This is the picture I told you about the other day. It was earlier in the morning than I usually get out; the water was warm, the September air was cold, so there were thick clouds blanketing the Lake. Otherwise, not a cloud in the sky. We were on a schedule, and didn't want to be late, but we had to make a brief stop. You can see an enlargeable version here.
Photo by Mary Doran
And here's a picture by my friend Mary of me taking the picture. I like her shot just as well. She's a painter.
Job of work
I can't show you any samples from my job on Friday, because the pictures can't go on the Web yet. But it went well. My friend Michelle is recentering her career to become a real estate agent, after running a successful gardening business for many years. She got her first "big house" listing recently and asked me to do the listing photos. The people were very nice, and the big old lakeside mansion was just a wonderful big sprawling place, with lots of woodwork, tons of light, high ceilings, and rooms and spaces going on forever. A characterful and beautiful old house, high on a hill above the Lake. I used both my aging Fuji (X-T1) and the iPhone 13, which, as you might remember, Stephen Scharf was using for real estate work in '22. To my surprise, the iPhone was more fun to use and actually worked better.
I look at a lot of listing photos and floorplans. I've had an interest in residential architecture and living spaces all my life, thanks probably to my grandparents' amazing old houses, which I still dream about sometimes. I enjoy poking my nose virtually into houses all over the country online. I also seem to have a knack for interiors as a subject. I assisted enough in my younger years to know I wouldn't be very interested in doing high-dollar, "Architectural Digest"-level interiors, with lights, gels on the windows, assistants, stylists and so forth—I seem to remember that one photographer I worked for charged $1,500 a shot, and that was long ago—but real estate photos are just my speed, right down my alley. I've never done them for an agent before. It was fun. When the listing goes up I can direct you to that, of course, so hopefully you'll get to critique my efforts sooner or later.
Speaking of looking at listings online, by a strange coincidence I took a virtual tour of a New York City condo online that was later purchased by Paul McCartney and his wife, and did the same thing with a seaside Newport mansion that was later bought by Jay Leno for the use of his East-Coast family members. And I stumbled on to a listing of the Paris apartments of the fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh after he passed away. That one I wrote about here. I recognized it from seeing all his photographs on the walls of the home. Wonder if somebody famous will buy the mansion I photographed on Friday? Could happen. It will be somebody with good taste, that much is certain.
Mike
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