The photograph you cannot recover is the before shot, so capture happens at the start rather than the end. The constraints are client permission, site safety, and the details that should never appear in a public post.

The shot you cannot go back for

Everything else can be retaken. The before cannot.

Once the old fence is down, the wall is opened, or the room is cleared, the state you arrived to is gone. A finished result with no before is half a story, and the pairing is what makes this content work at all.

Which means the discipline is at arrival rather than completion. Two minutes before anything is touched, from positions you can return to.

Marking where you stood matters more than it sounds. A before and after from different positions invites the suspicion they are different properties, and that suspicion undoes the whole point.

When to shoot during the day

Four moments, and they fit around the work rather than interrupting it.

On arrival, before anything moves.

When something is exposed, which is the moment that demonstrates competence. What was behind the wall, under the floor, or inside the unit.

Mid-work, once, showing the site protected and organised.

At the finish, from the arrival positions, with the space tidy.

The second is the most under-taken and the most persuasive, because a finished result looks the same whoever did it and a diagnosis does not.

Permission

The constraint that comes before anything else, and it is straightforward when handled at the right moment.

Ask when you arrive rather than when you leave. A client who has agreed at the start is not being asked to approve something already taken, and the conversation is easier.

What to be specific about: that photographs may appear on your website and social accounts, that nothing identifying the address will be included, and that they can decline without it affecting anything.

Getting it in writing, even as a line on the job sheet or a reply to a message, is worth the effort, since verbal permission recalled differently a year later is an unpleasant conversation.

Some clients will say no, and some will agree to interior work but not exterior for the obvious reason that exteriors identify a property.

What must not appear

The security one deserves emphasis. A photograph combining a recognisable exterior with a visible alarm panel or an unlocked access point is a genuine risk to the client, and posting it is a serious lapse regardless of permission.

Checking the background before posting takes a moment, and the things that appear in the background are exactly what nobody notices while shooting.

Safety and the site

A practical constraint on a working site.

Do not photograph anything that requires standing somewhere unsafe to capture, and do not post images showing work being done without whatever protection the situation requires. A photograph of somebody on a roof without appropriate equipment is a photograph that damages you.

On commercial sites, check whether photography is permitted at all before taking anything, since many have restrictions.

Making it a habit

The thing that determines whether any of this happens.

Attach it to something that already occurs. Photographs when the van is unloaded and photographs when the tools go back are two moments that happen on every job regardless.

Four photographs, thirty seconds, every job. That produces a library rather than a scramble when the site needs rebuilding.

Where a crew is involved, one person's job rather than everybody's, since a task belonging to everybody belongs to nobody.

Sorting them afterwards

Two minutes at the end of the week rather than a project later.

Move them off the phone, into a folder named for the job and the date, and discard the ones that are out of focus or show nothing. A hundred photographs on a phone with no structure is the same as no photographs.

Noting which ones the client permitted, alongside them, is what makes them usable a year later without a nervous check.

The material this produces feeds the posting cadence rather than the other way round, which is the arrangement described in posting consistently without it taking over.

Frequently asked questions

Which photograph matters most?

The before shot, because it cannot be retaken once work starts. Capture happens at arrival rather than completion, from positions you can return to.

Why does the position matter?

A before and after from different positions invites the suspicion they are different properties, which undoes the point of showing them.

When should I ask permission?

On arrival rather than at the end, so the client is agreeing in advance rather than approving something already taken. Get it in writing on the job sheet.

What must never appear in a posted photograph?

House numbers, vehicle registrations, alarm panels and security arrangements, personal belongings, and people who have not agreed.

Which omission is most serious?

Security. A recognisable exterior combined with a visible alarm panel or an unlocked access point is a genuine risk to the client regardless of permission.

How do I make it a habit?

Attach it to something that already happens, such as unloading and reloading the van. Four photographs, thirty seconds, one person's responsibility on a crew.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Finished jobs with no before shots?

We set the four-moment routine and the permission wording, so the library builds itself while you work.

Start a Conversation