The whole experience was five minutes. I walked in the architect's office, asked for the boss, was introduced, explained our offer, got an address, and was out the door.
Not actually sure what all happens inside, I think it involves IV bags. Either way the director was about as savvy an individual as I've ever met. It took a bit of effort to get in contact with him, but it wasn't impossible. I think on my first visit I got past the receptionist and directly to a manager who then gave me a card for the executive director.
Over the phone he said we could wander around the property all weekend. I agreed to show him some images Tuesday morning.
I think daytime exteriors are the hardest part of photography. In one sense, any shot is like any other, we could be in and out in an hour. Or we can loiter all day and shoot different sunbeams and angles. Clients don't want 200 images and the requirement to pick the best. They want 5 or 10. Curved buildings make possibility even higher because the sunlight hits somewhere all the time, shadows are always changing, unlimited opportunity.
The above photograph has been in our portfolio since we shot it. I think so far I've only posted one other from our current portfolio. Part of the first post actually.
Lighting the interior to be uniformly visible would have been two full days of work for this shot.
I went back to the architect with this collection displayed on an ipad. We used to send links but got ripped off too much so now they get one chance to see them. He asked our price and accepted immediately. He wanted to try printing one from his machine just to make sure the files worked, so I gave him the thumb drive, his printer did well enough to be legit, then sat at the front desk and wrote a check.
I brought the photos to the building director. On the phone he had blown off the idea of us shooting inside, but after seeing these asked how interior photography works. I told him that we needed to be in well before sunrise, could be packed out before 9 am, and may need a couple tries. He asked if the start time would be later if we did this closer to september or october, and I said it would. He told me about his training schedule for a triathlon and that he would be open to consider it then, rather than interfere with his regiment.
I told him he was about the first client that had ever figured that out.
We should probably go back. The architect mentioned some other project he had started and wanted photographed as well.
