Real Estate

Real Estate and Property Photography in Austin

Bridget is a career professional photographer. She was discovered after a mother saw the black and white baby photos she had taken of her own son, and started out in a basement studio. Her style rests on one idea: photograph the subject in its most natural state. Applied to a house, that means rooms that look like the rooms your buyer will actually walk into, not an over-processed version that creates a disappointment gap at the first showing.

That reputation is why she is also the best real estate photographer in Lakeway and Lake Travis for waterfront and luxury listings, the best in Dripping Springs for acreage and Hill Country ranch property, and the best in Georgetown for historic square adjacent homes and Sun City resales.

Who Is This Real Estate Photography For?

• Listing agents who need reliable next business day delivery so a Tuesday shoot goes live for the weekend
• Brokerages standardizing listing media quality across a team
• Home builders documenting spec homes, model homes and completed communities
• Interior designers who need portfolio grade images of a finished project
• Home stagers building a before and after body of work
• Short term rental and Airbnb owners around Austin and Lake Travis
• Property managers refreshing dated listing sets across a portfolio
• Commercial landlords marketing office, retail and flex space

What Does a Standard Austin Listing Package Include?

Every package includes full interior and exterior coverage, window pull so glass reads as a view instead of a white rectangle, straightened verticals, color correction, and both MLS sized and full resolution files.

Basic listing packages typically run 10 to 20 photos and premium packages 40 to 60. Bridget's counts sit above those bands on purpose. Additional image files are $50 each.Rush premium range is from ReimagineHome's turnaround analysis.

Travel inside Austin, Dripping Springs, Lakeway, Georgetown and Lake Travis is included. Properties beyond that Hill Country radius may carry a travel fee.

How Fast Are Listing Photos Delivered?

Next business day by 5pm, guaranteed.

Next day delivery in the 24 to 36 hour window is the industry baseline, with many providers targeting 9 to 10am the following business day (ReimagineHome). Agents care because of the launch window: listings pull most of their first traffic wave in the opening 72 hours, which is why Tuesday and Wednesday shoots targeting a weekend launch are the most common booking pattern in Austin.

Realistic timing by deliverable:

• Listing photos: next business day
• Same day rush: available at +30%, booked in advance
• Floor plans: 24 hours
• Vertical video and Reels cuts: 48 to 72 hours
• Virtual staging: 24 to 48 hours

What Are the MLS Image Requirements?

Files arrive ready to upload, so nothing gets rejected or resized into mush. Online display wants roughly 2048 x 1365 pixels, 1024 x 768 minimum, landscape 3:2, JPG. Print wants closer to 4000 x 2666 at 300 dpi. Every shoot ships two folders: an MLS sized set and a full resolution set for print, brochures and social.

Do You Need a Drone License for Real Estate Photos?

Yes. Any drone flight for a commercial purpose, which includes photographing a house that is for sale, requires the remote pilot to hold an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. It is not waived because the flight is short or the property is private. Ask any photographer for their certificate number before aerials go on an MLS listing.

Drone earns the add-on when the story is outside the walls: Lake Travis waterfront and dock access, Dripping Springs acreage where the pasture and tree line are the product, and Lakeway lots with elevation and view corridors.

What Is a Twilight Shoot and Is It Worth It?

A twilight set is shot in the 20 to 30 minute window after sunset, when the sky still holds color and interior lights read warm through the glass. It is the most reproduced image type in luxury listing marketing because it becomes the hero on the listing, the postcard, the Instagram post and the open house sign.

It earns its cost on waterfront and view properties around Lake Travis and Lakeway, homes with a pool or strong exterior lighting, Hill Country properties facing west, and listings above roughly $900,000. It is usually not worth it on a starter condo with no exterior lighting. Austin market rate runs $125 to $400, typically $250.

What Should Sellers Do Before the Photographer Arrives?

Copy and paste this to your seller. Every item on it costs you nothing and buys back image quality that no amount of editing recovers.

48 hours before

• Mow, edge and blow the driveway and walkways
• Fix any burned out bulb, inside and out, and match bulb color temperature in the same room
• Clear the yard of hoses, toys, tools and trash bins

Morning of

• Clear every countertop in the kitchen down to one or two intentional items
• Clear the bathroom counters completely, including toothbrushes, soaps and mats that are not staged
• Remove refrigerator magnets, papers and children's art
• Make every bed with matching, pressed linens
• Hide pet bowls, beds, litter boxes and toys
• Cars out of the driveway and off the street in front of the house
• Open all blinds and shades to the same height
• Turn on every light in the house
• Turn ceiling fans off
• Toilet lids down
• Cords, chargers and remotes out of frame

Twilight add-on only

• Confirm all exterior and landscape lighting works
• Pool light on and pool cleaner out of the water

A photo ready house shoots faster, which means more and better frames in the same window.

Does Professional Photography Actually Help a Listing Sell?

Here is the honest version. The numbers people quote on this are old, and anyone presenting them as current is overselling. Comparisons of DSLR versus amateur listing photos found homes near $400,000 sold roughly three weeks faster and for over $10,000 more, and that across the $200,000 to $1 million range professional photos correlated with $3,400 to $11,200 more relative to list price. Above $1 million, no significant difference. The sharpest 10 percent of photos sold at or above list 44 percent of the time versus 13 percent at average sharpness.

A separate look at homes sold that same year showed listings with professional photography selling about a third faster, 89 days on market versus 123.

Both of those numbers are more than a decade old and neither came from Austin. They are directionally useful and nothing more. They are not a promise about your listing, and Bridget will not make one.

Short Term Rental and Airbnb Photography in Austin

Short term rental photography is a different job from listing photography. A listing photo supports a purchase decision that includes a walkthrough. An Airbnb or Vrbo photo has to close a booking made entirely from a phone screen, in seconds, with no walkthrough at all. That changes what gets shot:

• The hero image is everything. It is the one frame that determines whether your listing gets a click in the search grid.
• Amenities need their own frames. Hot tub, fire pit, game room, coffee setup, dock, the view from the deck. Guests filter by amenity, then look for photographic proof it exists.
• Styling is part of the shoot. Towels rolled, table set, coffee poured, throw blanket placed. Bridget styles as she shoots.
• Vertical crops are delivered alongside horizontals, because the listing is not the only place these images work.
• Sleeping arrangements get documented honestly. Every bed, clearly. Vague photos are where guest complaints start.

This matters in Austin because demand is event driven: ACL and SXSW, Formula 1 at Circuit of The Americas, UT home football weekends, and the steady wedding traffic in Dripping Springs, which the Texas House recognized as the "Wedding Capital of Texas" in 2015. A property that photographs well competes for those weekends. One that does not, does not.

How Do Listing Photos Feed Your Social Media?

Most agents shoot a listing, upload to MLS, post one carousel, and let a $475 asset expire in 48 hours. That is the real waste in listing media, and it has nothing to do with the photos.

One listing shoot can produce the MLS set, a carousel, three to five vertical stills for Stories and Reels covers, a vertical walkthrough clip, a "just listed" set, a "just sold" version, an exterior frame for your Google Business Profile, and a print piece. That is a month of content from one afternoon, and almost none of it happens by accident.

For agents who want that handled every month, Bridget offers a social media content package at $1,500 per month: photo and video shot monthly and delivered as a library built around your listings, your open houses and your face.

See the social media content page for what that includes.

Book Your Listing Shoot

Tuesday and Wednesday slots for weekend launches book first, usually a week ahead in spring and fall.

Call (847) 606-6003 oremail daehler.b@gmail.com with the address, square footage, target live date, and whether you want drone or twilight. You will get a quote and a date hold the same day.

Serving Austin, Dripping Springs, Lakeway, Georgetown, Lake Travis and the surrounding Hill Country.