The Del Mar Castle near San Diego, California

One of the reasons why I think I can make my Photographic Art venture work is because I really like real estate, having spent more than 47 years in the real estate industry in various professions, including as a Realtor in Texas and as a home inspector now.

My husband, Jim, also happens to be in real estate; he’s a Realtor here in San Diego with HomeSmart Realty West.

Because of that real estate interest, I have a natural market. After all, people pretty much like the houses they live in, so if I can take pictures of their homes, create Photographic Art, and then let them know where they can buy that Photographic Art, it should be fairly easy.

Obviously, the extraordinarily wealthy not only have unique homes but also probably have more disposable income to buy my Photographic Art. Thus I have been creating a list and checking it twice of where to go to find the homes of the 1%.

One of our rich enclaves is the city of Del Mar, so recently I went up there to explore some of the hillside neighborhoods. That’s when I found the Del Mar Castle (click on the picture for a huger version):

The other thing that I can do to make my work unique is include some history on the back of the pictures. I’m endeavoring to find out more history about the Del Mar Castle, but as of right now I can tell you this:

• Built in 1926 by renowned architect Richard Requa (see Wikipedia entry)
• 7,304 square feet with 5 bedrooms, 6 full bathrooms, and 6 fireplaces
• Had the first telephone in the City of Del Mar: Del Mar 1
• Tony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within; see Wikipedia entry) bought the castle for $1.5 million in 1987 and sold it in 1998 in a private sale, which means we don’t know how much he sold it for.
• The house is high up on a hill, and the turret has a 360° view of the Pacific Ocean to the west, San Diego and Tijuana to the south, and the San Dieguito Lagoon and Del Mar Race Track and Fairgrounds to the east.

The view above looks west to the Pacific Ocean. From Interstate 5 on the east side, this is the view of the castle:

When I get ready to make Photographic Art out of these pictures of the Castle, I’ll be replacing the gray overcast sky with a sunny blue sky with just a few clouds to add variety. Then I’ll upload them to my store front at Fine Art America and send a postcard to the owners (public records available to Realtors make that so easy!) to let them know where they can find some pictures of their home.

The original panorama above is a whopping 11,895 pixels wide x 3345 pixels tall, which means that Fine Art America can create high quality prints that are about 138 inches wide. That’s about 11½ feet! I can see the extraordinarily rich with an 11½-foot Photographic Art picture of their home hanging in the great room! Oh, yeah!

Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!

Visit Russel Ray Photos.

Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572

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If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!