MLS Musings of the week

Write a blog about politics, an election, and how and why people vote a certain way – look out!  Watch the comments fly.

So perhaps a more good-natured, often comical post is needed as a follow up?

You know I love themes in my “MLS Musings” blogs, and whereas last month I gave out awards in futility to individual photos, among various categories, I figured this week I would focus on the poor workmanship of a major player in the real estate industry: photographers.

Now you might point out that some of these pictures were clearly not taken by professionals, and I might not disagree.

However, and as is the theme with MLS Musings, there’s absolutely, positively, no excuse for it…

Take a look at this first beauty, for example.

You know that I hate photos of inanimate objects (like Perrier on the counter, or flowers on the table), as well as appliances (like the dishwasher door hanging open).

But what about taking a  photo of a feature of the condo, which doesn’t really need to be shot, and having the full reflection of the camera and tripod in the background?

How could any photographer who is “full time enough” to actually own a tripod, take this photo, and let it represent his work?

And how could the listing agent recieve these photos, and think, “I”ll use this one”?

–

Here’s an agent taking a photo of the bathroom with his iPhone:

And when he got back to the office, and downloaded the photos off his camera, his brain could have come up with two directions of thought:

1) “I can’t believe I captured my reflection in the mirror.  I had better not use this photo because it’s pathetic.”
2) “Great photo, Bob.”

And I think we know what the brain decided on that one…

–

This guy tried a little bit harder than the last guy:

He didn’t move his shoes and MLS listings out of the rear ground so they wouldn’t be in the photo, but at least he gave it his best efforts, right?

Wait…what did Sean Connery tell Nicholas Cage about best efforts in “The Rock?”

NSFW.  But a fantastic movie quote, if we can still say things like that in 2018…

–

Here’s a photographer that stood in the corner of the room and, for some odd reason, took a photo from behind a small plant, or weird shadow-monster out of Stranger Things?

Why bother?

And it’s so pixelated!  Was this captured on a Blackberry 8600?

–

What is that circle on the wall?

Is it the entrance to the “Upside Down,” from Stranger Things?

No, it’s the mark of a photographer who doesn’t know how to use the flash.

–

No, seriously, this is on MLS:

And they’re throwing away a perfectly good 1950’s television!

–

Here we see the photographer’s reflection in the mirror, and we’ve immortalised the concierge forever!

–

Sometimes, you just don’t care if your dog is in the photo:

In the 1990’s, we’d take photos with our camera, remove the film, go to Blacks, and get the photos developed.  Then we’d sit in the car in the parking lot, looking through the photos – seeing them for the first time.

In 2018, we take fifty-seven photos of our salad at lunch before we pick ONE to put up on Instagram so our friends can comment.

Yet this person couldn’t take the 6 1/2 seconds necessary to take a second photo of the………..dirty table and deck with a power-washer, without the dog.

–

Nothing quite like a crappy photo, of a poorly-lit room, that’s also cluttered, showing a weird cat-scratching post poking through the ceiling tiles, with the date-stamp…

…showing that the photo was taken back in February?

–

Just……………..I can’t.

I can’t anymore…

–

New topic?

How about the use of aerial shots in real estate?

They can be cool, right?

Like this one:

Wait.

I’m not sure I’d have used this as the Feature Photo, ie. #1 of 20.

What is this?

It’s like a 3D picture.  The longer I stare at it, the more I think I see something different.

–

How about a shot of…………….the top of the building?

Cool, I guess.

These are 80-storey towers.

How goddam high does that drone fly?

–

This isn’t so much “aerial” as much as it’s “creepy hidden AirBnb bedroom camera,” am I right?

–

And last but not least, here’s a photo that was really, truly, honestly on an MLS listing.

Oh, and with the caption “Spectacular South View.”

–

That’s all for MLS Musings this week, folks.

But as part of a new tradition, that’s been an on-again, off-again past tradition, I’d like to leave you over the long weekend with more 1970’s fashion ads.

Because I have a sneaking suspicion that Manjamas are going to make a huge comeback: