It’s always a great honor and compliment when a former commercial photography client commissions additional work. So, I was thrilled to shoot again on behalf of architect and structural engineer Steve Kibler, of Kibler AE, LLC. This time, his design is situated further away from Bloomington Normal area, on the shore of Lake Bloomington in Hudson, IL.

Sitting on a wedge shaped lot, the street view is compact, modest, and private (above), but it’s replete with large windows on the lake side, where the lot opens up with a balcony and patio offering beautiful views of the water – perfect for entertaining.

The lower level (walk-out basement) sports a garage-like door for easy access to the water with SUP boards and other water toys (below).

The home’s many horizontal and vertical lines made creating technically clean images a challenge, as did rapidly changing light on a mostly cloudy day. The lake side also has a relatively steep grade down to the dock, the only place from which I could shoot the back of the house due to the curve of the shore and property lines. So, I was looking “up” at the house rather than directly at it (see below). A lift would have leveled the view, but we kept things simple. And, despite the challenges, the results are still lovely – but how could they not be, with such a gorgeous design?

It was a pleasure to make images there while the sun sank on a beautiful summer evening. Thank you for the opportunity, Steve!

And thank you to the owners, as well, for accommodating the shoot and sharing views of their beautiful weekend nest. – H