The PFRE Flickr Group is an Amazing Oppurtunity

I’ve been pleased an amazed at the way the Photography For Real Estate flickr group has been working. This last weekend we went over 300 members on the group. I want to publicly thank Aaron Leitz for proposing this idea and helping me get it started. Earlier this year I’d been looking for a way to be able to discuss photos when Aaron pointed out how to do it. It was just push I needed at just the right time.

I think it is an amazing opportunity for photographers just getting in this business as well as those more experienced. There is not many other places one can see such a high quality of real estate photography and at the same time be able to pose technical questions to the photographer. You may not realize it but there are many top professional real estate photographers participating in this forum.

There is an amazing amount to be learned from just studying the images and reading the posters technical comments. Like Aaron’s image above (where are the 4 strobes?) There’s even more to be learned by posting a few images for feedback. If you haven’t posted images yet don’t be bashful everyone is remarkably polite.

In addition, you can post questions on the discussion part of the group.

Thanks Aaron for a great idea!

BTW, check out Aaron’s new site redesign at www.aaronleitz.com. This is a good example of how to display and promote your work!

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More on Photography For Real Estate Photo Discussion

In the first day we’ve gotten a bunch of great twilight photos along with a bunch that aren’t twilight photos. I notice that most of the participants at this point are folks that are already familiar with flickr.com so I thought it would be useful to run through the flickr basics for flickr newbies. Here’s how to get started if you haven’t used flickr:

• First of all you can view the photos posted in the Photography For Real Estate group without joining Flickr. There is much to be learned by just looking at the photos and reading the comments about the photo setup etc. If you want to leave comments, participate in discussions or post your own photos for feedback you need to sign up for a flickr account.
• Go to http://www.flickr.com and register for a free flickr account. Flickr is a photo sharing and discussion site. You will need to get a free Yahoo Id in this process because flicker is owned by Yahoo.
• Once you’ve registered go to your flickr home page and upload some photos that you think you might want to share with others.
• To join the Photography For Real Estate group go to the group page  and click on the “Join Group” link along the right hand side.
• Once you are a member of the group you can post a photo to the group photo pool by viewing the photo full size (double click on the thumbnail) and then clicking the little “Send to Group” icon.

There are two great benefits I see having a group flickr associated with this blog:

• Being able to participate in individual photo discussions. On flickr you can carry on a public discussion on any image. This can be extremely educational because there are a huge number of talented photographers out there to give you feedback or you can “listen in” on the feedback that others are getting.
• Being able to initiate a discussion of your own in the area of real estate photography. Carry on a discussion in the comments area of the blog is not ideal for discussion although it does work where as the discussion area of the flickr group is more like a forum and better for discussions.

Have fun.

Photography For Real Estate on Flickr.com

Aaron got me going on a way to use flickr.com to give Photography For Real Estate blog readers a way to post and discuss their own images. Flickr is also a way to get your portfolio of real estate work out there (for free) so it can be seen.

Here’s the way it will work. Every week I’ll introduce a theme on the blog for flickr posting (This weeks theme is post “your best twilight shot”) and PFRE readers will post one or two of their images with this theme that they would like to show off or get feedback on. For now let’s limit the number of image posts to 2 per week. Aaron has already posted two of his images out there.

I’ll put links on the blog to both the the flickr stream of photos and the discussion. I’ll also use the flickr side-bar widget on the blog to display the flickr group photo stream.

Feel free to give me suggestions on how this is working. I’m relatively new to flickr and thanks Aaron for getting me started on this idea. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and just needed a push to get started.

Update: One added note is in addition to posting to the “Photography For Real Estate” group if you tag your photos with the tag “photographyforrealestate” then they will show up on the side bar of the blog.