Before and After shot

Well it’s been all go this evening with a surprise email in from Monique Cranson of
ImageBrief in New York, whose client in Sydney had requested to see some examples of ‘Before & After’ interior renovations images.

So naturally as we specialise in interiors, I submitted a few examples like this…

.. of various projects we had on file – and…

Hi Ashley,

Hope your well!
I just wanted to touch base with you regarding a sale for the following images, great news the buyer wants to purchase 2 of the shots …

We won!!

Amazing too, when you stop and think about it: I’m based in Ireland, dealing with someone in American, who is dealing with someone in Australia – and it’s all done in via the internet in a matter minutes too.

Anyway, I’m over the moon for various reasons on this sale – or WOWEEEEEE !!!!!! as Marie said – and would therefore just like to thank everyone involved, especially Carolann (homeowner), Dianne (stylist) & Monique (from ImageBrief) here for making my day.

Getting ready to launch.

So we were shooting more Natural Calico products this week, which included this hand painted stool…

.. beside Marie’s new Hunter wellies (which we just had to get in) – some soaps (which looked a wee bit strange to me)…

.. and a new batch of Stuart’s wonderful painting (which I personally love, so I’m including a bunch of them here):

Plus this small denim stripe hydrofoil cotton Hamam table cloth…

.. which can also be use in a number of different ways – which we also shot to show.

So that’s the latest stuff, as we get ready to launch this new venture, which Marie says will happen next month… if all goes according to plan.

Overlooking Sixmilewater Valley…

.. and Donegore Hill, just outside Templepatrick in County Antrim – is where we were shooting the other day, in Ruth & David’s Ulster farmhouse.

The sun has been shining most of this week – after a few weeks of snow – and even though most of our work is indoors, the difference a bit of sunshine can make is huge – as it pours through the windows and just makes everyone feel & everything look so good.

Which was very much the case here, as the place was almost naturally lit…

.. and everyone was in great form too.

Still, it is said that photographing interiors is “10% creativity and 90% moving furniture”, which as you can see here…

.. was very true – as we moved things around to suit the camera, which often sees things differently to the eye.

So it’s usually a case of taking a picture first, to see how it looks as is – which is what Marie is standing here waiting to see…

.. as she looks over to the laptop’s screen, across the room – and then we do what we feel is needed, to end up with something like this:

So it’s a bit of a slow process – but Ruth thoroughly enjoyed it all, as we turned her house upside down 🙂

And after seeing the final results yesterday, she wrote to say:

Marie and Ashley,
OOOOOOH MY WORD!!
What more can I say? The pictures are stunning and I don’t have any more words to express that.
And what about Davids response to the living room? I wish you had been here. These were his words- How did we never think of that? This is like a new room, I love it.
Thank you both for Thursday, it was a pleasure and I have every confidence you will both go from strength to strength in your work. I have looked at photos of other homes and locations on your website…….aaaaaah!
Marie I look forward to seeing Natural Calico, and the Bangor house is patiently waiting to be embellished……
With very best wishes to you both,
Ruth
xx

Which was a really lovely reaction.

So ‘thank you’ Ruth and David for inviting us along – and making us both feel so welcome.
We will keep you posted.

From Marie & me @ ampimage.com

New lease of light.

Is the title of our latest work in the May 2013 issue of 25 Beautiful Homes magazine…

.. on pages 95 to 97 – featuring John Baird’s converted Cornmill near Comber in County Down.

“An impressive oriel window makes the most of the space and views in John Baird’s cornmill.”

Which we talked about here: A Fabulous Converted Cornmill – last November.

So congratulations to John here…

.. for making it into this top selling national magazine, which is all about inspirational homes – which his most certainly was.

From Marie, Mandi & me @ ampimage.com

It’s Another World.

Is the title of our latest published work in the May 2013 issue of Ireland’s Homes Interiors & Living magazine…

.. on pages 80 to 91 – featuring Yolanda and Trevor Cubitt’s cottage near Ballymena in County Antrim.

“Yolanda would be the first to admit she’s more ‘Sex and the City’ than ‘Escape to the Country’.
But that’s all changed since she and husband Trevor moved to their County Antrim cottage.
Not that it’s in a rural idyll either – but then that’s maybe why it’s become their dream home.”

Another world indeed – so ‘way to go’ Trevor and Yolanda here…

.. too – because it sure does look amazing in this beautifully printed magazine.

From Marie, Mandi & me @ ampimage.com

Who pays photographers?

By Juergen Specht, on the Shakodo Blog a few days ago – where yours truly got a wee mention, for trying to answer this question about How best to charge for high end commercial architectural photography? 🙂

Juergen Specht wrote on the 29th March 2013:

Who pays photographers?

I just got tipped to a new site named “Who pays photographers?“, which collects anonymous contributions from photographers and how much they earned for a specific job from different outlets. Needless to say, its depressing to see these low rates collected together in one spot.
However, the more I look through it, the more I agree with some comments about the site, that “only dissatisfied [photographers] … working for niche websites or newspapers” report their income there. The main problems I see, based on what I read on Shakodo every single day, is that most photographers still don’t know how to charge properly and what they actually sell. And this is one of the core reasons why so many photographers have such a frustrating low income.

Lets take for example the concept of “work by the hour”. I really, really don’t understand why photographers do this to themselves. Imagine there are 2 photographers, a very experienced professional and a not that experienced semi-professional. They both get hired to take the portrait of a busy, high-end subject. The experienced photographer comes out of the session with a great portrait in 5 minutes, because of his experience to grasp the situation, the available light and the attention of his subject. The not so experienced semi-professional needs 20 minutes for the image. Now, who should earn more? The professional who didn’t waste much time of his subject? Or the semi-professional, who needed 4 times the time for a picture? And what happens if the semi-professional becomes more experienced? Shall he suddenly earn less, because he can get the results faster?

This is just one example why “work by the hour” is not such a great idea. To quote Jim Greipp again “You get paid for your talent and not your time”.
And in the end, it all boils down to one thing: The value of your images to the client.

Nobody can explain this concept better than Shakodo Member Ashley Morrison in his answer to this question.

So instead of complaining about low fees, educate yourself and learn from the people who are busy making money with photography. You probably will not find them on “Who pays photographers?“, because they actually have work to do.

Where I tried to explain to Steve, a London based photographer, the difference between giving a price to take some pictures that a client could use if they wanted to, and giving a price to produce some images that a client would actually want to use, to meet their usage requirements.

Where I included some images of the same buildings, to help illustrate my point …

.. that all images are not the same……

.. and so this is why it’s often very hard to put a price on what we are being asked to provide our clients with – especially beforehand.

Anyway, just though I’d post this on my own Blog here, as it’s nice to be mentioned – and to know that someone else out there in the world, thinks I’m not way of the mark on my thinking here, on how to go about putting a price on an assignment like this… before the actual images exist.