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Articles Tagged with: Real Estate

The Phillips Team

The term “re-shoot” can be a scary word when you’re dealing with real estate agents. There are so many different scenarios that play out in your mind as to why someone would want to do one. Also, when you are creating something for someone else, the fear of rejection is immense. Luckily, when Deborah called me from the Shirley Phillips Team to re-shoot their head shots, it was because they had expanded, and wanted a new team shot.

Shirley also had her head shot redone, mainly because she liked her new hairdo 😉 I really think she looks like Hollywood royalty here. What a beautiful woman!

And here’s the newest member of Shirley’s team, Edmund Greenberg. I told him to give me his best Brad Pitt face, and I think he did pretty good. Very cool, Ed, very cool.

I really enjoy shooting faces. People have countless expressions to capture and the challenge of making them look comfortable and convey a look, whether it’s confidence, sexiness, professionalism, happiness, etc, is really a tough yet fun nut to crack with the right client. Getting the right look takes time, and I’m learning that I have to educate my clients beforehand that a good head shot is not done with one quick click.

Of all of the technical stuff I’ve learned about photography, none of it compares to the actual art of connecting with a person on the human level. As much as we lust after the latest light modifier or craziest low-light defying DSLR or ridiculously fast and expensive glass, our gear is nothing without being out in front of our subjects and communicating with them. Making them happy is the ultimate goal here, not some technical feat with the camera. A technically perfect photo of nothing special is so much less valuable than a less-than-perfect shot of an amazing moment or expression. Besides, you need to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this in the first place?”

For me, It has become simply about making people happy. Making people see how I see them, and how I believe the world sees them. Some days it’s very difficult, but I truly try to find the best in someone and exploit that. We all have things about ourselves that we dislike, and often those little bugs in our appearance are what we focus on. Trying to make people look past those things and helping them see themselves the way the rest of the world sees them is important to me. It can be life changing for some, and each time that happens I feel the karma train pulling up to my station.

I Fought The Law…

Well, not really a fight at all, but I did win. Today was a strange one indeed. I was tied up with a client and had to break out to take some real estate photos for this wonderful listing in Goose Creek, SC. I was in quite the pissy mood because it’s difficult to keep appointments on time when you work in the service business. You are constantly being asked to do “one more thing”, which usually means that everyone else has to wait. Sure, I could do what the big name service companies do and charge them an arm and a leg for deviating from the scheduled service, but that’s exactly why I don’t work for them. That’s a whole other can of worms that don’t need to be covered here, the point I’m getting to is that I was stressed out and the world must have known it.

When I first arrived in the neighborhood, I pulled up to the wrong house. Luckily I didn’t get out of my car, so no harm was done, but another few minutes was wasted while I tried to figure out where I was supposed to be. It really does seem like the world likes to spit back what you put out there. When you’re not in the best of spirits, it likes to rain down on you hard – every little mistake feels like a giant life-altering deal. I figured out the correct location of the house and pulled up across the street as I normally do when shooting a home (nobody wants to see my car in the shots – especially the sellers). I started shooting immediately because the sun was positioned just behind the tip of the roof and if I waited any longer it might move into a spot that would make it difficult to work with.

After I shot a few frames, a police cruiser pulled up. The officer asked what I was doing and then asked for my ID. I really thought this was strange. I had a quick choice to make. Either I could cry out in my mind and curse the world for taking a giant stinky dump on me two days before Christmas, or I could laugh it off. Well, I chose the latter and smiled for the police man when he was done checking up on me. I even ended up giving him a business card for which he smiled and thanked me for. He apologized for keeping me up and then drove off. I went inside and had to explain what happened to the baffled home owner who was weirded out by meeting me just after I was interrogated by the cops. Once again I laughed about it and went on to take my photographs of her home.

The moral of the story is that when you’re having a crappy day and you start letting life take control of you while it kicks you when you’re down, you always have a choice to turn it all around. It starts with a smile. You recognize that the shit’s going down and you smile about it. The next thing you know, you start to feel better and you’re able to grab the steering wheel and get back on the road. It’s easier said than done, but if you find yourself in that red zone state of mind, try it. Some things can’t be controlled, but your outlook always can be.