 mm tilt shift lens that we both depend on for our work. This 17 mm tilt shift lens is absolutely the cats meow because it is dead on sharp and it allows us to control the perspective of our interior and exterior photographs. Our hopes were that the Sony AR7 could deliver the same focal width with the adapter ring on it. Here are the results. The adapter ring on the Sony does crop the image significantly. It renders the TS-E 17 mm lens to be equivalent to about a 26 mm lens after the crop effect.

Austin photographers Johnny Stevens and Marc Swendner testing the TS-E titl shift 17 mm lens with the Canon and the Sony

Austin photographers Johnny Stevens and Marc Swendner testing the TS-E tilt shift 17 mm lens with the Canon and the Sony

The Sony AR7 with adapter ring

Image from the Canon 5 D Mark 3 with 17mm tilt shift lens Johnny Stevens photography

Image from the sony AR7 with adapter ring on the 17mm tilt shift lens Marc Swendner photography

Image from the Sony AR7 with Metabones V adapter ring on the 17mm tilt shift lens Marc Swendner photography

Painting installation for Laurel Daniel

At February 24, 2019
By Johnny Stevens
In architectural photos, Austin photographer, Fine Art, professional
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Painting installation for Laurel Daniel

I recently drove to Houston to shoot a painting installation for Laurel Daniel who was commissioned by Methodist Hospital to paint three large canvases to be installed in their corridors of the new North Tower. Here is a little about Laurel:

BA in Art Wheaton College, 1979, Wheaton, Illinois

Coursework at San Francisco Academy of Art, 1981-1983, SF, CA

Coursework at The Contemporary Austin Art School, 2000-2005

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND:

With a degree in studio art and 19 years in the graphic design business, Laurel now paints full-time and teaches at The Contemporary Austin Art School. She is an avid plein air painter and says, “Plein air painting is a huge part of my process – it feeds, motivates, and is the source for studio work. It is an excuse to be outside, experiencing nature firsthand. The whole process is irresistible to me.”

ARTIST STATEMENT:

My lifelong love for nature inspires me to contemplate the landscape. As a plein air painter, I begin outside, working quickly to discern the shifting patterns of shadows and light. Back in studio, I try to paint with the same closely-observed spontaneity. Capturing a moment in time is an impossible task, but for me, an endlessly compelling one.

The Paintings:

“Roses in Hermann Park” (mother and son, red roses)

“Bayou Bend Pathway”
(Man and woman, pink azaleas)

“Tunnel of Trees”
(Father and son, tree tunnel)

All are scenes of Houston.
All are oil on canvas. all are 56″ x 120″ (Essentially 5′ x 10′)

I photographed these with my Canon 5D Mark iii and the Canon 17mm Tilt Shift lens in natural light.

Laurel Daniel installation of “Bayou Bend Pathway” at Memorial Hospital Houston corridor shot photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Tunnel of Trees” at Memorial Hospital Houston corridor shot photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Tunnel of Trees” at Memorial Hospital Houston close shot photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Tunnel of Trees” at Memorial Hospital Houston elevation shot photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Bayou Bend Pathway” at Memorial Hospital Houston close up photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Bayou Bend Pathway” at Memorial Hospital Houston elevation shot photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Roses in Hermann Park” corridor shot at Memorial Hospital Houston photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Roses in Hermann Park” at Memorial Hospital Houston photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Laurel Daniel installation of “Roses in Hermann Park” elevation shot at Memorial Hospital Houston photographed by Johnny Stevens Austin architectural photographer

Testing Neewer Vision 4 lights at US Money Reserve

At September 09, 2018
By Johnny Stevens
In Fine Art, headshots, lifestyle photography, portrait, portrait photography, professional
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Testing Neewer Vision 4 lights at US Money Reserve

For my Client US Money Reserve I spent the first full day shooting business portraits, and on day two we spent half the day running from office to office shooting candid office lifestyle photographs. This gave me the opportunity to test out my new Vision 4 lights. I was excited about the price, but failed to think about that fact that at that $200 price point, there had to be something that was missing. Indeed it was that I cannot control the output of the lights from the remote trigger on the camera. This is only a slight inconvenience to get up from behind the tripod and go dial up or down the f stop on the lights. They are battery powered and one battery lasted all afternoon.