Tulip time in La Conner

If you're not busy next April I would highly recommend a trip to La Conner Washington for the annual Tulip Festival. I've been there a couple of times and enjoyed it immensely. There are thousands of acres of tulips, daffodils and irises. I'm not a huge fan of flowers, but I don't think I have ever seen such huge, brilliant colours in nature anywhere else.

If you decide to go, phone them in early April, since the blooming period is only a couple of weeks long, and the timing depends on how sever the previous winter was. This year we almost missed it since the winter was so mild.

Bring your camera and some gumboots, it can get a little messy...

De-clutter de place!

I have to hand it to realtor Dale McGauran - she has her clients well trained. Every time I show up at one of her listings for a shoot the place is spotless. Today her client said she had been cleaning for 4 hours before I got there. All the knicknacks and miscellaneous clutter were carefully tucked away in closets and under furniture. And to top it off, the sun was shining for a change. It makes my job so much easier, and Dale enjoys a steady parade of potential buyers to her listings, mainly (well, partly) because of the great photographs we end up with. Her last listing sold for $25K over asking. She knows what she's doing!

Grand Entrances

I've been shooting a lot of high end homes recently with some nice dramatic entries. thought I would share...

Sunset photos

I often get asked if I can shoot a west-facing property just as the sun is going down. The view looks great to the naked eye, but the camera doesn't have the same dynamic range as our eyes, so photos shot directly into the sun will be nothing but blown out highlights and dark black shadows. The best time to shoot a west-facing view is in the morning with the sun behind you. Then you'll get a perfect blue sky, and lots of light shining directly onto your subjects. The other option is to wait until the sun sets, and you'll have a window of magic time when there's still a little bit of light in the sky and the lights come on in the buildings. I'll post some samples of the latter in a future post, but in the meantime here's a few shots of a west facing False Creek penthouse that I had to shoot at 6 pm the other day for Elizabeth McQueen. Fortunately I was able to point the camera south, and avoid the harsh glare of the evening sun. Even then I had to use every light in my bag, as well as some significant post processing work in Photoshop to get the interior and the view exposed properly.

Big returns for a small investment

Being the modest person I am, I don't usually post kudos and compliments from my clients. But I thought I would share this one from a client whose cottage I photographed last year in Comox. I'm posting it for two reasons: to prove that good photographs can indeed help sell, or in this case rent, a house, and also because I'm looking for another cheap summer holiday. Photos in exchange for a few days at your summer home, anyone?

"Thanks again for the wonderful photos. I have the house rented until early Sept apart from one week. We use two different owner websites and I've only put the new photos on one of the two and every single rental has come from the one with the new photos. As a scientist, I would say that is absolute evidence that you are a gifted photographer!"

Don't try this with your point and shoot camera!

This impressive kitchen posed one of the toughest challenges I have faced in a long time. The house was perched on a hill in West Van with a stunning view of the Lower Mainland. The day was sunny and bright, and I tried for half an hour to get a shot of the room showing the great view out the window. But as you can see, the room was full of dark furniture and appliances, which looks great in person but was impossible to shoot. I used every flash I had with me and still couldn't get enough light to expose the room and the view in the same shot. Rather than resort to a double exposure in Photoshop, I turned the camera around and shot the room with the window behind me, and shot the window view in a different image.

Reno photos

The stars were all aligned for this North Vancouver shoot: late afternoon sun coming in just the right direction, and a beautifully staged home that has just been renovated by Jen Eden of Occupy Design and Erin Root of Trillium Projects.




I really like this shot (below). It looks like there's a window behind the couch to the left, but there isn't. I just pointed a flash at the wall behind the sofa and got a nice reflected light that looks like it's coming from outside.