9 years! It seems like I just started doing this
9 years! It seems like I just started doing this. But time flies when you're having fun?
If you think it's been all luxury properties and gorgeous interiors, glitz, glam, and glorious shoots, well I have news for you.
Drunken sellers, disastrous homes, rotting animal corpses, guns, drugs, goats wearing diapers, road beers , wrong addresses, and so much more that I should write a(nother) book.
BTW, images posted will NOT be associated with the accompanying stories. So don't shoot me, I'm just the photog.
I was brought into this. Got too close to the "black hole" and gravity did the rest. Left a comfortable 20+ year career in music/video/audio production. Had a working studio in my house, regular income, and a long list of clients.
Then one day, I burned my boats and started photographing professionally. Sold or gave away almost all of my audio gear. Pro Tools, Apogee converters, computers, microphones, all the accessories, gone! Still doesn't make sense to me. Yet, here I am.
So how do you get good at photography? For me, it was to photograph a shit-ton of houses. Agents, sellers, and random strangers breathing down my neck. Their futures solely in my hands. And time is never your friend. Never!
The house stands in front of me. Lighting sucks (it just about always does), maybe it's raining, dogs that bite, dogs that sniff crotches, cats everywhere, kids that get into all your stuff, bugs, snakes, crazy people - and that's just the good stuff.
How to present this in a photograph? Really? Try it. It's one thing to play-by-play from the sidelines. But when you're standing out in the Florida heat, bugs feasting on your blood. Sweat pouring from every pore you have - and the newly created bug bites spewing blood and sweat. BTW, one bug bite actually sent me to the ER (but that's another story).
Sun is in the wrong place. Light is so bad I want to cry - because it HAS to look beautiful and in this light everything looks like crap! Oh, watch out for the dog shit. You'll step in it. Sooner or later, it's gonna happen. Better keep an extra pair of shoes in your car.
Also be prepared to pee outside. Doesn't happen often, but after driving some 80 miles one way, to a place in the middle of nowhere, only to find dozens of dead, rotting frogs in the toilet and a smell that has yet to be identified, but will immediately bring up the contents of your stomach, you'll pee outside too (ladies, I suggest carrying some TP with you).
I should add a line item "therapy" on my invoices - because! Don't tempt me....
Because "Cute 3/2 on a beautifully wooded property. Incredible investment opportunity. Wonderful neighborhood...." That's what my photographs have to live up to. But in reality, the property should be leveled and turned into Superfund site? It happens. Not always, but more often than you think.
OK, they aren't all disasters. But they do ALL come with serious challenges. I think I've had something like 4 really easy shoots in 9 years. You know, things go almost perfectly. Almost. But you know your next shoot will absolutely make you pay. And it always does. Always. Oh, I'm paying.
Here's where I tell you the stories that you may not want to hear. Or maybe you do. Here's where I tell you the tales.