The Bethune House in Denver’s South Dahlia Lane
I was invited to shoot this tri-level home in the historic South Dahlia Lane neighborhood. This is one of 32 homes originally designed by architect Eugene Sternberg, in this neighborhood that he also planned around affordability, community, and beauty. This was the residence of the Bethune family - George Bethune was an interior designer who co-owned a local modern furniture dealer, Bethune & Moore. He designed an incredible addition on the back of the home - a brick and glass pavilion that housed both an office and primary bedroom, connected to the original home by an incredible breezeway.
It’s homes like these that make shooting real estate a real joy, and why I LOVE the work that I do. You might notice that I put an emphasis on doing some of my shooting at dusk on nearly every shoot that I do - and a highly transparent building like this modern pavilion are one of the reasons why!
I did have one negative experience shooting this otherwise exceptional home . . . there were two vases next to the fireplace (visible in the photos) that crashed to the floor as I was walking past, near the end of the shoot, when the painting behind them tipped over (I think it was caught by the air of me walking by) and took them down with it. I gave up the whole fee for this shoot to pay the stager for her loss of those highly rare vases - it was the right thing to do, even though it was truly a freak accident. The only time I ever had a self-insure a loss during a shoot, and hopefully the last!
