Inverdee House for SEPA

Photography of Inverdee House

I was commissioned recently to take images of the Inverdee House in Torry. Inverdee House is an innovative new facility in Torry, Aberdeen. The name Inverdee (coming from the Gaelic "the meeting of the waters") was chosen as a simple reminder that three environment organisations have come together, at the mouth of the Dee, in one building. 

The project, coordinated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency SEPA, is a joint initiative between SEPA and Grampian Housing Association GHA, and sees the creation of new office accommodation, laboratory facilities for SEPA and housing respectively.

The shots were taken on a beautiful sunny afternoon in March and the lighting for the exterior was very good and the use of a polarising filter to enhance the blue sky and reduce the reflection on the building, gave me the exterior shots I needed. Including the harbour in the background helps to convey the location. Click here to view the images.

The beautiful lighting outside made the interior shots very difficult. Often with the appropriate lighting, I can balance the view out of a window with the interior but in this case with it being so bright outside this was impossible. Working on a tripod, I took several exposures, exposing for both the interior and the exterior. Using Photoshop CS4 and Photomatix Pro, we combined the separate exposures to balance the interior and exterior. The new Photoshop CS5 which we have just started using, has the HDR (high dynamic range) facility included which would allow us to create HDR images without Photomatix Pro.

The images were supplied to Mark Duncan, the Graphic Designer who was very pleased with them ("Thanks for those Neil – they are ideal") and has used them in several ways including on the SEPA website. I am going back to do more interior shots after more staff have moved in to the building.