Winter Holben

When you’re hired to photograph an architecture firm, you know every line and light source in the building was placed there on purpose. There’s no room for "accidental" framing. For this shoot at Winter Holben, I wanted to honor that precision while keeping the energy of a working studio.

The studio is filled with incredible windows, so I spent most of the day leaning into the natural light to capture the team in their element. However, the real challenge—and the most rewarding shot—was the portrait in the stairwell. The landing was falling into deep shadow, losing the very details that made the space unique. I pulled out my Profoto monoblocks to surgically fill those dark corners, specifically to bring out the vibrant blue wall featuring their logo.

This project is a staple in my architectural photography portfolio because it required a balance of technical lighting and fly-on-the-wall observation. As a commercial photographer in Portsmouth, NH, I often find that the best corporate branding photography happens when you stop trying to stage "perfection" and start looking for how the light interacts with the brand's actual environment. By the end of the day, we had a library of images that didn't just show a building, but the creative pulse inside of it.