Behind The Work: Real Estate Photography and Video Work for a High-End Apartment Complex

Behind The Work is an in-depth exploration of the thought process and reasoning—good and bad—that goes into some of our favorite projects.

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The Task at Hand

At the tail-end of Spring 2025, I was contacted by the office manager of Birch Hill Apartments, Katie, in Asheville, NC, to revamp the photo assets for their property and to create a video highlighting the liveability and amenities of Birch Hill. They felt that their contemporaries had content that they couldn't quite match, and as a result, they couldn't compete even though they had conveniences and benefits that were unparalleled. Even though real estate photography isn't a genre I specialize in, I'm quite comfortable with it due to the fact that I'm very experienced in abandoned photography, which requires a high degree of compositional understanding of how to make structures and rooms appear interesting. They were comfortable hiring me because I was highly recommended by a trusted source within their industry.

So, with that, I had the job in hand. I needed to create photography and video work that gave potential residents a sense of community and belonging with an opportunity to grow and thrive. They had to feel that Birch Hill Apartments had everything that they needed to nurture a family, entertain guests, and develop themselves on a personal level.

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The Photography

After an initial phone conversation with Katie and emails with one of the principals of Birch Hill Apartments, they sent me examples of what their competitors had on their website, so I knew what they were looking for. After gaining a complete understanding of the solution I needed to provide for Birch Hill Apartments, I met with Katie at the apartments for a walkthrough.

The complex is extensive, centrally located near Downtown Asheville, West Asheville, the mountains of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and only a short distance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Katie showed me all of the amenities, which included a resort-style saltwater pool, a gym equipped with Peloton machines, a gameroom with televisions, a pool table, a foosball table, and a shuffleboard table, a clubhouse for people to lounge in or possibly do work, a bar with four televisions, three private office spaces, a pet spa, a bike repair shop, a dog park, and a storage space for kayaks.

There were specific shots we spoke about capturing, combining drone photography and video with standard photography and video. Part of highlighting the livability factor of Birch Hill meant showcasing the nature and the sprawling mountains surrounding Birch Hill Apartments, which, in turn, meant treating a portion of this job like I would a day practicing nature photography. I needed to plan for sunrise or sunset, and I had to ensure that the weather was adequate to capture the magic of those times.

Capturing the amenities was fairly straightforward, especially the ones located indoors. Outside of dealing with the high contrast created by the bright sun as morning passed, Katie and the Birch Hill staff made photographing the grounds extremely easy. At my suggestion, they notified the community that I'd be on site for a week or two, depending on how much the weather cooperated with me, and they closed the spaces in which I was shooting while I worked. Below is a gallery of some of the images I captured for Birch Hill.

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The Video Capturing the video for this project was similar to the photography. The most significant difference was accentuating the spaces with reveals, making considering angles even more critical. The other aspect to consider with video was time. The attention span a viewer gives to a video is very limited, so we had to highlight the most important elements of Birch Hill Apartments within a short, 40 to 50-second window. That meant every frame mattered, and capturing the main draw of each shot was critical.

In all, I created eight different video versions for Birch Hill. There was a version with type animation and music, one with the music and a voiceover, one with just the music, and another without any sound or type. I created extended versions that were 1:20 in length, and shorter versions that came in at 50 seconds. You can see some of the different versions below.

Shortened video with music and type animations

Shortened video with music and voiceover

Video as it appears on Birch Hill Apartments' website

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Final Thoughts

Working with Birch Hill Apartments allowed me to go outside my comfort zone in creating real estate photography and videography. As such, I was able to gain a better understanding of what potential clients will need from this type of job and what this genre of photography entails. Everyone at Birch Hill was an absolute pleasure to work with, too. They allowed me to do the work I needed to do when I was able to do it, unimpeded. They placed their complete trust in me, and as such, I was able to deliver work that they were extremely happy with.

We've already talked about capturing phase two of Birch Hill Apartments and creative assets for an apartment complex they're building in the heart of Downtown Asheville. Below are reviews they left for the work I created for them.