Photography For Real Estate

I just got my copy of the Apple iLife 09 suite two days ago. iLife 09 contains, among other software (like iPhoto, iDVD and iWeb), iMovie 09 which is a significant update to the previous versions of iMovie, video editing software. The Gizmoto review of iMovie goes through the new features of iMovie.

Now here is a fine piece of real estate! Dan Achatz just showed me this video he shot yesterday with his new Canon 5D MKII. For those gentle readers not familiar with the Northwest US, this is Haystack Rock at Cannon beach on the Oregon coast. Without a doubt the most photographed rock in Oregon. [...]

I’m in love with my Canon G9. In many ways the Canon G10 is even better but until today I’ve not been able to find any way to put a wide-angle converter on the G10. I just don’t consider the 28mm lens on the G10 wide enough for real estate photography. Since www.lensmateonline.com has add-on [...]

I’ve been making some “under the hood” blog changes lately that you may or may not have noticed. Some of these things are as a result of the reader survey I did a while ago and some are just messes that needed cleaning up. The blog has now been in it’s current design and hosting [...]

I want to highlight a recent comment made by Thomas Bliss, founder of the IAAP on the subject of a professional association for real estate photographers. Based on the discussion on this subject I think IAAP membership would provide most or all of what real estate photographers are looking for in a professional association.  Standards [...]

In my last post on PAP I described the absolute simplest PAP configuration, a small lightweight camera (Canon G9) on a 16 foot painters pole. I use this configuration a lot for front shots. Martin Kimeldorf sent me link to a video tutorial by John Park, on how to use some basic radio control parts [...]

There is a new bunch of great looking PFRE Idol images to vote on for this month. See the 10 images to vote on in the PFRE flickr group discussion. Cast your vote here through Jan 31. The PFRE Idol rules are here. Not valid where prohibited law.

At the same time a discussion in the PFRE flickr group has been going on about the fine points of getting a good clear view out the windows of a view property a reader ask about what the basic options were for controlling window brightness. This reminded me that this blog has readers with a [...]

PFRE Advertiser, iPropertyWebsites, will now be offering custom private label footers to all Authorized Resellers with the purchase of any bulk package (5-pack, 10-pack, etc.) of website licenses/credits. The website credits can be purchased in advance at a discount and can be used anytime (they never expire).

Tourbuzz.com just started a public beta of their new Flash player and time-line based tour controller. I tried it out on some of my demo panoramas and I like it a lot. Tourbuzz is making the player available to customers as a beta version so they can get input from users. As Alan Pinstein of [...]

Congratulations to Wayne Capili, Interface Visual of Monterey, CA who has won the voting for the best PFRE image of 2008 – PFRE Super Idol. As of this afternoon (Jan 14, 2009) Wayne got 51% of the vote. Wayne gets Property sites from PFRE sponsor iPropertyWebsites.com and some tours from PFRE sponsor cpgtours.com. Also, Wayne [...]

I’d like to initiate a discussion about a professional society for real estate photographers. Perhaps it could be called the International Association of Real Estate Photographers (IAREP).

Gar Benedick showed me the Goggle trends feature yesterday. It’s a very cool feature. Here’s how it works: You go to www.google.com/trends You give it a search term. Something like “real estate photography”. You can compare multiple search terms (up to 5). What you get is this. This page shows two things, the chart shows [...]

For years I’ve used the Complete Sun and Moon site to decide when to schedule a twilight shoot so I can make use of that beautiful light that only occurs at for about 20 to 30 minutes at sunset and sunrise. The challenge of course is being on site, setup and ready to shoot during [...]

This is the time of the year to review your marketing plan and think about what you are going to do to market your real estate photography services in 2009. Here are some things to think about that will help you stretch your marketing dollars:

A reminder that there are still seats available for the Sat, Jan 24, Interior Lighting workshop in Chicago, Il taught by Scott Hargis and Thomas Grubba. Registration fee is $275 per person. The Sunday Jan, 25 workshop has been canceled. To register this workshop contact Scott:  scott@scotthargis.com. For those of you not familiar with Scott [...]

I recently exchanged e-mails with John Nilsson of Vail, CO. His e-mail signature give several links to his current listings: www.373StrawberryParkRoad.com www.5111BlackBearLane.com www.Torzetto.com www.WestinRiverfront350.com www.105ForestTrail.com www.211MainMinturn.com I’m very impressed with Johns work. John does his own photography and worked with his web developer to create this simple but unique design for a home tour. As [...]

Use the Polldaddy poll below (you have to click the “continue reading” link to see the poll) to cast your vote for the best PFRE Idol image of 2008. Click here or the graphic above to see a large view of the images. The PFRE Idol names are on the lower right of these images. [...]

If  you’ve not discovered it yet, check-out alltop.com. It is Guy Kawasaki’s aggregation site that is a beautifully designed, very handy directory of all the top sites on the net (including PFRE as of today ). For example, there is a page for every major subject they list and the Photography page lists all the [...]

The voting results are in and the new PFRE Idol contest winner for January 2009 is Michael Yearout, AKA extreme wide angle in the PFRE flickr group, of Breckenridge, Colorado.  Congratulations Michael! Those of you that frequent the PFRE flickr group will recognize this as one of Michael’s distinctive images with the great Rocky Mountain [...]