Chip Allen Architectural Images

The professional life of an Architectural Photographer

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Kids these days! They have it so good! And why not? That’s what the “old” people said too when I was growing up. +BCA just completed this gymnasium and STEM project along with a bunch of other awesome work for the Huntington Beach City School District. I have had the great pleasure of taking a few trips south to capture the finals and the project is nothing short of Awesome!

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For almost 13 years architectural photography has comprised about 90% of what I photograph professionally. This means that much attention is paid to perspective control among many other factors. Lines must be true and “straight”. Architects, Engineers and Builders think plumb lines are pretty important too, so I should do my very best to honor this. In fact, about 99% of my architectural images are taken on a “locked off” and trued tripod, legs, base and head. But sometimes I just need to “free” the camera and yes, angle that tripod head way, way, way up or my gosh, hand-hold-a-shot! Here are some liberating examples from a recent shoot in SF. “Free the camera you tripod shooters, and the rest will follow!”

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Thank you Flint Builders, Inc., JK Architecture Engineering& Siegfried for asking me to photograph your newly rehabbed UCD pool and recreation area. The students are truly going to love it for years to come! Special thanks to Flint for the fancy scissor lift driving! By squeezing the 30ft. rig back through the gates of the project we could capture this shot. That was probably the most amazing lift driving I have ever witnessed! Nothing was harmed in the making of this shot :)

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I just recently had a unique opportunity to shoot this amazing #strengbros home in Citrus Heights. Interior and exterior #renovation by @creative_ram and @gdwarren of @commuterind. Follow along with the renovation @midcenturymaurer.

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Often times when another person finds out what I do (not weddings BTW!), the number one question I get is, “that’s neat, what is the best building you have ever photographed in your career?”. This is a tough question, because I have had the privilege to be involved in some really creative and inspiring projects. So, I have to go further in my mental Rolodex than just aesthetics. I need to include personal heritage in my criteria. In 2010, I was asked to photograph 225 Bush Street in San Francisco for JLL. From 1922-1925 it was the tallest building in SF standing at 328 ft high, it was built for Standard Oil (now Chevron). But not until after I had photographed the building did I know how personal the building was to my family. My father saw these images and couldn’t believe it! My Grandfather whose whole working career was at Chevron, spent over 20 years, 5 days a week in this building. Out of all the buildings in SF, the building that held my grandfather’s employment years later was employing me too! That’s spooky in my book!

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I just had the pleasure of completing photos for another award worthy healthcare interior. My client’s Lionakis and XL Construction really out did themselves on this project. It was a pure joy to walk in on shoot day and have everything on the project completely dialed in (High Five!). Also I could tell the project team at both companies worked really well together. Always neat to see this synergy when shooting!  Congrats to XL Construction and Lionakis! See all the images here: https://chipallenphotography.photoshelter.com/portfolio/C0000i0zybRxoW1I/G0000Se9jZQAV7AU

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Some might have seen this Davis, California house on previous posts of mine, I photographed this house on 3 separate occasions and the time spent onsite was most unique. I learned about the house’s new and fascinating features on every visit. I even was on the roof for one photoshoot, because yes even the roof is cool too. But one of the many unique features of this house which I had yet to mention, and hard not to notice, is the paint job! The exterior changes color as your vantage points change. From one angle, metallic brick red, the next angle, metallic lime green. It’s like a chameleon. The images were taken about 2.5 years ago and I have yet to see this paint anywhere else in my line of work. I think I’ve seen this on auto paint jobs? I’m just wondering if anyone has information or an opinion about the paint either design or function? It looks like it would be mostly used in commercial settings? Don’t know the name off hand of the manufacturer. The future is here.

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This image was taken At 1:51 a.m. on the 1st of December last year. I photographed in amazement, as a group of talented and dedicated construction professionals literally charged out of the gates at 11 p.m. to resurface San Diego Airport’s only active runway. Able to work for just 6 hours at a time, these professionals ripped up long sections of old runway, then put it back all fresh and new (even painted) so that ginormous planes, including mine could safely take off and land within hours of the work. Well played Granite Construction!

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The lobby of the New Kimpton- Sawyer is really something everyone in Sacramento should stop by and witness. It’s very Neato! And I’ll post some shots in the future. However, another space you might be able to see in the hotel, and in my opinion even more cool, is what I call the “Great Event Room”. Located on the 2nd floor, overlooking the new Golden 1 is this one-of-kind room. The ceiling is a geometric fun zone! The carpet is a trip in itself! It’s far from a boring ho-hum event space. In fact, speaking with a project engineer he said after the carpet was installed, at first glance, he thought someone had spilled sawdust all over the new carpet! I suggest you really check it out, next time you find yourself on 5th and J.

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I feel like a Sports Illustrated photographer, but my subjects are not professional athletes, they are professional trades people! My subjects are my personal heroes. My subjects are the major force behind the building and maintaining of our awesome county. I must say it’s an honor and very enjoyable work! For the last 10 years I’ve primarily buried myself in performing purely architectural photography. The architecture was/still is the main subject of my service offerings. I swore off people photography. Why? because frankly, buildings don’t have “bad hair days”, they are not Bridezilla’s, buildings never have self-doubts about how they look in a photo. I get to be in charge of creating emotion/moods of my subjects, a building or an interior. With people photography you do not have real control of how someone’s attitude about you taking their picture that day reflects in the work. However, while I thought I had this whole thing figured out, I wasn’t able to admit to myself, in fact denied myself, the creative liberty and service to my clients of photographing a fellow human being as the main subject in my work. And now that I’ve let myself offer this service over the last couple of years, I’m a kid in a candy shop! I can’t wait to get back out and capture in that single frame “America at Work”. This image is from a photo campaign for Granite Construction, about 10,000 images were taken over the course of 10 field days across the US. Granite is great client and their people were great to work with- so much talent & subject matter! I could’ve been out for 10 more days and just scratch the surface of what Granite does every day around the country. In the coming months I hope to share more candid images of the people who build daily for all of us in the USA. – Thanks for reading!

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Just getting a feel for people’s taste. As I mentioned I’m grateful for being the photographer who was able to capture these and other images of The Sawyer, SacTowns’s newest member to the skyline. Swinerton and Rios Clementi & Hale really did this place up well and it was a blast to shoot inside and out. Here’s the Qs? if you had to choose day or night on this angle, which would it be? Let me hear from you. I honestly can’t choose (don’t need to), but I bet the folks at Swinerton and RCH would like to see your answers?

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Capping this very busy 2017 year off was having the opportunity of photographing inside/out one of, if not thee biggest architectural additions to the Sacramento Region, the Sawyer hotel and residences. My clients Swinerton & Rios Clementi Hale are hugely responsible for this new icon in our skyline. They did such an outstanding job in so many ways! Kimpton opened Sawyer’s doors for business this October. The energy in the Plaza between the arena and the Sawyer is considerably wonderful, especially around the holidays. So if you find yourself in downtown and have not had a chance to see the architecture you owe it to yourself to see one of SacTown’s newest feats! I’ll be positing some more images, but thought this view of the Sawyer was ideal to start off with. It’s how most people first see the building as they enter downtown Sac on J street.  

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Lately for me it’s been all about photographing architecture that is serious about delivering maximum entertainment to users. I had the utmost privilege to photograph Rio Americano’s High Schools Center for the Arts. DLR Group & DPR Construction went to a whole other level to make this a flagship project for this high school’s nationally and internationally renown music program. Just being in the “audio visual control” rooms would get me stoked about actually being on the A/V squad back in the day! Their is nothing amateur about this place! Amazing space. If you have a chance to see a performance here, DO IT! To see all the images from the shoot please visit my site: https://www.chipallenphotography.com/portfolio/C0000i0zybRxoW1I/G0000kYzPYO2UC6o

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Just Finished a FUN shoot! One of Sac town’s newest and biggest movie theaters located in the Arden area. It was built on the site of the old dome style theaters and I think some of that butter soaked movie history is still oozing up in this new building. It’s fun just to walk in and feel the big screen experience. And oh, having lazy boy styled recliners and a screen 3 stories high ain’t bad either! Check out all the shots here: https://www.chipallenphotography.com/portfolio/C0000i0zybRxoW1I/G00006BaHLqUXMns

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Have had the fortune of being quite busy these past months, not too much time for that social media stuff. From what I see many of my clients and peers have been experiencing the same trajectory. I hope we all can sustain this prosperity for a while. Speaking of prosperity, I just got finished photographing Lotus Casino for Sierra View Construction! This is the first shoot in my 12 professional years that included a Ferrari out front as part of the elevation! I’m not a big car enthusiast, but c’mon it’s a Ferrari! Call me to discuss your next project 800-393-5951, even if you don’t have a Ferrari out front!

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Loved working with my Friends at Flint Builders! They invited me out to photograph all the buzz on their scaffolding at Thunder Valley last week. It was fun capturing these hardworking folks and witnessing all the effort of constructing scaffolding just to get this job done. Thanks Flint for the hire!  

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My hats off to DGA and DPR for this complete overhaul of a rundown commercial building in Downtown Sac. At the date of this post you can still see the old building from google street view…. HERE - Literally, while shooting the exterior I had a few local people walk by and comment to me that they were so happy to see this old place get a fresh new identity. I think that is one of core strengths architecture does for everyone. Thanks DGA for the work and thanks for investing in Sactown.