Lauri Novak is an award-winning fine art photographer, mentor and author based outside of Chicago. She has an eye for photographing architecture, traveling as much as possible and just wandering in nature with her camera.
Lauri shares the story behind one of her favorite recent architecture photographs.
- Find Lauri at seewithlauri.com and laurinovak.com
- See the photo from this episode here.
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Lauri:
My name is Lauri Novak, and this is the photo breakdown. Photo
Scott:
Breakdown is a podcast where I talk with photographers sharing the story of a specific photograph technique or business when I’m your host, Scott Wyden Kivowitz and this is photo breakdown. Let’s break it down.
Scott:
Hello, my name is Scott Wyden. Kivowitz your host of photo breakdown. And today I’m sitting down with Lorie Novak to talk about this really, really cool photo that she shared with me recently. And well, you’re going to have to look at it because this is only an audio podcast, but this is a really cool photo of a building. And there’s this gorgeous chair that is sort of floating there on the side of the building that you have to see for yourself. But before we dive in this episode is sponsored by my lead generation course for photographers called more leads more clients. Yes. If you’d like to increase the leads you’re generating on your photography site, you can use the strategies I teach in my course, access it at scottwyden.com.com/leads. Hey Laurie.
Lauri:
Hi Scott. How are you?
Scott:
Good. I’d say long time. No talk, but I talked to you about two days ago, huh? Yeah. Oh, Tuesday, yes, Thursday. Yeah. Yeah.
Lauri:
Thank you. I appreciate You asking me to do this. I think it’ll be fun.
Scott:
Yeah. Yeah. I’m really looking forward to this to this, to the show. I think it’s going to be a blast to do and I get to look at a lot of great photos even more than I do already on a daily basis. Right.
Lauri:
But diverse. Right. Diverse. Very diverse. Yeah. Very cool. So
Scott:
I have two questions before we talk about your photo. The first question, if you can live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Lauri:
I’m going to say right off the top of my head lake Tahoe and that’s because we, my, my mom’s brother used to live out there. So we used to go there as kids not a ton, but, and that was my very first solo trip when I was 17 or 18 years old, I flew out, rented a car and was, I stayed with relatives, but I was on my own mostly. You know, and it just, it just is one of those places that when I go back there, I feel it grounds me. It’s a very peaceful place for me. I don’t know if it’s the mountains probably cause I tend to be called to mountains and I prefer mountains as opposed to beaches maybe, but it’s, it’s just one of those places for me where I feel very grounded and at peace and it’s beautiful besides
Scott:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s a great reason to, for sure. Yeah. You know, I’m whenever my wife says we’re gonna go to the beach and I’m like, Hmm, do we really have to go to sit on the beach? I can’t, my husband doesn’t
Lauri:
Even ask that question because he knows better. I’ll be like, see you later.
Scott:
Yeah. And it’s even more fun when you have two little kids,
Lauri:
They have fun, at least the kids. Do you know, at least you have something to keep you occupied occupied, I suppose.
Scott:
Yeah. It’s not relaxing. Cause you’re like paradise the ocean. Very true. So my second question is if you could remove all physical, mental, and financial barriers and constraints, what project would you do in photography? I would
Lauri:
Probably travel the world and write about it. And I would probably go back to places like Antarctica and the Arctic where I’ve worked there, like once in a lifetime trips, but there’s so much more there that dust doesn’t once is not enough. But you know, they’re there that’s, those are pricey and, but they’re so worth it. And I, that’s probably what I would do. I, I talk about this, my husband the other day, because I used to travel a lot when I was younger and single and for work, I would always travel places and I would go from wherever I happen to be. So it was different though. Like if I had it started like a travel blog, like 30 years ago, I mean, you know, it’s like, I wonder, you know, what if, right, right. Because that’s my, my one true thing that I always have known, what I wanted to do is to travel,
Scott:
So, right. Yeah. Yeah. It, is it one of those things where it makes you a little jealous of the, of the photographers who did start that photography block so many times. Yes, exactly.
Lauri:
I’m like, why didn’t I do that? What was that? Yeah,
Scott:
Yeah. Yeah. I had a genius idea many years ago and you know, a lot of people try to do what he was doing and, you know, some people were able to do it successfully and, and others weren’t, but now he gets to do what he wants when he wants. And it’s all because of him posting photos for free for people to actually use for free too. Right, right, right. Yeah. Have of course he’s got more to his business than just that, but that’s a biggie. Okay. So let’s break down your photo. So this photo is a gorgeous, gorgeous black and white photo. And so can you talk to me about first? Where is this photo? Where did you photograph
Lauri:
It? This is in Chicago. It was taken one of my friends and I did just walked along the Chicago Riverwalk which has just been completed recently. It goes all up and down the Chicago river the branch that comes in from the Michigan lake, Michigan. And we start at one end and kind of head down until we’re done, you know, until we either get to the other end or we don’t. But, but the buildings along the river there’s a whole lot of new construction. This happens to be one that’s one of the newer constructions at one of the points where the river splits and goes north and south. So there’s, it’s always changing. The riverfront is still constantly changing and they there’s like a new sculpture by Santiago Calatrava there. We went to sh photograph that but I tend to always be on the, on the lookout for the cool, like buildings, structures, shapes, shadows, light on the buildings, or I look down and see the reflections of the buildings
Scott:
In the way. Right, right. So, so the shadows on this are pretty, are pretty harsh. I mean, you got to, you got multiple sides of the building really. You’ve got three sides of the building if you really want to kinda. Yeah. So w when, what kind of, what kind of day was this? This was,
Lauri:
So it was actually, oh, it says capture time at six 30 in the evening. Okay. Yeah. So it is possible. Yeah. I mean, the sun was starting to head down that way. Yeah. And it was, this was in may. So and that obviously is a west-facing if you’re looking at it, you could see that’s a west-facing side, because it’s completely lit by the sun. One
Scott:
Of my favorite things about architecture photos is when you have, you see multiple sides of a building, and one side is basically black and you see that little bit, I mean, you, you, you kept some shadows in there, so you can still see some detail. And of course the, the main subject of the photo is perfectly illuminated to the deck chair. That’s what I call it. So is that what caught your attention or
Lauri:
No, I just pulled up. I just pulled up the original that’s totally unedited. And it still sticks out. Not quite as much as, until you, until it was converted to black and white and made very contrasty. But it still, I think probably initially what caught my eyes, that the triangles that the windows that are open make and the contrast between them and the, and the shiny reflective side of the building. But then I was like, look at that chair. That’s just like sitting there perfectly. So when I converted it, it made it pop. Like, I don’t think I had to do too much other than make it a high contrast, black and white conversion.
Scott:
So it’s interesting. You brought the windows, you know, and I look at this and I’m like, those windows really add a lot to it because if they were closed, it wouldn’t, it would be a lot
Lauri:
Of empty. The white and the chair would still stand out. It might be, it might still work, but I think that the windows help like draw you up into it. And then you see the chair and you’re like, oh, you know,
Scott:
And, and even if the windows also, if they were open, but if they were, let’s say, I know this, this type of building wouldn’t have it, but if they were slide up windows to open, that would change it all too, because it
Lauri:
Would make the triangle shapes that they, and there wouldn’t be the, the, because you can see the reflection of the glass that’s open. So the piece that’s open is reflected back on the building too. Yeah. You know, so it’s yeah, it’s an interesting again, that’s really what caught my eye is those windows, the few windows that were open like that. Yeah.
Scott:
I also liked that, that the gradation, cause you have deep blacks, you have bright whites and you have those mid-tones that are just perfectly exposed, you know, as according to a perfect exposure, you know, like you can see everything on the left side and then you go, yeah. And then you go in light, then you’re going dark. It’s just a cool gradation. It’s an opposite of, of a gradation, but it is in the entire spectrum. Right. Well, it’s interesting
Lauri:
If I look at the histogram because it’s tall on both sides and then kind of flat in the middle, you know, which works,
Scott:
I mean, networks, you know, how
Lauri:
It’s supposed to be maybe, but, you know
Scott:
Yeah. But it it’s artistic, which is more important than technical histograms. Yes. That, that right there sums up my photography it’s artistic, which is more important. Yes. Yeah. So, so can you just talk quickly about the settings for the camera? So when everybody looks at this, they can, yeah. I
Lauri:
Shot this with my Tamra on 100 to 400 lens, which is like 90% of what I shoot with. In fact, I’ve gotten to the point where I almost don’t carry any other lenses with me cause they ended up staying in my bag. It was shot at 400 millimeters. I had the ISO was on 400. It was a little bit of a grayish day. And then what else wears those
Scott:
Typically tend to bring your ISO as low as possible.
Lauri:
Oh, do I shoot at 100 as much as possible? I still have a film mentality and I, and I, I have a camera that can shoot 1600, but I can still see the noise. Like it bugs me, even though people may not notice it. I do. And I I’m, I’m almost like obsessive about it. It’s, it’s kinda dumb. But
Scott:
I think in certain things like in a photo like this, that type of noise would stand out more than it might in some others. Right. So, and so
Lauri:
It was shot at F 6, 3 1, 1000th of a second.
Scott:
Nice. Yeah, that’s a good that’s a good aperture to get that you know, all three sides of that building to be you know, evenly in focus where you were, where you needed to be at least. Right. So is that a lens that you need a tripod for or is that I barely
Lauri:
Ever shoot in a tripod?
Scott:
It is the 100 to 400. Is that, that that’s not that really big one. Tamra makes it, they have a bigger
Lauri:
One right here. I think they have a bigger one. I think they have one that’s 500 or 600. Yeah.
Scott:
Yeah. That’s what you need. Not going to be lugging it around, right. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Anything else you want to share this photo before we tell everybody to go check it out?
Lauri:
I don’t think so. I think that it’s just again, one of those things that caught my eye or things that I look for when I’m out, looking at architecture are the things like the windows that make shapes or the contrast between, you know, what is in the frame. And I typically convert stuff like this to black and white know, look for the direction of the lines. Cause I’m sitting here like this right now, looking at this and I’m seeing all these diagonals and I’m like, I never really noticed those before, but there are really strong, like diagonals in this image. So but that’s, that’s kinda how I go out. When I go out, I look for the shapes and the shadows and the, the shapes that the shadows make, you know, and that chair was just a bonus. I mean, the way the light was just far enough up on that balcony that the light was heading it and, you know, I just you know, I make sure I move around and make sure that there’s nothing poking in my edges and you know, something that’s going to distract from what my, my, what I see, you know,
Scott:
Right. When I’m looking at it. And for, for any photography collectors out there, she also has this available for sale. I do.
Lauri:
Most of my fine art architecture is for sale.
Scott:
I, I love this photo when, when I told you about the podcast and you sent me this photo that you were really proud of. I definitely see why it is such a and I, I
Lauri:
Just had it printed and it just, I it’s become my favorite. Like every time I look at it, I’m like, well, it’s really cool printed too. It really is.
Scott:
Well, thank you so much for breaking down this photo with me. I where can listeners connect with you online? I know where, but I’m pretty
Lauri:
Much everywhere, but my, I have two websites. I have a Laurie novak.com is my fine art site where I sell my fine art work and I, I do blogs about fine art hanging, hanging, and travel stories. And then I also have C with laurie.com, which is where I run mentoring and photo tours. So those are two places.
Scott:
I will be linking to this photo and to Lori sites in the show notes. Thank you for listening in to photo breakdown for the show notes and to see the photo talked about today, visit photo breakdown.
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