When we purchased our 2011 Nissan Titan there were just four of us: my wife and I plus our two young children. Since that time we’ve added two more children. This truck has been paid off for a couple of years now, and that’s a big plus because there ain’t no car like the one you already own, but it has only five seats. We couldn’t all sit in it at the same time.

We made it work for the last year, using our other vehicle which does seat six (eight actually), but that car isn’t ideal for towing our travel trailer. You may have noticed, if you are a regular Fuji X Weekly reader, that we like to travel. It seems like every month or two we are off to somewhere amazing, like the Grand Canyon or Canyonlands or Seattle or most recently Mount Rushmore. We needed a vehicle that could keep up with us, so we set out to purchase a new truck that has a seat for all six of us.

I really loved the 2011 Nissan Titan, and I put a lot of miles on it. We definitely used it. It was good to us, never once giving us trouble. I didn’t want to sell it, but I needed to sell it in order to purchase something else. It was time, so I put it on the market. I used my Fujifilm X-Pro2 to capture some pictures for the ad.

One benefit of being a photographer is that I know how to make nice-looking pictures. For used cars, there are ads after ads with thoughtless snaps, mostly quick cellphone shots. They do very little to sell the vehicle. They don’t grab anyone’s attention. They are very boring, unappealing and pragmatic. I didn’t want that for my truck. I was going to do it right and create my own advertisement images. I was going to make my ad stand out from the crowd by making beautiful pictures that potential buyers would find attractive and idealistic. This was a truck that they’d want to come see for themselves.

It certainly worked! I sold the truck quickly and for a price above the Blue Book value. My photographs are what sold my truck. And, really, this is how everyone should be doing it, except most people don’t know how to create good photographs. They only know how to make thoughtless snapshots. Perhaps there is a business opportunity for someone to create car ad photos for those hoping to sell their vehicles.

The lesson is that you can use your photographic know-how to your benefit in situations that you might overlook. It certainly paid off for me with the sale of my truck. Maybe there are things for you where your photography could become invaluable in whatever the situation is. Use it to your advantage! Get out your camera and create some “professional” pictures for it, whether it’s selling a car, house, boat, yard sale, or something else entirely. I’m sure with some imaginative thought, you could come up with all sorts of things where your photographs could unexpectedly benefit you.