We love notes likes this -

“A note on the “disruptive mailer” tube direct mail: end December we shipped out 1k mailers augmented in January with telemarketing to follow-up and boost response.  Result: we secured 235 secured leads 23% response rate significantly higher than traditional direct mail 3% to 8%.  We’re excited!”

(from)
Bernadette A. Hiskey
Director, Brand Marketing

Experienced Realtors may disagree, but we believe there are big advantages in featuring people when creating marketing photography for architecture and real estate.

In this image we art-directed for Private Garden’s landscape architecture business, the inclusion of people in the staging lends a sense of scale and, perhaps more importantly, establishes a more personal, emotional connection for the viewer.

Certainly, you don’t want faces or clothing that distract from the architecture. But Bill Thompson of Thompson Photography gets around  this with a slight motion blur that retains the emotional quality we’re after.

For us, that human touch helps these images stand apart from the sterile “just hand me the wide-angle lens” approach of conventional real estate photography.

I’m stepping into the studio this morning after a bit of a holiday hiatus.  No guilt however as most of our clients checked out of their offices on December 19.

So I had some quality time to spend with my oldest daughter – who’s your typical 11-year old, going on 18. Although I have no complaints with her straight A’s – it’s the heaps of time that she spends in front of her electronics that drive me nuts.  Particularly since I’m out on the mountain so often, and can’t get her enthused about mountain biking whatsoever.

I did manage to get her involved with some good ol’ wholesome community ‘give back.’ Olivia and I served food at a Soup Kitchen. A fantastic experience for both of us. Then we volunteered to help decorate the Mission Viejo, Rose Parade float. For me, it was 8-hours of gluing split peas (one-at-a-time) on to a tree.  For Olivia, well, she worked the split peas, then moved over to the butterflies using dried flowers, then the Mission Viejo emblem with dried beans.  She had a great day, and we were both tired on our bus ride home.

Aside from the giving back to the community, I wanted to give something to Olivia – a sense of community, her community and all of the variations that it contains.  I wanted to provide something to her that would be memorable – and that it was something she had done with her father. And as a friend said over the holidays, “talk to me in 20-years and I’ll let you know how I did.”

I’m looking forward to the new year, the new administration and the opportunities that lie ahead for both myself and my daughter.

Ron