This is one of my favorite photos of 2024, and one that I get the most questions about.
Let’s start with a little background. This Scottsdale residence is named Poppyfield II. Built in 1989, it was designed by architect David Dodge for himself and his wife Annaliese. Mr. and Mrs. Dodge have both passed away, and the home remains in the Dodge family — and is closed to the public.
Poppyfield II is one of the most significant examples of “organic architecture”, a western style pioneered by the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright where buildings are to blend harmoniously with the natural environment surrounding them. Of course, Poppyfield II is just up the road from Taliesin West, the historic winter home and architecture school founded by Wright.
An apprentice to Wright, Mr. Dodge spent his career as a Taliesin Fellow both practicing organic architecture and teaching at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. And Poppyfield II — designed as both a residence and a place to host music-orientated parties — stands as his ultimate work.
Earlier this year I was tasked with photographing the property by the Organic Architecture + Design Archives — which serves to document and preserve works of organic architecture. And when I saw this long driveway wrapping around the south side of the building, I knew I had to make this “light trails” type of photo.
To execute this, I set my tripod up next to the driveway, and pulled my car up just out of the camera’s field-of-view. I then set the camera to do a “long exposure” of 30 seconds. This means the camera will take in light for a full 30 seconds, and anything moving through the frame will blur with its motion. Being a night photo, moving points of light (like a car’s tail lights) will creating brilliant streaks, whereas the dim silhouette of the car itself will disappear — or become a ghost, as we say.
So I pressed the shutter button on the camera (with a 10-second delay before the shutter opened), ran and jumped into the idling car, put it in drive, and drove right through the frame while the shutter was open. Fortunately, I’d done this type of thing before, so it only took a couple takes to get it right. I also took some other versions of the shot with different settings to maximize the detail in the house and the tree, blending them in Photoshop to make one composite image.
I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to have the image I envisioned come to life.
That’s it for today’s Daily Dose. Be well, my friends.
-Jake
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