Taming the wind to photograph a Solair Awning

Solair awnings create a comfortable outside living space anytime of day protecting you from the sun and rain at the click of a button. Want a lot of shade? Just push the remote button on a Solair PS500 awning and you can cast a shadow up to 25 feet wide and 12 feet deep over your deck or terrace. The marketing team for Solair awnings recruited Exum Photography to photograph an awning in Woodstook, Georgia at the home of Jane and Roger (the friendliest folks I know in GA). It was important to choose our weather as you need mid day sun to appreciate what an awning can do. As predicted we got our sun, AND just to challenge us, mother nature sent wind … lots of wind. Solair awnings are designed with a sensor that automatically retracts the awning under high winds … protects the awning, protects the house. So we disconnected the awning power source. Problem solved, right? Not exactly, the wind only increased as our mid day light closed in. Postponing the shoot was a last resort. The awning swelled and moved like a giant sail. It just would not sit still. We needed to tame the awning long enough to get our shot. Rope! Let’s tie it down and Photoshop the rope out later. We had rope and homeowner, Roger, brought more rope. We tied the structural pieces down and tamed our awning. However, the small overhanging valance kept flapping in the wind. It would not lay down. What now? Fishing line! We tied down the valance flapping material with fishing line.  Our team of 9 pitched in and scrambled to tie down the valance, literally sewing it down. Voila! The awning sat still in the whipping wind and from our perch on the man lift we got our shot. Thank you Solair Shade Solutions team members, David Heiman and Madison Owen, for your willingness to let us experiment taming the awning. Thank you homeowners, Roger and Jane, for pitching in too and for the wonderful dinner we shared after the shoot. Many thanks to the Exum Photo team Griffin, Jenna and Eric and to our stylist Amy Matthews from Crews Inc production company out of Atlanta.  Photography by Steve Exum