Cindy Carriger wrote:
I personally think investors may need assistance in this area, although i don't have proof- it is just a suspicion, going by the pics I see on the MLS - many of which are sub standard, and I would just assume that investors might not be any better. For the investor who is selling his house to a retail buyer, marketing is KING. Albeit, many just sell it via roadside signs, I believe. But for those who use the internet, QUALITY pics are essential. I do the best I can with my automatic Olympus, and these are def. better. However, I am fortunate that my son recently purchased a Nikkon D-40 (still inferior, but better), so we have used that. But, the downsides are, we are not too experienced using it- and the time it takes us to shoot and re-shoot to get the right shots/lighting etc. is way too long, and $70 would be a bargain if I could just sit back and wait for them to appear!
I hope other's will also give thier view on this-so you will have a better idea if there really is a market for it. If not now, perhaps when things upturn a bit! (However, investors still need to sell properties to keep in business, so now may be just as good!)
I say, if it is a low start up, give it a try- put yourself out there. Why not!? (Are you continuing to do it for Realtors etc.?)
Cindy, thanks for responding. Sadly, no, I am no longer shooting tours. While I enjoyed the work (or most of it) tremendously, doing it for A Digital U was not a very profitable proposition. I was only paid a very small portion of the $100 they charged clients, and I was usually sent to the eastern-most outskirts of the Metroplex (Rockwall, Terrell, etc.), since the owner covered Tarrant County. No expenses were paid, either. Since I was very frequently only booked for 1 job on a given day, that meant 4 hours' work (including 2 hours of driving, one hour of shooting, and another of editing and uploading tours for stitching). Subtract what mileage was costing me, even in my subcompact, and I ended up earning less than minimum wage.
All that to say that I am no longer doing that type of work for Realtors, but I'm thinking of getting back into shooting just the stills in order to earn some extra cash. I now own much better equipment than I was forced to use back then, so the shoots should go much more smoothly, and the stills should be very good quality. (I shoot only in RAW mode, have a pretty decent grasp of composition, contrast, tone, depth of field, color temp, sharpness, and vertical alignment. I also know my way around photo editing software like Photoshop, GIMP, and even Apple's iPhoto.)
Thanks again for the encouragement, and thanks so much for letting Vicki do some ride-alongs recently. You're making us believe we might actually be able to do this REI thing!
