National Lifestyle Village

Howell Builders has recently completed the new clubhouse for National Lifestyle Village in High Wycombe. The Clubhouse includes a gym, indoor pool spar and sauna, library, squash court and large hall and kitchen. The external images were to be shot at Dusk meaning the sky behing the eastern facing building would be lost at this time of day. After trying graduated Neutral density filters but not getting the desired look I decided to go with two exposures and blend them in photoshop. You can see this in the first two images below.

Two new elevations

It is great to see the end of daylight saving, at least for a while. The sun is now heading down at 6pm a much better time for a dusk shoot than the middle of summer where the sun hangs around till 9pm . Here is a external image shot at dusk of an impressive home in Dalkeith built by Polazzo Homes.


Another impressive Dalkeith home shot last week was form builder Webb & Brown-Neaves. We were lucky to get a beautiful yellow Lamborghini in the driveway for the shot. The camera was set up just inside the boundary fence with a 14-24mm lens set to 19mm. This is wider then I would normally shoot an external however I preferred this composition, by framing out the front fence I was able to get a clearer view of the car. The camera was sent up the tripod to full height over 2.5m exposure 4 sec st f11



Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Nautilus Display Home

Here are a few images from a recent architecturl photoshoot for Dale Alcock Homes. The display home was required to be shot with talent in a natural way. The images were shot to look very naturally lit however each shot required considerable time and artificial lights to achieve this. Slow shutter speeds was used to achieve motion blur in some images while others used shallow depth of field to achieve a fresh look. A prop stylist was on hand to style each image through out the day.




Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Another Magazine Closes

This week heard the closure of two more magazines, Habitat and Lifestyle Magazine and Perth Vita. With the worlds obsession with online content magazines are becoming less relevant finding it harder to keep up with current information being produced on the web every second. I was lucky enough to shoot for both publications including the cover of the final issue of Perth Habitat and Lifestyle Magazine available now.

D-Max Photography

Porsche in the Lounge

Here is a unique home that features the owners Porsche viewable from the Lounge room through glass doors. The Porsche sits in its own air conditioned room and can be seen from the moment you walk through the front door. Images shot with 14-24mm lens 1/2 sec @ f10 on Nikon D3x



Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Welcome Ryley Barbitta

Something a little different for the blog. This week we got a new addition to our family with the birth of our second son Ryley, here is a photo at 1 day old shot iso 4oo in available light on Nikon D3x. Many long sleepless nights to ahead.

Novus Homes New Building

Novus Homes has just built and moved into there new office building in Balcatta. Along with shooting some daylight internal and external images was this final image shoot in twilight. Last minute changing of blown light globes was needed first in rapidly changing light. Images shot with the new Nikon D3x with a 24mm PC lens exposed for 6 seconds at f8.5.

House & Garden Magazine

Here are some images from a recent House and Garden magazine shoot. The Beach house located in Baldivis a one hour drive south of Perth was designed by Optimum Resource Architects . The Holiday house is just meters from the Ocean and blends in with its surroundings through the use of natural building materials. A natural look to the lighting was required for the photos just two or three studio heads with large soft diffusers were used as fill and to balance the light and outside the windows without overpowering the views. Here are some images below from the shoot, you can read the article and see more photos in the current January issue of Australian House & Garden Magazine on sale now.




Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Perth Aerial photography and Cityscape

The week before Christmas I was commissioned to photograph the Perth City Skyline from both ground level and from the air to show off Frasers Property Group's new site located on the corner of Hay Street and Adelaide Terrace East Perth. The site will house 288 apartments and townhouses, commercial space, a new retail precinct and a luxurious apartment hotel. Part one of the photography was the Aerials that required a nice blue day and the charter of a helicopter. As you can see in the images below the door comes off allowing more freedom to move and less chance of the aircraft to appear in the images.


Part two of the shoot was the ground level views from South Perth. After a reccie shoot all along the South Perth foreshore two locations were selected by the clients. Each of the final panorama images below were stitched from 3-4 images. Various images were shot over a half hour time slot allowing for various looks.


Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and see you in 2009.

Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Applecross Renovation

Last week I shot this home renovation for Matthews Architecture. The Modern extension features a large curved roof flowing from the alfresco to the sitting room that is flooded with natural daylight in the afternoon. The extension also comprises of a new kitchen, lounge and a free standing pool room. See photos from the shoot below.

Monier Roof Tiles

This week I was required to hire a cherry picker to shoot a 9 unit development in Baldivis for Monier roof tiles. A 12m Cherry picker was towed into positioned early Monday morning and lifted to full height as you can see in this behind the scene photo.

After waiting for some clouds to pass I managed to get a few images in good mourning light.

Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Oswald Swanbloune Residence

Here is a comparison between daylight and a dusk elevation from a shoot this week. Most clients prefer a twilight external image as it generally has more appeal. What do you think?


Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Updated D-Max web site

I have just updated my web site galleries to a new streamlined look. The galleries now load much quicker for easier viewing. Check it out @ dmaxphotography.com.au and let me know what you think.

Dale Alcock Homes Shenton Lakes display home

Dale Alcock Homes have just opened a new display home in Champion Lakes. 8 hours was spent on location shooting the home. A stylist was also on hand to give the home a lived in look. The external images shot at dusk finished off the shoot at 7pm. The home is open for inspection Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 2-5pm. more information can be found at Dale Alcock Homes

New covers

D-Max photography recently shot the cover of the current issue of Habitat & lifestyle magazine. The home built by Riverstone is located in Mosman Park. Check it out on stands now.


Every year I shoot the cover of the Swimming Pool and Spar Association magazine. The Magazine produced every year showcases the best pools and spars from WA. The magazine out now can request a copy on their website http://www.spasawa.com.au/

Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

Luxury Apartments by Webb & Brown-Neaves

Webb & Brown-Neaves has just completed their latest apartments building at Mandurah Ocean Marina. Named Platinum the 5 story complex consists of 6 unique and exclusive apartments right on the waters edge overlooking the marina and Indian Ocean. This is one of three apartment buildings at the marina built by the exclusive home builders Webb & Brown-Neaves with Nautica already completed and the Landing due for completion mid 2010. Further info can be found at http://www.mandurahapartments.com.au/. After a couple of cancellations due to bad weather we finally managed to shoot it on a beautiful blue day. Here are a few images from the shoot.




Joel Barbitta
D-Max Photography

South West Photoshoot

Last week took me to Cowaramup, a 3.5 hour drive south of Perth for a stunning beach side residence. The home built by Zorzi Builders takes advantage of the spectacular 180 degree views, no expense was spared on this luxurious residence from the home theatre to the huge cave like cellar to the glass pyramid roof. This is the main house on the lot though Zorzi builders also built the guest house that you can rent out for $1000.00 a night. We shot the guest house last year and it won the HIA Australian house of the year, you can check out those photos at http://www.incognitoescape.com.au/ Here are some photos from this shoot.




Thanks Joel Barbitta

CTA Building

External photography was required of the CTA building on the Esplanade in Perth. Photography of the building was commissioned by Perth Precast along with other multi story buildings in the CBD and a number of train stations. A late afternoon time slot was chosen for the image due to its southern orientation, tilt sift lenses on medium format digital camera was used for vertical perspective corection. Here are a few images.

2008 Telethon Home

The 2008 Perth Telethon Home built by In Vogue builders is now finished and open for inspection. As always D-Max Photography was pleased to be asked to photograph the home for charity. The home located in Southern River will be auctioned over the Telethon Weekend with all the money going to Princess Margaret Children's Hospital. You can find more information on the home at http://telethon.7perth.com.au/view/telethon-homes/ . and view the first pictures on the home here.