Rebecca Brooks

It's a phrase my mom taught me, and probably your mom or dad too -- "Use the right tools for the job!"

Man, I didn't want to believe her. I would use my teeth to bite off those plastic clothes labels ('cause the scissors were just a bit too far away...). Making tape instead of painter's tape, 'cause $1 more would break the bank. A credit card for a windshield scraper in -40C weather.

You know what I got for my trouble? You guessed it...a chipped tooth, a crappy paint job and a broken credit card!

So now I take my mom's advice and don't do things by halves.

What am I trying to get at here? Please, for the love of God, get the right equipment to take your real estate photos!

You can keep your dark, dreary, fuzzy, crooked, over-exposed, under-exposed, toilet seat-up, pictures. And don't forget those pictures of you taking the picture reflected in the bathroom mirror!

Now, sorry if I'm getting a bit ranty here. I'm not a perfect photographer, and I don't expect anyone else to be perfect either. But if you could just give it your best effort, everyone would really appreciate it and our artistic souls won't have to suffer any longer...

Get a high-quality DSLR camera. My favourite right now is the very reasonably priced Canon XSi. Get a good wide-angle lens, like a Sigma 10-20mm, which you should be able to find in just about any good camera store. And practice, practice, practice. These cameras may seem a bit daunting at first, but they are the right tool for real estate photography. They will automatically make your job easier. You will get more of the room, be able to control more of the exposure, and have more flexibility it setting up your shots. I am proud to say that I am a better photographer now that I am not using my grade 4 pinhole camera! Mom was right (but don't tell her that).

Your post-processing will be easier, too. Everyone is short on time these days, but a little bit of good software, like Adobe Lightroom, will help you out and can get your photos cropped in a jiff!

So take advantage of the changing market to improve your skills behind the lens. It will pay off big time with sellers, who will appreciate the additional exposure their home will get by having more and better quality photos in their listing.

Thanks for hearing me out! Happy shooting (no, not that kind of shooting!).

We've all heard of FSBO (fizbo) sellers -- For Sale By Owner. Agents tend to feel that it doesn't make much sense for people to try and sell their homes without the help of an expert. Yet many agents fall into the same trap in their selling...they become PhSBAs! (insert scary music here...dum, dum, dum!)

That's right. Photos Shot By Agent -- PhSBA (fizba). And a very scary sight it can be, too. Photos that are on a slant (I didn't know the Leaning Tower was for sale!), dark, fuzzy, or just plain odd.

This one is a triple threat - fuzzy, dark, AND crooked! By the way, please pay $400,000 for this house.

Now, to be fair, many agents take fine pictures, and some even take fantastic pictures...kind of like some homeowners do an excellent job of selling their homes privately.

But if you are a PhSBA agent, don't worry. There are lots of great real estate photographers out there, and they charge very reasonable rates. It is probably a worthwhile investment to spend a few hundred dollars to make or save a commission of a few thousand dollars.

Now, if you are one of those agents who likes to take photos, but has not been able to devote a lot of time to learning photo techniques, I'll be writing a few blogs with some tips and tricks to get you living off the lens. It's great fun and a wonderful outlet for your artistic creativity...you know that stuff that gets stifled due to the cut and thrust of the real estate business!

So polish off those lenses (with a lens cloth, lens cleaner and a gentle motion moving from the centre towards the outside, for goodness sake!), and get ready to be the best PhSBA agent ever -- or else expect a call from your friendly neighbourhood real estate photographer!