What a difference a year makes...

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a house for the second time with almost a year in between. And can I just say, what a difference a year makes!!

The original photos were shot with a Canon Rebel Xsi and Sigma DG500 flash.

Current photos were shot with a Canon 7D and a Canon Speedlight 580 flash and the house has been staged!

Girl's bedroom before...

Same bedroom after...

Painting was an absolute must for this room, and you can see what a dramatic improvement it made.

Master bedroom before...

Master bedroom after...

The staging changes in the master bedroom are much more subtle than in the girls bedroom above, but I feel these photos really show the progress over the year in the actual quality of the photography.

Family room before...

Family room after...

Again another more drastic change here, but what a change! This house shows infinitely better this time around.

It's scheduled to hit the MLS market tomorrow, so we'll see what the response is to the great changes this house has undergone!

- Paula

Lions, Tigers & Bears...

Well, tigers...certainly. Lions and bears - not so much.


Today seemed like a perfect day for a trip to the zoo. If you've never been to the zoo in the winter, you don't know what you're missing!


It's been a long time since I've seen my dear friend Jane, so I've been looking forward to this outing most of the week.


All week, the weather today was forecasted to be sunny, clear & above 0. When I left home this morning to pick up Jane, things looked promising. Although it was still quite chilly, the sky was clear & there was no breeze. It looked like a fantastic day to head to the zoo.


A half hour later, with Jane on board and mandatory Starbucks in hand, we were on our way to the zoo.


The parking lot was virtually deserted when we arrived a few minutes before the gates opened. We sipped our coffees and caught up on news and waited for 9:30. Other cars straggled in. More photographers got out... we are a die-hard bunch to be sure!


At 9:30, we headed in and planned our day. The best tips I can give for the zoo are, 1) arrive early and get in before the families and kids, 2) plan your circuit based on the feeding schedules for best chances to see the most activity and 3) if you're going in the winter, dress in layers - long underwear is a good thing!!


Our first stop was the polar bear exhibit, which had been under construction on our prior visit - but also, no bears...yet. So off we wandered to the Sumatran tigers where we met this lovely lady.




Feeding time for the tigers was some time away yet, so we spent some time in the indoor Australian exhibit while we waited and met a Kookaburra who liked his meals tenderized (he must have smacked this poor mouse on the branch a dozen times!).



Feeding time came for the tigers and we returned to watch as they enjoyed a snack of fresh beef ribs.


1:00 came and it was time for the polar bear feeding so back we went and were pleased to see three bears now out in the exhibit.


After the bears, we wandered the zoo for a couple of additional hours, taking random shots. It ended up being overcast and quite chilly so we stayed in the pavilions as much as possible, which unfortunately meant that our lenses fogged over every time were went inside, so much time was spent standing around waiting for the glass to clear.



Our final stop was the rhino building where mandarin ducks share the water with the rhino. the lighting in the building isn't the best, but I wanted to try to capture the stunning plumage of the ducks.


All in all, a very long, tiring day. No really spectacular shots, but the most important and pleasant part of the day was spending time and catching up with Jane.

- Paula

OMG I'm in LOVE!

It's NEW.
It's BLACK.
It's FLASHY.
It was freakin' expensive...

You thought it was a car, didn't you?

Is it a computer? Nah uh...

What about the latest techy gadget? Sorry...

Is it shoes? Nope... but it needs one to work most of the time...

Give up?

It's a FLASH!

Yes, I never thought I'd get excited about such a thing either...but necessity forced me to upgrade my flash unit recently and I could KICK myself for not doing it sooner. My trusty Sigma 500DG flash has served me well for many, many years, but I was surprised to find that it didn't work (except in full manual mode and who has time for that??) on my new Canon 7D, so off to Henry's I went with my Christmas money in hand to *gulp* buy a Canon Speedlight.

Doesn't look like all that much, does it?

One of the things I'm (slowly, painfully) learning as I grow as a photographer is that the least important element in your gear seems to be the camera body itself. Upgrading bodies gets you more megapixels, sure, and more frames per second, and, in the case of the 7D, HDR video...but you really want some WOW shots? Get new glass. Lenses make ALL the difference, and now too it seems, so do flashes.

Wednesday, I shot my first house using the combination of the 7D and the new Speedlight but the old Sigma 10-20mm and I was SO impressed with the images. Now, I want to get the Canon wide angle...it's the only thing I'm lacking right now. I had my eye on one before Christmas, but couldn't bring myself to buy it at the time, so that will be my goal this year. When it came time to make a decision on what to get Boxing Day, it had to be the flash, since the Sigma flash didn't work with the 7D at all, but the Lens does for now, so that upgrade will have to wait for a while longer...

So here's one of the shots from Wednesday. There were so many great ones, it was hard to pick just one, but I like this room also. Nice, even light - no halo on the ceiling (I know this is a cathedral ceiling, but there was no halo even in the bedroom shots with normal ceilings!!), the shadows are soft when you can even see them at all. This was shot on a bright, sunny day, in a south-facing room in the winter. Anyone who shoots real estate photography knows that's a recipe for horrible photos with dark rooms and blown out windows, so I am extremely pleased with the results above.

- Paula