Feature Photograph: From a Real Estate Listing? Really?

It's funny how often the photos used to sell property in Portugal are abysmal in either their execution, their subject matter, or both. Pics are often blurry, poorly exposed, or crooked, sometimes all together in the same shot. Aspects of the house or land are captured that should have been released. Bursting garbage bags, dirty laundry, dirt, mold, trash, debris - you name it. Exactly the kinds of things you wouldn't want to post when selling a place. Granted, these kinds of photos are almost exclusively found on listings for extremely cheap and ruinous properties. A disinterested cousin got convinced to finally drive out to the old place (where is it again, haven't been there since I was a kid) and take some pics, but on the way the car blew a tire, coffee was spilled, it started to rain, and they'll be damned if they are going to get any more dirty. You can almost smell the perfunctoriness and simmering impatience. "Well for fuck's sake. Where did all this shit come from? If Maria wants better pics she can bloody well drive all the way out here and clean all this crap up herself because I'm not doing it!" Kind of thing.

Or, possibly, the lowliest and newest member of the real estate agency gets given a list of all the hard-to-get-to properties with instructions to photograph as many as possible in a day. But there was a really good restaurant on the way to the third listing, and it was time for lunch anyway, and an hour turned into two, and then there just wasn't time to take good shots...

Who knows? The good news is that some agencies have some really, and I mean really, good photographers in their employ. Photographers like that can't help but take good pictures, it's like an ethical thing. And sometimes, when given the opportunity, those photographers like to flex their creative muscles. Get a little arty. See the photo above.

If this was my photograph, I would title it, "My Ancestors Called, but Nobody was Home."

The photo above is from an idealista listing, advertised by Folques Real Estate Consulting.

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The above two photos are from idealista, advertised by Esfera Real - here is their listing for it. I recently featured this on the blog entry, Taking a Peek at Property in Central Portugal: Thought Provoking.

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Above photos from idealista, advertised by Esfera Real. I think the previous five photos were all taken by the same person. They could use some gentle filtering and exposure monkeying, but they're pretty good.