Google search "real estate photographer your town". I've also seen people on craigslist in our area that offer real estate photography. DH & I have talked about the need for this service. He's a commercial photographer (food) and he's told a few of his assistants that they should do this on the side. Seems like a great little niche market that people should explore.

Maybe somebody that is an amateur photograph would be a good start as it may be part of knowing how to use the camera too.

BTW I posted to you on the tub thread.

Sue, usually your local newspaper has photographers on staff. Your realtor should know and they should be the one requesting the photos, not you.

I would look on craigslist first, and possibly place an ad. One important question to ask is how much experience the photographer has with Photoshop.

Too bad you don't live in Maryland - I would send my husband over to take your photos. Right now, he is thinking about starting a part-time business of fixing bad photographs with Photoshop.

Graywings - Where are you in Md? If you don't want to answer - I won't be offended. If you can quess where I am - we're close!

Linda, I've yet to email my agent asking about this, I keep forgetting. The pro photographer was one of my agent questions, pretty sure he answered no on it. I thought to email Nancy Schumacker because she does all of that.

I actually have a few good leads. Once Monday comes I will start making phone calls if they do not get back to me by email. My counters still are not in (that's another story) so this isn't a rush.

Graywings, how about my hubby picks up your hubby next time he goes down with a load of Mazdas lol

Thankfully I'm able to view most of the ones I'm interested in online.

roselvr, you could probably take better photos than most since you said you used to take quite a few. Or I'll bet you have a friend that is proficient enough to get some good photos that put your home in a good light. It's just a matter of taking a lot of photos and seeing how they turn out and if they aren't ok or the lighting isn't great, got to go back and take a few more, which is probably what your real estate agent isn't willing or doesn't think he has time to do.

Then get a photo editing program - I use Microsoft digital Image Suite 2006 and find it very user friendly, speaking from somone who used to take 35 mm and knew nothing about digital cameras and editing programs till about a year or so ago. Lots of folks use photoshop but I have heard it has a steeper learning curve.

Good luck with your new photos. You have several duplicates in your realtor.com listing and you could add others if those were excluded, the front yard has three and the dining room has two doesn't it?

Good luck with your photos. How about posting them here before they are submitted onto realtor.com and have folks here critique them? Just a suggestion.

The photos that are up were mine. With my bad back, it's been challenging to say the least. Every time I do it, I have cars to move, other things that need to move. I start taking pictures, then notice I forgot to move the smallest thing, then start over. I then go to my computer & look at the photos, I then notice something else. What looks good in the camera doesn't look the same on my monitor. If I do get decent pics, I burn it to a disk, give it to the agent, let them pick. I had good photos of the living room, doesn't look like they changed them. He did put it on the flyer.

My good camera doesn't work all of the time for one. I bought a Minolta last year with a wider lens, and have yet to read the book.

A little over a month ago my main computer went down. I then got it running, and was backing it up when the power went out. Now it won't boot. I worked on it the last few days, ended up getting another drive, windows is now on it. Of course my daughters computer went down too, so now I have to hook her main drive up, back it up, then install windows on hers. I then have programs to install on both. The computer I'm on is Vista, not sure if my photo programs will even run on it.

Right now, it's easier to find someone to come and take pictures, even if it costs me $100 - $200. I got the daylily garden dug (took me a week), now I have to cut and pot everything, then replant the garden with something else. I can work for 30 minutes before I have to stop, then stop for a good 30. It's gonna take me a good week just to do that.

Good luck with your new photos. You have several duplicates in your realtor.com listing and you could add others if those were excluded, the front yard has three and the dining room has two doesn't it?

Yeah, I saw that. The front has 3 because we need to show the side of the house because from the front it looks small. Unless you are standing in a certain spot, you don't see the addition. We then have the front shot, plus one showing the lighted walkway. He was supposed to take the dining room out when he added the master. I need to buy a new table, plus I don't care for the shots he picked. Patty Cakes or Tricia suggested the table cloth come off as well as the white thing on the buffet. I have new photos with that stuff gone.

His assistant had an emergency and had to take some time off. Once she gets back, I'll talk to her about changing out the photos. I know the agent doesn't have time, I picked a lousy time to change agents. They bought a new building and have been moving.

magothyrivergirl - I probably live pretty close to you. I live on the edge of Glen Burnie and Pasadena.

roselvr - I can't find the thread with your listing. If you post a link to your listing, DH could take a look and tell you whether you need to retake your photos or just fix them.

By the way, he tells me horror stories about Vista. When I got this new computer with an opportunity to upgrade to Vista, I kept Windows XP.

Vista hasn't been bad, I actually like it. This machine has more memory then my other, plus I have 2 processors, so it's pretty quick. I just need to learn to use it. I have 4 Vista mags and haven't gotten around to reading them. The problem I have with "moving into" this computer is I still need to back it up. The motherboard I bought has a backup feature so that if it goes down like machine #1, I push F9, it restores it back to my restore point. All of the computers have it, I'm not ready to do that on daughters machine due to her not saving pictures on the spare hard drive..

The link is below. I'd prefer people not go to the agents site.

The newest pics I have are here, the older ones here I have more new pics I need to upload, lack of time.

It's almost noon and my body won't cooperate. This is how my days are, every day it's later before I can actually start doing something. Another reason to pay someone else to take photos. Reality is I can't do as much as I used to

Here is a link that might be useful: listing

roselvr, I hope you have a good supportive computer chair to sit in. I have a bad back too, which is one of the reasons we are going to sell our home, I can't keep up with it all any longer. If my back starts to go out I have one of those cold packs in the frig and I immediately put it on my back, and lie down till it is better. Otherwise it may go out and I won't be able to move at all for a least a week.

All of your photos are really great photos, but I see what you mean about photos for homes for sale. The photos have to catch the buyers eye right off with a little photo. I can remember when we were looking for a home, we looked on realtor.com and didn't go see some homes just because of the photos. So I am sure lots of people do that. Being a garden lover your flower bed in front and the separate dining room would have made me go look at yours. And the paved driveway - all appealing.

I see what you mean about the side of the house. For those posted now on the site, I think photo number 2 could be number 1, then 3 could be 4, and eliminate the first one. Then you could move the backyard shot more to the end and get a master, kitchen and dining room shot on the first page where most buyers will look and may not go any further.

I agree with the table cloth coming off just for the photo. Is there a way to get a photo of the whole dining table so the fresh flowers are in the middle of the table in the photo? And pan out a little more for the master bedroom. Your home is very large, but somehome the photos need to show that to entice the buyers in.

Out of the new photos, I like photo number 7 for the first photo, it shows the flowers in the front and also the side of the house to make it appear larger.

Is there someone in your neighborhood who could take the photos and give them to you to edit. Then you will have control over which ones they put in the listing. I think all of your photos are very good, its just a matter of editing them for a potential buyers eye.

Did you say your DH hauls Mazda's? My DH used to be car hauler for a number of years, then he hurt his back pulling out those extremely heavy manual ramps from almost the bottom of the truck over and over again. Now they are all hydraulic operated.

I hate getting new computers and equipment. My computer took a dive a few months after I got it about two years ago and I was lost without it. I am still on dialup so things go much slower for me too.

My camera got locked up the other night and I had to download part of the manual just to figure it out (lost the manual somewhere in the house with all the remodeling we have done and have never found it).

I feel so ancient when dealing with electronics these days - the younger crowd is so well versed and we don't have anyone near us that can help us out with learning a few basics either.

I had heard that Vista was kind of a pain too - I am not ready to tackle anything new till I get the house finished - not that I am in the market for a new computer. When we sell I will get a laptop to drag around with me while we are traveling and looking for a new spot to put down roots.

I got the catalog pages you sent and referenced them in the other post. You are so very nice to have taken the time to send them to me and I really appreciate it.

Good luck with your photos and selling. Now that you have a new home to go to, I am sure your home will sell quickly.