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 | Mar 30, 2017
How spreading out my creative versatility and skillset in a booklet turned my resume into a creative resume. How it all comes together.
I wanted my creative resume to be different enough, yet still be mainstream. I love booklets. I think they scream professional and they are so fun to work with especially because of the spread design.
My original creative resume plan wasn’t able to come to production because of unforeseen changes in what has been going on lately. The very essence of my original creative resume plan was a booklet that tied into something that you can eat. It was witty and original.
I went ahead and continued with doing a booklet for my creative resume. I wanted the size to feel more custom, more unique, so I made it an 8.5×5.5 landscape. Using a landscape design allowed me to make the design breathe, allow for more white space and increase readability.
The design is very simple and minimalistic with bold design elements and placement.
When designing a booklet, flow is critical to the overall experience. I arranged the content and spreads in the book that parallels my process and design cycle.
As a versatile designer and visual communicator, I have gained a lot of experience already, and I wanted to showcase my strong suits. The nature of a booklet follows something called the Gestalt theory. This theory suggests that the design as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
While there were certain areas of expertise I did not include in this book, the areas in which I highlight are all interlinked, making it nearly impossible to communicate the same message if they were separated.
If you want a copy of a printed booklet, feel free to reach out to me on my about page. I would love to send you one and answer any questions you might have. Plus, it’d be great to get to know you!
To see another awesome creative resume booklet, check out Gerardo Sumano’s on his blog post Creative Resume Handout.
by Alex Brown | Mar 25, 2017
Time to go through and pick my personal best from the amazing time I’ve had photographing for COMM 316.
Since January, I’ve been privileged to spend a lot of time learning more about photography and the business of photography in my COMM 316 class at BYU-Idaho. I cannot start to tell you how awesome and meaningful this class has been, and how wonderful everyone is in it, especially Sister Caryn Esplin. Words cannot describe the energy, tenacity and love she has for me and every other classmate of mine. Furthermore, her testimony and love of the gospel has inspired me to be a better person and further come unto Christ. One of the most special things at BYU-Idaho is the harmony between the learning model and how the spirit teaches.
Photography has become an outlet for me. It is another way that I can express myself, my feelings and save the memories in my life. It’s been interesting to see a transition throughout this semester in my photographic style. At first, my images were strongly low-key, with a lot of black. As the semester continued on and as I began learning new light techniques, it subtly and slowly changed, becoming more reminiscent of my true photographic style, which is bright and bold.
Here are my personal best from COMM 316. Even though these might not be my top photos, the memories behind these photos is why they are on my list.
For more amazing images that have influenced my style and techniques, visit Caryn Esplin’s website.
by Alex Brown | Mar 22, 2017
The importance of brand attitude in high end fashion photography
We all have our own personalities. Some of us may be quirky, some of us may be more mainstream. When it comes to a brand, it has a personality too. But what exactly is a brand personality? Millward Brown describes a brand personality as “the way a brand expresses and represents itself.”
People don’t react to brands as people, but do, it appears, react to brands in a consistent, measurable way, call it the Brand Five. -Whit.li
The Brand Five that Whit.li has developed includes sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. This brand five are some of the most common examples of how consumers perceive a brand’s personality.
When a new brand is being created, or a brand is being redefined, brand personality traits are the basis and guiding direction of the brand. Anything communicated, whether it be to the consumer or an employee, should identify and correlate with the defined brand personality.
It’s our job to make sure that all of our communications are consistent with the following brand personality traits. Our brand personality traits describe how we want our customers to perceive our company define a brand from the beginning. – Walmart Brand Guidelines
How can something intangible, like brand personality, be manifested through branding? One way is through photography.
When it comes to luxury fashion brands, Gucci is one of the most prominent and popular brands.
2015 was a major year for Gucci as it completely switched it’s creative direction, under the direction of Alessandro Michele.
Fashionista.com has described the new creative direction as having a “mysterious vibe that that leads consumers to wonder about the story behind them.”
The 2015 ad campaign featured a prominent use of wind, symbolic of the change of creative direction.
All of these photographs are in homage to the 2015 Gucci campaign. They feature the current brand placement of the logo with the creative direction of the 2015 campaign.
To see more high end fashion campaigns visit this website.
by Alex Brown | Mar 22, 2017
How adding two simple things can take a women’s fashion photoshoot to the next level.
This post is one in a series in what I like to call Fashion Focus. I love color. Always will. Whenever I can incorporate color into a photoshoot, I jump all over the opportunity. Recently I bought a 47″ octobox light modifier for my speedlights. It’s been a great purchase and I absolutely love it! However, I wanted to see fi there was a way to create a color gel for the modifier itself. And sure enough, there is.
Go to your local Michael’s or craft store and find rolls of colored cellophane. Buy whatever color you like and at your next fashion photoshoot, tape it over the octobox, as if it were your soft box cover. On this shoot we had pink cellophane covering the octobox on the right, with a strobe light and a yellow filter to her left.
When working with color, the hardest thing to master is what I call color spill. In this photo, my model Noelle turned enough just so that the pink gel only lit her hair.
Another cool thing that you can do to make shooting with color even cooler is use bubbles! In order to get a lot of bubbles, consider buying a bubble machine on Amazon or at your local store.
Take a look at Nordstrom’s 2017 Spring Campaign, the inspiration behind this shoot.
by Alex Brown | Mar 15, 2017
No matter what color backdrop you have, find out three simple ways that can make any studio photoshoot fun.
CAROUSEL
As a photographer, freezing motion is one of the easiest and simplest things you can have any model or subject do! First off, Baylie Madyson is a great photographer herself, but she is so photogenic. When freezing motion with a model, it’s important to direct your model to keep a great expression and face throughout the shot. If you think about it, when the model is moving around they are more focused about completing the action or making sure not to knock over anything – instead of their expression. When it came to this shoot, we used a Wescott Spiderlight with a huge 80″ octabox and a diffusor panel and then had a grey backdrop I love shooting on grey backdrops because the complement any work well for any skin tone, most clothing and provide a nice radial gradient behind the model. Plus, it’s awesome to go in Photoshop and adjust the color of blacks!
BUBBLE TROUBLE
I’ve always envied those people who are able to blow bubbles with their bubble gum. I’ve tried so many times but can never seem to ever get it to work. Thankfully Ashley Morin can do that! This is a great and fun way to take a boring studio portrait and make it pop. pun totally intended! According to Ashley, the best type of gum to blow bubbles with was my childhood favorite, Hubba Bubba. Even if you can’t get some Hubba Bubba, any gum should work but you might need to go in photoshop and do a selective color adjustment to increase the pinks like I did with this shot. Another thing that I must stress is to make sure the model maintains a good expression!
THE NATURAL
I love this picture of Jill Weaver because I love how she was herself in front of the camera. I believe we were actually waiting for someone to bring us something, so I was trying to make her laugh (something I love to do with models) and she was just playing around with her necklace. When it comes to portrait photography whatever is closest to the camera will look larger. When I look back at this picture, I love the expression, however, I wish I had her bring her shoulder back just a bit that way it’s in proportion with the rest of her body. THe other thing I absolutely love about this picture is the motion that is in her hair. By instructing her to tilt her head back a little bit her hair becomes something more to this fun studio shoot!
If you want to see some more ideas of fun studio shoots, take a look at this family photoshoot by Townsville Photography Studio.
