FSU Life Sciences Building

How do you photograph a new building with 4 hard to see clear glass greenhouses on top?

With one assistant and one university maintenance employee and a lot of patience.

We arrived at 3 pm to set gelled strobes inside the greenhouse and sync them with my camera on the roof of the parking garage next door.  I had a university maintenance employee inside with a key to the unused room.  Each room had motion sensor lights that stayed on approx 10 minutes after he left the room.  He was running from room to room as the lights went out while my assistant on the roof ran between the greenhouses to adjust the strobe power as the dusk continued to darken.

The darker it gets, the longer the shutter speed and the more the yellow ambient light fills the frame.  Also, as it gets darker the less strobe power is needed in the greenhouses to produce the same amount of visible light.

All of these opposing variables intersect at some point.  The trick is knowing the particular 5 minute time period when these different light sources intersect.  Five minutes is not a lot of time to get what you came for on a shoot that has a 5 hour set up.

The second shoot was of the new FSU Materials Research building in Innovation Park.  With fewer windows to add light to the scene, the five hour set-up involved setting 8 strobes along two sides of the building and directing my assistant from the top of a mechanical lift as she ran between strobes to adjust the power settings as the sweet moment arrived.  This was the first time I’d lit an entire building with strobes.

Listening to: Crosby, Stills & Nash – Southern Cross