Jake Edwards Shows His Exact Photography Equipment

Jake Edwards from Luxlensmedia tells about how he started his photography career and what equipment he uses to take Real Estate photos for Realtors and the public. Jake is a very talented and experienced photographer with Hepler Realty’s approval, find him on Instagram, and Facebook, call him at (336) 590-2447 or email him at Jake@luxlensmedia.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

All right, today we've got Jake Edwards. Is it with Lux Media? Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Uh Lux Lens Media.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Lux Lens. Yeah, I'll miss it. Lux Lens. Okay. And you do quite a bit of photography for us. That's not the only reason why we're on here. We are here to promote this small business, and it's really not that small anymore. You do quite a bit of photo photography for everybody. How many photos do you think you've taken in the last 30 days? A couple thousand, that's for sure. Yeah. Really? Yeah. It's awesome. It's a lot. I hear you. Tell us about how you started. First of all, how old are you? 23. 23? It makes me feel old. What do you think, Misty?

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Yeah, I'm old. He's my son's age. Yeah, I'm the oldest one. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Yeah, it makes us feel old. But that's cool because, you know, you you're young and you're talented. Um Definitely. Yeah, definitely talented. I wouldn't have a photographer on here that, you know, I didn't think, you know, really had some talent and um qualities that, you know, I thought I had when I started real estate. I was like, I, you know, just to be honest to tell you, I was like, when I started, I was like, oh, I can do my own photos and did them for an embarrassing amount of time as far as years. Then I seen yours, I was like, I need to use, I need to use Jake. So tell us how you started, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I love it, man. No, uh, my aunt, she's been a realtor for a while now. Um, she would get a listing and hire a bunch of different people. She would hire one person to do her floor plans, one person to do her drone work, another person if she wanted a video, I'm like, that just seems a bit ridiculous to me, honestly. Uh-huh. So I was like, let's bring it all together. Um a little over a year of thought and thinking, should I do it? until I finally was just pulled the trigger and did it. So that's kind of what started it off, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Really? Yeah. That's awesome. What did you do before you know you got in photography?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

So I was a uh cook at Tamarack Marino. Okay. So worked there, did a little bit of kitchen management there, helped them out, Brad Michelle as much as I could. Absolutely loved my time there. So wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Yep, did that full time before you can do our photos and then you can go back in the back and cook something if nobody's there. Hey, dang right, man. Absolutely. That's awesome. That's killer. That's killer. All right. So so you started uh, you know, if somebody's listening or watching that's uh interested in photography, do you guys take people on? Is that is that a thing as far as that company?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Absolutely. Okay. Um now that I started flight school and doing that most of the time, I'm absolutely looking for a photographer, someone to kind of reduce the workload on my end, help me out. So if anybody out there does photography work or interested to get started, let us know. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Okay. All right. So that's a plug uh that somebody could uh all right, let's ask this if somebody's really interested. Uh experience needed or or not?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Uh experience preferred, but I didn't have any experience when I started. So happy to train you from the ground up. Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

We're gonna throw some uh as we go through this, you know, little interview here to promote your business, we're gonna go through and put you know, put some of your work up, um, so to speak, that you've done for me at Misty and maybe some others that we get. Yeah. How long do you think it took you to get to the level, you know, where you're at as far as you know, the quality?

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Um, probably six months roughly of just trial and error. Uh took a lot of people on for free in the beginning, just to get experience. Because there's no better way to get experience than to say, hey, listen, I'll do this for free. All I ask is for honest feedback. And if you feel as as if it deserves it, leave an awesome review.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

So oh, that's good. Yeah. That's good. How can they get a hold of you as far as uh and we'll put it at the end too, but how can they, what's the best way to get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Uh shoot us a message on our Facebook, Lux Lens Media, personal Facebook, Jake Edwards, um, Instagram, as well as uh my phone number, which we'll put in the description or on the screen wherever.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah. Okay. That's awesome. That's awesome. Um, I think it's always important to put that out there, you know, first. We'll put it on the screen too. And where can they find you on social media, real quick?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Uh, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. We'll probably got a couple videos up there. Is that how you found them? Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

I think we followed each other. Yep. And then I was like, I'm gonna use him.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

And you're perfect pictures ever since. I'm pretty sure you're uh you're you're uh you're the one that uh gave me his number.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Yeah, I believe. Yeah, I did. And I seen, yeah, I seen let me always, you know, I was like, let me try him out. Let's see.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

And I seen I seen pictures that Misty had. I'm like, they're better than mine. So I can't have that. You know what I mean? I can't have Misty's listings better than mine. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. Let me call him. Yeah, he does. He does really good work. Yeah, we wouldn't, we wouldn't have him on here if we didn't, you know, really, really think he's qualified for other other realtors and other uh people that need photography, that's for sure. Any um any weddings, any anything else besides real estate? So just real estate on my end. I don't do weddings or anything like that. What kind of uh what kind of equipment did you start with and what kind of equipment do you got today? Is it the same? Or are you uh have you learned anything as far as equipment and uh what do you use?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Um so my camera, uh Sony Alpha 6700, used it from the very start. Um when it comes to gear, uh kind of jumped in the very beginning, purchased all my gear and was like didn't know what I was doing, so I needed to make it work, get some money back on that. Um use uh DJI Mavic 3 Pro as the drone. Okay. Love that thing. I absolutely love it. Take that thing on vacations everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

And um, yeah, so did you have to get a uh I think we talked about this the first day I met you probably, but uh drone license? Yep, part 1070.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Loved it.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Why did they uh I asked everybody this, it's in the drone world, why do they call it Part 107? Do you have any idea?

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Uh I believe it is in the uh federal aviation's regulations uh manual, and that's just the section of the book that it's in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

So um it's a very strange name, you know, for a license. It is very strange. So you had to get a state and a US, right? I think that's what I've had to get back in the day, but it's like in a federal and a state still, or is it yeah, just uh just a federal license.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Federal license? Federal Part 107 Um drone license, and currently working on my private pilot's license. So tell us about that. Yeah, tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

How how different if you've got that far on pilot license, like for an actual pilot license? How much different? How much more? I mean, I know the the test on the uh unmanned was pretty quick. I mean, it wasn't I'm not saying it was easy, but at the same time, it didn't have a whole lot of information. Strangely enough, they have a lot of stuff about the airport, which you can't fly there anyway on the drone. But what how tell us about the pilot license deal?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Um surprisingly for the private. Uh last week passed my private pilot written exam. So that's uh what I think I got under my nose now. Umprisingly um very similar. So 60% of what I was asked on that test was about the same as the drone license when it comes to the written exam. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Well, I wondered when I took it, you know, you got to update the drone deal every two years, I think, still. Um, you know, I would I thought this is a lot of pilot stuff. And I was like, surely not. So it is similar.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Uh very similar. Though for the private pilot exam, it was similar. I was in and out of there uh about a half an hour. Really? 65 questions, and I was like, this felt felt like my drone exam.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Mostly, yeah. That that surprises me.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah. Yeah, that really surprises me. What um what are your plans with that private, you know, the license?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Um, I want to go all the way. So after I finish my private pilots, I want to go right into my instrument and then get my commercial after that.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Really? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Hopefully end up as a cargo pilot one day.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Either FedEx, UPS. That's awesome. It's kind of the more route I want to go rather than flying people around.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

So that's awesome. Okay. Okay. So how long do we have to use you as a photographer?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

I'm just joking. I love it. No, I'm gonna keep it. You're gonna keep doing it? Okay, I'm gonna keep doing it as long as I can.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Yeah, if we put you out there and you're like, oh, I'm a pilot now. So y'all.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

No. Yeah, I'm gonna continue to do it because I love it, right? This is what's uh got me here, so I gotta keep going. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Yeah, we don't want to lose them, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

No, no, that's for sure. Yeah, we might have to we might have to call the FAA if you uh if you quit doing our photography, you might be like, hey, he did this. I'm just joking. Totally joking. I would not do that, I promise. That is cool. So you got your equipment, you got your drone, you got your license for the drone unmanned 107. Um tell us about electronics, you know, for for the nerds like me. Like you you pull it off the camera, like I've actually got alphas in here that we're shooting on alphas today. They're a little bit different, they're a little dumbed down from what you use. They're probably 6400 alphas, but they are Sony Alphas, what you're watching this video on. Um so he's got a little better camera than I got. I'm a little jealous of that, but that's okay. That's okay. Uh, what do you do? You shoot you shoot somebody's, you know, uh property and you're pulling it off. SD card, wired.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Uh SD card, yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

SD card. So you do the SD card into what kind of machine? What kind of um editing and stuff do you use?

SPEAKER_01 9:08

So actually uh Or is that a secret?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Nobody knew.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

No, no, I'm I'm happy to let you know. Uh we got an editor overseas, so he does a lot of our editing work. See, kind of while I'm asleep at night. Awesome. And then the next morning I'll get everything sent over and uh I kind of review it, put it in Adobe Lightroom if I need to do some touching up on some lights and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Um for those that don't that don't know, Adobe is no joke. Like you have to have a pretty much a college education to get through Adobe.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

More than that.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

It's for somebody that hasn't had it. Yeah, if you don't have it, Adobe's like, what? Where do you go? You'll sit there for one picture forever.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Oh, right? It's like a NASA command center. It is it is bad. Crazy. Yeah, it is bad. It took me forever to figure out how to do it. I'm like, I'm gonna stick in the light room here because I get into Photoshop and it's too much.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah. All right. So you've got an editor, he sends it back, you send it to the client. And I like that you've got, uh, we'll try to put this on there too. I I like that you've got like a site for that customer, for that property. It's not just, oh, I'm gonna email you a bunch of photos. It's tell us about that. Tell us about that end product, so I won't get it wrong. Tell us about what you're giving somebody as a realtor, you know, realtor. Let's just say I call you up today, which actually I do have one for you to do. I can speak on this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

He does marketing, like there's marketing brochures that you can put the photos in. That's a website. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Tell us about that. Tell us, tell us a little bit more about the end result as a realtor that calls you and says, Hey, I want you to do this property. What do they get?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

So we offer everything. Um uh you get a floor plan that comes with it. Um, everything's organized though on the back end. So when the agent gets their pictures, they're not gonna be jumbled up and everything like that. It's already rearranged. You do get the property website with every single shoot, no matter what, the marketing materials. If you just like some plug and play type stuff for your social medias, um just trying to make everything as efficient as possible for the agent.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

That's that's what I see too. Because I was actually we've used photos, you know, photo people before here and there sporadically. But when I seen your, you know, your end product, I was like, man, this guy's got floor plans, he's got a website. What did you think the first time that you you know seen his product? What did you think?

SPEAKER_03 11:22

I was like, this is cool. It's a lot more than just photos. Oh yeah. It's I'm sorry, it's super organized too, and you know, it is it's hard not to follow it. Like you can't get lost on it, you know. That's right. You can just click here and there it is.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

He's got a basically a site, you know, for you know, you can share that and it's got all the photos and that kind of thing. You've done video for me before too. Um tell us about that a little bit. Like how many, how many customers, realtors, if you will, on uh property, how many choose to do the video, a little bit of short video and stuff?

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Uh when it comes to video, um over the last year I would say it picked up a lot. So now we're looking at about sixty percent of our clients are getting video as well. Yeah. Um, which I highly recommend. Video. Video is great. Yeah. Uh especially getting you out there as an agent and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Um, highly recommend videos uh for the agents and their own personal marketing.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yeah. I mean, you're the only ph photographer that I know uh that's got this gonna be getting a uh real pilot license, not just the drone license. That's cool. Um and then you're not going to uh stop photography to uh pilot a plane. We've got your commitment on that. You got my commitment on that.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Not gonna stop with the photography.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

In two years gonna be like, where is Jake? Where is Jake? No, it's Jack. Um tell us about your future, like um future family plans. We'll get we'll get as personal as you want to go. Like, what it what is what's going on in your personal life?

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Uh so I have a fiance, her name's Aubrey. Okay. Um see, he plugged her, he did the right thing there. Yep. Uh don't want to uh not gonna be getting married till after flight school. So that's kind of the plan, and that's kind of the thing that we had talked about is you know, flight school, let's get that behind us, and then we can do the uh fancy wedding like she wants.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

That's sweet.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Now the question is is who is gonna do Jake's photos for his wedding? See, I don't know. That's a good question because you're gonna be the biggest, not the biggest you know, critic, but at the same time, you're gonna know like this is bad, this is good. Like who's gonna take that on?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

I'm gonna have to do a lot of research, that's for sure. A lot of research. Because one, they can be extremely pricey. And uh depending on who you get, you know, I want somebody with experience.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure, for sure. I mean, you've got yeah, you've got enough knowledge, you know, on the camera world and all that to really, to really be, you know, a critic as far as what you're gonna get, you know, in the long run. And plus two, you know, your future wife is gonna want a certain quality and a certain this and a certain that. I promise you that. It's not promise you it's not just gonna be your decision.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Thousand percent. Absolutely. I do not want to see how mad she would get if she got some bad pictures back from her way.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

No, no, no. No, not absolutely not. Where are you from, actually?

SPEAKER_01 14:06

From Southmont, North Carolina. So Lexington, High Rock Lake area.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Okay, so always been here?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Always been here, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Always been here, local. Okay. Your fiance's local as well. So again, we're gonna we're gonna make him commit not to move away, too. We got another thing. You're not gonna move away.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Not moving away. Okay. Hopefully be based out of Charlotte one day at Charlotte Airport. Okay, oh yeah, yeah. For the podcast. That's the goal, but we'll see. You know, obviously things never go as planned in aviation. Right, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

That's true. What's your good email? Just so we can have it verbal for the podcast, the audio deal. What's a good email for you that they can email you if they if they uh need a request there?

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Email super simple, Jake at luxlensmedia.com. So about as easy as it gets. It is good.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Okay. And if they I noticed that I don't do a good enough job on this, but they can also put it on the website as far as a request, right? You can actually schedule, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

You can, yep. And you'll get an email directly. Yep. He probably wishes I used that. I used that the first or maybe the second time, and then I was just texting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

I do text and say, Hey, are you busy on this day? And and then I'll put it in. Put it in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

I I need to do better. What is your goal on the photos? Like, you know, are you trying to build it uh to a certain level? Are you pretty comfortable where it's at now?

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Uh pretty comfortable. Um not trying to take on too many, too many people as a solo operator right now. Um again, always looking for a photographer. So if anybody has any experience or just interested, I'm happy to give you a shot. Um that's awesome. Yeah. But when it comes to that, right now my focus is photography and flying airplanes. So I love it.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

That's killer. That's killer. So he's also, you know, we're advertising him and he's also throwing out a job possibility. So if anybody uh out there is interested in a he's pretty good though. So don't don't feel like you're gonna have to be at his quality. He can train you, I'm sure, but he's pretty good. He's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

So he is.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, don't don't come in and think uh you're gonna call him or you're gonna be just as good the next day. How far do you go out? Like as far as photos. Like if if we have because we've got Raleigh and Charlotte and all this, we got commercial MLS. If somebody sees in our reach, how far is too far?

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Um I don't want to answer that. Well, put him on the spot. I've I've been all the way to the beach. Okay. So that's about three and a half hours. But that's pretty far. I don't I don't ever put a travel fee on anything less than an hour drive. So I try to stay within an hour. Anything more, be a slight fee on that. But besides that, try to help out as best as I can.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

That's awesome. That's awesome. So I think um realtors around in the triad can definitely hit him up. Um, he's got he's got HIPAA Realty seal of approval over here. So we appreciate you coming in today. Um Yeah, we're gonna plug you. I'd like to have you again, obviously. Uh maybe after the wedding, we'll see how the wedding went and see if uh your your wife liked the photographer that you picked. No pressure. No pressure. Yeah. Right on. If anybody needs photography at all in the real estate world, definitely, definitely give him a call. Thank you guys.