Yesterday I spent the day on a shoot in foggy London. Generally the fog burns off by the afternoon, but not yesterday, when it remained the frustrate me for the whole day. Afterward, I met up with good mate Mr. Thomas Howlett for a drink in Borough Market and when we left the pub we were chatting about the Shard, which becomes more and more unavoidable with every day. Anyways, lit up and in the fog, it’s started to look very much like a set piece from Blade Runner.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

January and February are notoriously bad times for architectural photographers to do external work. The damn weather means I check the forecast updates as much as I check my emails (almost). Fortunately, interiors work isn’t so affected by the poor weather so that comes to the forefront in these months. Fellow photographer and good mate, Adam Bronkhorst, and I were in Hastings recently for a couple of projects we have on and he took a number of shots of me looking exceptionally pleased that it rained all day…

I don’t think I’m allowed to mention Adam’s project, but needless to say it’s racked up a few miles and is pretty exciting. I’ll tell more when I get the OK from him…

On a slightly nicer day in Feb, another photographer friend Ian Rudgewick-Brown ably assisted me on a shoot I had in the Surrey countryside and we both realised that our job is pretty good if we’re getting paid to spend the day in the sun in the countryside. He managed to capture one of the very very rare occasions where I’m shooting without a tripod…

And there ends this incredibly narcissistic blog post.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

Photographer, friend and all-round good egg, Kevin Meredith (aka Lomokev) has just realised his new book, published by Rotovision in the UK and someone else whose name I can’t remember in the US. It’s called “Toy Cameras” in the UK and “Plastic Fantastic” in the US and is an excellent compendium of all the different lo-fi cameras out there today. If anyone is in a position to write a book on this subject, it’s Kev as he’s made a name from his incredible lomography work. The book features both lomo and alternative cameras – you can see a good stop-motion flick through it on his blog, here.

The book is out now in the UK and Kev is selling copies himself at the same price as Amazon (inc. shipping) and it’ll be out in the US come May.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

The Process of Photographing Architecture, with Jim Stephenson of clickclickjim – how to better photograph Architecture and Interiors, and why you should be doing it.

Saturday, 26th March, 2011 10:30am ’till 5pm (ish). £48 for the day (tea and biscuits included…)

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT HAS NOW PASSED. THE NEXT WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD ON 22nd OCTOBER, 2011. MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE.

A full day workshop on the how’s and why’s of photographing buildings, inside and out.

After some introductions, the day will start with a brief look at some of the most important architectural photographers throughout history and specifically how they approached their work and what techniques they used to make their images so special.

After this, we’ll go through some basic techniques as well as some handy hints, tips and tricks focusing both on exteriors and interiors. Bringing along your camera will be essential, whether it be a setup worth more than your house, or a simple point-and-shoot, we’ll go through how to get the best out of it as we head out to a location in town and try out some of what we’ve covered so far. If you have a favourite building in Brighton, let me know and I’ll choose one from the list to photograph. Again, we’ll do some interiors and exteriors practical work.

Somewhere around there, we’ll grab some lunch, and once we’ve done photographing it’s back to the venue (which will be in central Brighton) where we’ll go through some post-production trickery that will add the extra edge to your images and finish them off nicely. I’ll show you my typical workflow, and we’ll try and cover a range of common techniques in photoshop. There’ll be a chance now to look through everyone’s images and do some (friendly) critique, highlighting things to think about next time.

Finally, we’ll finish up with some question and answer time, followed by a round of backpatting and congratulating each other on the amazing photos we’ve all taken.

The day will will start at 10:30am and finish around 5pm, however, if anyone wants to hang around a bit longer I’d be happy to go through nighttime shooting as well as it’ll be getting dark quite early by then. Please bring along a camera and a tripod (if you have one – if you don’t, let me know and I’ll try and organise a spare for you). A wide-angle lens will prove useful, but is by no means essential. We’ll be indoors for much of the day, but we will be heading out for a bit, so bring some warm clothes. To allow me to help everyone as much as possible, class sizes will be limited to 10 people – I will add an extra date, if needed. If you have any questions at all, drop me a line on jim@clickclickjim.com and I’ll try and answer them. You can check out more of my architectural photography on my website, clickclickjim.

Please note; this course will not be covering the business side of being an architectural photographer (winning clients, running a business, etc etc), unless you ask some pretty specific questions in the Q&A. clickclickjim can accept no responsibility for lost, damaged or stolen equipment before, during, or after the workshop.
Here’s what some previouse attendees have said about the workshop…

“I just wanted to say what a fantastic time I had on your architectural photography workshop, it was just the right mix of classroom theory and practical application. I came away with an even greater appreciation for this area of photography and feel really inspired to shoot in a much more informed way in the future. Your workshop is as far as I know unique in the UK, so keep up the good work” Ian Rudgewick Brown, Dec 2010

“I would like to thank Jim Stephenson for a well presented architectural photography workshop. The course has given me some useful techniques and new ideas I hope to utilise not only for future architecture shoots in my photography, but also in general going forwards. Thank you.” Ashley Burt, Dec 2010

“It was a great day, awful weather, but the content was brilliant and I certainly feel inspired to get out and shoot more buildings!” Steve Mileham, Dec 2010

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This might not be the most exciting news, but I’m pretty chuffed about it. I’ve just changed all my branding and stationery. It’s now a bit more in line with each other (instead of being a bit of a mish-mash of previous bits and bobs) and fits my website and blog a bit better. New letterheads, invoices and compliment slips PLUS some new foil-blocked business cards and composite CD mailer mounts for when I post discs of images. Here’s some images…

Props to Mark Ferguson from the excellent Very Own Studio for giving me a few ideas on printing techniques, Richard Peters for prepping the cards to print and Ian Stopford from IST Printing for printing the cards.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

Before I was an architectural photographer I was an architectural technologist for a number of years. For those who don’t know, an architectural technologist is sort of like an architect but with more technical knowledge and less theory. So my tasks were to ensure that all the details in the building were designed in such a way so as the overall design of the building wasn’t compromised. This suited me as I got to be involved in the design a lot and I love the details. This is something that comes through in my photography as well – when asked to document a structure I’ll take all the typical shots you’d expect, plus a series of details. Some are literal details of an interesting construction, some highlight the use of a materials and some are more abstract. I noticed the other day I’m starting to build a bit of a portfolio of “White Details” – mostly abstracted images from photographing private residences. Here are some of them….

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson, Architectural Photographer. If you’d like to see more of my work, please visit my portfolio website at www.clickclickjim.com

The internet is awash with images of London’s Shard by Renzo Piano as it continues to grow and take it’s place amongst London’s skyline. Do we really need one more image of this? Well, yes. Indulge me. Here’s mine, taken on January 28th whilst shooting the interiors of a nearby new skyscraper, with some stormy and miserable January skies…

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson, Architectural Photographer. If you’d like to see my portfolio, please head to www.clickclickjim.com

Oh, the joys of being an architectural photographer in the British Winter. The weather is one of the many many variables I have to be acutely aware of as an Architectural Photographer. I use a number of apps and websites to make sure I know sunrise and sunset times, the weather, amount of sunlight in a day, cloud cover and colour and any amounts of ludicrous details that even Michael Fish doesn’t care about. I know what angle the sun will be at a given time and in a chosen location. It’s ridiculous to be honest. But it is really important.

In January I headed out to photograph West Ealing’s Green Man Lane Estate for my client who was after a record of the estate for demolition begins later this year and construction commences on new homes for the residents. Fortunately, the client didn’t insist upon blue skies, which made my job slightly easier, but it was bloody cold out there. I made two visits, one with snow (which the client and I preferred) and one without (which the press preferred). Not the most glamorous location (and more than a hint of East Berlin), but I do have a bit of a thing for 60’s built housing and concrete…

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. To view my portfolio, please head to my website.

A while back I photographed the Rodhus Studio spaces in Brighton for owner Richard Ainsworth. Furniture designer Sean Dare of Dare Studios saw the images, gave me a call and commissioned me to photograph his new range of furniture. Sean is going to be showing some of his work in the spaces once they open and I’ve long been a fan of his work, so we got together the next day and spent a some time shifting his pieces around the bright, white former factory space.

You can see more of Dare Studio’s work on their website. This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

Last Thursday I went to The Gopher Hole, a project space in Hoxton founded by Aberrant Architecture and Beatrice Galilee. It’s a cool space in itself but the opportunities it will allow are really exciting. They’re planning a series of exhibitions, lectures, discussions and screenings that will encourage debate and an exchange of ideas between disciplines. Given the distinctly architectural nature of the two founders, I’m looking forward to some good built environment bits and bobs. On Thursday the debate was on the future of architectural criticism and was put together by Domus, with The Gopher Hole hosting. Some cracking speakers, including Geoff from BLDGBLOG on (somewhat intermittent) telecast from LA, Peter Kelly, Shumi Bose, Charles Holland and Kieran Long. There was no definite conclusion from the evening, but then I don’t suspect any was expected. Some very interesting points raised, which kept the debate going into the small hours in the pub round the corner.

Image courtesy of Domus Web.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.