snowman in Victorian house's garden
Snow in property photos dates them fast.

Sorry about that pun, but it’s true that as a photographer, few days are ever the same as the previous ones. That’s certainly been the case in the last week. The volte-face in the weather has been very difficult for property photography. Generally, I can get between 5 to 10 property jobs done each week – I prefer the latter so I can concentrate on my main area of business; portrait photography. The last week in Feb 2018 meant I did six, with four jobs on the Monday before the snow. I specifically arranged the jobs like that to overcome the problem of having snow featured in the external shots.

So; why is snow a problem for property photos? As we don’t get too much of the white stuff each year in the UK and it melts away faster than a Millennial at a right wing rally, it means property shots where you can see snow on the roof and in the gardens are easy to date to within two or three days. With properties taking, on average, four weeks to sell in the South East UK (according to a report from Hometrack), an extra few weeks to sell could be seen as making a place difficult to shift; sellers don’t like buyers asking for a reduction to the sale price before knowing anything about the place other than it’s been on the market for six weeks. Without the snow? It’s hard to pin down a date. Photos taken in late Autumn could easily look like they’ve been shot in early Spring. As a minimum, you have a six week window but with the right framing and a sunny sky in place, (I can add these in post production, when they’re needed) your external property shots are good for three months easily.

Snow isn’t the only thing that will date photos however, internal photos need careful management too. When dressing a room for shots, take out any calendars that are on show. These pin shots to a specific month. Easter ornaments on the mantle shelf? A four day window. Christmas decorations in the shot? A definite two weeks of the year and more unlucky/costly than keeping the decs up after 12th night.

Now the snow has all but disappeared from the Dartford area, I’ll be back shooting the homes of sellers and landlords from this week.

If you are looking to sell your property and you are in the DA postcode area, I have a great offer for you. £60 to photograph your home with around 20 photos supplied, ready to send to your estate agent. Call me (07795 071446) if you would like to find out more. Here’s another offer. If you want some great tips on getting your place ready for professional photos (and hopefully a speedy sale) register for my ‘Crib Sheet’ PDF. It’s full of tips on staging your home for photos and has a handy checklist to tick off what you have completed.