Shooting Subjects Other Than Interiors and Architecture

So I was reading Larry's post the other day on PFRE about the fact that some real estate photographers seem to wonder if other real estate photographers shoot anything else other than real estate (what a sentence). I thought I'd give my opinion on that one: Yes, and I'm proud of it.

Take this whatever way you want, but I like doing two things: paying the mortgage and photography. It's because of one that I can do the other, and vice vera. My view is that if you can make a living taking pictures - no matter what particular area of interest - you're doing just fine.

One drawback, and there's truth to it as well, is that a jack of all trades tends to be a master of none. Look at it this way - Person A shoots architecture full-time for 5 years while Person B shoots architecture, portraits, and weddings full-time for 5 years - all things being equal, Person A will be ahead of the curve when it comes to architecture. There's really no disputing it. Hey, I admit it, I'm Person B and I love what I do. How about you?

Embedded Picasa Web Albums for Agents (and Photographers)

So check it out - Embedded Picasa Web Albums are fantastic little snippets of code that allow agents and photographers show off their listings in a very clean and simple style.

Pro's - it's clean and simple (already stated). You can set it to auto-play or not. It requires virtually nothing for the end-user to do but watch the show. If the user does want to control the show, they can. You can customize the border with just a little knowledge of the embed-code. Because it's embedded code, you don't have to host anything on your site or know the slightest bit about the backend of Flash Player. Clean and simple, eh?

Con's - requires the end-user to have Flash Player already installed. In today's day and age, almost everyone has already cleared that hurdle - but there are plenty of folks out there who will have to install it just to see the photos. The other con, no looping. As of this writing, there isn't a way to tell the slideshow to repeat itself, so the user has to click play again. I've seen that feature be requested by many people online, so maybe it's coming soon.

Overall, it's a neat little tool that can make your photos more presentable online.

Check it out here.

Episode 116: Exterior Tip #1

Accounting Options: Less Accounting

We gave an overview of QuickBooks Online a ways back, so how about another online option? Enter LessAccounting.com.

Less Accounting is another cloud-based accounting 'program' designed to manage cash-in and cash-out. It creates invoices, manages expenses, gives you summary reports, and a few other things as well. Best part: it's free. When you search the web for online accounting software, you'll be offered a bunch of options, almost all of them will make you pay a monthly fee - rightfully so. If you want barebones accounting at the barebones price of $0/month, Less Accounting is good choice. Don't forget about QuickBooks Online  - that online suite still offers an incredible package at $0/month, with the limitation of only having 20 clients. Less Accounting doesn't have that limitation - but if you want things like tech support (a good thing to have!), proposals, mileage logs, etc., you're going to have to start shelling out some cash.

Check this out:

See what I see? The ability to upload digital copies of your receipts! So maybe that doesn't warrant an exclamation point, but it's a small detail that is overlooked in QuickBooks Online.

Of course, you could keep digital copies of your receipts on your computer, but that sort of defeats the purpose of the cloud. The point is to keep your data off your computer, and in the hands of a supposedly more reliable, more accessible system. Some may still be weary of cloud-based solutions, especially with something as important as accounting - but I'm not. I really like having my books be 100% available wherever I am, not wherever my main computer is. You can export your data whenever you want if you're that worried about it (something else you can't currently do in QuickBooks Online unless you are running Internet Explorer on a Windows machine).

Check it out at LessAccounting.com and watch the video tours here. Did I mention that there's an iPhone App…?

Episode 115: Interview with Scott Hargis

Just one of those days...

So I'll cut to the chase - if you want to listen and view the Scott Hargis interview, just hit up iTunes here. 

Blip.tv timed out the conversion twice today - my guess is that the file's too large - and I haven't had a moment today to a) figure out the best way to re-encode the video so it's smaller, b) do that, and c) complete my assignments for the day. I'll get the video fixed as soon as I can, thanks for your patience. 

Upcoming Interview: Scott Hargis

The show next week will be something new - an interview. More specifically, an interview with Scott Hargis - a real estate photographer located in California.

Just so you know, the interview will be in video form - not audio. The reason for this is because Scott walks us through three of his photos at a point in the interview - explaining what he was thinking, how he composed the shot, lit the shot, liked/didn't like about the shot, etc. My apologies to those who need to keep their browser open or download a ridiculously large video file, but I think it will be worth it.

Stay tuned and study up by checking out his site here.

Episode 114: Composition Tip #2

Episode 113: Workflow Tip #1

Which one is the HDR…?

Photography Bay recently posted about their experiences with Photomatix Pro and HDR. The idea is to select which photo was produced from three exposures (-2, 0, and +2) in Photomatix Pro and which one was produced via heavy Lightroom processing.

Check the complete post out here.