Google Street View Virtual Business Tour for House of Shaves Barbershop in Jacksonville, Florida.

Hey, folks. I was recently contacted to shoot for Jacksonville's best barbershop, House of Shaves Barbershop in the Southside area. If you're new to Jacksonville or looking for a new barber, head over to House of Shaves Babershop for some of the best service in Jacksonville. If Southside is too far, they've just open a new location at Riverside in the TIAA Building next to Arepa Please.

If you're looking to have your building captured for Google's StreetView Virtual Business Tour or if you know of any historical buildings that need to be preserved please let me know in the comments below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com.

An Unexpected Issue with a Recent Google Street View Virtual Tour

I ran into an unexpected issue on a recent client’s tour. There was an earlier tour at the same location that was causing connection issues with my client’s tour. The fix was rather simple; delete both tours and re-upload my client’s tour. Once we were able to get that done in roughly 24 hours my client’s tour was up and running perfectly.

This should have been simple. Locate the previous photographer and ask them to remove the earlier tour for the company that previously occupied my client’s location. Then delete and re-upload my client’s tour. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Unfortunately, the previous photography would not help -- at all. Just said they hadn’t logged into their Google Street View account in ages. So left without direct access to the previous tour we resorted to manual reporting the entire tour for the Street View moderators to review and take down. Thankfully, my client was the original owner of the previous business at this location so we still had access to the previous business’ Google My Business account. From there we reported the entire tour twice and within 24 hours the previous tour was taken down. I deleted and re-uploaded my client’s tour and lo and behold in 24 hours it was connected and working like it should have.

From start to finish, it took about three weeks to resolve the issue. Mainly it was the waiting for a reply from the previous photographer that ended up being of no help. If you ever encounter this issue, I hope you have a better response from the previous photographer or access to the previous business’ Google My Business account to report from or it’s going to take a long while to resolve the conflicting tour issue.

Google Street View Virtual Business Tour for Lighting Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida

I recently had the opportunity to capture Lighting Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida. If you're not familiar with Lighting Jacksonville, it was formerly known as Avenues Lighting. Still the same great team and owners behind Lighting Jacksonville.

If you know me, you know I have an affinity for light fixtures and light in general. There are some outstanding designs at Lighting Jacksonville, and with those designs they have a wide selection of different color temperature. I really, really, hate warm lights and sometimes it can be hard to find these bulbs.

If you're looking to have your building captured for Google's StreetView Virtual Business Tour or if you know of any historical buildings that need to be preserved please let me know in the comments below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com.

Google Streetview Virtual Business Tour for Ida Claire | Jacksonville, Florida

I recently had the opportunity to capture Ida Claire in Jacksonville, Florida. I was pleasntly surprized by their Americana decor. Old sewing machines, typewriters, string bulb lights, and old tchotchkes. They even have "Bring Your Own Vinyl" nights. I'm going to have to go to one of these nights with a few of my favorite vinyl records.

If you're looking to have your building captured for Google's StreetView Virtual Business Tour or if you know of any historical buildings that need to be preserved please let me know in the comments below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com.

ABET | All Beaches Experimental Theatre Virtual Tour

Ever wonder where the best shows are being put on in Jacksonville? They’re on at the All Beaches Experimental Theatre (ABET)! Come with me on a virtual tour of their wonderful theatre.

ABET is a not-for-profit theatre whose mission is to foster a love of live theatre within Jacksonville’s diverse community. They regularly put on new and original plays with an emphasis on diversity in all aspects of the theatre. Read more about ABET.

If you're looking to have your building captured for Google's StreetView or if you know of any historical buildings that need to be preserved please let me know in the comments below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com.

The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Jacksonville, Florida.

I recently had the opportunity to capture the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Jacksonville, Florida. I’ve always been fascinated by religious architecture. To me, it helped early civilizations excel in technology. From the rock cut temples of India to the Gothic cathedrals of old Europe, religious architecture has always served to, either, apply or create new technologies to build bigger and more extravagant temples of worship.

I reached out to Patricia at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and asked if we could schedule a time to preserve the interior and exterior of the Basilica digitally. With the okay from Patricia and Father Blair, I was able to capture this historical Basilica in Jacksonville.

If you're looking to have your building captured for Google's StreetView or if you know of any historical buildings that need to be preserved please let me know in the comments below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com.

A little history on the Basilica

The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was built in 1905 to replace the second building that was destroyed during the Great Fire of 1901 (the first building destroyed by Union troops during the American Civil War). Designed by Utica, New York based architect, M. H. Hubbard in the Late Gothic Revival style. If you would like more information head over to their website.

As of 2013, it has been designated a minor basilica due to its history. It is also a parish church in the Diocese of St. Augustine.

The Jessie Ball duPont Center in Jacksonville, Florida.

Before the pandemic I had the opportunity to photograph the Jessie Ball duPont Center in downtown Jacksonville. It's exterior belying the mid-century modern open floor interior. A wonderful melding of 1960’s architecture and modern sensibilities. What was previously served as the Main Branch of Jacksonville’s Public Library now is a complex that houses some of Jacksonville’s most prominent non-profits.

I got in touch with the duPont Center to capture the Center’s three floors of reservable space. If you need a place in Jacksonville to host an event, a conference, a seminar, or anything else check out their reservation page. If you want a better idea of each space, check out the spaces on Google Maps..

If you're looking to have your building captured for Google's StreetView or if you know of any historical buildings that need to be preserved please let me know in the comments below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com

5 Common Mistakes New Real Estate Agents Make and How to Avoid Them

Congratulations on getting your real estate salespersons license! Like most new agents you’re probably itching to get going selling homes. The great thing is that by reading this and researching the common pitfalls of new agents you’re going to be starting off on a stronger foot than those diving straight into it blindly. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 87% or Realtors fail within the first five years. There are a lot of reasons new agents fail, but here are five common reasons that contribute to the the NAR statistics and what you can do to get ahead of them.

1. Not treating your new venture as a legitimate business.

This goes for both your business and yourself. You are a real estate agent, a professional facilitator of real estate within your community — act like it. Most real estate agents who fail usually don’t have a business plan in place or don’t have reserve funds built up or a second income to float them through rough patches. The average homebuyer takes 30 to 45 days to buy a home, the average new agent closes their first deal within 3-6 months (longer if the market is in a downturn). That means for at least 4 months you’re not getting paid. For those 4 months you still need to pay rent, membership dues, bills, and so on. Not having a clear plan of action for your business will quickly eat away at any of your savings thus far. Not having any reserve funds means you won’t be able to cover your living expenses and will inevitably lead to dropping out of the real estate business.

2. Not generating leads/prospecting.

I know, it’s hard getting out there and meeting new people and making honest connections but your business relies on it. Most agents will advise against buying leads, but if your warm market is small or non-existent you need to start somewhere and even if you have a strong warm market, those leads will eventually dry up. Buy leads, cold call the FSBO list, go out with a branded shirt, hand your cards out, anything to get new leads or referrals. Simply, no leads = no income. So get prospecting.

3. Lacking any accountability to yourself and your business.

This is hard for me too, but when you run your own business you need to be accountable to get results. No sales usually mean you’re not prospecting enough or at all. You have to have a plan of attack daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. It can be as simple as, “I’m going to contact 10 new people today.” These goals need to be quantifiable and actionable because you need clear defined steps to achieve them. If you say you want your business to grow, you need to specify how you want it to grow. Do you want 10% growth in your income? Do you want to increase the number of homes you have under contract by 10%? Specificity and accountability help push and grow your business.

4. Being focused on the commission.

Firstly, you’re in the customer service business, not the sales business. Homes sell themselves, you provide a service by lending your knowledge of real estate, the community, and access to these homes. Always run your business with people first. It only takes one negative review to sour your business. And usually people can smell when you are worried more about the money rather than actually helping them find the right home in the right community. For them this is the biggest purchasing decision they’ll likely make in their lifetime, for you it’s just another client to help get into their dream home.

5. This last one is a big one. Being reactive instead of proactive.

Being reactive in business usually means you’re being passive, you’re comfortable with not extending your discomfort and you’ll likely miss how the markets trend. You’re not on top of current trends in neighborhoods, what your client demographic looks like, whether or not the market is a sellers or buyers market, or if there’s going to be a downturn in the market. This goes back to, both, being accountable to yourself and having a clear business plan. By knowing where you want to be and being on top of trends in real estate, you are always learning and pivoting to adjust any slight market trends. There are still a large percentage of real estate agents who can only be reached through phone. With the rise of millennial home buyers, these agents haven’t adjusted to their new client market and are getting, either, lost in the fold or frustrating their new clients. As Bruce Lee says, “Be water, my friend.”

Starting a new business is hard. You have to prepare for success if you want to establish a successful business. You're already off to a good start by researching mistakes previous real estate agents have made! Now get going on your business plan if you don't already have one. Prospect, prospect, and prospect some more. Focus on your goals and be accountable for your actions (if not to yourself, then to a designated accountability partner). Don't chase the money, focus on client needs and grow from there. And lastly, be proactive in your business and stay on top of trends to see where the market is moving so you can pivot before getting hit too hard.

Have another reason? Share your experiences in the comments below for others to gain from that experience!

When you're going to list a new clients home in Jacksonville, Florida, make sure to get professional photography for their home. Treat your clients well, and market their home as if you were marketing your own. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com.

Update #2: Google Maps and Street View Virtual Tours Issue

Hey, guys. So it’s been a few months now, and it looks like the Google Streetview team have finally rolled out a successful fix for their rampaging AI moderation algorithm. Personally, I’ve seen my own clients’ tours finally propagate correctly and with 100% of the connections between scenes present. Great news!

Hopefully, there won’t be any more bugs in the code, but if there are any, you can count on me to let you know.

With the Google Streetview news out of the way, I’ve a lot of new content that I’m producing that should be hitting the Blog page and the new YouTube channel. I’ll be covering topics from designing panoramic brackets for fisheye lenses to discussing the most common mistakes new realtors make and how to avoid them. Sorry for the brief hiatus, but it’s been a good break and I’m ready to start pumping out great content for you guys!

Appreciate y'all for reading.

Photography 101: Shooting Flambient

Flash photography is a great skill to learn as a photographer. It allows you to create mood, emphasis, and cleans photos. I’ve been a natural light shooter only because it always seemed so daunting a task to learn how to shoot with a flash. I’m writing this in part, for my younger self so as to not be as afraid as I was regarding flash photography.

As we discussed in our previous 101 write up, HDR has been used to great effect in interior photography and real estate photography when requirements state no flash, or conditions didn’t allow for flash. I’ll argue flash modified interior photography executed right will beat HDR any day. Flash photography allows for cleaner more accurate reproduction of colors, cutting harsh shadows from incoming ambient light (through windows and light fixtures), allows you to light rooms with little to know ambient light (closets, nooks, etc). All in all, flash photography gives you more flexibility in the worst of lighting situations. In a wood cabin with little to no available ambient light? Bring a white reflector and an AD200 or Wistro 600 and you’ll be able to accurately capture the correct colors, light the interiors, and save yourself from pulling your hair out from dealing with trying to merge an HDR bracket and keep colors correct.

What You’ll Need to Start Shooting with a Flash

To start adding flash into your interior photography all you need is a flash unit with a wireless trigger. The great thing is that you probably already have one in your bag and all you’ll need to do is pick up a wireless trigger. I started with a basic flash unit from Godox (Godox tt685s) and while it took a little longer to get through a house it served me well — I still carry it with me to help light rooms when my Godox AD200pro doesn’t have enough reach. In addition to the flash unit you may want to pick up a good set of c-stands to hold your flash. I don’t, but you may find it helpful.

Let’s Get Shooting

The Ambient Shot

The ambient shot is, simply, a shot with no flash. Typically, I expose to the right of the histogram—this is called Exposing-to-the-right (ETTR). Without getting too much into it, when shooting RAW the highlights data is usually well preserved. This means that you can easily pull blown out highlights back down and preserve the detail. Your camera typically struggles to capture and preserve shadow detail though, so that’s why I ETTR when shooting my interior ambient photos — to get the most data I can for post processing.

Let’s take a look at the ambient shot we’ll be using. You can see in the histogram that we’re slightly right of center in our histogram and the highlights look a little blown out. But again that’s fine, we can just pull down the highlights and boom, we’re back in business.

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The Flash Shot

The flash shot is just the shot with the flash fired. Instead of shooting TTL you’ll be shooting in manual and adjusting power output to create a well exposed shot — if you’re looking at the histogram you’ll be in center. Before firing the flash you’ll want to set your camera’s exposure to expose for any window. If there’s no window start with a 1/125 of a second shutter speed and adjust again to get a centered histogram when the flash is fired.

Yes, it’s not the best explanation but them’s the breaks. There are no hard and fast rules so you can just set it up and go room to room, you need to develop an eye for lighting to build your ability to quickly move room to room with a flash.

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Blending The Shots

With the Ambient and Flash shots loaded into Lightroom, we can make minor corrections before starting to blending the shots in Photoshop. I’m going to apply a lens correction and remove chromatic aberration. With distortion and CA corrected, I like to adjust the white balance and exposure as needed and tweak the overall image of both the Flash and Ambient shot. Alright, so I can send the shots over to Photoshop now to do the blending by selecting the shots, right-clicking, and selecting “Open as Layers in Photoshop…”.

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Before I start, I select both layers and auto align them.

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Now that they’re aligned, I set the flash shot as the bottom layer. Then apply an inverted layer mask to the ambient shot.

With the layer mask selected, I select a soft brush tool selected with white as the primary color and set the flow to 5-7%.

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I’ll just start brushing in the Ambient shot to bring back the natural luminance of the room. You don’t want to be heavy handed in brushing in the Ambient shot. I’m looking to make the shot look a bit more natural than the flash shot gives us.

Once I’m happy with the results, I’ll save the layers and close Photoshop. Back in Lightroom I’ll make any final adjustments and crop if I need to.

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Ambient Shot

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Flash Shot

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Blended Shot

There you go, now you know how to shoot and edit a Flambient photo. The technique takes a bit to get used to but the post processing is usually a breeze when you dial in your shots. Hope you learned something, and if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com

Update: Google Maps and Street View Virtual Tours Issue

For the past year Google Maps and Street View tours have had issues with proper connections within the 24-48 hour time frame that has not been addressed. Over the past couple of months this issue has compounded into a major issue affecting most photographers participating in the Google Pro Photographer program. Not much information has been given on the status or what’s being done to resolve the issue but a Google moderator has put out the following statement:

Update on recent issues regarding the publication and connection of 360 photos on Google Maps

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your patience over the past couple weeks and for reporting all of the publishing and connectivity issues. The cause of the issues is a recent change to our automatic moderation systems that is giving a high false positive rate for inappropriate content

A few more details:

- This issue primary affects 360 photos (as compared to other photo and video content)
- Images that are deemed inappropriate are not published on Google Maps
- Street View connectivity only applies to live published photos and looks to connect the next eligible published photo. This is why a lot of you have reported missing or strange connections.

What is happening next:

- The teams are hard at work to improve the performance of the auto-moderation system
- We are also introducing a manual check for all newly published photos that have been flagged to lessen the false positive rate further
- After this version is ready, all 360 photos will be re-processed and re-published

We will keep you closely posted on all of the above.

- The Street View team

If you are interested in reading up on the issue click here

7 Tips for Selling Your Home During the Holidays

Believe it or not, the holiday season can be a great time to sell your home. You may think that spring is the ultimate season to sell your home due to more houses being listed and more people seem eager to buy. It's true that the housing market typically heats up during the spring, however, the holiday season is often overlooked as a prime time to sell.

Why? First of all, there is less inventory on the market typically, allowing your home to easily stand out among the available inventory. And though there are technically fewer buyers overall, the buyers that are looking are far more serious about finding a home within a specific timeframe. So, make your home warm and inviting and open it up to those looking to buy, because selling your home during the holidays might be your best present this year.

1) Stage for the Holidays. Think Clean, Cozy, Simple.

Yes, you should absolutely decorate your home during the holidays even if you are trying to sell it. The real question you should be asking is, how much?

One thing that happens to all homeowners is that we tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. This is especially true of holiday decorations. When you pull out holiday decor this year, think like a stager or a designer. You don’t want to use every decoration or ornament you’ve ever owned. This year, for the sake of appealing to the buyers touring your home, use your best decorations as holiday accents in each room without drawing attention away from your home’s best selling features.

Your home may have large windows with a great view or maybe your home has a dream kitchen. Whatever sold you on your home when you first bought it is most likely the same feature(s) that will sell your house this holiday season. So, don't cover up your view with an excessively large Christmas tree, even though you may have the high ceilings for it, or bury your living room in snow globes, nutcrackers, and an abnormally large nativity scene. You want to accentuate your home’s best features with holiday decor, not bury them.

Just remember that you should still enjoy the holidays in your home even if you’re trying to sell it. Holiday decor can go a long way in making your house feel like a future home for those touring it. If you have a fireplace, decorate it with garland and hang stockings from its mantle. Use candles and wallflowers that are iconic smells of the season, such as pumpkin spice or balsam and cedar. You want guests to feel comfortable and warm the moment they walk through your front door. You want them to feel at home.

2) Price Your Home to Sell

You and your listing agent will most likely come up with a pricing strategy together based on comparable homes in the area, what the current housing market is doing, and what the demand for housing looks like or is projected to do. Ultimately, several variables go into pricing ones home to sell, however, there are a couple of easy tricks that can help attract homebuyers.

Price Your Home Competitively

If your home was a lemonade stand that was competing against a rival lemonade stand on the other side of the street, how would you make your lemonade more enticing to people passing by? Maybe your lemonade comes in a larger cup, maybe it comes with ice, or maybe it’s just priced lower than your competition.

If your home looks like all the other homes on the block with similar features, then a lower price point will definitely draw in more traffic than your rivals. However, if your home is the largest one on the block, has more acreage, or a double car garage and pool, you can price your home based on the increased value it provides. Start off by seeing how much your home is worth by checking out online estimates and then compare them to other houses in your area.

Use Strategic Price Points When Listing Your Home

Have you ever noticed while you're grocery shopping that almost all prices end in .99, such as $1.99 or $4.99? This simple manipulation of pricing is called setting strategic price points and essentially makes the price of something appear smaller (or cheaper) than it really is. The same exact concept works when pricing your house to sell. For example, if you decide your home could sell for $500,000, pricing it at $499,000 will (theoretically) draw in more traffic and possibly more offers.

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3) Make Your Curb Appeal a Top Priority

Your neighborhood may actually look more appealing to homebuyers during the holiday season. Maybe you live on one of those streets where everyone from miles around drives down your lane to see houses lit up in all colors of holiday splendor. You don’t want to go overboard with your exterior holiday decorations, but you want to make your house shine along with the other homes on your block.

Furthermore, your lawn may not be that lush green it usually is during the summertime, and your trees may currently be barren. That’s why making your curb appeal a top priority is necessary when selling your home in winter. Make sure all the sticks, dead leaves, and any other debris are picked up and your lawn is neatly trimmed. Even though we have entered the colder months, a few weeds that poke up from the ground can make your lawn seem neglected. If you have pictures of your home at alternative times of the year when your curb appeal is burgeoning with flora, these may also be a good idea to have available for homebuyers. This way instead of homebuyers trying to picture your house in other seasons, they can just see it for themselves.

4) Keeping your Property Safe for Homebuyers

Unlike home sellers that live in coastal regions, there are many more home sellers living in mainland USA where outside temperatures are well below freezing during the holiday season. Driveways and walking paths are blanketed in snow and ice, and icicles hang from gutters like glass curtains. A legitimate concern for home sellers in one of these frigid areas is how to keep your property safe for homebuyers. The only thing you can really do is be proactive and break out that snow shovel and start clearing a path.

If you’re expecting snow on an almost weekly basis, then it might be best to hire out professionals to come by once a day and make sure your driveway, front steps, and any walking path are cleared for people touring your home.

5) Turn On the (Holiday) Lights

To complement the coziness of your home, you'll also want to make it bright. Turn on all the lights in your house during open houses and home tours. It may be the darkest time of year outside but you can make sure it doesn't feel that way inside your home.

This is also a great time to replace burnt out light bulbs and fix light switches that are not working. You may also want to consider making all your interior lighting the same color temperature, such as a soft white which brightens rooms without giving you that institutional feel. This will help with consistent lighting throughout your home, creating a balanced feel as potential buyers walk through each room.

6) Slay the Holiday Season with Professional Real Estate Photos

The absolute biggest thing you can do for your house in terms of marketing it to potential homebuyers is getting professional real estate photos taken. However, this is the one time you don’t want to have your holiday decor on display. In fact, getting your professional photos taken of your house before you decorate is a must because holiday decorations essentially create a time-stamp of your home.

If your home doesn’t sell during the holidays you don’t want your house to still be rocking holiday lights in its listing photos come February or March, or you risk turning off potential homebuyers. So plan on getting your listing photos taken as soon as you can so you can decorate for the holidays and enjoy the season.

7) Get Santa’s Perspective with Aerial Photography

Go one step further and consider aerial photography for your listing. If your home has acreage or a view or any other amenity that cannot be fully captured unless it’s done by air, then aerial photography may be what you need.

Drone photography, in particular, has become an increasingly affordable option when compared to traditional aerial photography and can offer buyers a unique perspective of your home and can help make your listing stand out among the other homes for sale online. Furthermore, aerial photography can give potential buyers an overview of your neighborhood along with other amenities that may be within walking distance of your home.

This article was originally published on Redfin. Special thanks to guest author, Jeff Anttila for allowing us to publish this great article on our blog. Jeff enjoys writing about the many aspects of home-ownership. From how-to projects he does on his own home to mortgage payoff and investment strategies, he likes to create useful content his readers will enjoy. His dream home would be a small house on a lake or the Puget Sound, with lots of natural light and a dedicated space for his woodworking. Email Jeff

Photography 101: Shooting HDR

High-Dynamic Range photography is a useful technique to capture scenes you otherwise couldn’t capture in a single exposure. It’s a technique that’s best applied while on a tripod, though you can get away with handheld HDR when your shutter speeds are fast enough. For photographic disciplines like landscape and architectural photography, HDR is a powerful tool to help capture a scene with the most information possible for post-processing.

The only cost to shooting HDR -- besides the camera and lens -- is the processing software. And there are loads of them; Lightroom/Photoshop, Photomatix, Aurora HDR, or Darktable. I regularly use Lightroom as my main HDR processor because I like the way it merges the exposures and it’ll give you finer control of the overall look. It doesn’t have batch processing but for the amount of HDRs that I output it’s fine.

Shooting HDR

Let’s do a quick equipment check first. What you’ll need is a camera with continuous bracket shooting (if your camera doesn’t offer this you can just adjust your shutter speed to create the separate exposures), a tripod (though you can get away with handheld HDRs when your shutter speeds are fast enough), and, optionally, a wireless shutter release cable or remote.

With your camera now setup on your tripod, let’s set it up for continuous bracketing.
If you shoot Sony
If you shoot Canon
If you shoot Nikon
If you shoot Fuji
If you shoot Panasonic
If you shoot Olympus

Let’s get to the shooting now. Frame up your composition and take the photos. Now you’ll have a minimum of 3 separate exposures with one stop of light difference between them (one at -1, one at 0, and one at +1).

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-1 EV

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Process an HDR

In this write up I’m going to be using Lightroom CC 2019 to process this HDR. It’s my DAM of choice because it offers so many tools to speed up my workflow without having to open up another program.

After firing up Lightroom, import your bracket set and only apply a simple lens correction profile.

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Next, select the bracket set and click on the 'Photo' tab and select Photo Merge > HDR. I usually set the deghost to none, turn off auto-tune, and leave auto-align on.

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With your HDR processed, now we can go and tune the processed image to look the way we want it too. What looks right is subjective so you’ll want to play around with the adjustment sliders to get an image you like. I tend to lean toward a more natural representation of the scene, but it’s all about intent — what do you want to say and how do you want the viewer to feel.

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There you go, now you know how to shoot an HDR. The technique is simple, but the post processing can be a bit touchy because you can easily edit too much and make the photo look heavily unnatural. Check back soon for my flash photography write up and follow up video on how to shoot HDRs. Hope you learned something, and if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or send me an email at hello@georgemoua.com

Photography 101: HDR vs Flash Photography

In real estate photography there are two styles of shooting interiors; High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Flash/Artificial Light. Each style has a different workflow and both can achieve stunning results. HDR has a lower cost of entry to start shooting, but there’s a software learning curve for producing stellar results. Flash photography has a marginal cost to start shooting, and a learning curve for both the software and the hardware. I wanted to provide a quick primer for those interested in real estate photography in this write up with follow up technical articles for HDR and Flash photography.

What is High Dynamic Range (HDR)?

HDR is a technique using multiple exposures of the same scene to increase the range between the highlights and the shadows represented in a photograph. Using HDR in real estate photography requires taking a minimum of five (5) exposures at -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2. Then, using an HDR processing software, you’ll combine these exposures to create an image with an image that closer resembles the way our eyes render the scene.

What is Flash Photography?

Flash photography is using artificial light to help illuminate the interior. Using a flash also helps to provide a consistent white balance to all of your photos. With real estate photography you’ll typically take three exposures; one without flash, one with flash, and, if you have a window in the scene, a flash against the window.

If you’re careful in your photography onsite and post-processing both can produce stellar results. However, in my experience, flash photography easily wins because it’s ability to better render the photographs reducing my post-processing work time. In addition to reduced workflow time, with flash photography you have more options as to when you can shoot and how you can render an interior. HDR is fine, but to me the way each particular software renders colors differently which inevitably leads to me spending more time than I want in post. Check back next week for an introduction to HDR photography!

Photography 101: Basic Composition

A 101 class wouldn’t be complete without a primer on composition. If you missed the first or second write up, check them out here: basics of photography and camera modes. When talking about composition or framing in photography, we have the luxury of already having it filled. Our job as photographers is to crop out the unnecessary details so that we can capture the photo we want. If you’re using a zoom lens, all you have to do is run through the focal lengths. If you’re using a prime lens then you’ll have to walk closer or further from your subject to frame it correctly. There are only a couple of guides, realistically, that you’ll recall when out in the field.

The Rule of Thirds

You’ve probably heard of this framing rule before even if you don’t own a DSLR or Mirrorless. This is usually the first tip to help with composition and framing. This rule simply states that you should align your subject of interest on grid lines or points of intersection on the grid lines. If you have a horizon in the frame, align it to one of the vertical grid lines. Fast, simple, and for the most part true. You can set your camera to display the Rule of Thirds grid so you can easily visualize and compose your frame.

Leading Lines

Leading lines are a line or multiple lines that helps move your eye through the photo to your subject of interest. These lines can be anything from natural landscape twisting through the photo or manmade paths or architecture.

A Quick Primer on Learning Composition

When starting out with photography, you’ll have a few lucky shots now and then, but good composition is learned over time. You can use leading lines or the rule of thirds to help build that composition, but honestly, the best way to learn composition is a combination of analyzing professional photographers’ work and shooting often and with varying subjects. What happens when you analyze other photographers’ work is that you start to see patterns emerge in photos you like. You can start to see particular color combinations that you enjoy, the way certain lines in a landscape naturally glide across a photo, or how the photographer plays with light. There is a lot to learn and unfortunately there is no easy way to teach it beside studying other work and your own. Understanding what you like and don’t like allows you to better compose your photographs because you are able to easily crop out what you need in a photograph.

One last thing that should be noted is the Golden Ratio. You see this pop up time and time again in photography and design. My personal belief is that it’s utter BS. I don’t think anyone is actively applying the Golden Ratio while shooting in the field. It’s always an afterthought to somehow give more meaning to a photo or a design from a third-party -- not the original designer or photographer. Don’t get stuck on ideas of what or how a photographer should be shooting, shoot what you like and grow from there. Take photos often and remember to analyze what it is about those photos, the subjects, the colors, the lines, the textures, etc that makes you interested in them. It’s a personal journey and it takes time -- enjoy it.

Homework

Find 10 professional photographers that you admire and write a short paragraph for each describing what you like in their photos. This short exercise will help you become more cognizant in what you like to see in your own photographs and help you to become a better photographer faster.

The Millennial Affect on the Housing Market

Millennials are blamed for everything wrong with America today. From the destruction of the chain restaurant industry to, apparently, buying too many avocados. They’re the bane of the Baby Boomers and the economy. A quick Google search would lead you to believe we’re destroying the Real Estate Market too. But if you take the time to look at the prevailing research, they’ve just become more fiscally conservative. There are straight forward reasons why; increased cost of higher education, low employment prospects after the Great Recession, and increasing debt. They’ve become more informed buyers, less likely to get their information from salesmen but from trusted sources online. By being more informed and smarter with their money, they’re shifting how they engage with professional services from buying cars to buying homes.

The Current State of Affairs

Millennial presence in the housing market is becoming more apparent with Millennials responsible for 43% of all primary mortgage originations last year (1). Since they’re entering the market later in their lives than previous generations, they are seemingly skipping starter homes (prices ranging from $150,000 - $200,000) in favor of larger, more expensive homes in the suburbs surrounding cities’ urban cores (2). So, we can see that Millennials aren’t shying away from homeownership, but rather, they have to wait longer than previous generations due to the rather unfavorable economic conditions that the housing bust of 2008 brought and the Great Recession that followed.

Current Cohort Analysis of Millennials in the housing market shows a recovery from the Great Recession from 2010 - 2016 across all Cohort groups with those 24 and older exceeding homeownership attainment of Cohort groups prior to 2010 (figure 1). Most charts you’ll see are based on Age Group Analysis, and reflect a stagnation of homeownership attainment with Millennials, but we can see that, that isn’t the case when we use the Cohort Analysis (3). Millennials have entered the housing market, and are quickly changing the landscape of how professional services like Realtors engage with them.

Figure 1 (Source: “Perspectives.” The Awakening of Millennial Homeownership Demand | Perspectives - November 29, 2017, 29 Nov. 2017, https://www.fanniemae.com/portal/research-insights/perspectives/millennial-homeownership-demand-myers-simmons-112917.html.)

How Millennials are Changing the Way they Engage Professional Services

“Expect more disruption in the next five years as Millennial home buying accelerates.” -Stuart Eisenberg, National Director of Real Estate and Construction Practice for accounting firm BDO USA, LLC (4)

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 99% of Millennials search online real estate websites for information related to the home buying process. With 44% of Millennials starting their home buying journey online and 56% of Millennials finding their home online versus with a real estate agent. What they found most useful on websites were professional photos at 89%, detailed information on the property at 85%, and virtual tours at 50%.

However, even with all the information available to Millennials online, the process and paperwork was still difficult to understand across 41% of Millennials. Meaning realtors are still invaluable in the Millennial journey when home buying.

To meet these changes, realtors are quickly catching up, but still have to maintain a strong understanding of advancements in social media and technology. Most brokerages have websites at 93% but only 11% of realtors are utilizing a professional blog. Realtors are starting to utilize Social Media with the highest participation on Facebook. Along with Social Media, realtors should be using their blog to create trust with Millennials searching for homes and for information. According to the NAR report, realtors are now engaging more with their clients through text message (90%) and email (94%) (5).

One last thing, before we move on. Consider Video in your engagement with Millennials. “Millennials do not want to read what your house looks like, they want to see it for themselves (6).” Sharing well crafted and professional videos generates 1200% more shares than text posts, and of those who used video reported 49% faster revenue growth vs those who didn’t (6).

Millennials are thinking long term 10 - 20 years ahead. As the older Millennials enter the Real Estate Market, the younger Millennials are doing as their seniors have done before them -- live with their parents for a bit longer than previously expected and renting content with the restricted privacy and increased saving for their future. While their entrance into the housing market is welcomed, Realtors need to change how they engage with their clients. Access to the internet has changed how initial engagements with potential clients are made. More and more, clients are finding information online, and finding realtors online.

Realtors with professional Photography and Videography are better engaging and reaching Millennials. When you’re ready to start creating well crafted content, give me a ring at 916-832-7845 or shoot me an email at hello@georgemoua.com and we can get started on developing your content creation strategy.

Sources:

1. Falcon, Julia. “Here's More Proof That Millennials Have Officially Entered the Housing Market.” HousingWire, HousingWire, 19 Sept. 2019, https://www.housingwire.com/articles/49899-heres-more-proof-that-millennials-have-officially-entered-the-housing-market/.

2. “Young Buyers Are Skipping the Starter Home.” Realtor Magazine, 17 May 2018, https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2018/05/08/young-buyers-are-skipping-the-starter-home.

3. “Perspectives.” The Awakening of Millennial Homeownership Demand | Perspectives - November 29, 2017, 29 Nov. 2017, https://www.fanniemae.com/portal/research-insights/perspectives/millennial-homeownership-demand-myers-simmons-112917.html.

4. Lake, Rebecca. “How Millennials Are Changing the Housing Market.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 17 July 2019, https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/how-millennials-are-changing-housing-market/.

5. “Real Estate in a Digital Age 2017 Report.” 2017. PDF File. https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/reports/2017/2017-real-estate-in-a-digital-age-03-10-2017.pdf

6. “5 Ways To Market Real Estate to Millennials Using Social Media Strategies.” Competitive Edge Social Media Marketing Management, 8 Dec. 2018, https://www.competitivebrand.com/real-estate-millenials-social-media/.

Photography 101: Camera Modes

Now that you’re familiar with the basics of photography and the exposure triangle. Let’s dive into the shooting modes your camera offers; M - Manual Mode, P - Program Auto, S - Shutter Priority Mode, A - Aperture Priority Mode. You’ll typically see two camps here; full manual (M) or semi-automatic (P, A, S). I don’t think either are wrong, it’s just a matter of how you shoot and what you shoot. So let’s get into the nitty gritty of camera modes!

M - Manual Mode

Manual mode is exactly what it sounds like, all adjustments are made by you. Think of this like a manual/standard transmission car. Here you have full control over the exposure triangle. Shooting this way is significantly slower than any of the program modes because you’re adjusting Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO to expose the image correctly. It’s a great way to learn photography and understand the principles of the Exposure Triangle, but ultimately leads to slower ready to shoot times, and missed opportunities in the field.

What it’s good for:
- Landscape Photography
- Architectural + Interior Photography
- Studio Portrait Photography

What it’s not good for:
- High Speed Action Sports/Autosports
- High Pressure Photography situations like Weddings (Yeah, yeah, I know before Priority modes wedding photographers shot in full manual, but look guys, we make things to help improve our trade and having more shots available to us allows us to deliver more usable shots to our customers)
- Run + gun photography

P - Program Auto

Program Auto makes all the adjustments to the Exposure Triangle for you. Just point the camera and the camera will determine what the best settings are for the shot. It’s as easy as pointing and shooting the camera. While this is fine for candid photos or snaps that don’t need much else besides capturing the scene, you won’t be able to directly affect the boken of the photo. Of all the modes, this offers the least amount of control but offers the fasting ready to shoot times and least missed opportunities in the field.

What it’s good for:
- Everyday shooting

What it’s not good for:
- Anything where you want control of the photo.

S - Shutter Priority

Shutter Priority prioritizes Shutter Speed and adjusts ISO and Aperture to maintain the selected Shutter Speed. Set the Shutter Speed and the camera determines the correct ISO and Aperture for proper exposure. This is good when you need to freeze action or if you want to add some motion trails. Shutter priority won’t allow you to manipulate the bokeh or background separation as well as Manual mode doesn, but it allows you to capture shots where movement needs to be crisp.

What it’s good for:
- Sports Photography
- Automotive Racing Photography
- Photography in low light situations where you need to capture motion

What it’s not good for: - Low Light Photography in general (You want to use Aperture Priority or Manual Mode to make the most of the available light)

A - Aperture Priority

Aperture Priority prioritizes Aperture and adjusts ISO and Shutter Speed to maintain the selected Aperture. Set the Aperture and the camera determines the correct ISO and Shutter Speed for proper exposure. This is the mode I usually live in because it allows me to directly affect the bokeh and background separation. It allows you to maintain your preferred depth of field while shooting. It’s a happy medium between Manual and Program Auto.

What it’s good for:
- Portrait Photography
- Street Photography
- Landscape Photography
- Wedding Photography

What it’s not good for:
- Architectural + Interior Photography (Typically you want a constant aperture to have the same depth of field throughout the set of photographs)

Photography is a fun hobby and a sometimes stressful profession, but at the end of the day taking photos helps us remember moments that we want to. Understanding how your camera works is the first step to taking better photos and capturing the story you want too. The basics are easy and now you know them. In later write ups, we’ll look into framing, depth of field (bokeh), flash and more!

5 Growing Neighborhoods in Jacksonville

I’ve been lucky enough to live and travel for extended periods in a few cities throughout the US and Asia. My favorite place has to be Jacksonville -- I’m not kidding. Home to Florida’s largest population, Jacksonville is slowly becoming a metropolitan city. It’s prime for it with it’s shipping port, railway system, attractive incentives for big corporations, large small business community, low cost of living, and easy access to beautiful beaches. Sure we have to deal with high crime, but across cities with similar populations, it’s on par. On an unrelated note, why are parents still smoking with their kids in the car here in Jacksonville? It’s bonkers crazy.

Jacksonville is on the rise, and it’s a great time to live here! I’ve spent a few days pouring through information and walking through these neighborhoods and, if you’re looking to move to Jacksonville or within it, these are some of the best places to live in 2019. Keep an eye out for my neighborhood walkthrough videos!

Murray Hill

Murray Hill was featured in my last neighborhood write up and I think it’s a great place to start with this write up. Home to Vagabond Coffee, Murray Hill offers a low cost of living for young professionals, a thriving local business community, a collection of wall murals created by local artists, and a plethora of parks to explore.

Check out homes in Murray Hill

Places to visit & explore while here:
Vagabond Coffee
Fishweir Brewing
Town Beer Co.
El Jefe Tex-Mex.
Moon River Pizza
Community Loaves
Murray Hill Theatre

Riverside & Avondale

Riverside & Avondale is located next to Murray Hill and is a great place for young professionals looking for a hip and trendy place to live and work. Technically two neighborhoods Riverside, and Avondale, with Avondale being the newer of the two neighborhoods, it is home to the creative heart of Jacksonville -- the Five Points area. Riverside + Avondale offers a slew of trendy eateries + cafes like Hawkers Asian Street Fare, Black Sheep 5 Points, and BREW Five Points. If you like thrifting or vintage knick-knacks you’ll love exploring shops like 5 Points Vintage and Fans & Stoves Antique Mall This one feels kind of like cheating, as it’s been steadily on the rise since the late 2000’s, but Riverside + Avondale still has more growth ahead of it.

Check out homes in Riverside + Avondale

Places to visit & explore while here:
Sun Ray Cinema/5 Points Theatre
Crane Ramen
Sake House
Casbah Cafe
South Kitchen + Spirits

San Marco

San Marco is one of Jacksonville’s most recognizable neighborhoods. Though it’s old and considered a historic neighborhood, San Marco has been able to grow and modernize while keeping it’s old world charm. While home prices might be higher than normal in Jacksonville, it’s still a great place to live. Head to San Marco Square to grab a bite to eat from Taverna, or Beach Diner. If you’re a runner, swing by 1st Place Sports for all your running and race needs; they’re the place to go to for registering for 5k’s, 10k’s, marathons, and anything running related.

Check out homes in San Macro

Places to visit & explore while here:
Maple Street Biscuits
Fuji Sushi San Marco
Ajeen + Juice
The Grame + Grain Exchange
San Marco Theatre

Bartram Park/Southside

The Bartram Park area of the Southside neighborhood is quickly on the rise. Conceived as a work/live/play community, Bartram Park is also located conveniently between Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and the Beaches. If you like shopping, Bartram Park is right next to St. John’s Town Center and < a href=https://www.simon.com/mall/the-avenues>the Avenues Mall. If you’re like running/hiking trails, Bartram Park is located conveniently next to Julington Durbin Creek Nature Preserve.

Places to visit & explore while here:
Takhrai Thai Restaurant
Zoes Kitchen

Springfield

Last on our list, is Springfield, Jacksonville’s oldest neighborhood. A small hiccup in the 1920’s caused a decline in the neighborhood, but Springfield is now on an upward trend. Home to Hyperion Brewing, Main + Sixth Brewing, and Strings Sport Brewery.

Check out homes in Springfield

Places to visit & explore while here:
Chans Chinese Food
Crispy’s Springfield Gallery
Wafaa n Mikes Cafe
Henry J. Klutho Park

Jacksonville is growing, both in size and culture. Right now is the best time to become a Jacksonville transplant and help to build this new culture and city. These five neighborhoods offer a great place to live and grow for anyone. If I’ve left any neighborhood off the list, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

If you’re looking to sell your home in Jacksonville, make sure your realtor has a professional photographer photograph your home. With professional photos, your home stands out among the other properties in our area. If they don’t, shoot me an email at hello@georgemoua.com.