CATEGORY architecture

March’s real estate market marches on steadily as listings and sales increase. The Austin market was fortunate to have stayed strong in relation to many other parts of the country. Home values are coming back to pre-bubble levels, and there’s only a little left to recover for most homeowners to be in the black on their mortgages again. The weather is beautiful, and so are the homes ready to put on their best showing!



February brought the real estate market back to life after a slow winter. People start realizing that outdoors are a place they are allowed to go again, get the urge to do some yard work or drive around, which is naturally followed by an urge to move! I saw some listings popping up more and more, and these were some of my favorites.

Apparently Shanghai Pierce was quite a historical character who certainly deserves a street named after him! This immaculate south Austin home in Legend Oaks certainly reflects that individual character with custom paint and beautiful decorating and is offered by Katie Hallberg of Hallberg Real Estate Brokers. As always, virtual tour and flier design provided in all of my real estate packages, Virtual Tour at http://pfretour.com/1237

I am also excited to start offering a turn-key package including professional staging by Ashley Whittenberger of Interiority Complex!

September saw some photo action picking up from August once the back to school frenzy of real life began to settle down, but luckily close to home with my lowest mileage month ever. And a pleasant far cry from vacant homes this month, I was blessed to cover several model homes for David Weekley and Lennar builders. Professionally decorated, full of architectural detail and lighting upgrades make photographing such houses a pleasure. Some of you must have read my post for August on the importance of staging, I’m sure, because all the homes looked great. That’s right, let your competitive side come out!

August and September are often slow listing months because all the houses are selling and closing to get ready for the new school year! A busy time for buyer’s agents, but even for photographers and listing agents this August still saw good movement in the Austin area. A lot of last-minute before school listings went up, as well as many great buys for those not planning a move around the school district calendars. Here are some of my favorite from neighborhoods like Volente, Onion Creek, Highpointe, and all around Austin.

Happy July 4th to all my readers and clients. To everyone, really, but to you guys first. Well, to my family first, but I think you get the point. Eventually this post will be something about real estate.

July saw more vacant homes than I’ve photographed in any month previously. The biggest testimony to me about the value of a well-staged home is that you NEVER see me put a vacant home photo on my site! It’s not because they’re not nice photos, but I have to limit myself to the best of a month’s worth of 30 homes, and the vacant photos just never make the cut. Last month I shot one home twice, once prior to staging, and then at the end of the month again after a full, gorgeous stage. It made a so-so sorta not-quite new almost nice home into an amazing marketable property. I actually had an intake of breath when I entered the second time. The photos made the portfolio cut, but you’ll notice that none of the vacant ones showed up previously!

So whether you hire a professional home stager or put in a lot of work to learn to stage it well, in this high-inventory market the homes with the best staging and the best photography are the biggest edges you can have. A Realtor who knows the value of those items and can connect you with marketing professionals is indispensable. This is no old dresser or bookshelf to liquidate on Craigslist. You want top dollar for your home, and the trifecta of a great Realtor, a great stager, and a great photo marketing set is a winning combination! Take it from me, in and out of other people’s for-sale homes day after day, I know what sells. Good luck on your sale!

June was a fast-paced month of real estate as it seemed everyone waiting to make a move until school was out suddenly was ready to list their homes. Austin is one of the few cities nationwide where prices have risen the past year and didn’t fall much in previous years, so the market is still jumping. However, as the number of homes hitting the MLS increases, demand from buyers is beginning to slow. Sellers and their agents must be competitive with not just nice photos showing the home, but amazing photos showing OFF the home! Seller demand for professional photography is high, and I’m thrilled to be a part of this industry.

Every month when I prepare my portfolio of the previous four weeks, I am energized all over again. I just love shooting real estate and find myself at portrait clients’ homes or wedding venues itching to take a few moments to light and photograph great spaces wherever I find them! Seriously, I know it’s hard to believe anyone can be this excited about her job or taking pictures of rooms, I’m not just making it up. To prove my point, I challenge you to take your little camera and take a photo of the best room in your home to see just how difficult it is to do well. I struggle every day, and I have so much to learn, which is why it’s so much fun. At 25 homes this month with some of the most amazing views I’ve seen in Austin, I am having a lot of fun!

May brought more gorgeous weather for colorful springtime exteriors, but a lot of rain postponements. It was worth it for all the green lawns. With nearly 30 homes this month, it didn’t slow down as much as all that rain might have suggested. I really enjoyed my time at a local ranch with an amazing view of my two favorite wedding venues of Chapel Dulcinea and Barsana Dham high on the hill just down the road from my house. I admired and marveled yet again at all the hard work of the homeowners and tenants getting their houses ready to market and wisely treating the photo session as the first and most important showing. Except the final showing that brings in an offer!

In April, I photographed nearly 30 homes for virtual tours, and the springtime outdoor foliage was incredibly beautiful especially with all the rural ranches’ bluebonnet meadows in bloom. Even the suburban back yards were filled with color. I enjoy photographing real estate so much as each shot presents a new and different challenge, and there’s never the same thing twice.

My favorite home this month was 100 Cloudland www.100cloudland.com in Spicewood on a gorgeous waterfall. The neighbors were proud that the home had once been a short-term rental for visiting celebrities working on films in nearby Austin, so I guess that makes us famous now too, right?

19309 White Horse Cove, Spicewood TX 78669 in Travis Settlement is a gorgeous home along a creek canyon with stunning sunsets and hill country views. Offered by agent/owner Tim Gigliotti, we had a great time shooting together. Twilight sessions always yield the best photos, especially on a sunset property such as this one. We ran around like mad shooting before we lost the sun, alternating between serious hard work and laughter to keep things interesting. This is a landscape 2-sided flyer to show off the best feature of the home, its great setting.

11441 Cherisse Dr 4/2.5 in Austin’s Circle C Meridian neighborhood offered by Audrey Serenil of Sky Realty at $314,900. Flyers are included in all real estate photo packages. Audrey opted for the pay at close feature of my real estate pricing structure for risk-free access to professional real estate photography. View the full tour here.

One of the nice things about real estate photography (there are a lot of those) is meeting all the great agents around the Austin area. Jill Foye is a beautiful new Keller Williams Realtor® , though as an ASP certified stager certainly no newcomer to the industry. We networked while she was staging, and I had the chance to take her head shots today for her new business cards. KW isn’t as fun with their cards as they have premade designs to choose from and therefore less creativity on my part there, but I loved this design…I think because it looks like my web site header!

I’ve shot a lot of real estate homes the past few weeks, and as the busy season comes on I’ll be shooting a lot more! Here are some of the highlights from the last 2 weeks of March, some cottages, some mansions, some ranches, some in between, about 13 homes around southwest Austin and Spicewood. March totaled almost 30 homes.

One of the reasons I love shooting real estate, other than the challenge of interior lighting in difficult situations, is that each home and owner has a unique story. Meeting with homeowners and realtors and hearing about the history of where they’ve lived, where they’re going and why, is always fascinating. The solitude of working alone with a lockbox key has its own rewards, but the story of the home is what holds my interest. This month I knocked on a door in a lovely neighborhood in Westlake only to have it answered by a friend of mine who is sadly (for me) moving. One home was agent owned, and her bittersweet goodbye to her first home as she moves in with her husband just begged to have her photo taken on her own front porch. Then there was a lake-front home in Spicewood full of exotic game on the walls and a bluebonnet meadow in full bloom! And another home in Westlake with a newly retired couple who had taken up metal sculpture with exquisite artwork displayed throughout the home and yard, who are moving to gain more workshop space.

Where we live says so much about who we are, and the homes we  buy can speak to us even without hearing the stories.

1700 Hog Hollow offered by Ann L. Parr is 55 amazing treed and meadowed acres just a few minutes from the main intersection of Dripping Springs. Enjoy all the growth of the area in a secluded getaway and spacious home.

1209 Shannon Oaks Trail offered by Connie McGlothlin is a 4+2-story office/5 with spacious and immaculate living areas on greenbelt lot with covered patio. In a great central location just off 360 minutes from downtown, yet a quiet suburban feel.

Booth Circle in Volente is nearly an acre of enchanting features one after another. A nautical themed estate in white with blue roofs and railings reminiscent of a luxury cruise ship, this one-of-a-kind custom-built home boasts soaring ceilings, gorgeous living areas, 5 patios, 4-car garage, water features, hot tub, full rear lake access and boat dock, incredible views, and a working lighthouse! A must see to believe property.

502 Mariner in Lakeway offered by Cynthia Carlisle, an incredibly unique home with spacious floor plan, gorgeous view, and amazing outdoor living areas.

4526 Duval St offered by Bambi Watson is a beautifully redone bungalow with amazing character and huge back yard especially in its central location. A 2/1 with large casita, hot tub, covered patio, indoor washer/dryer with gorgeous wood floors and trim.

9013 Mountbatten offered by Cara Keenan is luxurious living in an equally luxurious community. A 4+office/4.5 with attention to every detail, an enormous lot, pool, hot tub, and surrounded by hill country vistas.

Another great remodel in Travis Heights, 1401 Newning offered by Kenny Hilbig is a 3/2.5+office with rich wood plank floors, gorgeous bright interior with quaint vintage details. Located right off Town Lake, yet with a large corner lot with plenty of yard space.

Jeremy K. Frost of Keller Williams Steel Action Team is offering 321 Abbey Dr in Austin for $359,000. A beautiful and meticulously kept 3474 sq ft 5br, 3 1/2 bath single story in an outstanding master-planned community and exemplary Dripping Springs school district. Photography and flyer design standard in real estate package.

Interiority Complex interior design and home staging owned by Ashley Whittenberger has staged a beautifully remodeled 1930′s Travis Heights home offered by Creath Partners in downtown Austin with stunning skyline views on Town Lake. She had a fantastic idea that in lieu of the staging décor which are to be removed from the home later this month, she ordered 6 20×24 enlargements framed and displayed on easels in each of the formerly staged rooms. This way a vacant home can be staged to advertise well on the MLS image listings, and during walk throughs the same photography can be displayed to help it show better. Marketing is key in real estate, and in vacant homes especially prodding the imagination from large empty rooms into livable areas is essential. Since the realtor’s original photos were no where near large enough to be blown up at high quality, Ashley called me in with my big Nikon guns to make big pictures!
I must admit that while RE photography is some of the most technically challenging and physically demanding photography I do, I fall in love every time! Bringing rooms alive in this small scale is so rewarding, but I especially love elevated exterior photography to bring a unique look to the images.

Faith Beltz and June Lamphier, midwives in Austin, TX, recently opened a new birth and women’s wellness center in south Austin, Centre Vida at 7002 Manchaca, Suite 200 Austin TX 78745 next door to the New Flower Market. It’s a beautiful facility that has already “given birth” to several new babies!
I am their new contracted photographer to display my framed maternity and newborn work in the office and design their promotional materials for print and web. These photos of the new center show not only the high-quality care received, but also the joy, life, family, and connection found there. I first met Faith when her now-retired colleague attended my first home birth in 2006, and then Faith delivered my own baby in our home in 2008. It is truly an honor to be given the opportunity to photograph these caring women in action. I am looking forward to capturing that spiriti in my designs, and I am very excited to be invited into the center during an upcoming birth to capture them at work.

Our neighbors are moving (again,) and I’m not sure why we keep getting attached! If our culture wasn’t so mobile, I’d begin to worry that it’s us. Maybe it is us. But by way of apologizing for the front of our house looking so kid-riddled (either with their detritus scattered about or our lack of weeding due to lack of time because we’re picking up their detritus), we’ve been mowing their lawn every week for years, and I agreed to do a shoot for her advertising. I was tempted to withhold my photography services in hopes their house wouldn’t sell, but apparently they’re serious. I love real estate photography! Houses always hold still, and they never get impatient while I experiment with my lighting! I love the challenge of lighting reflective surfaces and window views, and as always have added to my list of “must have” equipment: a wider angle lens, at least 2 more flashes and stands, and radio poppers to trigger them!

As a realtor, seller, or business owner, beautifully professional exterior and interior photos help you aggressively advertise your property or business in a competitive market. Realtors and stagers have a value-adding service to offer sellers at no upfront cost with options to pay on delivery for a discount, or defer until closing, giving you a tremendous value with no risk.

All real estate sessions include
option to pay up front or defer to closing
up to 25 photos (MLS maximum)
minor home or business staging (professional staging available)
exterior pole photography elevated images
all images 4×6-quality high resolution on DVD w/ reprint rights
brochure or flier design
1 hour travel, Austin and San Antonio, TX metro areas
online portfolio for each realtor of each project to show at prospective listings
realtor clients retain portfolio rights to photos even if property doesn’t close
seller clients retain usage rights to photos even if changing realtors

Photos include all rooms in home, front and back exterior and elevated pole photography, landscaping, acreage as applicable, and any special features by request.

Real Estate session times that include exterior images are scheduled to begin at sunrise (for north or east front exposures) or end at sunset (for south or west front exposures). Depending on time of year, this ranges from 6:30-8am and 5:30-7:30pm.

Basic Real Estate $100 upon delivery/$150 at closing
1-hour session
10-15 photos
suitable for cabins, condos, or basic real estate with simple lighting

Standard Real Estate $150 upon delivery/$200 at closing
2-hour session
15-25 photos
suitable for small to large homes
professional lighting
virtual tour photo slide show included on DVD

Full-Service Real Estate $275 upon delivery/$325 at closing
2-3 hour session
25-30 photos
suitable for homes with acreage, detailed or very large homes, business facilities
extended professional lighting
virtual tour photo slide show included on DVD
100 printed fliers
$50 credit for professional stager

Turn-Key Real Estate $450 upon delivery/$475 at closing
This is a fantastic deal that is truly turn key: staging, photos, tour, and fliers in one package!
2 sessions with certified professional stager from acclaimed Interiority Complex
2-3 hour photo session
30-40 photos
suitable for homes and properties of all sizes
extended professional lighting
virtual tour photo slide show included on DVD
100 printed fliers

Enlargement Prints
suitable for vacant homes or office display: photograph while staged or before vacated, and display the staged enlargements in each room during showings. Also provides staged images that show better for online tours. For businesses, display your architecture portfolio or facility. On delivery pricing only.
16×20 mounted on artboard $40 ea
16×20 framed $60 ea
20×30 mounted on artboard $60 ea
20×30 framed  $75 ea
100 waterproof fliers (for exterior boxes) $100

Print prices are honored 90 days from session. Digital negatives are stored for 90 days from portrait session, and 2 years for negatives selected for prints.