Guides
What I have learned shooting the valley
Ten years of listings, events and headshots across the Coachella Valley, written down. The things people actually ask me the week before a shoot, answered properly.
- Real estate · 6 min readHow to prepare a house for listing photosMost of what makes a house photograph well happens before I arrive. This is the list I wish every seller had the day before.Read the guide →PDF available
- Headshots · 5 min readWhat to wear for professional headshotsPeople worry about this more than any other part of a session. The answer is simpler than most advice online makes it sound.Read the guide →PDF available
- Events · 5 min readHow many hours of event photography do you need?Booking too few hours is the most common mistake I see. The part people cut is almost always the part they wanted.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 6 min readThe best time of day to photograph a desert homeDesert light does not behave like light anywhere else. Scheduling a shoot as though it does costs you the photographs you wanted.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 6 min readWhat real estate photography costs, and whyAgents ask me this before anything else. Here is the whole answer, including the parts that do not flatter my own pricing.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 5 min readIs drone photography worth it for your listing?Sometimes it is the shot that sells the house. Sometimes it is $200 for a picture of a roof. Here is how to tell which one you have before you pay for it.Read the guide →PDF available
- Headshots · 6 min readHow to organize a team headshot dayThis is for whoever got handed the job. Usually an office manager, usually with about a week of notice.Read the guide →PDF available
- Events · 5 min readHow to plan a ribbon cutting that photographs wellThe ceremony lasts about ninety seconds. Almost everything that decides whether the photos are usable happens before it starts.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 6 min readHow to photograph a vacation rental that booksA listing photo has to sell a house once. A rental photo has to sell the same house every weekend, to someone comparing forty others on their phone.Read the guide →PDF available
- Headshots · 5 min readWhat not to wear for a headshotThe other half of the wardrobe question. These are the things I see go wrong, and most of them are fixable in the five minutes before you leave.Read the guide →PDF available
- Headshots · 5 min readWhich headshot backdrop should you choose?There are three options and they are all included. The right one depends less on taste than on where the photo is going to live.Read the guide →PDF available
- Headshots · 5 min readWhat should your team wear for headshots?One short message a week ahead does more for the final set than anything that happens on the day. Here is what to put in it.Read the guide →PDF available
- Events · 6 min readHow to plan a fundraiser that photographs wellMost of the photos a nonprofit really needs are not of the party. They are the ones you will put in a grant report six months later, and those take about ten minutes of planning.Read the guide →PDF available
- Events · 5 min readWhy hire a photographer for your ribbon cuttingThe ceremony lasts about ninety seconds. What you do with the photographs afterward is what actually decides whether hiring one was worth it.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 6 min readDay-to-dusk photo conversion, explained for agentsIt is an edit, not a second shoot. Which is exactly why it costs $65 instead of $200, and exactly why it is worth understanding before you order it.Read the guide →PDF available
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