I sometimes check out Craigslist ads, just to see what’s out there.  Maybe something good for sale, or maybe someone whose service I can use. Or someone who may need my service.  Plenty of photographers advertise on Craigslist. Here’s one ad I ran across (name changed to protect the guilty):

"John Doe Photography specializes in all areas!"

Can you spot what’s wrong with that ad?

Let me give you a hint:

specialize (verb): to concentrate one's efforts in a special activity, field, or practice

If you do everything, you are, by definition, NOT SPECIALIZED.

I had a great conversation last week with my friend Brian, over at Badger Basement Systems (side note: They specialize in basements & crawl spaces — don’t call him to come fix your attic!)  He said one of the things that surprised him about me was that I was different than most photographers he’s talked to — most photographers are willing to shoot anything you are willing to pay them to.  Their websites advertise all the weddings, portraits, senior photos, pets, commercial, food, product, and event photography they do.  They want to be your one-stop shop for photography.

The problem with that approach is — each of these niches has different needs, different priorities, different techniques, and in some cases different equipment.  Is it possible for a single photographer to excel at all of these areas? Sure, given enough time & opportunities to practice in each & every niche.  But how can you, as a client, be confident that your photographer actually knows your niche?  That he or she isn’t just a smooth-talking salesman with a nice camera & a fancy lens?

The truth is — it’s really hard to know.  In some cases it may not matter — your average professional photographer will still take better pictures than your average real estate agent, even if he has never shot a house before in his career.  The agent will probably be satisfied with the “professional photos” and not think twice about it.  She may even boast to her client that she hired a professional photographer to take pictures so the listing looks great online.

But can you do better?  Better than a “professional photographer”?

The answer is YES, by hiring a professional photographer who SPECIALIZES in real estate.

Don’t call me for your wedding.
I won’t photograph your graduating senior.
I don’t do pet pictures.

I do houses.
I do offices.
I photograph the places you live and work and love.

My business is focused on helping real estate agents, home owners selling their own homes (“for sale by owner” / FSBO), and craftsmen who need a gorgeous portfolio of their services, get the best photographs they can of the spaces they live and work, and then present them in the best possible forms.

It’s more than just great photos, it’s about presentation.

Every home listing I do includes a high-resolution full-screen virtual tour, full of the bright photos I took of your home.  Share the virtual tour on Facebook or Twitter, or ask me to put it on YouTube for you.  You’ll get a weekly email of statistics showing how many people are checking out your tour, and where they came from, and which photos they liked best.

If you are commercial business or craftsmen, I’ll give you great photographs you can proudly display on your website or Facebook page.  Or print them in your brochures & marketing materials.  And I even have an online ordering system where you can order professional prints & enlargements (up to 24″x36″!) for trade shows, vendor exhibits, or for your office.

There are plenty of good professional photographers out there.  Make sure you find one that really understands your specific needs and is prepared to meet them — don’t just shell out the cash and call it “good enough”.  Get your money’s worth.

P.S. As you’ll see in my online gallery of non-real estate photos, yes I do other types of photography.  The difference is that those are typically events I do for fun, for charity, or occasionally as paid work where someone specifically asked for me. My professional business is focused on real estate photography, and that’s my first priority when it comes to purchasing my gear and my training/educational resources.  

As every real estate agent knows, staging a home is critical for showings & open houses.  You don’t get a second chance to make that crucial first impression! You want a potential to walk in and feel welcome in the space, to get good vibes and see themselves living there. You don’t get that emotional appeal with cluttered & dirty rooms!

And that’s all the more important for your photographs — you’ll have ten or a hundred times as many people checking out your listing online before they ever think of walking through the door for a showing, and those first impressions will be your ONLY impression.  You need to get that emotional appeal set, right away, right there in the photographs.

Here are your goals with staging:

• Make buyers feel confident & comfortable about the space.  If your home is clean & organized, then it looks like you care about your living space — and that makes buyers feel good.  You want your buyer to feel good!
• Help buyers see themselves in the space.  Some simple, stylish furniture gives buyers perspective on how big the room is & demonstrates a sample room arrangement. If you have too much stuff, buyers only see your clutter, and not the space’s potential. And this hampers their imagination!

Here’s the great news — in staging for photos, you can take some quick shortcuts to save you time!  Of course it’s best to get your home in “open house condition” for the photos, but let’s face it — you need to get your photos up online right away, and some of the things you want to do for staging may take you a bit of time.  So here are some top tactics to prep your home for photo-staging:

1. Remove clutter. Some people are naturally neat & organized. I’m not one of them.  If you aren’t either, then make sure you take 15 minutes to remove all of the “clutter” in a room — throw the dirty underwear in the laundry basket, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and shove that pile of junk mail & bills in a cupboard or drawer.  Throw away all of the trash and pick up anything that’s out of place.  (If you don’t want to put it away, just throw it in a room you’ve already photographed!)
2. Simplify each room. Chances are you are like most of us and simply have too much stuff (even if you cleaned up the clutter for the previous tactic).  For photos, you can just move some of the stuff into another room temporarily.  Leave some big furniture in to show how spacious the room is & give the buyer some perspective, but consider taking down some of the knick-knacks, wall-art, posters, or smaller items to open up the space.
3. Do a quick cleaning. Dust adds a dulling effect to photos.  In order to really make your room “pop” on the screen, take a few minutes to run the vacuum over the carpet, dust the shiny surfaces (appliances, TVs, any glass windows or doors), and wipe down dark or wood surfaces (like counters, mantles, dressers, entertainment centers). The room will look better, and you’ll feel better about it — which means you’ll take better photos of it because you care!
4. Replace burned out lightbulbs. Part of making a home look warm & inviting is that nice glow from incandescent or CFL lamps.  If you have missing or burned out bulbs, your buyer’s eye is going to miss that nice glow that they expect, and its not going to feel quite right.  If you don’t have time to restock your light bulb supply, just steal bulbs from other rooms!
5. Don’t forget the exterior! I’m sure you’ve heard of “curb appeal”.  Making the outside of your home look clean & organized is just as important as the inside.  The best would be to mow the grass, rake the leaves, and pick up anything laying around the yard (power cords, hoses, toys).  If you don’t have time to do all of that, at LEAST pick up all the stuff in the yard.  Grass & leaves are at least natural; hoses & bicycles are not. Same concept as above — hide your “clutter”!

Finally, consider a professional stager! Your real estate agent can recommend one.  They can be instrumental in helping to prepare a home for sale.  In fact, a great agent friend of mine had a cash offer on a home within one week after she staged it (& had me take new photos)!

Which leaves me with my last point — if you make big changes to your home after you’ve listed it (had it staged, repainted, professionally cleaned, etc), take new photographs!  Remember that 10x-100x more people will see your home online than ever see it in person, and photographs are the only thing they’ll see. Don’t let the work you’ve done to improve your showing go to waste!

David Phoenix Photography - Booth at Blitz 2012

As my first trade show / conference, it was a perfect venue — good size of audience, great location, and regionally-focused.  I spoke with a number of agents from Beloit to Prairie Du Chien, and its really making me consider what kind of service area I should cover.  Real estate photography is critical, and by expanding beyond Dane County I may be able to fill some of that unmet demand out there in Rock, Green, Iowa, Sauk, Columbia, Dodge, and Jefferson Counties.  In fact, I’ve already scheduled a photo listing shoot way down in Delavan, WI (Walworth County) for tomorrow!

I heard from a number of agents that two of the speakers at Blitz talked about how important professional photographs are.  Redfin ran some numbers that proved that professional-quality photos are worth higher closing prices (across all listing price ranges), and sell those high-end homes faster.

And I’ve got my own anecdote — I re-photographed a property after a real estate agent staged the living & dining rooms.  Within a week of those new photos being posted online, she had a cash offer on the property!  Now, can the new photos take all of the credit? Of course not.  She did a great job staging — even the sellers were impressed with the new look!

But the point is, photographs are going to be a buyer’s first impression — and perhaps ONLY impression — of a property. This critical first impression sets the state for the buyers attitude & excitement about the property.  Give them great photographs and they’ll be more interested & excited to see it first-hand.  Show them dark, narrow snapshots and they may pass on by, especially if its at the high-end of their price range.

So starting next week, I’ll begin my blog series on “Top 10 Rules to Improve Your Real Estate Photography”.  This is a presentation that I created and I offer to give to local real estate agent offices.  (I’ve got four or five presentations scheduled already!)  But the presentation is pretty short, so I’ll be able to use this blog to really dive into more detail about each of the rules.  So stay tuned for valuable tips & tricks!

If you’ll be at the Blitz as well, definitely come check out my booth — I’ll have a drawing for a free listing shoot, plus you can check out enlarged samples of my work and sign up for exclusive tips & offers!

Not only have I been preparing to have an awesome, jaw-dropping booth at the Blitz, but I’m also happy to report my Top 10 Rules presentation is looking great!  I gave a demo to some photography friends two weeks ago and they were impressed.  They gave me some great feedback for things to tweak, but overall they thought it was a great presentation — helpful, but not too technical.  I’m eager to get it out in front of some real estate agents now, and I’ve been talking with a few people to do just that!

If you are a real estate agent & are interested in having me present to your office, contact me to pick a date!

Over the upcoming weeks & months I’ll be diving into more details on each of those rules here on this blog, so stay tuned to learn critical tips & tricks to improve your own photography!

Now that I’ve gotten a new website design that I love, its time to fill it up with valuable and helpful content.  Since last fall I’ve been immersing myself in photography knowledge — reading books & blogs, watching video tutorials, purchasing key training materials.  Of course, it’s not enough to simply “know” — you have to “do” as well! So I have been taking all of the tips & tricks & techniques that I’ve been learning about and applying those to my shoots to make great photos.

And now its time to give back.

There are a lot of great resources for photographers out there on the web, but not as much for amateurs who aren’t super tech-savvy.  People like real estate agents, home decorators, contractors / remodellers — there are plenty of professional people with “can-do” spirit & attitude who need good photos and are willing to do it themselves, if only they knew how.  That’s what I’m going to start with — my top 10 rules for taking better real estate photos.

It may seem counter-intuitive, revealing these tips — my girlfriend wondered if that was a smart idea. “Won’t that take away from your business?”  The truth is, I don’t think so.  If you are an ambitious, independent person who likes doing things for yourself, I’m not going to be able to convince you that you should pay me to take your photos! So I might as well help you! If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em — as the saying goes.

This is how its going to work: I’m putting together a one-page tip sheet, a presentation, and eventually an ebook on my top 10 tips.  And these will be tips that anyone can use with their existing camera — no special gear required!  These are the fundamental principles that I think about with each & every shoot I do, and I’ll share them with you!  I’ll list each principle, dive into some detail about it (in plain English — no tech talk about “f-stops” and “exposure compensation” here!), and provide example photos highlighting the specific difference each rule can make.  10 rules = 10 incremental photographic improvements => much better photos.  You’ll see the difference, trust me!

Like I said, this course is still under development, but you can get on my prelaunch mailing list now. Simply send me a note on my contact page and mention you want info on my “Top 10 Rules”.  I’ll send you updates as I make progress, maybe ask for some feedback on certain content, and give you exclusive discounts and bonuses when I’m ready to launch! Win-win — my favorite scenario

I’m really excited! This new design will allow me to showcase my real estate portfolio with a stylish, classic presentation style. But more than that, it gives me a great platform to showcase new listings, share my photography tips & tricks, and exhibit some of my personal photography as well.

Although I specialize in real estate photography professionally, the truth is I love taking pictures and exploring my creative side in a variety of ways.  Some of my favorite challenges are concerts & performance events — low light, dramatic colors, fast movement, and sometimes a lengthy distance to the stage are all obstacles to capturing sharply-focused, well-exposed, exciting shots.  But confronting & overcoming challenges like these is how we get better — and I do love a good challenge!

Speaking of challenges, you’d think real estate photography would be drop dead simple by comparison! After all, the room’s not going to move, control over the lights, and no bouncer to keep me at a distance.  The reality is real estate photography has its own, unique set of challenges.

For example, maybe the room isn’t going to move,  but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be posed.  It’s important to prepare the space in a way that highlight the strengths of the room while minimizing distracting details.  Even more important, however, is lighting.  You can really bring out the vibrance & details of the space with the right lighting.  But it’s tricky to combine the warm glow of interior lights with the intensity of natural sunlight streaming through the windows. Casual shooters simply can’t — it takes the right equipment to capture this wide dynamic range, and the right skills to balance these two very disparate light sources.

Even with the right room staging and balanced lighting, the job isn’t done. How do you capture that scene and present it to your audience?  It is a combination of art & science to blend focal length with composition to convey the soul of the space.  Its easy to snap a photo of a room and move on — but if you really want to show your audience what’s important in a scene, it takes a little more than “point & shoot”.

And that’s why I’m here.  2012 is going to be a great year!

What does this mean?

It means I am serious about making you glad you selected me.  From flexible scheduling, through professional communications to quick turn-around on final photos, my goal is to make you a happy customer. If there has been some part of the process that you haven’t been pleased with, I want you to let me know as soon as possible.  I will do everything I can to rectify the situation.  If for some reason I can’t resolve the complaint and you’re still not satisfied, I will refund you 100% of the price you paid.

• 2 on-site photo shoots with professional Canon equipment
• An appropriate number of images to highlight your service (to be discussed in advance)
• Individual image adjustment & optimization with advanced Adobe software
• High-resolution images delivered electronically

100% satisfaction guaranteed!

A note about image usage & copyright:

All photographs are copyrighted by David Phoenix Photography.  When discussing your goals for professional photography we will determine an appropriate copyright license for you to use the photos as you need to.

Possibilities include:

Home owners these days are more demanding than ever.  Sometimes your biggest competition isn’t another business, but the home owner doing the task themselves, or worse, not doing it at all!  You need clear, compelling visuals to show those potential customers just why they should enlist your help in achieving their dreams.  Maybe that’s a beautifully remodeled home, or a new decor, or a gorgeous new yard. Whatever their dream is, they’ll need your help to achieve it.  And you can rely on David Phoenix Photography to help them realize it.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

You know as well as I do — pictures sell.  Beautiful, clear photos can say things no volume of words ever could.  That’s why when you are promoting your service online or in print, you want the best photographs of your work.  Show your audience in clear, no-nonsense visuals how:

• That old dark, cramped kitchen can magically transform into a modern, bright hub of the home
• How their ugly brown yard can become a sustainable rain garden or lovely flower bed
• A cluttered, congested family room morphs into a cozy & relaxed space with great feng shui

Build A Portfolio

I spoke with one business owner who had worked on dozens of homes, but never took photos before & after.  As a result, she’s really missing out on a prime marketing tool — the portfolio!  Sitting down with a potential client & flipping through a binder full of high-resolution photographs of your quality work not only gives your client ideas, but gives them confidence in your recommendations and your ability to make their dreams a reality.  Put that gallery online and you’ll be reaching a much larger audience than you ever thought possible, at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing!

Don’t Wait

With flexible scheduling options and 100% satisfaction guaranteed, you can’t afford to wait.  Contact David Phoenix Photography today to discuss how I can best help you showcase your work!

Check out the services I offer for before & after photography!

You be the judge — check out these photos…

Exteriors
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Kitchens
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Dining Rooms
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Living & Family Rooms
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Master Bedrooms
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Bathrooms
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Bedrooms
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo
Agent Photo	David Phoenix Photo

As you can clearly see, there IS a difference with a professional photographer who has:

• the right equipment
• the right training
• the right experience

It makes a huge difference in the quality of the photographs you get — both in the creative and technical aspects! That’s why its obviously worth your time to contact David Phoenix Photography to photograph your home — you don’t get a second chance to make that critical first impression!