The Story of a Photo Shoot

In October 2017, I had an exciting two-day shoot with PCA in North Conway, NH.  Working closely with PCA’s Marketing Director, I photographed the renovations of the existing Settler’s Green shopping complex, the new shopping area called Streetside, and three restaurants, Barley & Salt (shown below), Wicked Fresh Burgers, and White Mountain Cupcakery.  We went to each area multiple times, catching the light as it changed and including people or shooting a space, so that we had a lot of options when selecting photos to use.

Barley & Salt has a beautiful combination of wood and tile.  Sometimes people from my client’s office serve as models, sometimes we shoot spaces empty, and sometimes we just catch the people who happen to be there at the time (usually blurred as they move through the space or move their heads).

Conveniently, the hotel I stayed in was just across the street, so I could come and go for dusk and dawn.  And I can attest to the great food at these places!  It is a new experience to eat dinner at places I'm photographing.

Some storefronts were not yet occupied, but at night, the exterior lighting made it all come alive.  Photo shoots can’t always be timed to happen when conditions are perfect – this area needed to be photographed in the fall while the grass and trees still looked good, even though not all the retailers had moved in and the shoppers were still learning about the new stores.

At Wicked Fresh, the burger place, I loved the way the words on the windows created shadows on the wall and floor, adding a text dimension to an architectural shot.  The red accents of the chairs and the napkin dispensers, as well as the umbrellas outside, provided a way to tie the image together.

Wicked Fresh had a great combination of corrugated metal and wood, and included a garden of house-grown herbs which you can see on the back wall past the counter in the image below.

This shoot was exciting because there was so much to cover, but we needed to capture it in just a few images for the architects’ website and proposals.  I enjoy the challenge of giving a feel for the place and a sense of the design through the photographs.  The more my client can tell me about the story of the design and construction, the better I can show their work in a way that tells that story.

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Elisif Photography provides high quality architectural photography to companies in the building industry, including architects, builders, developers, commercial and residential real estate brokers, interior designers, interior decorators, remodelers, and more.