Commercial Photography

Tropical Shores St. Petersburg Real Estate Photography

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Not HDR - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 ISO 200 1/4th tripod mounted with cable releaseReal estate photography, for me, is an especially internal process.  Since the subject being photographed cannot respond to verbal commands, nor non-verbal for that matter, I can work in complete silence and those have absolute, unbroken concentration.  Add to that I use a tripod and cable release for this type of work, freeing my hands, real estate photography is almost a sort of meditation.  To an outside observer, it would appear I was doing nothing, though if they could read my mind they would see a constant stream of calculations and measurements and penetrating glances.  That is how I operate when doing real estate photography.

This first room has come to be known as a "man cave," a term I despise.  I have, as of yet, no great alternative because I think the old term "rec room" still seems pretty good to me.  Regardless of label, this is no ordinary room of this type as the walls, as you can see, are lined with artwork.  In fact most of the walls in the whole house looked thusly.

Not HDR - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 ISO 200 1/2 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseI wonder why granite countertops have become all the rage the past few years?  Was this type of countertop not invented in the 1970s?  It seems now any type of countertop material that is not granite is looked upon with scorn and in need of "updating."  

5-bracket HDR - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/8 ISO 200 tripod mounted with cable releasePersonally, the master bedroom could be the smallest room in the house and I would be fine.  As long as a queen size bed can fit and I do not bump into the night stand, that would suit me.  I see so many house hunters on TV wanting a huge master.  I do not understand the benefit.

Not HDR, but digitally altered - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th tripod & cable releaseThe owner/seller of the house was quite an interesting person.  He was a builder by profession (now retired).  He built this, his own house, to withstand winds of 300mph using a concrete pouring process I was not able to remember since I was concentrating on photography.  Where may you ask is better than living in Florida for a retiree?  Well, he is on his way to Italy to an area that has good beaches also, while being just a stone's throw from ski slopes.  

Canvas Gallery Wrap Prints for St. Petersburg Tampa Clearwater Photography

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Pug Puppy Photo found on flickr published in First Magazine for Women

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flickr pays! -- Published on page 94 of First for Women Magazine January 2011If you think posting photos to flickr is a waste of time, and paying the $24 annual fee for a pro membership to flickr is especially a waste of money, well, my pro membership for the next six years has been paid for by selling this one shot.  A person from First (for women) Magazine contacted me by e-mail asking to use the above pug puppy photo in an upcoming issue.  I replied, "possibly, depending on the price."  The person replied promptly with a price list that was acceptable to me, and I made the easiest money in photography I ever had before.  They mailed me the print issue this week (scans above).  

I posted the pug puppy photo to flickr on February 11, 2010, not so recently.  I do not really post photos to flickr with the thought that the ever might sell.  I use flickr to post my favorite shots of the moment, or shots I am not that sure about, and use the feedback I get on the shot to improve my photography skills.  I always find it interesting to see which shots get the most views/comments as compared to others.  The results are not always what I expect.  

So, making the effort to properly publish your photo to flickr, and by properly I mean giving your image an appropriate title, tagging the image with appropriate and creative key words, and writing a full description of the image with exif data and how to contact you for more images/information, if you do this, the results can be one day a nice little windfall comes in the mail for photography work you have long already done.

Barefoot Beach Resort condo commercial HDR shoot

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Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 7-bracket HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseFor me it is always nice to get a commercial real estate job because it provides a welcome change of pace to the usual people-based photography I do.  In some ways, it is much easier to photograph a bedroom or a kitchen or a living room.  Nothing is moving around, nothing blinks, nothing is camera shy, and perhaps best of all it's air conditioned!  Then again, lighting a room or small or large size presents its own challenges.  Furniture does need to be posed, or rather arranged, for best presentation.  Which angle most flatters the room?  What elements get left along the edges of the frame (bit of crown molding above) and which get cropped out (painted wall to the right)?

Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 9-bracket HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseI chose to use mostly HDR to make the photographs for Barefoot Beach Resort in Clearwater.  I tried some two-strobe setups, but in the end all but one image I delivered to the client was HDR.  The one non-HDR shot was of a small kitchen where I could not setup my tripod, but rather had to climb up on a counter and almost lay down!  That was actually kind of fun.  

Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 7-bracket HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseOther challenges of doing open window room photographer include reflections.  The above photograph of a master bedroom had a window to the right of the frame which I wanted open (well the blinds actually) as it provided needed light, but it also caused a huge reflection on the painting on the wall above the bed.  You cannot see it now because of some careful, and tedious cloning work.  Then there was the setup.  French doors lead out to the Florida room (middle photo) and are a main feature of the master bedroom.  Working with the client we decided that just that much of the French doors in the shot was enough to portray them to viewers while still showing a good portion of the bedroom as well as the hallway to more show some of the layout of the condo.

Working with a tripod and without people as subjects meant I could really take my time and setup and frame the shots exactly how I thought best with input from the client too, without worry of the subject matter getting tired.

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St Petersburg Downtown Sky View Architecture & Panoramas

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Signature St Petersburg Condo skyscraper - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 @ f/11 ISO 200 5-bracket HDR (handheld)I had been thinking a lot the past few days how long it had been since I went out and just shot for fun, for myself.  Last week photography friend Wade suggested we join NPPF's meetup in downtown St. Petersburg.  I said sure, let's do it.  Then when one NPPF member said we can shoot from the top of the condo building he lives in, equivalent to the 28th floor, I thought wow, can get some new shots of an area I have photographed already almost every which way.  

Downtown St. Petersburg waterfront 6-shot panorama - click to view LARGEI had also been wanting to give Photoshop CS5's great Photomerge action another try, but one cannot just easily create a compelling panorama just anywhere.  However, an open wraparound viewing area twenty-eight stories up is certainly a compelling area.  

Nikon D300 with Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/11 ISO 200 5-bracket HDR (handheld)The rooftop we were on was adjacent to downtown St. Petersburg's newest skyline addition, Signature St. Petersburg, a very aggressive modern condo skyscraper that dominated our southern view, and thus received a lot of lens attention from myself and everyone else in the group.  I taught a DSLR Photography Lesson on architecture back in March using the skyscraper as a subject matter.

South of Downtown St. Petersburg 6-shot panorama - click to view LARGEI like having a high view.  For four years in Tokyo I lived on the 11th floor of a building with views of downtown Shinjuku and the sunset.  I liked being able to step out onto my balcony and survey all the land before me.  There is nothing quite like having a sweeping, bird's eye view.

Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens @ f/16 ISO 200This was the second time in a week of being high up in a condo with a view of downtown St. Petersburg after never being more than a few stories off the ground in a year and a half.  Beholding such a view is starting to feel contagious, although living so high up with a thirsty puppy needing half a dozen bathroom breaks a day would not be so convenient.  

Bay Area Militaria Collectibles HDR interiors

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Bay Area Militaria Antiques & Collectibles, quite the unique shop on Central Ave - 9-bracket HDR f/11 ISO 200

This shop was in my mental queue to photograph for quite some time.  It is right next door to Raw Vibes, the gallery/dance/performance studio where I had my haikyo photography exhibition in November.  After finishing up shooting the interior of Raw Vibes for owner Laly, I asked the owner of the militaria, who was as usual sitting in a chair in front of his shop, if I could take a few quick photos of the inside of his place.  After a little hesitation he said go ahead.  

The next time I visit I want to take a more careful look around - 9-bracket HDR f/11 ISO 200

I was already setup to shoot HDR, so I made quick work of these shots, pausing only to find the best composition to fully show the shop in just two vantage points.  The HDR method allowed me to get the exterior window and interior collectibles exposed properly, otherwise I would have had to of chosen one or the other.  

I do not know if I will push my luck and ask to shoot inside again, but maybe once the owner sees these images he will be happy to have me return.  

HDR interior shots of Raw Vibes art gallery & dance studio

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Showing both the art side and dance side of Raw Vibes in St. Petersburg

Continuing my photography work for local art community friend Laly, owner of Raw Vibes Art and Performance Space, yesterday morning I shot the interior of the art gallery/dance studio space.  I chose to do 9-bracket HDR shots at f/8.  Processing was done in Photomatix for the making of the HDR shot, then I followed my usual workflow of Aperture 3, Color Efex Pro 3 & Photoshop CS4 to edit them.  

For the above shot I was looking for an angle that showed both the art gallery side and dance studio side of the space.  Maybe having a pair of dancing shoes as a prop on the floor would have been a good idea had I thought of it at the time!

The mirrors were enhanced in this shot by using selective contrast adjustment in PS CS4

Shooting straight into the gallery was the biggest challenge with multiple track lights all at different temperatures casting different light on the walls and floor.  I chose to align my image by the floor along the back wall, knowing that has to be a true level surface.  I usually do not assume ceilings are as uniformly straight.  I made some corrections using the lens distortion filter in PS CS4.  

The "black box" room at Raw Vibes offers pole dancing classes

Another challenge was the "black box" room in the back of the space.  You may recall I made a portrait of pole dance instructor Marla on the very same pole last month.  This room was nearly completely dark, and is always very low lit.  I chose to make only a 5-bracket HDR shot of this space because even with that shutter speeds were getting very long.  The original HDR image was quite bright.  That is not how the room really is seen by people, so I burned the whole image and then added a vignette leaving the pole itself as the brighter, focal point of the image.

HDR is needed for this kind of shot to properly expose the red wall and outside the window.

The last shot is the entrance to the art/studio space.  Here I did a 9-bracket HDR image to insure I could properly expose the dark red wall on the left as well as outside the window.  A single long exposure shot would have blown out the window for sure.  The object on the right is a mirror showing the painting in the lead photo.  The mirror again was enhanced by selecting it with the magic wand in PS CS4 then adjusting the contrast on just that area, which removed glare from it.  

When shooting these types of tricky HDR shots, I put a lot of work into perfecting the final image in editing.  I nit pick over reducing a shadow slightly here, adjusting the contrast on just this area, etc.  It is a fun challenge and I really enjoy the nit picking editing process actually!