When construction started in Ottawa at the Ingenium in 2017, I knew it was going to be something special. At this point in my career I was shooting real estate full time, but my interest for architecture & design photography was beginning to develop. Time had passed, and I only admired the building from afar in all seasons and weather conditions. I thought to myself every time I would drive past “I’m going to shoot that one day” but never felt confident to capture a building this size!
Scouting
Fast forward to April 2023, after about a year into capturing interior design & architecture photography in Ottawa full time, I visited the lngenium to scout and take some handheld shots to determine what angles I’d like to get for a second visit. I was loving the harsh angular shadows cutting across the aluminum exterior mid day, but also really liked the idea of morning golden light hitting the grounds & exterior. Scouting a large structure beforehand is important, since the light changes quickly at dusk & dawn. Since this also was a large property I knew that nailing down a rough shortlist would be benficial. At this point in the season, the snow had just melted & the grounds were still very brown and blah. I wanted to wait a few weeks until we got some colour in the trees & grass.
Capturing the Ingenium at dawn
My alarm goes off at 5:01 AM and I’m ready to tackle this beast! I actually thought I would capture both the museum & Ingenium that morning, however I found the museum a little flat at dawn. I did get some cool shots of the sun blasting the north side of the museum which I will share soon, but I would love to go back again at dusk. I switched gears to only focus on the Ingenium. I captured the building from about 6:00am - to 7:15. Even though I was getting mauled by mosquitos (which surprised me it is early for them!), I still had a blast capturing this building. I love the way the light dapples the grounds & hits the exterior of the building later on in the session. Below are the shots captured. Looking forward to exploring more of Ottawa's architecture.
About the Ingenium
The Ingenium is placed just beside the Science + Tech museum which stores approximately 1.2 million artifacts in climate controlled environments. The blue, red & green colours on the exterior represents the Canada Aviation, Science + tech, & Agriculture and Food museums. As you change perspective, the aluminum “fins” shift colour. This design feature is inspired by lenticular printing.
