316 Olmstead - Birmingham AL Architectural Photographer /  by Tommy Daspit

Mt Laurel Kitchen - Birmingham AL Architectural Photographer

It’s been a busy summer which is a very good thing for sure! So please excuse the tardiness in gettinging this shoot posted. Back in April I was contacted by The Town of Mt Laurel about photographing their entry in the Birmingham Home Builders Association’s Parade of Homes. (It won Gold btw) They needed photos for the web and print marketing of this project. Their latest campaign in B Metro was being built around this house. Of course I was honored and excited about the project.

The only downside was that the house was unfurnished. No furniture, art, or decorations makes it hard for me to create compelling images. So I asked my friend and super talented designer Nicole Shultz of Limerence Design if she could help out. She inturn enlisted Birmingham Wholesale Furniture to provide the furnishings. The end result is so much better than what I could have done purely on my own.

Just like the saying that the clothes make the man, so it is true with homes. The furniture, art, decorations, and staging make a huge difference in how it looks and feels. I especially love working with a professional designer who understands my needs, and the clients needs so we can make the best images possible. In that respect I wholeheartedly recommend Nicole. She was great to work with and I look forward to our next project!

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Project Oglsby - Willow Homes Parade of Homes Entry /  by Tommy Daspit

Recently I had the honor and pleasure of photographing the Birmingham Home Builders Association Parade of Homes entry for my great client Willow Homes and Willow Design Studio. This was the second year in a row that I’ve photographed their entry. I will say that I think both of us have come a long way in a short period of time!

This new construction home in Homewood is also the personal home of Katherine Bailey, on of the designers at Willow Design Studio. I’ve worked with her on a couple of their projects but there was a little added pressure to make sure this was done right (not that I don’t strive for perfection in every shoot! Honestly, Katherine really makes my job easier. She has a great sense of style and has everything styled perfectly for me. This really does make all the difference in the world. An empty room with four white walls is tough to photograph in an interesting way!

This project gave me so many opportunities for great images that it was kind of hard to narrow them down. I could have spent a couple of days there easily! I wasn’t the only one to notice this either. The mega all things homes website Houzz did an article on the home as well!

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Are you a home builder, architect, or designer in need of professional photography to showcase your work? Contact me today to discuss your needs! 

4330 Kings Mountain - Liberty Park Real Estate Photography /  by Tommy Daspit

This is an example of an elevated twilight exterior. The home sits high on a hill. Normally you have two options in this situation. One, you can shoot close. To get most of the house in the image you have to shoot SUPER wide. Super wide results in s…

This is an example of an elevated twilight exterior. The home sits high on a hill. Normally you have two options in this situation. One, you can shoot close. To get most of the house in the image you have to shoot SUPER wide. Super wide results in super distorted images that look weird. Option two is to shoot down below. This can also lead to a distorted perspective that is unnatural and weird. My solution was to put the camera on an extension pole 18ft in the air. This allows me to get a better perspective while still maintaining the full quality of my Professional DSLR as opposed to a drone. It also allowed me to do a twilight exterior (finished image is 44 individual photos composited), something impossible with a drone.

One of the raw images used to create the final image above. You can kinda get a feel for the camera perspective.

One of the raw images used to create the final image above. You can kinda get a feel for the camera perspective.

Real estate is not my main business. I focus primarily on commercial architectural and interiors photography. I like being able to take my time, to craft the best possible images for the space and project. Commercial work also has a longer life span. The photos I create for builders, designers, architects, and businesses, can be used for years and in many applications. They help those clients grow their business. I feel that I am helping contribute to the success of many small businesses, much like my own.

Real estate on the other hand is all about selling one house, one time. Once a new homeowner moves in, the life of those images is effectively over. Sure, I use some in my portfolio. In some rare cases the real estate company, builder, or architect may license them for their promotion. For the most part though they fade off into the sunset rather quickly. For that reason many real estate photographers are concerned more about volume and speed. It’s more about how many homes can I photograph in a day rather than creating the best images possible. I will say that there are a few who really pride themselves in the quality they provide. Their work jumps out from the crowd and ultimately helps real estate agents and homeowners alike.

I like to think of myself as being in that category. When photographing a home for real estate speed is not my concern. Sure, I want to respect the homeowners time and I’m not able to spend as much time on each image as I would on a commercial shoot. Still, my main focus is creating images that I’m proud to put my name on.

This philosophy has resulted in the majority of my real estate photography business coming not from agents, but from homeowners. Often they are frustrated with the photos the agent has taken themselves or have had done by someone more interested in volume than quality. The homeowner has the most to gain and loose in the sale of the home. The ones who contact me to photograph home recognize that they will sell their home faster and for more money with better photos. They see the value in paying more to get photography that will grab the attention of potential buyers and separate their home in a sea listings. 

Such was the case of this home. It’s a magnificent property in the exclusive Liberty Park subdivision in Vestavia Hills. The homeowners found me online after looking at the portfolios of many photographers. They selected me because of the quality of my work, not my price. The housing market in Birmingham is red hot right now. Many homes are selling before they hit the market with multiple offers above asking price. If you’re looking for a home in the $200,000-$500,000 range in Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Helena, Pelham, Inverness, Hoover, Crestwood, and many other neighborhoods in the Birmingham area, you’d better move fast and have your pre approval ready. However, not many people are getting into bidding wars for homes north of $1,000,000. In that segment of the market you still have to sell the home. You still have to separate your listing from the competition. iPhone pictures may work for a 3br 2 bath split level in the hotter areas, but a 10,000 sqft, $1,800,000 dream home in Mountain Brook requires better.

This home, designed by Charles Michael Frusterio, gave me enough opportunities to last me several days. I could have gone on and on, but I didn’t think the homeowners wanted me to move in with them! So I limited myself to some of the highlights. Still, I started shooting at 2:00 in the afternoon and loaded the last bit of gear back in my car at 8:30 that night. Sure, that’s a lot of time for a real estate listing (there are some photographers who would have been in and out in under and hour), but I think the results speak for themselves! In the end, it’s work that I’m proud to show off, and I know will help the home sell faster and for more than similar homes in the same neighborhood with much lower quality photos. It will have been worth the time and money invested by the homeowner.

click and drag the slider to see the difference between the two photos

I tried something a little different on this one. I wanted to add some human energy to the image. I asked Tami, the home owner to walk through the space a couple of times. I shot it with a slow shutter speed so she would be blurred. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Are you selling your home or listing one in the greater Birmingham, Alabama area (I will travel is certain circumstances) and want amazing photos? Give me a call or shoot me an email!

Birmingham Skyline From Railroad Park - Architectural Photography /  by Tommy Daspit

Day to night transition of Birmingham Skyline. This is a combination of two images. One taken before sunset and one at night and blended together in Photoshop. Click on image to view larger.

A couple of weeks ago one of my best clients (Summit Renovation) wanted to know if I could do a time-lapse. They’re a roofing company and he wanted to show an old roof coming off and the new one going on over the course of a day. I told him that I’d never done one before but that I knew my equipment could do it, I just had to learn the technique. So I did some research and made a couple of trial runs (a couple of learning opportunities, i.e. failures). So now I think I have it down and it gave me an idea.

I’ve been wanting to do a night skyline shot of Birmingham for some time. I also really wanted to do a day to night transition in a single image. This gave me the perfect situation to do one more time-lapse run before the one for Summit. When Kelly told me we were sending the kids to the grandparents for the weekend I knew I this was the time. After checking the weather, I sold Kelly on the idea of spending our Saturday night shooting the city from Railroad Park (best vantage point with a pond in front where the city reflects). I said we could bring a blanket, some food, and make it into a picnic. How romantic! Fortunately she’s a great sport and was happy to go along.

We nearly aborted the mission when roads to the park were closed off for a Barrons game. Luckily we found a back way in and didn’t have to lug the gear too far. I’m so glad that we persevered. The weather, sky, and clouds, couldn’t have been more perfect for what I was going for. I think the end result was pretty good and it turned out to be a great date night to boot! 

My beautiful wife Kelly has been humoring my wild photography ideas for years. We had a great time making a nice date night out of the shoot. We had a picnic in the park while the kids were at Mimi and Pappa's. Quite the wild and crazy Saturday nigh…

My beautiful wife Kelly has been humoring my wild photography ideas for years. We had a great time making a nice date night out of the shoot. We had a picnic in the park while the kids were at Mimi and Pappa's. Quite the wild and crazy Saturday night!

I set my Canon 6D with Canon 24mm TS-E on a tripod and used the Camranger's Intervalometer to trigger the shutter on a schedule of one every 60 seconds. I used the iPad to monitor the progress. 

I set my Canon 6D with Canon 24mm TS-E on a tripod and used the Camranger's Intervalometer to trigger the shutter on a schedule of one every 60 seconds. I used the iPad to monitor the progress. 

This is a combination of two photos. One was taken before sunset. It's the main image. At that time all the lights were off in the buildings and the lamps were off in the park. I took a second image taken at night when all the lights were on and visible. I merged the two in photoshop to create the final image. Click on image to view larger.

Check out the final timelapse below.

Shot from Railroad Park, I used a Camranger to trigger the camera every 60 seconds from 6:00 pm to 8:30. I then used Adobe Premiere to create the timelapse from still images.

Interested in using any of these photos? Contact me for licensing information. See more of my Birmingham AL Architectural Photography portfolio.

Galleria Signs - Hoover, AL Architectural Photographer /  by Tommy Daspit

Galleria Hoover AL Architecectural Photographer

One of the things I love about being an architectural commercial photographer is the variety of projects I get to work on. It could be a kitchen for a remodeler one day and an apartment complex for a real estate developer the next. In this case I was contacted by Integrated Sign and Graphic in Lexington, Kentucky. They designed, built, and installed the new signs at the Riverchase Galleria Mall in Hoover. Daytime and twilight images of the exterior signs were needed. These photos would be used to showcase their work, to illustrate to potential clients what their capabilities were. It was my job to make sure that was done with the highest quality possible.

The mall is absolutely huge. There are many, many signs all around the property. Some face east, some west, some north, and some south. I had to plan my shots around the best time of day to get the best light on each sign. When it came to the night shots the window of opportunity for the best light with the illumination of the sign was very short. I had to make sure everything went right the first time as I could only do a maximum of two signs in an evening (it took two trips to get the ones they wanted).

I also try to include elements in the environment that give the viewer a sense of the space and life going around the subject. To make that possible I included the cars going by the signs in both the day and nighttime images. I used slow shutter speeds to capture the movement and presence of the vehicles without taking away focus on the subject. This way the potential client has a better understanding of how the public sees and interacts with the sign. After all that’s what they are ultimately for. If it can’t get the attention of the public passing by then it’s of no benefit to the business that paid for it.

Drag the sliding line to see the difference with and without the lights from the cars in the image.

By including the intersection and the lights of the cars passing by, I'm able to give Integrated Sign's potential clients a better sense of the signs placement in the environment as well as the amount of traffic seeing that sign. A photo of just the sign would be perfectly fine. However, including energy, motion, and context gives the image more life and allows the end viewer to connect to the subject in a more meaningful way. This is one example of how I go above and beyond to serve the needs of my clients.

While a simple static shot of the sign by itself would have satisfied the basic needs of my client it wouldn’t have been the best use of their resources. By considering my clients end needs and purpose for the images I’m able to better create images that tell their story. Ultimately that is my job. I create images for my clients that are compelling and show their potential customers what they can do for them. I help my clients grow their businesses. I take as much pride in this as I do in creating the images that bear my name and my reputation. Take a look at the images below and tell me in the comments if you think I accomplished that mission.

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To see more of my commercial architectural photography see my commercial exteriors and commercial interiors portfolios.