Idaho Airships, Inc.

High grade architectural photography should not be confined to large projects by cost or the aesthetic limitations of the subject.

Even when the project is modest in size a high grade architectural portrait (and interior images) will substantiate your promotional message. Unfortunately, most shooters advertise their services with their higher-cost, high profile projects. By the time your project is done you’re stranded with the realization that what you hired them for at $500 simply isn’t as pretty as an image they were paid $1500 to produce.

Another uncomfortable secret is that the subject has a great deal to do with the quality of portraiture. Just about any sane shooter is going to show you their best images of the best subjects, which is not a reliable way to judge their performance on anything but a very similar target under similar conditions (e.g. summer morning).

Caveat Emptor.

Here’s an example (I just recently finished the color prep on this one) of an architectural portrait, at the actual grade we shoot them at for about $300 (as of 5/08, and that includes the high-resolution digital files).

We use perspective-correcting lenses (an absolute necessity in most architectural work) and the top-of-the-line Canon cameras, which far exceed a 6x7cm film image -in fact, they’re competitive with a 4x5in image.

We can usually accept 8-10 such assignments each month as our aerial work takes priority.

Here are a few more examples of higher grade imaging applied to smaller subjects:

Aerials can be a bit more challenging-they require stabilized systems and a great deal of practice:

By the way, we’ve posted more Treasure Valley aerial stock-specifically, Nampa and Notus aerials, to our 2008 Stock Aerials page. Please do take a peek-aerials are just plain fun to look at!

L