Bill Schwab print offer.....

My friend Bill Schwab has a nice little print offer from his Iceland portfolio (at a $ steal). One of them is a sweet little architectural image of an Icelandic church. Bills's work is widely collected (by me also!).
http://www.billschwab.com/webseries/special_offer/november_2010_offer.html

Why Are My Prints Too Dark?

If you print digitally and struggle to get accurate soft-proofing (who doesn't struggle with this?)........this article from LuLa by Andrew Rodney is absolutely fundamental.
Why Are My Prints Too Dark?

AIA Albuquerque Competition

Wow! This year I worked on eight of the fourteen winners entries of the AIA Albuquerque Design Awards. It was very competitive this year with 56 strong entries. Congratulations to all these very talented designers!

Honor Awards

Casa Guadalupe Franciscan Friary
Architect: Calott + Gifford Architecture / Urban Design
Owner: Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe Franciscan Friars
Contractor: Enterprise Builders

Valle Vista Elementary School 
Architect: Garrett Smith, Ltd.
Owner: Albuquerque Public Schools
Contractor: Cheyenne Builders

Merit Awards

University of New Mexico Cancer Research & Treatment Center II
Architect: Rohde May Keller McNamara Architecture, P.C. & VOA Associates Inc.
Owner: University of New Mexico
Contractor: Flintco Inc. General Contractors

Citation Awards

Aperture Center
Architect: Jon Anderson Architecture (Executive)
and Antoine Predock Architect PC (Design)
Owner: Forest City Covington
Contractor: Klinger Constructors, LLC

nex+Gen Academy
Architect: Dekker/Perich/Sabatini
Owner: Albuquerque Public Schools
Contractor: AIC General Contractor

Sage House
Architect: Jon Anderson Architecture (Executive)
and Antoine Predock Architect PC (Design)
Owner: Mike and Vee Yacinno
Contractor: Ian Forsberg - General Contractor

Placita House
Architect: Jon Anderson Architecture
Owner: Juno and Julia Raby
Contractor: Sunbelt Properties - General Contractor

Downtown@700 2nd
Architect: Dekker/Perich/Sabatini
in collaboration with Garrett Smith, Ltd.
Owner: Supportive Housing Coalition of New Mexico
Contractor: Global Structures

Digital Tools for Architectural Photographers

Interesting article by Richard Sexton in LuLa. Richard is a widely published architectural photographer working out of the South. The article is on the tools of the trade. Note the conclusions.

DIGITAL TOOLS FOR ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

Cropping Architectural Images for Clients

"Hello Kirk,

I have been reading your site and learning for quite a while. Your eye for images is stunning. I have a question about cropping. I stay within the camera original aspect ratio when I deliver images for clients, unless they provide specifics. I have a start up photography business and I do residential and commercial. I hope to eventually shoot major architectural jobs (I have a longggggg way to go) and am learning all I can. Presently, I'm using a crop sensor Canon DSLR with good results for the clients I have served. I am going full frame with a Canon 5D II set-up in December. What ratio due you normally crop to (hopefully I'm asking the right question here)? Do you stay within your cameras native ratio or do you crop to desired look. I have had several images that I feel would be improved with "free" cropping (no set aspect ratio, just drag box until I get desired effect). Any cropping advice would be appreciated. Much info on cropping, but not much on the delivery side. 

Keep up the good work"

Thanks for the inquirey-good question. First off to maximize image quality, I try to shoot full frame in the field. When I do crop it is to improve image impact and I don't worry really about maintaining the native Aspect Ratio of the camera. So when I deliver a set of files the majority are in the native AR and a few are whatever. Those that are not are mostly stitches of some sort. Clients have never said boo about it. The only time I get a request for a specific AS is with magazine covers or from architects who have existing framed prints in their office that they want to match, but that has been rare.

The only time cropping to a specific AR becomes absolutely critical for me is when I am shooting assigned magazine covers. There has to be room made for the masthead, leads etc. Since all magazines are not the same AS it requires some legwork to figure that out ahead of time. For some of my clients like Su Casa (and), which I have mentioned before here, we always shoot tethered, bring the potential cover up in PS and layer it with the magazines cover template to make sure everything fits. We have learned to do this because of AR issues in the past.