A friend asked me recently if I was still doing real estate photography, and I paused. Like, really paused. Because my gut reaction was, “No, not really.”

Except…that wasn’t even remotely true.

Once I actually thought about it, I realized I had photographed six real estate projects this summer. Six! There were homes headed to the MLS, a Whole Foods still under construction, branding for a brand-new real estate team, and an event for another agent. So yes, apparently I’m still very much photographing real estate. Hahaha.

And it got me thinking about how much of my work you guys never actually see.

If you follow Appletini on social media, you see a lot of families. You see babies turning ONE, cake-covered fingers, kids running through fields, familiar faces coming back year after year, and plenty of sneak peeks during busy season. And I LOVE sharing all of that. But there is this whole other side of Appletini that quietly keeps me pretty darn busy.

A lot of it is commercial work, and the funny thing about commercial photography is that the photos aren’t really being created for my marketing. They’re being created for someone else’s.

If a business hires me to create a library of branding images, those photographs are meant to show up on their website, their social media, their ads and their marketing materials. I am incredibly proud of the work, but I also don’t need to beat them to Instagram with it. And if I’m photographing a new Whole Foods before it opens, I DEFINITELY don’t want to be the person who accidentally announces the opening of a new Whole Foods on the internet. Hahaha.

Real estate is even funnier because I could show you a beautiful kitchen I photographed, but please do not ask me the square footage. I have no idea. School district? Couldn’t tell you. Number of bedrooms? Probably should have counted while I was there. My job is to walk in, find the best angles, make that house look GOOD and get those pretty photos onto the MLS.

So after that conversation with my friend, I got curious. What did I actually photograph this summer?

I went back and counted everything from May through August.

And apparently…I was BUSY.

Summer by the Numbers

33 shoots.

6 Real Estate
5 Events
10 Headshots + Branding
5 Families
5 Milestones
2 give-back sessions

Thirty-three times I packed the camera bag, charged all the batteries, cleared the memory cards and headed out the door. And looking at those numbers, I realized just how much variety there was in my summer.

The biggest category surprised even me: headshots and branding.

I photographed ten headshot and branding sessions this summer, and I really, really love this side of my business. Sometimes someone simply needs a great new headshot. Other times we’re creating an entire library of images for a business, which means thinking about their website, social media, marketing, the story they’re trying to tell and all of the little details that make their business feel like theirs.

There were business owners, professionals, and teams. There were traditional headshots and environmental portraits. I created images specifically to fill websites and social feeds. And plenty of people started our time together by telling me some version of, “I hate having my picture taken.”

Don’t worry. I hear that one a lot.

Then there was the real estate and commercial work. Six shoots that reminded me that, yes, I apparently still do this too. Hahaha.

I love the completely different challenge of photographing a space. There aren’t toddlers to make laugh or reluctant dads to win over, but there is still a story to tell. Where does your eye go? What makes this room feel inviting? What details matter? How do we make someone want to step inside?

There were also five events this summer, which is another part of Appletini that tends to happen a little more quietly online. I love event photography because I get to walk into something someone has spent weeks, months or sometimes even longer planning and preserve all the pieces of it. The room before everyone arrives. The details. The hugs. The conversations. The people who haven’t seen each other in forever. The things happening around the edges that the person hosting the event doesn’t even get to see.

I get to be the person paying attention to all of it.

And then, of course, there were my families.

Somewhere between the businesses, buildings, headshots and events were ten sessions that brought me right back to the heart of Appletini: five family sessions and five milestones.

There were growing kids, first birthdays, cake smashes, families I’ve photographed before, and families stepping in front of my camera for the first time. There were all of those tiny interactions that probably don’t feel particularly monumental while they’re happening but become my favorite photographs anyway.

Because as much as I love a beautiful everyone-looking-at-the-camera portrait, you guys know me. I’m always watching for everything happening in between.

And that’s probably what I love most when I look back at this summer.

The variety.

One day I might be making silly noises at a one-year-old trying to get one tiny smile. The next I’m photographing a business owner who needs an entire library of content. Then I’m walking through an empty house looking for the angle that makes a room shine, documenting a building that’s still becoming something, or slipping through a crowded event trying to catch the moments nobody else noticed.

Apparently the answer to “What kind of photography do you do?” continues to be…

A little bit of everything. Hahaha.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, do I still photograph real estate?

Apparently, yes.

And businesses. And events. And headshots. And babies. And first birthdays. And families who somehow keep growing up in front of my camera.

Thirty-three shoots later, I think my biggest takeaway from this summer is just how much I love the variety of this job.

Different people. Different reasons. Different photographs.

Same goal every time: make something worth keeping.

Not a bad way to spend a summer.

xoxo, Tiff