Hollin & Marsh Architects · 2024
Kestrel House: a timber home photographed for an award entry
A larch-clad house on a loch shore, shot in the four days between handover and the owners moving in, for an award submission and the practice's monograph.
- Client
- Hollin & Marsh Architects
- Year
- 2024
- Role
- Architectural photographer
- Duration
- 2 days on site
- Services
- Architectural photography
- Interior photography
- Award submission set
The problem
Hollin & Marsh had spent three years on Kestrel House, a low timber home on the edge of a Highland loch. They wanted pictures for a national design award entry and their first printed monograph, both due within five weeks. The submission rules asked for twelve images, at least four interiors and one image that showed the building in its setting.
The window was four days, between handover and the owners moving in with their furniture and two dogs. The forecast showed flat grey cloud for three of those days. Budget covered two shoot days plus travel, and the architects were firm that the pictures should look like the house actually feels, not a bright, over-lit property listing.
Process
- I
A walk-through with the architects
I walked the house with the project architect on the first evening, noting where the sun would fall through the clerestory each hour. We agreed a shot list of twenty-two views and marked the three that mattered most for the jury: the long kitchen axis, the stair against the window wall and the house from the far shore at dusk.
- II
Ambient light first, flash only to fill
Interiors were shot on a 24mm tilt-shift lens with the camera level, so verticals stay true without heavy correction. I bracketed every view in ambient light and added a single bounced flash only to open the deepest corners. Overcast days turned out to be useful: the soft, even light suited the pale larch and kept the window views readable.
- III
Restrained editing
I blended exposures by hand rather than with automatic HDR, so window frames keep a clean edge. The grade stays close to what you see on site: warm timber, grey loch, no added sky. I also delivered a set of uncropped files so the monograph designer could crop to spreads without asking me for alternatives.
Selected images
Outcome
The practice submitted fourteen images and Kestrel House was shortlisted in the residential category. The dusk exterior became the monograph's cover, and the kitchen axis image now opens the firm's website. The owners bought a large print of the stair for the house itself, which hangs where it was photographed.
- 26
- final images in two days
- 5 days
- from shoot to delivery
- 1
- award shortlist
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All work