Cloud 9 Photography, based in Leeds, UK was established in 1988 and provides a photographic service to architects, designers, retailers and property agents throughout the UK and internationally.
Cloud 9 was founded by myself Jonathan Taylor, a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cambridge University, where I spent rather more time studying photography than I did Marx & Hegel. At Cambridge I met such luminaries as Terence Donovan and Bert Hardy who inspired me to take up a career in photography which has also combined with my life-
For over twenty years we have worked exclusively in the world of architecture, design and property promotion and we work with many high profile clients such as McDonald’s, Primark, Hugo Boss and Savills. By specialising in architectural photography, we understand the whole process of construction and development from the design stage, through building, to the styling and lighting of finished projects. This knowledge allows us to provide the sort of images that not only show buildings in their best light, but also shots that are of great value on a technical level for architects and designers. We work with many store development teams in the retail world providing online photographic archives for all their development team to access.
My style of architectural photography might best be described as “reductionist” or less is more. I always try to simplify my compositions, eliminating all superfluous elements to allow the intrinsic nature of buildings to show through. This style of photography also extends to my methodology -
All my work is processed in house by my Photoshop expert Sarah, who ensures that the finished images you receive are supplied colour balanced and retouched ready for publication. The processing of images is often overlooked in these digital days, but we consider it to be as important as producing the original raw files. For every day I spend behind the camera, Sarah will spend a day in front of her computer.
We are based in Leeds, and cover the whole of the UK on a regular basis, meaning we can price competitively for work throughout the country. We also work internationally, and regularly fly around Europe on assignments.
One of the most important elements of architectural photography is the weather. Whilst lighting can be controlled within a building, the vagaries of the British climate are something that we have to be contended with. Whilst I don’t claim to have any magic control over the weather, I have become a keen meteorologist over the years, and so we try to coordinate our diary with our expectations of what the weather will offer us.
One of my particular areas of expertise is in shop fitting and store redevelopment photography where I have worked for many years, on particularly tight deadlines, and with only limited shooting time before store openings. My work in this area has also led me to the world of exhibition photography, which has similar constraints, and often more challenging lighting conditions.
We also cover the construction end of the building industry, where we provide site progress photography and “before and after” images. We also offer timelapse photography using a combination of fixed and mobile cameras to capture the building process. Timelapse photography is ideally suited to construction and makes an excellent presentational tool.
Another service we offer is high level mast photography using our 15m telescopic mast, equipped with a remote controlled camera. This high level perspective is ideal for coverage of sites up to superstore size, and is invaluable on sloping sites where access to the ideal vantage point is impossible.
Whatever the scale of your building project, from a kitchen extension to an out of town shopping centre, we always take the same effort to ensure that your work is shown in its best possible light.
