Big cities. Big buildings. Big business. Big fun!
We spend our lives driving between buildings but how often do we notice them?
The fun in architectural photography is in working with the building to create a new perspective that pops and grabs the viewers attention.
This was a fun session in Portland, Oregon that yields some Stock photographs that are being downloaded and used worldwide.
I was speaking with Tara Nagelhout (Emerald Valley Real Estate) today- we’re headed out of town to knock out a Twilight Shot tonight. A couple of months ago, I shot this beautiful Tudor out in Cottage Grove for her. The property is closing this week! Gratz, Tara! When we were talking, she said, “It was the pictures, Daniel– they just brought in a steady stream of potential buyers, many of whom weren’t interested when they got out and saw the property, but it’s the one buyer that counts; the one who signed. And it was your photography that brought that buyer in!”
Here’s the thing- Professional Real Estate Photography is not primarily about creating gorgeous, luscious breath-taking photographs- it’s just not.
Professional Real Estate Photography IS 100% about selling the property; it’s about getting people who are cruising online listings to pick up the phone, call their realtor and set up an appt. to come out and personally view the listing. That’s all.
That’s what I do- I get potential buyers out to the property with their realtor. Lots of them.
That means properties that wouldn’t sell- SELL! That means you are selling MORE! That means properties that would sell– sell FASTER!
SELL. MORE. FASTER. That’s what I do for you.
Real Estate Pro’s know the image they portray online and in physical marketing materials directly reflects on how they are going to represent their business and their listings. Julie approached me to update her business portraits and we opted for a simple white background in-studio. This gives her marketing team a great deal of flexibility when putting her image on materials and on the web.
I set up a straight forward 3 light shoot, one behind and above for backlighting to separate her from the background, the softbox key light behind me to her left and a softbox fill behind me to her right, minimizing harsh shadows and providing balanced depth. Adjustments to skin tone and smoothness were made through my post-production, digital mastery process.
Stock shots that have plenty of open space are perfect for adding text & other graphic elements.
These are a couple of shots created up on Skinner’s Butte here in Eugene. Beautiful sunset in a rainstorm, flag in the foreground. Of course that drive patriotic themes, but good for politics and loyalty themes.
Here’s a successful business that has been using micro-stock photography for the website and materials for years? Why would they want a local commercial photography to come in and create some photos for them? As owner Paul Hemphill puts it, “Because all that micro-stock photography is generic- we want images that show our business and our personality.” That pretty much sums it up.
Why would a realtor choose professional real estate photography that costs precious marketing dollars rather than just shooting with their own camera? Well, as realtor Don York stated so clearly about this house, “To say the pictures I took in here look awful makes awful look bad…”
This beauty of a home is bathed in natural light pouring in from all angles- skylights, large windows and the home is vaulted all the way through. From a technical standpoint, that means a very high dynamic range of light– huge blasts of bright light from natural light sources leads to a camera trying its best compensate… and thus images come out with blown out parts right next to deep dark shadows- there’s the ‘awful’ part- not your fault at all, Don.
The human eye can handle this huge dynamic range- camera’s, particularly consumer or ‘pro-sumer’ camera’s simply cannot. Even with high end equipment like mine, it present a technical challenge. However, out of my lab comes this.
Don’s response? ”Thanks Dan, wow- these look great!” And that means more people scheduling appointments to view the house- it also means more selling realtors coming through- all that traffic is pretty good news in these times. Smart choice, Don! This one should go fast!
Want to know more? Check out my site – http://www.YourListingMedia.com
234 Lobelia, Eugene Oregon 97404
This started as a classic business portrait session- quick, easy in and out thing, but Sean was gracious enough to let me just keep shooting and it turned into something much more. We started wide and ended up with close ups that really just reveal his soul. We got to go there because in another life, Sean was a famous movie star! Yeah, not typical of a Business Portrait (a.k.a. Headshot) session, but really glad it worked out the way it did- thanks, Sean!
Oy! New website means I’m uploading my portfolio all over again- that’s just a lot of work! To my prospective clients, my apologies if you don’t see the depth yet – I’m uploading as fast as I can afford the time to do so, although you should see a pretty good representation of the quality I provide. Thanks and cheers!
An organization is starting an annual event and they want to market for the event, but they have no images to work with. Hmmm… what to do? Sure, I come in, create the images they get to use over and over again. Cool, huh? That’s what local stock photography is all about- your business, your images, your specifics. You just can’t get that from online stock sites.
I love social networking. Facebook. Linkedin. Eharmony. Relationships do matter and how we present ourselves on these sites really matters. First impressions still count for something. Now to be fair, David is also an amazing Guitar player- shreds on the electric like no ones business so these shots could also fall into my Artists category as well.
