I spent a few hours last week down in sunny Tsawwassen, shooting some of the beautiful custom homes built by Lighthouse Construction. The work they do is first rate, so they wanted some great images to show off their craftsmanship. We ended up shooting three places, with a promise of more to come. Here are a few choice shots:

I was contacted the other day by the manager of Vancouver’s Frey Wille to shoot some images of their Howe Street store (thanks, Google Adwords!). For those of you who (like me) have not heard of Frey Wille, they are an Austria-based group of artists who make a line of beautiful enameled jewelry and accessories. Their store is all glass and white walls, which helps to keep the focus on their collections rather than the decor. It also causes reflections and shadows to stand out, which required me to be pretty careful when shooting. I couldn’t use a lot of flashes, and had to rely on the store lighting and daylight, which threw all sorts of interesting colours on the pale walls. But that’s what Photoshop is for. The images turned out nicely, and will make a nice addition to my portfolio.

If you are a regular visitor to Granville Island you will recognize this award-winning Arthur Erickson building. It’s hard to miss. The other day Grady Harris asked me to shoot the penthouse suite here. Not surprisingly, I agreed. Light was pouring in through floor to ceiling windows onto the dark wood paneling and polished concrete ceiling, making my job a lot more challenging. But with a little extra work I ended up with some memorable pictures. It’s places like this that remind me what a spectacular city Vancouver is.

After a busy few weeks of shooting I finally have a day or two to get catch my breath and enjoy some nice spring weather. There have been a lot of very interesting photo shoots in the last little while. Shannon Station was one that I particularly enjoyed. It is a collection of retail and residential units at 57th and East Boulevard in Kerrisdale. Used to be a train station for the old BC Electric Railway back in the day, and the developer, a west side native, said that he remembers taking the train from here down to Steveston to visit his friends. Anyway……….
The building house several luxury condos in the upper floors, with top of the line finishes and some nice views. We had to choose our shots carefully as there was still a lot of construction going on. We managed to keep busy for several hours there, since each unit has a unique layout and colour scheme. Here are a few of our images.

I took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday to reshoot exteriors for some of my clients. Imagine waking up to one of these views every morning.

I don’t mind working on a sunny Saturday when there’s a boat ride involved. An Eagle Island resident gave me a lift so I could get a waters-eye view of this home for Jacquie Swaisland. Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, the house is going for $11 million.

My ride. Everybody on the island has one of these.

Here’s a very nice Mackenzie Heights home i shot recently for Monique Badun and her team. Although only a few years old, it’s classic exterior design fits the neighbourhood nicely. Inside, the main floor consists of huge rooms with lots of light and soaring ceilings. Some nice views of the mountains upstairs too. Here are a few shots:

I just shot this beautiful Yaletown condo for Sheri Stenson the other day. The private rooftop deck offers a view of the neighbourhood and False Creek. Inside you’ll find a gourmet kitchen, huge open plan living area, great views and tons of storage. contact Sheri for more information.

Hollywood special effects has come to the real estate business. Now you can add virtual furniture to an empty room for a fraction of the cost of real staging. Here are some images I shot of an unfurnished suite for Keith Roy, alongside the same image that has been doctored up by virtuallyhomestaging.com. The technology is pretty impressive: perspective and shading are perfectly executed to fool your eye into thinking they are real three dimensional objects. It’s a great way to bring an empty room to life, and bring more potential buyers to your open house.

We had a few sunny days recently and my client, Eric Christiansen, took advantage of the nice weather to book some twilight shoots with me. I got to this West Vancouver townhome a little before sunset and started shooting interiors until the sky offered up that nice cobalt blue tone that I always wait for. It’s only visible for about 15 minutes just after the sun goes down, so it’s important to scout out the locations for those special shots ahead of time. For this layout, we had two balconies and the main room to cover, so I just ran from one spot to the other, taking shots every minute or so. You can see all the images, plus the listing information here.