A Rare Alignment
On Wednesday evening, as the sun began its slow dip towards the Solihull rooftops, something rather special happened over Knowle. Not just an eclipse, although that was special enough. Ninety per cent of the sun quietly disappearing behind the moon, the light turning that strange, dusky gold you only get a handful of times in a lifetime, is not something you see every day.
Hannah, Victoria and I gathered with Chris Wade of First House Photography to watch it happen, cameras in hand and eyes (carefully) on the sky. It was one of those evenings where you stop scrolling, stop talking about completions and comparables, and just look up. The sun sank lower, the moon slid across it, and for a little while Knowle had the best seat in the house.
But the eclipse wasn't really the main event. Chris was.
If you've sold a house with EB&P, there's a fair chance Chris has stood in your hallway with a tripod, waiting patiently for the light to be just right. He has been photographing our clients' homes since I launched the business in 2020, and we knew each other professionally for fifteen years before that. In all that time, I don't think he has ever once handed over a set of photographs that wasn't exactly right. Every angle considered, every room shown at its best, every single time.
That sort of consistency is rarer than people think. Anyone can turn up with a camera. Turning up, year after year, with genuine care for the property and the people selling it, and never once cutting a corner, is a different thing altogether. A bit like a total eclipse, really. You know it's out there somewhere, but you don't take it for granted when it lands right in front of you.
Chris turns eighty next month, and shows no sign of slowing down. He's still the one who would rather come back another day than shoot a home under the wrong sky, because in his book a cloudy morning simply isn't good enough for our clients. We are, quite simply, very lucky to have him, and we wanted this blog to say so properly rather than in passing.
So thank you, Chris. For the photographs, obviously, but also for the fifteen years before EB&P even existed, and the six years since. Rare things are worth marking when they come around. This felt like one of them.
If you're thinking of selling and want to see what a photographer who never settles for second best can do for your home, we'd love to have a chat over coffee.