Through a recommendation from another client, Kimberly first came to me looking for some photography. As an interior designer, documenting finished work is common practice. Although I had limited experience doing interior photography for an interior designer, I felt providing her with photos that she'd be happy with was within my wheel house.
However, the conversation took an immediate detour when she asked if I also designed websites.
Her existing website was in need of updating. It was a clean design, but was tired and lacked a modern feel. Kimberly offered some samples of websites that inspired her. Those gave me a direction to go and I was able to offer my creativity along with functionality to help present her work.
After some back-and-forth on gallery options to sort, present, and show off her creativity, the new site came to life. Clean, bright, and lightweight, her bio, work, and attitude was online for everyone to see, all in a new design.
The process wasn't done in a few weeks. Or even a couple of months. I had to work with her schedule. She's a busy person. That, coupled with a bit of disorganization with her old photos meant that, although I got her deposit in February to being work on her site, it wouldn't go live until October. All too often other creatives, like myself, get impatient over how long it takes clients to get their act together, send artwork, approve designs, and return emails. They need to understand that it's not only about them. Their client also has a business to run. They're going to have projects that will take up vast amounts of their time. You need to have patience. Work with your client. Not against them. It's OK to give them a bit of a push, but don't be pushy.
Once the site was nearly finished, one of the major projects that Kimberly had been working on for the last few years was finally wrapping up. Between COVID, supply delays, and just the shear size of the project, it was finally time to wrap up after almost four years. This was the original reason I was called. Photography.
I met Kimberly and her assistant at David's home. He's a single guy whose high-rise condo hadn't been renovated since the building was built in the mid-1980s. Seeing the stunning renovation that Kimberly pulled off was nothing short of amazing. It was up to me to capture her work.
Using multi-exposure bracketing, I balanced the interior lighting with the exterior whenever a window was in frame. This allowed you to see the room in a more realistic light without having a window encroaching with a blown-out abyss. My personal taste is to make the exterior slightly overexposed. Otherwise, I feel like it's unnatural if the outside is as clearly exposed as the inside. It's my personal touch and Kimberly liked it.
