Even worse, almost everyone has a friend, an uncle Bob, or knows someone with a “big” camera these days and entrusts them with once-in-a-lifetime events, like their wedding. The results are often disappointing. Uncle Bob is also great in shooting inconsequential stuff like commercial-quality photos for your company.

Remember, the images you present in your advertising, brochure, website, etc., do reflect the quality & appearance of your business.

Photography is much more than just having a “big” camera!

When you hire a pro photographer, you are paying for their time investment more than anything else. Many hours go into creating quality images and delivering a polished product that you will cherish. It is this time spent after the shutter is pressed that often makes the difference between just another snapshot and a great photograph.

Let’s take Real Estate for an example. Estate agents generally aren’t trained in photography. But they’re in the business of marketing property and try to sell a product worth hundred thousands of dollar with those photos. Photography sells real estate.
Buyers use photographs to decide which homes to see in person. Homes with poor photographs are often screened out of the selection process. So, attention desperate home sellers. Don’t want to lower the price on your house? Consider better photos ! Read more >>

Below are photos taken by a Real Estate agent and our photos (shot without flash lights). The agent’s images are first, ours are second.

Time the shoot favourable to the sun.

Elevation changes the point of view.

Use the ambient light to your advantage.

A general photography rule of thumb is the closer the subject, the better the photo. But in these photos you can see the impact of taking a few steps back (or using a wide-angle lens to give that impression). It gives the viewer more context and makes the place seem more spacious.

Level the camera straightens the verticals.

When the Real Estate agent saw our photos she said:

“It is hard to believe that it is the same house.”

Image taken for Smiths Farm Holiday Park.

If Google sees a benefit in Virtual Tours, you may should too !

A 360˚ Virtual Tour is definitely a great way to introduce new visitors to your website. And for past visitors, they can show their friends and family and relive the moment. A Virtual Tour really does allow a visitor to get as near to visiting your venue as is possible from their home.

Whatever your business – a hotel or function room, whether it is inside or outside, use a panoramic tour to show it in the best light possible. Think how important this is for a wedding venue, where the bride and groom will want to get a feel for their special day. Show your facilities off.

Adding a panoramic tour to your website will allow visitors to walk around. They’ll be able to do everything from zooming in, to virtually walking round your venue.

A panoramic tour definitely makes a location and your website more interesting and worth returning to.

Virtual Tours have been around a long time, but not many businesses truly understand the benefits they can bring. However, you do now! So now you understand just how 360˚ Virtual Tours can attract more visitors. A Virtual Tour definitely pays for itself.

As a sample, below is the Virtual Tour of the entrance to the Lake Timara Lodge – one of the country’s most luxurious and private lodges.
Click here to take virtual tours of the charming rooms at the Timara Lodge.

Check out a few of our Virtual Tours and see how they got embedded into existing websites:

• One at a time – services and restores all versions of the classic Porsche 356
• The Helmsman – luxury cruises in the Marlborough Sounds
• Copthorne Hotel Marlborough
• Marlborough Convention Centre
• Copthorne Hotel Commodore - Christchurch airport
• Garin College - Richmond, Nelson
• 
  

Timing for the interior photography was problematic as we had to take photos of several rooms between departure, cleaning and arrival of guests but Diana co-ordinated everything very well and we were able to complete the photo session in the estimated time frame. Please visit the new Portage Resort Hotel website, designed by babelscribe.com and check out the Virtual Tours or for example view the Kowhai Room Virtual Tour.

A photograph I took during an advertising photo session for the exclusive and luxury bed and breakfast accommodation BRANCOTT RIDGE got chosen for the front cover of the “GREENWOOD GUIDE to special places to stay in New Zealand”.

The Greenwood Guide team have personally visited and chosen each place to stay for its exceptional character and genuine friendliness.
These are the places that they themselves would choose to return to on holiday.

Peter and Margaret Foster of Brancott Ridge are thrilled to make it to the front cover of the prestigious guide after just one season in business. I guess they will be very, very busy this season…

I am thrilled too because it shows again that professional advertising photography helps your business to stand out and puts you in the spot light.

It is so true  … a picture is worth a thousand words.

In a recession, consumers become value oriented and distributors are concerned about cash.

Maybe you own or manage a hotel, motel, B&B etc. and you have done everything you can do to marketing your business. You have paid a truck-load of money for placing ads in the travel guides and magazines, your website wasn’t cheap either and you wonder where you can save money.

Of course, you can do the photography for your business yourself because everyone can take a photo.
Right…!?
So it might look like this photo (the actual photo presented on a B&B website):

To enhance the appearance of the room, we used ARRI lights to create the mood the luxury lodge deserves and the new photo looks now slightly different:

Same room, same price for a night.
Now judge for yourself, where will the guest more likely stay ?

A photograph which I took recently for a B&B in Marlborough got chosen as the 2009/10 front cover for a prestigious travel guide.

The Peppertree is owned and managed by this lovely couple from Switzerland. They have rebuild and styled the gracious Edwardian Villa to highest quality and treat guests with exquisite charm and hospitality.  But they also expect the same love to detail and perfection from everyone who works for them.

For the web-design Robert Boren got involved.
Robert is the man who does the work for love of it. A genius with the code and retired enjoying the New Zealand lifestyle, he spent endless hours to battle problems like new releases of IE8 and cross-platform and browser compatibility.
We met at least once a week to discuss the design and whether additional photos were needed to deliver a complete package. By keeping the Peppertree’s colour scheme, Robert redesigned the site with fresh and contemporary flair and features like quick loading movie-style slide shows. See for yourself and visit The Peppertree website.

Arriving at the 4-star-plus hotel after a five hours drive I was very happy to check in on one of the Business Level Suites. That promised a night in style.

I got my gear ready and started working. Everything went smooth until I approached the Glass Elevator to shoot the Virtual Tour. Mirrors from the floor to the ceiling, glossy glass everywhere, no place to hide and an elevator door which refused to stay open. On top of that came the hotel guests who wanted to use the elevator and I wanted to stay at the fourth flour for the photos.  Polite and humble on the outside my brain slowly realised it’s losing its temper…

24 hours later the photography for the virtual tours was done and I drove home to start with the post production. For the next four days  I was glued to the screen to create high-quality full screen virtual tours.

Please go the Copthorne Hotel Commodore website and check out the virtual tours. Don’t forget to click on the full-screen button.