Diligent Women are Beautiful

Seattle Food Tours

I went to Seattle to visit some friends for a few days in June.  As I was doing my search for what to do in Seattle, I saw four companies doing “Food Tours” on Google.  I couldn’t tell the differences from their websites but since I could only fit two food tours into my schedule, I did the Seattle Food Tours at Belltown & Pike Place Market, and the Savor Seattle Food Tours at Pike Place Market.  These two tours are about 2 to 2.5 hours, around $40, and each group has about 16 people, but the style or the places they visit are very different.  Let me share my subjective experience with you.
 
The first one was the Seattle Food Tours.  The founder Bronwyn has lived in Seattle for 40 years and has been doing Food Tour for many years.  We first meet at a bakery, and given out bags which have bottle of water, Hand Clean Wipe, and a list of Restaurants.  The tour starts with a history of the bakery and taste of their signature bread.  Basically, there are 40 restaurants featured on the list, but I think she mentioned or introduced half of them, and we tasted 7 total.  What I like about this tour is that she showed some old photos of the Belltown and told us about the history behind it so while we are enjoying the walk and the street view, we also get better ideas of the place.  The food portions are also very good – a good size of bread, half cup of Chowder, a cup of salmon, a mini burger, a cup of hand-crafted coffee, a whole piece of flavored chocolate, and a Tom Douglas coconut cream pie.  I am pretty sure no one needs to have a lunch by the end of the tour.  However, I wish the list would have more details other than just the name of the restaurant, the address, the phone number, and type of food -- such as the websites, the store hour and an intro of the restaurants we tasted, a list of the participant of the restaurants or the event website for the 30 to 30 event that was going on from April to November, etc.

The second one was the Savor Seattle Food Tours.  The founder, Angela, loves food and was immersed in her family’s restaurant which is the reason for her to start a food tour.  We first meet at a coffee shop near the Market entry, and given out a bottle of water, audio equipment, a tour list of merchants and dining guide, seasonal recipes, and at the end of the tour they give everyone a "Repeat Visitor" 10% off discount card (valid within 10 days after the tour).  All totaled we visited 9 stores, claim to have 26 tastes but many of them are one-bite-portions which was fine with me.  For the places we were visiting, the audio works great because the Pike Place Market is always crowed.  Our guide is very knowledgeable about Pike Place Market.  She told us about the history, the development, the reasons why there are not many Japanese farmers/vendors, why the floor tiles have different numbers or names on it, how do indentify the sexes of eggplant, etc.  It was interesting.  I felt the founder Angela has big vision as an entrepreneur because she not only trains other people to become a guide so they could have more groups per day and future expansion, but also created a line of side products such as pink umbrellas, t-shirts, hats, and aprons with their logo on it.  Their website is nicely done with a 90 seconds video clip to show readers about the tours, and you can tell they put thought into the tour list that contain many useful information.  In the end of June, they are starting to offer two new tours – Belltown, Pioneer Square & Chinatown.

If you have time, I strongly encourage you to attend both tours because they are different and you can taste 14 different restaurants and vendors.  If you did plan to take both tours, I will recommend you take the Savor Seattle Food Tours first because then you can use the "Repeat Visitor" 10% off discount card afterward.

There are other companies offer food tours as well but I didn’t get chance to try myself.  One is Taste Pike Place Market, and the other one is Gray Line’s Flavor of Seattle Culinary Arts Tour, and Diane's Market Kitchen Pike Place Market Tour and Tasting (9:30/4:00).  If you have attended any one of Seattle Food Tours, I would love to have you to share your experiences with us

Also, I would like to recommend a book called “eat. shop seattle” written by Kaie Welman.  It’s about 6 by 6 inch big, insides has maps, color pictures, information’s for 38 food places, and 52 cool shops.

For more pictures from my tours, please click on My Flickr.

[Book] Food Styling for Photographers

Finally, there is a Food Styling book for Photographers.  I took 2 food styling classes in LA before - the purpose was to understand how food was prepared for the camera and also to see how food photographers setup their lights.  I love food photography and read many popular food blogs with their work.  So when I know this Food Styling for Photographers by Linda Bellingham and Jean Ann Bybee came out, I can’t wait to order a copy and I was very happy after flipping through the book.

1. Intro to Food Styling
2. Sets and Settings
3. Chilling fact on cold beverages
4. Making a Salad for the camera
5. Pasta and Sauces
6. Burgers, Sandwiches, and Beyond
7. Meeting meat head-on
8. Veggie perfect
9. Ice cream for hot light
10. Desserts
11. Breakfast for the camera
12. Garnishing basics

This book gives you many tricks of the trade and notes from photographers with lots of setup photos, both food setup and camera/lighting setup.  The printing quality and the page layout are very good - the font size is easy to read, the color pictures are clear, clean and colorful.  They gives you details on how to buy the food, how to prepare the food, how to assemble the food, how to plate the food, how to decorate the food, etc.  They gives you before, during and final photos. 

I also own Digital Food Photography by Lou Manna and Working with Plate by Christopher Styler and David Lazarus.  In my opinion, if you are interested in food photography, buy Food Styling for Photographyers and Digital Food Photography and you are good to go.  Highly recommend these two books.

Wide Angle Compact Cameras for Realtors

Many Realtors use Camera phones to take photos for their listings; however, the camera on a cell phones still can’t compete with even the point-n-shoot cameras on the market today because camera phones don’t have many control functions so the picture quality is not as good.  Although we carry our cell phone everyday to everywhere we go, we still need to invest in a good compact camera if we want to have better photos.

For Real Estate photos (interior and exterior), wide angle is a must but there are not many compact cameras that come with 24mm wide angle capability.  I did some research, luckily there are four pretty good ones, and two of them are new on the market to choose from.

1. Canon PowerShot G9 with WC-DC58B Wide Converter, 24-210mm, $600
2. Ricoh Caplio GX100, 24-72mm $440
3. Samsung NV24HD, 24-86mm $350
4. Panasonic DMC-FX500, 25-125mm $400

The first one is the Canon PowerShot G9 with WC-DC58B Wide Converter (or Raynox HD-6600 Pro 58mm Wide Angle Converter), 24-210mm, $600. This is a alternative version of a DSLR because it has features like Raw, AP and TV modes, special scene modes such as aquarium, underwater, kids and pets, color accent and swap.  It has the biggest LCD screen (3.0 inch) among all, hot shoe for external flash, record movies, ISO 3200, f/2.8 to f/4.8, and 12.1-megapixel. A new Face Select and Track function enables the user to manually select and track an individual face from up to 35 faces detected in frame. Other useful features include an in-built ND (Neutral Density) filter, AEB (auto exposure bracketing), focus bracketing and a live histogram display. The only drawback is a littler bigger (4.2 x 2.8 x 1.7 in) and heavier (13.1 oz).

The first second is the Ricoh Caplio GX100, 24-72mm $440.  What I like about is that it comes some features that you normally see in SLRs, including Raw, AE and AP modes, 1 cm macro mode, Exposure bracketing, f/2.5 to f/4.4, and hot shoe for external flash.  If you want wider than 24mm, you can purchase 19mm DW-6 Wide Conversion Lens and HA-2 Adapter.  The best part is that you don’t need to sacrifice your wallet or convenience to have an SLR-like quality camera.  The only drawback is that it’s 10-megapixel images sensor is pretty noisy above ISO 400 but I don’t see it is a problem for Realtors.

The third one is the Samsung NV24HD, 24-86mm $350.  Other than wide angle, its Face Detection technology can detects up to nine faces and automatically adjust focus and exposure to ensure better composition and image quality that makes taking pictures of family and friends a snap.  By utilizing Face Detection technology, it automatically detects the user's face, adjusts focus and exposure, and will only allow a photo to be taken if the subject is centered in the frame.  Additionally it includes the ability to shoot at ISO 3200 and 14 scene modes to choose from -- Night, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-Up, Text, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow, Café, Food, and Self Portrait.

The last one is the Panasonic DMC-FX500, 25-125mm $400.  It has a 3.0 inch LCD touch screen, slideshow with music, f/2.8, ISO 6400.  A total of 20 scene modes help users to take more beautiful pictures in a wide range of situations and environments, and it can take 6 frames per second in High speed burst. (3.7 x 2.2 x 0.9 in, 6.2 oz)

You can buy these cameras on Amazon.

Kodak V750 is Realtors old time favor but it is discontinued.

Flash Photography For Real Estate

I have been looking for a Real Estate Photography workshop since two years ago when I started to become more serious about Photography.  No luck.  I did find a couple of Architectural Photography workshops but they were all out of state and some of them even require previous experience.  Although I did have a Photographer willing to have a private class for me, the class didn’t happen because I couldn’t find seven Realtors who wanted to sign up for it.  It was very discouraging but I was not ready to give it up.  I see that many Realtors and sellers today are widely accepting the fact that Staging is very important for today’s real estate market, and I believe it won’t be long for them to realize that good photos are equally important.  How could you sell a house for more money in the shortest time if buyers can’t see the values of the house from the photos online?

I came across a blog called Photography For Real Estate (PFRE) – the blog owner Larry is based in Seattle and he helps his Realtor wife shoot all of her listing.  His original target readers were other Realtors but recent surveys have shown that the majority were Photographers, which surprised him (I wasn’t surprised).   Then he started the PFRE Flickr group, where people from all over the world could share their experiences and opinions.

Last month I noticed that he is going to have a one-day flash light photography for real estate with Photographer Scott Hargis and Thomas Grubba in Seattle in April -- I signup right away.  I know that using multiple flash lights will be more efficient, easy to carry and setup, and also more economical than using a softbox.

There was a cocktail gathering the night before the workshop for people to meet and chat, especially since some people already “know” each other from all their Flickr discussions.  We had 30 people coming from all over the country for this workshop (two from Canada), 4 females and I am guessing that more than 2/3 were Photographers.

The day of workshop started at 8am for breakfast where organizer Ron Kenney told us the schedule.  Basically we will carpool to a model home in a newly built community.  We will then divide into three groups – one group goes with Scott and Thomas to see the demo of how the flash is setup and the results, one group goes with Phil Meadows for Photoshop and Lightroom demo, and one group goes with the equipment sponsor Bruce from Glaziers to try different cameras and lenses.  Every group has one hour and then rotates.  What I like the most is, of course, the actual flash light setup because I have no idea about flash.  They show us how they would setup the lights and why, and we could see the actual results with different settings.

We were taken back to the hotel for lunch around 1pm.  After lunch, we have another sponsor Stephen Anderson from open2view to show us his services (including photos, virtual tour, elevated photo shoots, floor plan) that was very interesting.  Then Scott answered the most common questions that we have, and Larry shared the business side experiences and the license agreement conflict with MLS.  In the end, Larry asked our thoughts about certain features and plans for the Flickr group.  The schedule ran a little longer than my time allows since I have a plane to catch so I left before the discussion ended.  I am very thankful for Larry, Ron, Scott and Thomas for this wonderful workshop because I got to meet some wonderful people, and I am hoping we will have more workshops in the near future.

ps. The breakfast and lunch in the hotel were great but I forgot to take photos, sorry.

Interior REdesign

I just came back from a 5-day Interior Redesign Course with Ruthanne and Charlie Hatfield of Interior Placement in Napa.  It was an intense but wonderful week because I made some good friends and learned a lot from first-hand experience.

Our base for the class is the Bel Abri Inn, a 15-room B & B style hotel.  It is a great place to stay the next time you are in Napa because it gives you personal services and attention.  They serve you breakfast in bed, and everyday’s breakfast will be different.  They also serve wine and cheese from 5 to 7pm everyday in the lobby.  I met different people in the lobby to share our Napa experience while enjoying some wine.  The room is very nice too - the room is clean and big, the bed is comfortable, the towels are white and soft, they have DVDs that you can borrow from the front desk to watch in your room, and they even have a fireplace in the room.   The hotel is centrally located in a safe area where you can go walking in the early morning.

We have four students and two instructors for this class – Ruthanne teaches the redesign part of the class and Charlie teaches the business part of the class; LoMae and Pam are from Washington, and Kelly is from D.C..  We have in classroom session on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning, and all day Wednesday; then we have hands-on redesign activities on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoon.  We transformed three different houses’ living room and the results were amazing.

It wasn’t until I took this class that I realized the differences between Interior Design, Home Staging, and Interior Redesign (or Interior Decorating).  The Interior Design involves manipulating the architectural integrity of the interior space.  The Home Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest number of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale.  The Interior Redesign focused on using what home owner already have in the house and by rearrange existing furniture, lighting and accessories within a space, create a fresh and inviting new look without buying anything new.

Interior Redesign is a labor-intensive work but within a half day you can transform a room from bad to good, and good to great.  We make a room homier, more inviting and functional by de-cluttering, defining the focal point, rearranging the furniture, and adding lighting and accessories.  The results are always breathtaking and unbelievable, especially when you realized that you didn’t need to buy anything.

We learned many things about Interior Redesign, both the design part and the business part.  Most artistic people have great talent on design but are not really good on how to actually run a business.  This class covers all aspects that you need to know to start an Interior Redesign and Staging business.  This is predominately a women driven business, and we as women should help and support each other to grow and be successful.  If you believe what I believe, which is that the biggest competition is within myself, then I feel free to share information about this business with others. 

This business is not like being a Realtor where you only get paid when the transaction is closed, which can take three months or longer.  Being an Interior Redesigner gets paid by the hour or by the project, and it doesn’t require a huge inventory of furniture or accessories to start a business.  I think it is a good idea to add it on my Real Estate Concierge Service since I think many people who own a house need some help to rearrange or decorate their house or they need help to shop for new furniture.  I also think this is a good career for people who have the talent and want to have their own business.  Everything is possible if you want it bad enough. 

Ps. If you are a home owner and interested in redesigning your home or you are a seller and interested to stage your house for sale, and your home is within 45 minutes of Napa Valley, please contact Ruthanne Hatfield of Interior Placement for the details about a complimentary redesign or staging.