I’ve been a hobbyist photographer for many years, and putting stuff up on Flickr since 2005. Over that time I’ve sold the occasional image, and donated a few more to nonprofits for their websites and a fundraiser auction. Recently I decided to make a more concerted effort to actually make some money from this. I’m not trying to do much as a landscape or travel photographer, because much as I would love it I know just how crowded that market is, and I’m no Don Hall. But my latest foray into the real estate market has reminded me of just how bad the photos are on an awful lot of property for sale listings. This is something I know I can do better, and that has a clear value for the listing agent: the economics of this business are such that if they make one additional sale in a year, the expense of a professional photographer will have a stellar ROI.
So I’ve started photographing houses and condos for sale. So far, I’ve done some freebies to build the portfolio, and some work for the agent who’s listing my own place for sale. I have my first job for someone I didn’t already know coming up this week, and I think it’s about time to start showing off the portfolio:
I would really appreciate feedback on both the photography and the portfolio site itself, as well as referrals if you know anyone who could use my services. So far, I’m thinking the obvious clients are realtors, builders and stagers, but I’m certainly open to other ideas.
And finally, a massive thank you to Kevin Hanes for helping me make the portfolio look waaaay better than it did before his input, and Jeff Prescott for helping me find my feet in this business. For the sake of Kevin’s reputation, I should mention that he’s not satisfied with the website yet—he’s quite rightly pushing me to replace the text links at the top with something more graphical & visually appealing—but while I will be acting on his suggestions before too long I think the site’s at least good enough to start showing people now.
I’ve meant to tell you that your portfolio is quite impressive! Are they all with natural light or did you use a flash?
Also, lately I’ve noticed a trend of HDR pictures in real estate listings (presumably taken with iPhones). Ugh! A total turn-off. I can’t believe realtors are suggesting/approving those.
Thanks! They’re predominantly with at least one flash off camera–even the outdoor ones–and sometimes two. Control over the light is really helpful for things like shaded porches and awkward corners, and any time there’s either a view or nice plants outside the window I want that to be clearly visible in the picture, which usually means making indoors as bright as possible to compensate.
I suspect that a lot of the HDR pictures are actually taken by the realtors themselves. Increasing the dynamic range and saturation somewhat do make a lot of exterior shots look more inviting, and it’s a classic inexperienced-photographer mistake to just push that too far. It’s also very common for people to think they can do the photography themselves because my camera costs less than using me 4 times, but without the investment of time to learn how to do it well it’s a false economy. Ironic given that most realtors would probably say that about for sale by owner transactions….