Tag Archive for: interior

Selling a House with Photos

Making a house sell with photos is a process. It always helps to have a good looking house to shoot, but more than that, it is important to have it clean, uncluttered, and, if not professionally staged, arranged in such a way that furniture and décor don’t distract from the image. Shooting for real estate means presenting a space in a way which shows possibilities, which makes the viewer think of all the things they would do with it. At the same time, shooting for real estate also means maintaining the character and personality of the home.

We recently had the chance to shoot this older Vegas estate home which was recently renovated and made into a California-style Spanish-modern mini-estate (whoa-there, hyphens)! With wide-open space inside and out, the house feels bright and airy–with warm wood touches that make one feel right at home. Here, our goal was to capture the spaciousness of the interior and to sell the stand-out features of the home including abundant windows, a spiral staircase and modern kitchen. Delivering over 100 images, the seller had options in selecting the best images for the MLS. We narrowed it down to 5 for this post.

Take a look!

A white room with a brown built-in bookshelf with a spiral staircase wrapping around in with black railings.

US Bureau of Reclamation

Workers hoping to get a job on the massive Boulder Dam (now called Hoover Dam) began setting up squatters camps near the chosen work site in 1930. These camps of prospective dam workers might be called the first citizens of Boulder City–a town assembled specifically to house the administration and workforce of the largest public works project in American history. Boulder City was built in a triangular shape and at the peak was the Bureau of Reclamation Administration Building, overlooking the town on one side and the subsequent lake which would be formed by the Dam’s construction. The Administration Building oversaw the successful completion of the Dam and continued to house those overseeing both the operation of the dam and the management of the resources it provided. For nearly ninety years the Administration Building operated without a major renovation–until in 2018 when the Bureau of Reclamation finally completed a full and long overdue restoration of the historic Administration building at 1200 Park in Boulder City.

Upon completion of the restoration, the US Bureau of Reclamation gave us the fantastic opportunity this summer to photograph the building in its fully-restored grandeur. From its iconic exterior to the bathrooms inside, nearly everything was redone, and nearly everything was photographed. Over two days we shot the carefully reconditioned structure both inside and out and delivered over 100 images of the beautiful new environment in which the employees of the Bureau of Reclamation now work. Below are a few samplings of the images we captured in this great project.

While in the previous exterior photo we enhanced the building with some supplemental lighting, we also included some much more natural images in the end bundle. The dramatic skies at dusk here are no sky replacement and all the light is ambient, giving a fairly perfect idea of what the building looks like on a long August night.

The conference room acts as both a normal meeting space, but can also double as a command center in times of crisis. We wanted to capture this particular space both in daytime, with all its natural light and at night to showcase its abundant and modern lighting.

 

In multiple parts of the building the preexisting materials were kept to echo the building’s historic roots. Here we see some exposed brick kept in a Bureau restroom.

On the tastefully restored patio the unique placement of the Administration can be appreciated as one can peer down upon Lake Mead, the child of the Boulder Dam Project, which delivers water and electricity to Las Vegas and numerous western states.

Bahamas Suite at Westgate Las Vegas

A blue-surfaced pool table in a lavendar-toned hotel room with a dining table and wide city view at dusk in the windows.

I’ve written before about the the opportunities we have to shoot at Westgate Las Vegas. In their continuing saga to remodel and photograph the myriad specialty suites which dot the massive hotel, we’ve recently photographed the Bahamas Suite, and had a lot of fun in the process. The fun didn’t come without its challenges. The evening we shot, the windows were filthy.. and shooting on the 32rd floor eliminates the option of a quick windexing. A little magic in post did the trick: hand carving the borders of those immense windows, we replaced the glare and dirt of the windows with the sparkling view from a neighboring balcony (this really is the view from outside.) Of course, we also added a little light in some dimly lit alcoves, and we’re pretty proud of the result. Below is a single exposure, unprocessed, to give you an idea of what we started out with.

 

A blue-surfaced pool table in a hotel room withamber color temperature, black windows reflecting glare from the room in the background

Below are some more images that we delivered for this guestroom. We hope you like them!

A hotel room with a blue-surfaced pool table in the foreground and a living room with flat-panel TV on silver, patterned wallpaper and a crystal chandelier above.Two grey, pin-cushioned velvet setees in hotel room facing the windows with a twilight sky in the distance.Custom Las Vegas Guest Suite with a Blue Pool table in the foreground, lavender-colored bartools surrounding a bar behind and a wide crystal chandelier above.

Capturing the Mood of a Property

It’s great to be part of the sale of a beautiful home. We work with a lot of great agents that take pride in the work they do–both listing and showing homes for sale. A good agent does a lot to close a sale–from the hard work of marketing, to dealing personalities (not always charismatic ones), to piles of paperwork, and in the end, doing whatever it takes to make something happen. And now with so much of the process of buying and selling properties taking place online (especially viewing properties before you visit them), the agent needs to provide online listings which capture attention and get people in the door. Great photography is the starting point in this process. Having gone from a luxury to a necessity, the photographs you have online are the single biggest draw you have for a property.

Every home has a visual selling point, that a good photographer will try to capture and encapsulate in a single image. Take a look at some recent photos we took of a beautiful home in Green Valley. Using the backyard foliage to frame the foreground in the above photo, we created a scene which emphasized the mood that the lush landscaping gives to the backyard. Paired with crisp, solid images of the well-maintained house, this listing will stand apart from its peers.

Whether you need to make a property look better that it does in person, or whether you need to make sure it shines in photos like it does in real life, professional photography makes all the difference when selling a home.

 

SkinnyFats’ Third Location

SkinnyFats is taking Las Vegas by storm, offering healthy food options alongside some down and greasy guilty pleasures. With an innovative menu and fun interiors, the restaurant is making food look like an easy business. We were thrilled to be able to shoot some fast-food retail restaurant photography of their newest location in Centennial Hills. Opening locations as quick as possible you need to get some quality photos as quickly as possible and we’re happy to be a partner in getting the word out. With the exterior still under construction, we offer you a look at the very cool interior of the Centennial Hills location of this up-and-coming titan of a food chain.