Moonrise
Here are links to several listings that seem to best fit your wish list. You can click on the exterior photos of each home to see additional pictures. I noticed that you are a photographer so you are sure to appreciate what a difference a good photo makes and some of them, as you will see, are far from being good. Don’t let that discourage you though, if the house seems otherwise interesting to you, let’s go visit it.
~Denise Chavanne – Realtor
The above quote is from one of the first e-mails that I received from my Realtor, Denise Chavanne. Denise is, in all senses of the word, a professional. She knows her stuff as well as knowing who else knows their stuff. She says that when she is the selling agent for a house, she has a professional photographer do the photos. I liked her right away. 
In browsing through lots of listings, you see lots of pictures. Most of them either taken by perhaps the owner, perhaps the agent, or, from what it looks like, someone who has no clue. They use a point & shoot camera, single flash on the camera, or perhaps even a cell phone.
I find this amazing. It seems that if you are trying to sell something that costs $100,000+, that you might want to not go cheap on the photos. The houses that generated the most interest for me were the ones with the best photos. The ones that gave me a sense of what the house looked like inside. Unfortunately, these are few and far between.
During our visit, Thursday, one house in particular caused me to remark: I’ll bet that this house would get so many more views if it had good photographs. The photographs of the house were really bad, taken with a cell phone. The pictures looked boring, uninteresting, and very much amateurish. When I walked into the home, I was expecting, honestly, kind of a dump, but it was a beautiful home. Instantly, the photographer in me took over and I started thinking about how I would shoot it. It was simply a lovely home!
My friend Richard and I were discussing a conversation that he had with someone. They were getting married in a few weeks and asked him if he’d do the wedding pictures. Mind you, they’d planned everything else, but waited last minute to ask him to do the photos. Of course, they wanted a “hook up”, a deep discount, nearly a freebie. He, of course, declined. Amazing! You take what is arguably the single most important person at the ceremony, then you go cheap!
Well, just a downside of digital photography for the masses. Anyone can do take a picture … What is the value of a photographer?
Related Posts :
I found a house!!! I signed a contract!! I put down my earnest money! I got a call last night ...
Man! You're the McGuyver of photography. You'll find a way to take a picture anywhere! -Rich ...
Fire in the sky ...In addition, we will not copy a photograph that appears to have been tak ...
This is interesting and brought back some memories of a few years ago. I had the opportunity to shoot some images for a realtor for posting on their website. I really did not know what I was doing nor did I have a wide enough lens. It was a learning process for me and I would have better images if I was shoot it now. One thing that disturbed me about the shoot was the homes themselves. These were massive homes priced at $500k and above. I’m not a believer in the need for or the costs involved in owning such a home. Maybe, I should shoot smaller homes.
I agree everyone has a camera and always taking photos. It’s interesting when I see passengers making attempts to capture the moment on the airplane and not liking what they see. I’ll ask if I can take the photo and give them better images just by changing my angle and removing the backlight from the windows or adding flash or turning it off.
I would like to suggest our value as a photographer is our vision (such as the dog peeking through the hole in the fence), our experience with our tools, our artistic gifts, our understanding of light and this desire to create. We have moved beyond the snapshot.
Monte Stevens recently posted..Preening at Sunset
That’s a very good example, Monte. You know what it takes to get a good shot from the airplane. It might be as simple as the angle of the camera to reduce the glare. As for taking photos of those huge houses, yes, that has its own challenges, especially if you don’t enjoy such places; however, the experience and know how of shooting a large or small home still apply.
I hope to do that myself. I plan to start with my new home after I get it decorated the way that I want. I’ll have unlimited access to it to practice in various lighting conditions.
With so many cameras around, it’s hard to avoid snapshot-mania and, soon, it seems, the snapshot becomes the ‘standard’, where if you can see it, it’s ‘good enough’, as seems to be the case of the majority of real estate photos, save for those which appear in magazines. Just cruise any of the real estate listing sites and you’ll see.
I think a photographer would attempt to make an image engaging instead of just simply documenting the features of the house. Maybe some buyers don’t care, but I would think there is a psychological effect that comes into play if the photographs are well done.
Mark recently posted..Tree branches & updates
Mark, I can certainly attest to the psychological effect. For example, if I see photos of a house that has photos that are underexposed, the house appears dimly lit. I want a house that has lots of light, so that photo would cause me to think twice, perhaps three times before considering it, or it might take it out of the running altogether; however, understanding how that stuff works, I might be able to cross that barrier and go anyway and be surprised, as I was with one of the houses that I really liked. The photos did not represent it well at all!
Paul recently posted..Sometimes it’s nice being on the flight path
Interesting topic. You don’t see home magazines such as House Beautiful using joe citizen off the street with a cell phone to take photos to use to present to their readers.
The old saying you only get one chance to make a first impression comes to mind in real estate sales…”Often those photos seen on-line are the deciding factor if someone even wants to take the time to view the property.”
I’ve seen photos of homes so beautifully done I’d like to visit the home and I’m not even looking to buy. It certainly makes a difference.
Earl recently posted..Blue, a lot of water
Before we sold our house in MN I shot interior and exterior photos myself. I had landscaping shots for every season, also. Our Realtor had shots taken also but used my shots for the brochure and on-line gallery. We sold that house to the first people that looked at it – less than a week on the market. Our Realtor had to turn away a lot of clients who wanted to see the house. I give a lot of credit to the Realtor and there is no doubt that the photos brought in a lot of interest.
I’ve understood for a long time that a lot of people don’t recognize the value of good photography, especially lately now that everyone is a photographer because every cell phone has a camera. But professional people should know the value well.
ken bello recently posted..BLUE MONDAY 6
There you go being modest, Ken. I’m sure that your shots are what did the trick. That was the first impression and they fell in love at first sight. Seeing the house, in person, finished them off. There is tremendous value in a great photograph, or a lot of them together telling a story of all seasons. You made it such that they could picture themselves in that home. Done deal!
Digital, in my estimation, has done both a service and disservice to the profession.