B&A Warehouse - Birmingham AL Google Virtual Tour /  by nikonic1976@yahoo.com

I’m very excited and proud to show off the 360º virtual walk through tour and commercial photography I created of B&A Warehouse in downtown Birmingham, Alabama!

I’ve been to several events at B&A and I’ve known Susan Mason, the owner, from my days as a wedding photographer. I knew what an amazing space it was and I wanted to show it off in my portfolio. B&A is in an amazing location. They are right across the street from Railroad Park and right next to Regions Field. They are really in the heart of Birmingham’s downtown revitalization. I felt that they could really benefit from the Google tour, especially as a sales aid. Often people are planning events from afar. Weddings, rehearsal dinners, parties, corporate events, etc. come with different needs. It can be hard to know if a venue is going to be a good fit or not. By having the 360º tour, event venues can help people save time. They can avoid going to places that will never be a good fit or allow them to secure the needed space without physically going in first.

However, I did have a bit of a challenge convincing Susan! They had already had a 360º tour done by a competitor and they weren’t getting the results they expected. I can definitely understand this but there are some major differences between that product and the Google one!

As compared to the competition here are some advantages Google offers:

  • It’s on Google. Instead of being limited to the tour providers website, the Google tour comes up everywhere your business appears on Google. Google Maps, Google StreetView, Google Local, and Google search results.
  • You can embed it live directly on your website and Facebook pages. The other tour is a link to the provider’s website. When potential customers view the tour they actually leave the businesses website. With the Google tour it can be embedded seamlessly!
  • It’s mobile friendly. The other tours are Adobe Flash based. This means that they’re incompatible with most mobile phones and tablets. The Google tour not only works on those devices it also recognizes and optimizes the tour for the best user experience.
  • There’s a n SEO (search engine optimization) benefit. I verify the businesses information to Google and the tour is embedded right on the Google + Local or Google My Business Page for the business. This helps with the search result rankings.
  • Much higher quality. The Google tour looks great at full screen on a 27” monitor or a smart phone screen. Other tours are much smaller and pixilated by comparison.
  • Commercial still images are included. Along with the 360º virtual tour, up to ten conventional commercial still photos are created. The business has the rights to the images, allowing them to be used in print materials as well as digital media.
  • One time cost. Other tour options have a monthly or annual cost. They must be renewed or they go away. Once created, the Google tour never expires.
  • Money back guarantee. If you don’t like it, you get your money back. It’s as simple as that!

Once we were able to fully demonstrate the differences and how it looked Susan and her team could see the value. I’m so glad too because this is one unique and amazing venue!

Take a look at the still images and virtual tour below. You can learn more about B&A Warehouse on their website.

click and drag to pan, click arrows to move from one panorama to the next.

View Larger Map

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Agoge Fitness Systems - Birmingham AL Google Business View /  by nikonic1976@yahoo.com

My good friend Greg Boggs of Vehicle Media works out at Agoge Fitness Systems in Birmingham, Alabama. We've worked on a few projects together and he mentioned to Dave, the owner that what I do with the Google Maps Business View virtual tours could be a really big help for his gym. Agoge is a little unusual. It's in the same building and behind another fitness facility. There's no outside signage. If you didn't know it was there you'd never have any idea. This obviously poses some challenges. Even when people do know about you it could be hard for them to find. The Google 360º tour and photos are perfect for this. Now, everywhere Agoge comes up on Google potential members can see not only the surrounding area (like street view), but inside as well!

I knew that if Greg was friends with Dave that he must be a good guy. However, I didn't know just how awesome he was until his phone rang! I was setting up when all of a sudden I heard the Dr Who theme song! For those of you who aren't familiar (see what I did there), Dr Who is a Sci Fi series that's been running on BBC since the late 60's. Fans of the show are a small subset of the Sci Fi geek community. I happen to be one of them. I even went as the shows main character (The Doctor) for Halloween. I knew then that Dave and I were kindred spirits and I enjoyed talking Dr Who with him as much as photographing his business!

Another geeky note, the name of the business comes from ancient Greek history. The Agoge was the training facility for Spartan warriors. It was the crucible that formed not only their bodies but their minds as well. This is the philosophy that Dave has adopted for his training. It's different from the normal cross fit or gym. You can tell from the people who are member that this is much more of a total experience than just a workout!

So if you are looking for something like that, want to work with an awesome Dr Who geek, and live in the Birmingham area, then you should give Dave a call! Learn more about Agoge on their website and take the virtual tour below!

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click and drag to pan, click arrows to move from one panorama to the next.

119 Carriage Maylene AL - Residential Real Estate Photography /  by nikonic1976@yahoo.com

I recently photographed a house in Maylene for ARC Realty age Michael Murphree. The home had been thoroughly updated and was really quite impressive, but had sat on the market for sometime. Michael was brought in to see if he could get things moving and finally sell the house. His first order of business was to hire me to come and redo the photography. The previous agent had done the photos herself. Needless to say (but see for yourself below) there’s a little bit of a difference between her’s and mine.

Now, I won’t take ALL the credit, but within two days of the new photos going online there were two offers on the house and a bidding war commenced! Nothing else had changed. The price was the same. The house was the same. The only thing that changed on the listing was the photos!

Take a look at the photos below and if you’re selling a home give me a call to get the best real estate photography in the Birmingham area! (Click here to view my real estate photography portfolio)

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My Photos

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Agent Photos

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2833 Cherokee Rd - Birmingham AL Real Estate Photographer /  by nikonic1976@yahoo.com

As promised in my post on "blue hour", here is complete post on this amazing home for sale in Mountain Brook, Alabama. I photographed it for Lee Marks of Realty South and you can see the complete listing here. When selling high end luxury homes great photography is a must. The available pool of buyers is quite small and they are very discerning. I work hard to show off the home in the best possible light without modifying how it actually is. I think the results speak for themselves!

CLICK ON THUMBNAIL BELOW TO VIEW LARGER


Need high quality real estate photography in the greater Birmingham, Alabama area? Give me a call today!

Daylight vs Blue Hour for Real Estate Photography - An Amazing Difference /  by nikonic1976@yahoo.com

Recently I photographed a rather large and very expensive home for sale in the upscale Mountain Brook area of Birmingham, Alabama for one of the areas elite real estate agents (full post on the home coming soon). This 8,000+ sq ft home is selling for well over a million dollars. The potential pool of buyers for this home is quite small. To capture their attention you must make your listing stand out in a major way. Having a professional photographer, especially one that specializes in architectural photography such as myself, photograph the home is a major step in that direction (see this post on the differences between professional and amateur  real estate photography). However, as good as it is to have professional photos done, the impact of the photos can be kicked up a notch significantly. Some of you may have heard of the "magic hour" as a photography term. This is the hour before sunrise and before sunset when you get beautiful warm light. Many photographers will tell you that this is the best light and it's when many concentrate their shooting. I'm not disagreeing with this at all. In fact, I too have scheduled many a shoot to fit these times to get amazing light. When it comes to real estate and architectural photography, however, there's a time that's even better. It's called "blue hour" (this is a bit of a misnomer because it's actually about 15-30 minutes tops). This is the time just after the sun has gone down completely. There's a little orange on the horizon but mostly the sky has become a deep, deep blue. This is the time when a building or home, well-lit with artificial lighting can really shine. Using multiple exposures of many seconds to tenths of seconds composite together you can create an image that's stunning and attention grabbing.

The key to this technique is timing. Shoot too early and the lights of the home or building are washed out by the sunlight. Shoot too late and the sky is black and the powerful colors are lost. The window is narrow. You have to be in position and ready to shoot, then move quickly to get the images. Make a mistake and you may not have enough time to get it corrected. Because of this, and because you usually have to go back out after taking the daylight shots, very few photographers use this technique. However, if you want your listing, advertisement, or professional portfolio to really jump off the page or screen, there's really no better way than a blue hour image.

For this house I did the conventional daylight shots and then came back several hours later to do the blue hour shots. Below you can see the conventional images next to the same scene at blue hour. The daylight shots by themselves are ok but when you see the two side by side the difference is striking! One thing that is critical to point out, when it comes to real estate photography, it's very important to accurately represent the property. There are some photographers that will add "up lighting" with strobes. This is fine for illustrative or editorial images (and something that I do), but when selling a property, the addition of lighting could give a buyer a false representation of how the home actually looks. For that reason all the light you see in the images below was actually present in the scene. No lighting was added by me.

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Daylight shot of the home. Not bad but not too exciting either.

Blue hour image. It's a composite of 7 individual images taken at different exposures to capture the full range of tones present but no additional lighting was added.

This outdoor pavilion is a great space for entertaining, especially during football season! Again, in the daylight it's not bad, but could be so much better.

Now, that's better! I know which one I'd rather be in!

Pool area was beautifully landscaped and quite amazing. The daylight shots don't do it complete justice.

2833 Cherokee Rd - Birmingham Real Estate Photographer0044

Lastly, this is the view from the front porch of the home. It overlooks the city of Birmingham with a great view. In the daytime the city in the distance would be washed out and not very appealing. The city lights against the deep blue sky really convey an altogether different feeling!