Malia Campbell Photography received an upgrade!

You guys, it’s been awhile. There have been so many exciting things going on over here at Malia Campbell Photography HQ that I hardly know where to begin.  Read about it over on my new blog: maliacampbellphotography.com/blog  <—- please update your bookmarks  :)

This will be my last post on this blog.

Another Olive 8 listing!

I started out the year with a goal of updating this blog at least twice a week.

Oops.

No excuses but hopefully this sneak peek at another Olive 8 condo (listing with Mark Linvill of Coldwell Banker Bain next week!) will help you forgive and forget.

I’ve been CRAZY busy and will have several new projects to share with you soon!

Free film!

One crisper drawer full of 120, one crisper drawer full of 35mm.  Free to the first person who will come pick it up! Well that went fast.

An ode to loss

The beginning of this new year marked the end of an era over here at Malia Campbell Photography HQ.  This past holiday season I experienced a devastating loss.  A loss so great that it’s taken me over a month to even be able to talk about it openly.

My beloved Canon 5D Mark II is gone.

Lighting for Real Estate Photography reviewed on fstoppers!

In case you missed it, we received a nice little rave for our Lighting for Real Estate Photography video series over on fstoppers.  The fstoppers site is, pretty much, the source for news, tips and the general goings on in the photographic community so Scott and I are thrilled for such a great review.  Hopefully, if you’ve been on the fence about purchasing a subscription, this will help push you over the edge.

Property Video: Lower Queen Anne

If you’re familiar with Seattle real estate you know that Queen Anne is pretty much synonymous with Craftsman style housing so you’ll imagine my surprise when I showed up to shoot photos and video of this home!   Such a pleasure to shoot.  Hope you enjoy!

Video gear: Fluid heads and Quick Release plates

Manfrotto 504HD Fluid Video Head

And now for my least favorite topic: Fluid heads and quick release (QR) plates.

There are two types of fluid heads that I use (and please forgive me for not using the technical terms – I don’t know them!) – a half ball mount and a regular threaded mount.  The half ball mount has a post that extends through the bottom of the tripod and allows for “joystick” leveling and adjusting of the head.  The regular threaded mount is flat on the bottom and all of the leveling and head adjustments come from the tripod leg length and actual head.  The photo to the right (Manfrotto 504HD Fluid Video Head) is an example of the half ball mount.  If you look closely (click the image to view larger) you’ll see the post extending below the head.

A quick release plate is how you attach your camera to the head.  There are several different types, sizes and mounts of quick release plates and it’s definitely worth your while to spend a little extra to get compatible plates.  I’ll talk about this in more detail below.

While tons of quick release plates are not strictly necessary you’ll find that they save you a lot of time and irritation in the field.  I have enough QR plates that I can keep them screwed into all of my gear, all of the time, plus about four extra (more on that below).  If you’re on a budget skimp here but know that you’ll need to keep a screwdriver in your kit (which you should anyway, along with a set of hex key/allen wrenches) and you’ll be spending some time swapping out plates while on your shoot.

Video gear: The slider

My Glidetrack HD Hybrid Slider

The first, hopefully obvious, thing you need to do is get your camera moving!  If you’ve been following my blog and/or my venture into video you’ll probably remember when I built my own slider.  It’s sort of a big project but I’d absolutely recommend everyone to start there.  Why?  Because unless you start with something long you’re not going to believe me when I make the following statement: for real estate your slider should be no longer than 1/2 meter.  This is important so I’ll say it again:

FOR REAL ESTATE YOUR SLIDER SHOULD BE NO LONGER THAN 1/2 METER.

Got it?  Let’s move on for now, I’ll explain that later.

Video gear: Getting started

I receive a lot of emails from budding videographers around the world wanting to know 1) how to get started in video and (related) 2) what gear is needed to get started.  My standard response has been something along the lines of, “Watch my blog.  I’m going to write about this soon.”

So here it is: a little series about what gear I use and why.  I’m going to break these up into small, bite sized pieces so that it’s a little more manageable.

And please note: I’m going to write about the gear I use and/or have had experience with.  You can assume that if I don’t name whatever item you’re wondering about I have no opinion on it.  There’s tons of manufacturers out there making gear at all (well, most) budget levels so if you have experience with a specific item/brand please feel free to leave it in the comments!

My general approach to buying gear is to buy the best quality that I can afford.  As you’ll read in subsequent posts I haven’t always followed that (read: I’ve bought some pretty cheap gear) and I’ve almost always regretted it.  Hopefully this series will help prevent you from wasting money on cheap/bad gear.

Another important note: One of the main reasons I’m writing this post is to appeal to the masses who have emailed me with questions about my gear.  Also for the followers of my blog.  My assumption is that those who are interested in this series are interested in the style of real estate video I shoot.  I acknowledge that there are other styles of video and gear that goes along with that however, since that’s not my style, I won’t be writing about it (ie: I’m not going to write about steadicams).

With that said, let’s get started.

I’m definitely not a food photographer

It’s been awhile since I did much non-real estate photography (or blogging, for that matter) (sorry!).  So, in anticipation of an upcoming trip that I want to do a lot of shooting on I thought I should get myself back into the habit.  Here’s a quick diptych that I shot while fooling around in my kitchen.  Just a simple one light (bounced into the wall) shot.

And!  On that note, if you’re in the Seattle area check out Dinosaur Takeout.  It’s perfect for people like me who get tired of ordering takeout at the end of a long day but are too tired/lazy/unimaginative to get in the kitchen to cook.  It’s also a great solution if you live alone and hate storing leftovers in the fridge because deep down you know you’ll never eat it and then you’re stuck washing moldy tupperware weeks later (don’t judge me, please).

Anyway, the diptych: