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Archive for category landscaping photography

Lawn Care Question of the Day – Whut Iz It? Giant Bean?

Feb 4

Posted by Lawn Care Business in landscaping photography, questions | No Comments

Today’s lawn care question is bound to garner great responses.

I have been rifling through pictures taken in June of last year on a trip to Ohio.  This picture is of a very familiar tree to landscape professionals.  However, I am sure that many of our readers have often seen this tree and thought “I didn’t know green beans grew on trees.”

Can you guess what it is?

If you have a guess please leave a comment.  If you have a lawn care business website, please feel free to add a link to your site.  Also, we would love if you would add a link to our website.

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Protective Landscaping

May 21

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, landscaping, landscaping photography, start a lawn care business | 2 Comments

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness

What are your selection procedures when choosing landscaping plants and materials?

As landscapers, we have great opportunities to make significant positive differences in our customers’ lives.  It goes without saying that one of the differences we make is for the simple aesthetic beauty of their properties.  We also make nature areas for increased wildlife and song birds, properly prune shrubs and trees for better health of the landscape, and clear scrub brush and over grown shrubs to give an open feeling to the yard and better views of surrounding landscapes.

Using pathways, watergardens, and sitting areas, we help our customers enjoy their property with areas to relax after stressful days in their jobs.

You may have never thought of it before but landscapers can also help our customers feel safe within their homes.  There are certain landscaping techniques that can help protect a home and make its occupants feel safe. 

According to the National Crime Prevention Council, homeowners should trim shrubs and trees that might give criminals a place to hide or climb to second stories.  Thieves often hide behind dense or tall landscape plants that hide windows or other entrances to homes.  Lowering the height of and thinning these shrubs reduce the invisibility that robbers seek.   Planting prickly shrubs is also a great idea.  Plants such as this Adam’s Needle will help deter people from snooping close to windows.

Protective Landscaping for your Lawn Care Business

Knowing your landscaping customers’ desires for their landscaping will help you make suggestion on types of landscaping.  The Adam’s Needle pictured above was planted for a single female who was living on her own.  The deterrent offered by the plant makes her feel safer in her home at night as it offers some protection against people trying to spy through her window.

Do you want to make money with your own landscaping and lawn care business? We have developed a very detailed account of how to start and operate a successful lawn care business. You can read more about the course at:

http://www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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More digital cameras for your lawn care company.

Jan 6

Posted by Lawn Care Business in landscaping photography, lawn business strategies, Lawn Care Advertising, money | 2 Comments

After yesterday’s blog posting extolling the virtues of having a high-quality digital SLR camera to take marketing pictures for your lawn care business, I received a number of emails asking if there are less expensive options available that give equivilant results to the Canon T1i.

At current writing, the T1i costs just over $700 through Amazon.com. $700 certainly is a lot of money right now but if you are looking for a dSLR that also takes HD video, the 15 megapixel Canon T1i is one of the best options under $1000.

If you are looking to spend under $500, I have a great option for you. The XS and the XSi are near equivilant models that offer similar professional results. Though the XS and the XSi offer lower resolutions and no video, their feature set includes liveview and full manual controls for $100’s less than the T1i.

Canon XSi

The Canon XSi features 12 megapixel, liveview, complete manual overrides, and an 18mm – 55mm. At its current pricing, it saves you about $160 from the T1i.

Canon XS

If you want to save even more money, take a hard look at the Canon XS. At its current price of $449 it saves you $270 from the T1i’s price. At 10.1 megapixels, this camera is no slouch. I’ve read that the higher megapixel cameras are limited by the lens that comes with the camera body. If you have no intention of buying additional lenses and if you don’t need HD video, I think this camera is the one to buy if you are on a budget.

Additionally, with the $270 you save buying the XS, you can easily buy a fairly decent video camera to make short presentations of your lawn care and landscaping work.

If you own any of these cameras, let us know your reviews. Or, if you have a different high quality camera you want to tell us about, please let us know.

As always, if you are looking to improve your lawn care business, check out our training materials located at our main website: StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Canon Rebel T1i DSLR Camera for Your Lawn Care Business.

Jan 5

Posted by Lawn Care Business in landscaping photography, Lawn Care Advertising, lawn care business, lawn care videos | No Comments

The more I think about advertising and marketing for your lawn care business, the more I realize that you must make extra effort to stand above the crowd and bring attention to your business.

As websites and online marketing take precedence over newspaper and other print advertising, the visual quality of your marketing campaign becomes ever more important.

Digital cameras are priced to the point where everyone who wants a digital camera now has one. I’ve recommended for years that lawn care business operators keep a digital camera in their work vehicles for “before and after” documentation of special jobs and for pictures of special circumstances that may arise. For example, if a homeowner isn’t home when you finish a leaf raking job, you can take a picture to prove all leaves were removed from the lawn at the completion of your work. If leaves are on the lawn after the homeowner arrives home, those leaves fell after your leaf raking was complete.

As higher quality digital cameras become more affordable, professional quality photography becomes available even to small lawn care operators. Professional photography equipment can turn an otherwise ordinary looking picture of an outstanding lawn care job into a vibrant masterpiece that screams for the view to call your number and hire you to do their lawn care work during the upcoming season.

If you are looking for a high quality semi-professional digital SLR camera, Amazon.com has one of the best-priced affordable cameras we have seen in a long time.

The Canon D-500 (T1i) features 15 megapixel, liveview mode, and full HD video (use the 720 for best performance).

While I don’t recommend throwing this camera in your work truck, buy this camera to keep in your office and only take it out when you want professional quality shots of your best lawns. If you want marketing shots of your landscaping designs or your lawn striping, this camera will give you amazingly vibrant shots at an affordable price.

The link below will allow you to purchase from Amazon.com at their recently reduced price:

For for information on starting your own lawn care business, visit our website: www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com

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Girdled Landscape Trees

Jul 21

Posted by Lawn Care Business in environment, landscaping, landscaping photography | No Comments

Girdling occurs when any object encumbers the girth of a tree’s trunk.

Girdling a Tree

Looking at public landscaping spaces this morning, I came across a landscape tree that is girdled by a cable designed to protect a garbage can from theft.

girdle2

The public works department probably had good cause to cable the garbage can as theft and vandalism are problems in many municipalities.  However, securing the cable tight then leaving it for syears is unconscionable.

This tree is at risk of dying from the damage underway by this cable.  Luckily, the cable is thin and it has yet to be completely encompassed by the trunk bark.  Nutrients are still flowing to the leaf system and will flow back to the roots this autumn.  These actions take place within vascular tissues called xylum and ploem.   If the vascular process is interrupted damage or death will occur.

girdle1

As landscape professionals, we need to be more cognizant of long term effects of our actions.  Landscapers practicing common landscaping principles should never (or rarely) use trees as securing points.

If you want to operate a BETTER lawn care and landscaping business, our Lawn Care Business package will help you.  Visit our website (StartALawnCareBusiness.com) for full information.

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Digital camera for your landscaping business.

May 17

Posted by Lawn Care Business in customers, landscaping photography, lawn business strategies, lawn care videos | No Comments

Digital cameras help document your lawn care and landscaping jobs.

If you have read our materials on starting and operating your own lawn care and landscaping business you already understand the importance of keeping a digital camera ready to document your work.

Digital cameras are handy for adding projects you are particularly proud of to your photo portfolio.  They also allow for photographic documentation.  Quick before shots and after shots of your work stand in your benefit should disputes arise with your customers. 

Don’t forget to synchronize your camera’s clock with your GPS clock so you have proper ‘when and where’ documentation.  On-photo time stamping is not necessary since most cameras record time information into their exif data table.  This information can be pulled out at a later time without ruining your photograph.

All that aside, the purpose of this post is to let you know about one of the best compact point and shoot cameras on the market today.  It is one we have recently acquired and are well pleased with during initial tests.

Panasonic Lumix TZ5

The Panasonic Lumix TZ5 has recently been replaced by the Lumix TZ7.  Therefore, since the feature set of the TZ7 is marginal above the TZ5, the TZ5’s recently lowered price makes it a very attractive bargain.

Wide angle 28mm 10x Leica lens

The TZ5 features a 9.1 megapixel CCD and an incredible optical 10X Leica lens.  Completely zoomed out, you are given 28mm (equivalent) wide angle coverage.  Wide angle allows photographs of large landscaping and lawn care projects without having to step backward in order to frame your scenes.

High Def (HD) Video at 1280x720p

An amazing feature of Lumix’s TZ5 is its ability to film HD video.  While, as a landscaper, you will get more benefit from still photos, there are occasions when video gives better representation of your work.  Video quality is not up to quality received from a multi-CCD 1920x1080i dedicated video camera though our initial tests show great quality video from this camera.  Low-light graininess and washout are issues compared with higher-end dedicated camcorders.  If your landscaping has lots of colors, use sunshine creatively to brighten your project.

Price of the TZ5

As mentioned earlier, TZ7 is the latest offering from Panasonic’s Lumix line.  TZ5’s price has dropped significantly in light of this latest release.  Order via Amazon.com using the links provided below.  This is how we ordered our TZ5 and we have been uniformly well pleased with our purchase.

We plan to shoot several landscaping shots this week.  Check back this week for new blog postings including pictures from our TZ5.

Order your Panasonic Lumix TZ5:

Black
 

Blue
 

Silver
 

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