I’m a real estate photographer in south Texas on the Gulf Coast and I venture into hundreds of homes every year. I have been in $15k teardowns and $4.5MM dream homes and shot everything in between. After looking in thousands of homes over the past 9 years, I’ve compiled a great list of things sellers need to take care of before photos happen. Time and time again, these are the top 3 things that I see sellers forget to do. #1: Trash Cans. First of all, trash cans are dirty (whether physically or metaphorically) and buyers don’t want to see them. I’m talking about inside trash cans as well as your outdoor refuse collection trash cans. Very rarely have I seen an indoor trash can that is beautiful enough that it should be left visible in photos. The stainless steel is smudged, they get dented, there is a trash bag hanging over the edges. Never have I seen an outdoor trash can that added to your home’s curb appeal. Most of the time they a re some godawful ugly color and are just begging to be hidden. Since garages are almost never photographed, it is the best place to put all of your […]
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A few months back I happened to be returning from photographing real estate in Portland, and when I was driving up the Harbor Bridge, I saw this huge, beautiful vessel that was moored alongside the Solomon Ortiz Center in Port Corpus Christi. I immediately recognized that the ship was a heavy lift vessel by its appearance, and noticed that some welders were affixing several mooring points to the ship’s deck. I was curious as to the project and was immediately interested in doing another industrial time-lapse project with whatever OHT’s Albatross was going to be loading, so I contacted the stateside rep for OHT with a proposal.
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Some details and behind the scenes photos from a commercial photography shoot I did in February for La Palmera Mall here in Corpus Christi. Before 7a.m. I show up to Cinnamon Shore, a vacation community located right outside of Port Aransas. My two assistants are right behind me and we prep for the first shot of the day. While The Collective (ad agency consisting of ArtFly, Snyder & Associates, Olvey Media Consulting), client, La Palmera Mall, and video production company, Enlightened Images all had a creative meeting discussing the ultimate visual look for this 24 month ad campaign, we would mostly be shooting scenes candidly covering the locations and wardrobe the client had in mind. From the storyboard, our first shot of the day is supposed to be one of the iconic hero images for the entire campaign. Of course, we’re targeting summery vibes. In early February. On the Beach. During the coldest days of Winter 2016-2017. Needless to say, when we first walked over the boardwalk to stage our first scene, I was really bummed by the extreme fog hanging over the dunes, beach, and water; later I would realize that this would be our saving grace. Carlos (the […]
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Every day I get phone calls of the sort “do you do virtual tours”. In the past decade, the term “virtual tour” has been used to represent everything from panoramic photos that spun around on their own to a webpage where a slideshow of still photos and music *entertained* buyers, to today, where clients can literally walk through a home and look all around. The Matterport 3D Tours are less virtual tours and more literal tours. So maybe I should be advertising that I provide literal tour services. Anyways, when you prepare a home for listing photos, certain things can be hidden and/or moved from room to room while photos are being taken. However, when performing 3D scans of homes and businesses, moving objects around isn’t really possible: the 3D camera can “see” everything 360 degrees around it, above it, and below it. For this reason, I have a different rule when it comes to taking 3D scans of real estate for virtual tours: everything must be perfect. I know that seems like a pretty tough rule to get behind, but if you want to show a real estate listing in the BEST possible light through the use of true […]
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