(Okay, the headline on this one is pretty bad, I’ll admit.)
Not too long ago I was at the home of musician Robert Ellis and his wife, Destiny, to shoot their music room, which was designed by Houston-based designers Barbara Hill and Dutch Small, for the Houston Chronicle.
Robert and Destiny recently moved to the hill country from Houston to concentrate on song writing. They have a small home outside of San Marcos in an area that is perfect for musical inspiration.
The music room wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. White walls, a desk, two chairs, a cow rug, a piano, a few framed concert posters and a guitar. That’s about it. I’m not complaining; sometimes when I’m called to photograph a “designed room” it can be overwhelming. There is often so much stuff, it’s hard to concentrate on what to shoot or where to pose people.
I got started without Robert and Destiny in the room, knowing we’d probably have to move some things around when we got to the portraits. Here are a few overview shots and details of the room.
After I finished capturing the room, I asked Robert and Destiny to come back in for portraits. I set up a strobe in one corner, facing in to the corner at about my eye level, and left it there for the whole shoot. Then I used an SB910 hand held off camera on some of the images to help with lighting.
I wanted to get them in the room, but still see the decorating. That was a little bit of a challenge in this case because everything was a bit far apart. Also, we needed to incorporate in the piano and the guitar, since it was a music room.
Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.
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