Photography For Real Estate

I love to find Realtors that appreciate the importance of PAP and a great front shot. When I do, it feels like my preaching and ranting about front shots is paying off. As I’ve said many times, the front shot is THE most important shot for marketing purposes. Not only because Realtors have to use the front shot in all their marketing but because of RE web site designs that makes the thumbnail of the front shot the “lure” (as in fishing lure) that usually motivates the potential home buyer to take the first action (a click to look at more photos) that leads to a home buyer towards a home purchase.

The photo above is a PAP shot done by Steve Mather of the Cleveland area. Part of the husband and wife team real estate team at ruthmather.com with his DIY PAP (pole aerial Photography) pole setup.

Here is Steve’s description of his DIY PAP setup:

The pole is an aluminum, 6′-12′, Sherwin-Williams, Contractor Series, Frame Lock Extension Pole; product number 106520000. The name is almost as long as the pole. It’s also available in 8′-16′. They have a spring-loaded pin mount that is ‘compatible with Sherwin-Williams Kwik Release and Heavy Duty Professional roller frames.

The mount, or plug, was removed (2 small screws) from the extension portion of the pole. The spring was compressed and the pin removed (2 men, a pair of pliers and the proper curse words). The coil spring and another piece fell out the bottom, leaving a slightly tapered inside hole, 2 pin slots on the sides and a small, rectangular hole at the top of the mount. They found a 1/4″-20, Phillips head, wall anchor bolt that was the proper length.

Tapped the top of the mount to 1/4″-20 threads. Ground the Phillips head to a smaller diameter so it would fit into the tapered shaft. Screwed the bolt from the bottom into the now-threaded mount until it projected the correct distance. Filled the inside cavity and side pin holes with J-B Weld. A filled side slot is visible under the camera wrist strap.

The ball head is a Manfrotto #482. It has 3/8″ thread and a 1/4″-20 adapter. We used the 1/4″-20 because we had that bolt size, knew it would fit into the shaft and did not know if a 3/8″ bolt would fit.

The camera is an image-stabilized, Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital ELPH with wrist strap. It’s our travel pocket camera. 35mm zoom wide.

Steve used a 10 second interval timer to release the shutter, similar to the technique I described in my previous post on using a painters pole for PAP.

Steve’s example nicely demonstrates that you don’t need a specialized camera for shooting on a pole. Almost any small, light weight camera will work. Nice job Steve and thanks for the details on you pole setup.