Some More Work (Maybe)

Last night I had another work opportunity come to my doorstep.  I had a phone meeting with a company that specializes in last minute hotel reservations.  They were looking for a photographer to shoot some of their participating hotels in Atlantic City.  We also spoke about doing it in the Philly area.  Overall it went well and looks like I might be doing contract work for them in the near future.  We’ll just have to wait and see what comes of it.  That’s why I said “Maybe” in the title.  I don’t like to count on something until comes through.  If it does you folks will be some of the first to know and I’ll reveal the company’s name then.

On another note.  Here’s another image that I came across while combing through my pictures yesterday.  It was taken almost a year ago when my girl came out to visit me LA.  I took her up to the Getty Museum to walk around.  It was one of my favorite places for pictures.  We lucked out and experienced a magnificent sunset.  Here’s one of my images from that sunset.  Enjoy and have a great day.

 

Monday Morning

Well it’s Monday.  Hard to believe we spend approximately 1/7 of our lives dealing with Monday.  Though honestly I think it gets a bad rap.  I was combing through my images this morning while having my coffee and came across this image.  It’s nothing overly special but I thought it might be a good way to start the week.  After all “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

 

Something Interesting

I was cruising around my Flickr account yesterday when I noticed that Burbank Water and Power had added a shot of mine to their favorites.  I took this shot about 4 years ago with my old 10D but I think it’s one of my better images.  This is one of those images that I completely pre-visualized.  I was driving home from downtown Burbank and was on the bridge over the 5 freeway when I saw this.  I rushed home. Grabbed my gear.  And BOOM grabbed the shot.  I saw this as a black and white in my head and originally did the conversion with CS3 without any plug-ins.  I have since have gone back and re-worked it using CS5 and NIK Silver Efex Pro II.

I’m Still Here

After feverishly working until about 3am this morning I have delivered all my materials save for one small floor plan.  It was tough.  I had a client throw me a real curve ball when she decided she needed her images NOW!  Then I had another client request his images be delivered this morning.  It’s all about timing.  But I did get things finished.  Processed more than 100 images and completed a floor plan for a 3 story 2500 square foot house.  No small task.  I have 4 very satisfied customers.  And that’s what it’s about.  Getting them to come back to you by providing outstanding product and service.

Here are a couple of shots from that huge house I shot the other day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When it rains it pours.

OK let’s get one thing straight right off the bat.  I am NOT complaining.  Maybe a little kvetching but definitely not complaining.  I know it’s been awhile but I do have an excuse.  It might be lame but it is an excuse.  I have done 9 shoots in the past 10 days.  Including a house that was about 8000 square feet, 3 floors with a finished basement and best of all it had an elevator.  How many houses have you been in that have an elevator?!  This is not including the house for the au pair, the barn/office/gym/5 car garage, the other 3 car garage, or the pool/pond house.  This shoot took more than 6 hours on site and I’m still in the middle of processing them out.  I will definitely post some later today when I’m done.  Oh and I’m already booked on two shoots for next week.  I did say I liked to stay busy.  Watch what you wish for.  Have a great day everyone.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Sorry this is getting out late, but better late than never.  Been busy working on images from a shoot the other day.  I was scheduled for a shoot today but the Sun did not cooperate and so we’ve rescheduled for tomorrow.  Cross your fingers and pray for Sol.  In the meantime…………………………

Last Night

Before you start getting those thoughts in your head I’m not that kind of blogger.  I wanted to talk about a marvelous seminar that I went to last night sponsored by the Philadelphia chapter of ASMP (Of which I am member).  The presenter was this wonderful woman named Colleen Wainwright (www.communicatrix.com)

Colleen specializes in media and marketing but more importantly talks about how to get people interested in you and your business and how to keep them.   Her one, overriding mantra is “Be Awesome”.  Sounds simple.  Well after listening to her it’s not as simple as you’d think.  And is in fact a lot of hard work.  Now Colleen is not some fancy schmancy business guru.  She’s a former copywriter and actress who seems to have a lot going on.  And really seems to have a firm grasp on what it takes to market yourself successfully.  I believe that it’s not always about a persons background or education.  If they are presenting information that is informed, current, correct, concise AND is relevant to you then that is all you can ask for and is about what you take away from that interaction.  She was all of that for me.  As well as rather inspirational.  (She definitely lit a fire under my butt).  So if she comes to your town and you want to get more out of your business make it a point to see her.  You won’t be disappointed.

Since this was my first interaction as an ASMP member, I wanted share the links to two fellow architectural photographers I met while I was there.  The first is Joe Kitchen.  He was kind enough to take the time and respond to an email I sent him asking about pricing my stuff for realtors.  Thanks Joe.  Here’s the link to his website http://www.josephmkitchen.com/   The other guy was Greg Benson.  I wanted to mention only because he’s a really nice guy and very talented photographer with whom I shared some good conversation.  Here’s the link to Greg’s website.  http://www.gregbenson.com/

That’s it.  Have a great day.  Don’t forget to be AWESOME!

 

It’s Starting

Well things are starting to pick up.  I’ve got 3 real estate jobs scheduled and 2 more pending.  So it looks like it’s going to be a busy week.  On top of that my girlfriend and I are in the midst of looking for a new place ourselves.  It wasn’t until I started looking at all of these different houses that I realized just how bad most real estate photography is.  I understand that most realtors don’t think that quality photography is worth the extra cost.  Especially on the houses that are in the middle price range.  I have seen more images that are under exposed, not framed properly, not level or just plain bad than I thought I would ever want to see.  I really can’t believe the number shots of just a fireplace I’ve seen.  Do they really think that gives a potential buyer any idea what the house feels like?  Especially when the fireplace isn’t clean.  There also seems to be an overall aversion to putting the toilet seat down.  If I have one bit of wisdom to pass along to realtors it’s this.  Take 10 minutes and make sure that the place is clean and de-cluttered.  Hide the dirty dishes.  Put the kid’s toys away.  And make sure the toilet seat is down.  In this day and age where most people do their house hunting on line, quality pictures do more to get a potential buyer’s interest than you think.  I will admit that I’m fortunate to work with realtors who get it and shoot a lot of high end properties.  For that I am truly grateful.

As I promised a while back here are some finished images from a house in Upper Merion.  This one was not staged.  Just great decorating on the current owner’s part.

Some More Architecture

Sorry this is getting out to you late today.  Been busy finishing images and floor plans from my latest shoot.  This was a really nice loft condo in a converted office building in downtown Philly.  I really enjoy shooting architecture and interiors.  It can be challenging but I think I’m getting pretty good at.

Hi Ho Hi Ho

Good Morning.  I’ve landed another real estate gig today and will be doing that this afternoon.  I really enjoy shooting architecture and while these shoots for the realtors don’t allow for a whole lot of creativity it seems to be really good practice.  I say not a lot of creativity because I do these real estate shoots for a company called Floor Plan On-line. They have a prescribed set of images they want for their website with certain exposure characteristics.  But as I said it’s good practice.  I spend a lot of time making sure composition is correct and making sure that I have the necessary exposures to composite images with as they are insistent that the windows not be over exposed or blown out.  They also ask that I shoot with ambient light.  This definitely provides some challenges and requires a certain amount of post work.  The best part of working with them is they require a 24 hour turn around on the images.  That can be as many as 30 images completed in 24 hours.  All in all though it’s not bad.  I get to see and shoot some really high end homes and am putting together a great portfolio of images.