by Alex Brown | Feb 25, 2018
How good real estate photography can turn showings into a sold sign.
The thing I love most about Real Estate and architectural photography is the fact that it serves as a silent salesperson. After working in real estate marketing for a little over the last five years, I’ve grown to see the importance that real estate photography has when selling a house. My motto is that good real estate photography gets showings and showings get offers!
3029 Marblebrook was a great example of how good real estate photography transformed a house with little showings to a sold sign out front. Before, the real estate photography was dark and didn’t showcase the to photographing this property, the real estate photography was dark and didn’t showcase the tons of natural light that the house had. Furthermore, it made the spaces look smaller and the open-concept floorplan enclosed and less open.
Here are three different photos taken of 3029 Marblebrook by another real estate photographer in the area:
The Result After: A bright, open concept floorplan filled with natural light featuring it’s transitional and contemporary design. After being called in by the agent, I wanted to showcase the natural light that flooded this home, the tall ceilings on the main floor and the beautiful hardwood floors that flowed throughout the main level.
To see more tips on how you can go about hiring a real estate photographer, check out this article on Placester. If you are looking for a Salt Lake Real Estate Photographer, contact me today and your first listing is free!
by Alex Brown | Feb 7, 2018
An inside look into the process behind gig poster design
Gig Posters are pretty cool to design because they are unique to each city. Bands, Musicians and Artists would contract out to local artists/designers to design a special gig poster just for the one night they were in town. These gig posters would then be blanketed around town. The thing that makes a Gig Poster unique is that it has to convey a symbolic meaning while representing the style of music for the artist.
When I first started this project, I wanted to create a gig poster for a punk/new wave band since that happens to be one of my favorite styles of music. However, as the project commenced, I started to alter that. My first iteration was quite simple in its nature and is reminscent of a club/dance/edm style of gig, something like Deadmau5 or even The Weeknd.
Things began to transform as I continued to continue to be bored in Illustrator. I knew I wanted to incorporate the blend tool since it’s so awesome, so I just started playing around with that. I ended up creating two triangles and blended them together, eventually continuing to layer them together. The result was this cool mouth-like effect.
I felt that I was headed in a right direction, but it needed something more. I then rotated the center triangle and this created an eye! I love it. The first word that initially came to my mind was retina, and I started to play around with this, but I wasn’t feeling it.
Then, randomly, as I was talking my mind out loud, just bouncing words and ideas out of my head, the name came to me… Tunnel Vision! I felt that this name fit the style of the poster – which is alternative. The thing I love about this is the progression of values towards the center. It suddenly gets more vibrant and more in your face.
If you want to take a look at more gig posters, check out these 80 amazing examples of Gig Poster Designs
by Alex Brown | Jan 20, 2018
Turn your smartphone camera snapshots into beautiful fine art photographs
Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday break, I took a trip through Island Park, Idaho on my way to northwestern Wyoming. I have driven through Island Park numerous times, but never before in the winter. The snow covered pine trees were beautiful against the gradient blue to white sky, and I knew I had to capture a picture of this!
I prefer to take any picture with my DSLR, however, in this case it was in the back seat and just barely out of reach to grab it and still get the shot in time. So, I went to my pocket and pulled out my smartphone camera on the iPhone X! After a few clicks of the shutter, I ended up with some shots.
Let me be completely honest… these smartphone photos are absolutely terrible! You probably are thinking to yourself “I could have gotten a better shot than this professional!”
Am I embarrassed about this photo I captured with my smartphone camera? Absolutely not! People typically underestimate how powerful a smartphone camera can be for fine art photography. All we have to do is extract the image’s potential!
The middle man: Edit your smartphone photography with Snapseed!
I should preface this section by saying that I am in no way sponsored by Snapseed at all, but am totally up to it! Snapped is an amazing photo editing app that you can use to edit your smartphone photos. Before I found Snapseed, I totally believed that you could never get an amazing photo out of your smartphone camera. In order to get a photo from your smartphone that rivals one from your DSLR, it has to be edited! Here’s a quick screenshot to show you the individual steps I did to edit this smartphone photograph. While the number of steps may look overwhelming at first, treat it just as if you were editing a regular photo in photoshop. If you’re an everyday shooter, I’d recommend using the presets in the curves edits for maximum results.
The Final Product: A Beautiful Winter Fine Art Photography Scene
After finishing my editing, the final product is a beautiful winter fine art photography shot, this take taken by smartphone. No matter what smartphone you have or what skill level you shoot at, anyone can become a smartphone photographer! For more tips on how to master smartphone photography check out this great guide by DigitalGuide.
by Alex Brown | Aug 26, 2017
My favorite shots during totality of the total solar eclipse over Rexburg, ID
On August 21, 2017, a rare phenomenon happened from the coast of Oregon to the coast of South Carolina: the total solar eclipse.
Throughout history, light has been seen as symbolic for goodness. However, for a total of two minutes, darkness from the total solar eclipse was seen as a symbol for peace and goodness.
While attending BYU-Idaho, I have enjoyed living in the small college town of Rexburg, Idaho. When word started going around that the center of the total solar eclipse would occur over our town, I knew I had to be in Rexburg for the total solar eclipse. Living in the path of totality meant that the moon would cover 100% of the sun (an eclipse), and that I was going to get some great shots.
With this in mind, I was surprised to find how empty the location I chose to shot at (Webster Flats) compared to all the people who had come to Rexburg. I knew I wanted to shoot the eclipse here because it’s iconic to the area and it’s one of Rexburg’s best kept shooting secrets. Plus, it has some awesome foreground elements and would give me a nice and open landscape.
While most were getting their eclipse glasses and solar filters for their telephoto lenses, I wanted to take a complete different approach when shooting the total solar eclipse. Instead of getting an up close shot, I wanted to get a shot that showed the landscape and the environment under the total solar eclipse. Here’s my favorite shot that I got of the total solar eclipse:
When shooting the solar eclipse, I was told I need to wear solar eclipse glasses and have a solar filter (ND filter that is a minimum of 16 stops) for your camera lens to prevent it from melting. During totality,
Both of these are true, but only in certain situations: You only wear solar eclipse glasses to look at the sun when it is not in totality; You only need a solar filter if you have a telephoto lens and plan to photograph the entire stages. During totality, it is safe to photograph the corona without a filter (you are actually supposed to take it off) and you can look at the sun with the naked eye.
During the solar eclipse itself, I was able to hear everyone from Rexburg (about 5-7 miles in town) cheer and hollar. Towards the end of totality, I captured this shot which shows the ground looking almost mars red. The coolest thing is how the sunset gradient remained in the sky while the foreground and the buildings were still spotlighted by the sun… natural light painting!
To see more of my solar eclipse photos and videos of the amazing 360º sunset, check it out on my instagram at http://www.instagram.com/calexbrown. I have posted a video that shows the 360º sunset in addition to a time-lapse that shows the light falling on the building.
For more information on the science behind a total solar eclipse, visit TimeAndDate.com. Also, check out awesome pictures of solar eclipse from National Geographic.
