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Shooting the Hay Adams Hotel with 2 guns.

I've had the privilege of shooting the Hay Adams Hotel in Washington DC.  I've shot a number of their "Author Series" in the past and I was hired to shoot some of their interiors recently.

24 3.5L TSE II, 5D MKII

I love this hotel!  It was built around the turn of the century (1913 I think?) and it is just a wonderful place. It is considered to be one of the best hotels in the United states.  It has won many awards and their attention to detail is remarkable.

One of the best asset to this hotel is the view.  How is the front lawn of the White House for a spactacular view?  No sudden moves, because the secret service guys on top of the roof will "take note" of you if you linger around too long with a lot of equipment.

50 1.2L, 5D MKII

The suites are immaculate.  Plush bedding, steam pressed drapes, carved ceiling panels... Top notch. 

24 3.5L TSE II, 5D MKII

Used the Canon 24mm TSE for this project. Great lens. For this kind of work, you can't beat it. TSE stands for "Tilt and Shift".  Normal lens have fixed lens position with exception of the glass elements moving forward and backwards for focusing.  

The tilt and shift lens allows the elements to move (tilting and shifting) so you can manipulate the image striking the sensor.  What that does is it allows for perspective correction. One of the correction that this lens is capable of doing is the 'vertical line issue' when shooting interiors or architecture. 

With a regular lens when you tilt up on the camera, the vertical lines starts to converge, especially more noticeable on wide angle lens.  So, then don't tilt up right? Well, the problem is that when you try to frame the shot, sometimes you have to include what's a bit higher (or lower).  I wanted to include the ceiling and the lamp, so the tse lens allowed me to "shift" the image up without the camera being tilted up, making the vertical lines vertical. 

24 3.5L TSE II

Sturdy tripod is a must in this application. With deep depth of field with natural light your shutter speed will be very slow so to get sharp pictures, you'll need a tripod, use mirror lock, and use self timer (2sec). I never liked using the remote. My motto is, 'use as little equipment as you can' for the job.  

Fuji x-100. Hand held

Since I knew that I was going to be bogged down with tripods and worrying about tilts and shifts, I brought my fuji x-100 as the 'spontaneous' camera.  The thing is so small that it fits in my belt pack pouch. I just leave the tripod set up and walk around the room shooting hand held with the x-100.  The big sensor with excellent optics gives top notch image quality. 

Fuji x-100

This shot was made from my arms stretched standing next to the bed.  I can't imagine setting up the tripod on top of the bed!  It looks like it took 2 hours to make the thing.  So shooting with two cameras of very different attributes gave me the flexibility to go for pictures that I couldn't have if I only had one. 




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