2016 ActiveRain Photography Contest
A Real Estate Branding Photo
As soon as I read Dick Greenberg’s post about the 2016 ActiveRain Photography Contest, and saw the categories I knew immediately which photo I wanted to use. It’s taken a little time to get my act together to talk about it, but the choice was simple.
This photo was taken back on April 6, 2008 at sunset, at 6:10 PM to be exact. I actually took several, one minute apart each, with the sun in different places but I like this one best because of the position of the sun over the ocean and the light with the Life Guard shack off to the side.
I’ve been a big fan of sunsets, and taking sunset photos, for years, and living close to the beach in Carlsbad affords me many opportunities to take some pretty impressive sunset photos and videos. I probably have over a hundred now from various vantage points along the coast from Oceanside to La Jolla.
I even wrote an article about some of the best places for sunset watching, but I like this photo the best so it’s become part of my branding in selling the Carlsbad lifestyle by the beach.
I think the photo sends a powerful emotional message to those who see it – who doesn’t appreciate a beautiful sunset, and perhaps even more so when at the beach?!
Here in Carlsbad on any given evening you’ll see numerous people gathered on the beach, on the jetties, on the bluff, or parked on the Coast Road in their cars, cameras ready, to enjoy the setting sun which is always different.
And with our beautiful Carlsbad weather you can enjoy our sunsets outdoors all year round.
The life guard shacks, like silent sentinels along our 7 miles of beaches, provide an additional reminder of life at the beach so I thought this was a particularly nice addition to the photo, along with providing some visual interest with the sun setting. The shacks are numbered so people often use them to let others know where they are parked along the beach or where they are on the sand.
A slight variation of the photo was used to create the button links to different sites in my signature below. The above photo is also on my Google+ site, my LinkedIn page, as well as on my YouTube Channel (below).
And the same photo is used in my Activerain blog (see above right), adding the tag line “The Southern California Relocation Dude” – I thought the color choices work particularly well together.
I had a set of business cards made up from Moo, and have used them in a number of ways to let people know about my focus on relocation here to Southern California.
I recently changed my About Me site so the QR code on this particular card will not work correctly – waiting for those new cards!
And my About Me site also uses the same image!
I have also been using the photo in some print ads (see below) in the new Carlsbad Lifestyle magazine (see the Carlsbad Lifestyle Magazine Facebook page) that started earlier this year, and in the annual Carlsbad Golfer’s Digest publication circulated at The Crossings at Carlsbad golf course and a number of other local golf clubs, something new for 2016-2017.
I also am trying a display at PlayWerx this year, a popular indoor play facility for kids here in Carlsbad with a huge play structure. You can read more about my visit to PlayWerx here.
I have some other thoughts on how I will be using this photo in other ways in the future, and perhaps some other branding changes that need to be made for 2017. But I've gotten some pretty good mileage out of a photo I took simply because I really liked the scene, and with no forethought about how I might use it. Who'd have thought?!
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