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 photosNearly everything that makes a house photograph well happens before I get there. This is the list I wish every seller had the night before, written out so nobody has to guess.Read the guide →PDF available
- Headshots · 5 min readWhat to wear for professional headshotsPeople worry about this more than any other part of the session, and it is honestly simpler than most of what you will read online. Here is what I tell everyone who asks.Read the guide →PDF available
- Events · 5 min readHow many hours of event photography do you need?Booking too few hours is the thing I see go wrong most often. The part that gets cut is almost always the part you wanted, so here is how to work out the number before you book.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, and scheduling a shoot as though it does will cost you the photographs you were after. This is how I plan around it.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 6 min readWhat real estate photography costs, and whyAgents ask me this before anything else, so 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 the aerial is the shot that sells the house. Sometimes it is two hundred dollars 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 one is for whoever got handed the job. Usually an office manager, usually with about a week of notice. It is more straightforward than it looks.Read the guide →PDF available
- Events · 5 min readHow to plan a ribbon cutting that photographs wellThe ceremony itself lasts about ninety seconds. Almost everything that decides whether the photographs are any good 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 somebody comparing forty others on their phone. That changes what I shoot.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 watch go wrong, and most of them are fixable in the five minutes before you leave the house.Read the guide →PDF available
- Headshots · 5 min readWhich headshot backdrop should you choose?Three options, all of them included in the price. Which one is right depends less on taste than on where the photograph is going to end up.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, ready to copy.Read the guide →PDF available
- Events · 6 min readHow to plan a fundraiser that photographs wellMost of the photographs a nonprofit really needs are not of the party. They are the ones going into a grant report six months later, and they 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 afterwards is what actually decides whether hiring somebody 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. That is why it costs sixty five dollars instead of two hundred, and why it is worth understanding before you order it.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 7 min readVirtual staging for listings, including homes already shotFurniture added to a photograph you already own. Fifty dollars an image, back within a day, and the same price whether I took the photo last week or somebody else took it last year.Read the guide →PDF available
- Real estate · 7 min readWhat buyers actually look at in your listing photosThere is good data on this, and most of it says the same thing: the photographs are not decoration on the listing, they are the listing. Here is what the numbers say and what I would do with them if I were the one listing the house.Read the guide →PDF available
Questions
About these guides
Are these free?
Yes. Every one of them, and the PDFs too. They are the things I end up explaining on the phone anyway, so it seemed easier to write them down.
Do I have to hire you to use them?
Not at all. Take what is useful. If it turns out you would rather someone else handled the photographs, you know where to find me.
Can I share these with my team?
Please do. Send them the link rather than the file, so they always get the current version.
What areas do you cover?
The whole Coachella Valley. I shoot photography regularly in Palm Springs, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Indio, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Thousand Palms, and Bermuda Dunes, and I am happy to travel anywhere in the valley at no extra charge. There is a page for each city below with what changes there and what it means for your photos.
- Real estate photography in Palm SpringsMid-century architecture, downtown condos and a tourism economy that runs year round.
- Real estate photography in Palm DesertEl Paseo, country clubs and a professional base that skews established.
- Real estate photography in La QuintaTwo markets in one city: the Cove against the mountains, and the golf clubs to the south.
- Real estate photography in Rancho MirageLarge lots, country clubs and a concentration of medical and philanthropic organisations.
- Real estate photography in IndioThe valley's largest city by population, with a faster-moving and more family-driven market.
- Real estate photography in Cathedral CityBetween Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, with a working commercial corridor and a growing arts presence.
- Real estate photography in Desert Hot SpringsThe valley's north end: natural mineral water, spa rentals and long views back across to San Jacinto.
- Real estate photography in Thousand PalmsUnincorporated, in the middle of the valley: the Ramon Road business corridor, established neighbourhoods and the preserve on its eastern edge.
- Real estate photography in Bermuda DunesUnincorporated country club living between Indian Wells and Indio, with a general aviation airport in the middle of it.
- Event photography in Palm SpringsMid-century architecture, downtown condos and a tourism economy that runs year round.
- Event photography in Palm DesertEl Paseo, country clubs and a professional base that skews established.
- Event photography in La QuintaTwo markets in one city: the Cove against the mountains, and the golf clubs to the south.
- Event photography in Rancho MirageLarge lots, country clubs and a concentration of medical and philanthropic organisations.
- Event photography in IndioThe valley's largest city by population, with a faster-moving and more family-driven market.
- Event photography in Cathedral CityBetween Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, with a working commercial corridor and a growing arts presence.
- Event photography in Desert Hot SpringsThe valley's north end: natural mineral water, spa rentals and long views back across to San Jacinto.
- Event photography in Thousand PalmsUnincorporated, in the middle of the valley: the Ramon Road business corridor, established neighbourhoods and the preserve on its eastern edge.
- Headshot photography in Palm SpringsMid-century architecture, downtown condos and a tourism economy that runs year round.
- Headshot photography in Palm DesertEl Paseo, country clubs and a professional base that skews established.
- Headshot photography in La QuintaTwo markets in one city: the Cove against the mountains, and the golf clubs to the south.
- Headshot photography in Rancho MirageLarge lots, country clubs and a concentration of medical and philanthropic organisations.
- Headshot photography in IndioThe valley's largest city by population, with a faster-moving and more family-driven market.
- Headshot photography in Cathedral CityBetween Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, with a working commercial corridor and a growing arts presence.
- Headshot photography in Thousand PalmsUnincorporated, in the middle of the valley: the Ramon Road business corridor, established neighbourhoods and the preserve on its eastern edge.
- Headshot photography in Bermuda DunesUnincorporated country club living between Indian Wells and Indio, with a general aviation airport in the middle of it.
Let's plan your shoot
Let's get your shoot started.
Pick what you need photographed and add your name and email. That is all I need to reply, usually within one business day.