About Us
I am a photographer specializing in repro quality photography of artworks, particularly sculpture, jewelry and 2D/flat artwork. Unlike many, we come to an artist's studio with complete lighting and background equipment, creating perfectly lit imagery of important recent and historic works for publication and documentation. My company website is at www.photostaats.com and Facebook page is www.facebook.com/photostaats.
How We Got Started
I spent most of my early career shooting location editorials, covering conflicts, politics, the military and aerospace related subjects. In addition, I was a staff editor and chief photographer for several aviation publications, where I perfected my skills in lighting large, complex subjects including transport category aircraft. In 2000, I began working with local artists, collectors and galleries here in the Phoenix metro area and translated my existing lighting skills onto smaller subjects with often disparate surfaces requiring a deft touch to bring out not just the existence of the work, but its innate subtleties and variations.
Recommendations Received (2)
"Best photographer of artwork & jewelry, which are not the easiest to capture accurately. I..."
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"Best photographer of artwork & jewelry, which are not the easiest to capture accurately. I highly recommend Alan & his photography services."
Products & Services
Photography of sculpture, jewelry and Native American artifacts and artwork.
Gallery
Recent Activity
...good service, excellent communications, fair pricing.
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...good service, excellent communications, fair pricing.
Equipment.
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Equipment.
Excellent work, fair prices.
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Excellent work, fair prices.
...ummm, it keeps food on the table? ;)
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...ummm, it keeps food on the table? ;)
...that line, "everyone and their mom..." has a definite echo in photography. I've been shooting since the film/soup/print era, updating every time Nikon came out with something new - going from the Nikon F, to the F2, F3, F4, F5 and finally into the digital era with a D2 and now, three D850s. I...
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...that line, "everyone and their mom..." has a definite echo in photography. I've been shooting since the film/soup/print era, updating every time Nikon came out with something new - going from the Nikon F, to the F2, F3, F4, F5 and finally into the digital era with a D2 and now, three D850s. I also taught, both in the film and later in the digital era. In the former instance, my students were supplied with 20 rolls of 36 exposure Tri-X at the beginning of a semester at The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. That meant they basically had 720 chances to learn all that I could teach them. It worked in quite a few cases. My last teaching experience was at a museum and my students used digital cameras, where some of the more prolific students would blow through that number of exposures on a single assignment. The parallel with what you asked about: Back in the film era, everyone used a typewriter; sometimes a portable, sometimes a 20 pound IBM Selectric. Now, there are writers who can compose a novel on their telephone, format it and send it to an editor, literally (in the case of sending it) in minutes if not seconds. Every professional photographer has heard, at some time or other in the last five or ten years, a client say something to the effect of "my cousin Howie just bought a real good camera, so why should I pay you when he'll do it for free?" The difference is that "Howie" knows how to buy, but does he know how to shoot? Same with "everyone and their mom..." They might own the latest Apple toy, and know how to use spell check, but does that make them a writer? Especially if they're pretending to be a journalist and didn't quite get the message that objectivity is EVERYTHING, unless of course you're labeling what you write as opinion? Not on my planet. Separating the verbal wheat from the chaff becomes more difficult every day; I'm not saying that people shouldn't write, by any means. They should. I'm saying that with the potential to reach a potential audience of literally millions, "everyone and their mom..." need to understand that with access must come responsibility. To see irresponsibility in action, watch InfoWars, read Breitbart or worse, the rantings of the aging drug addict (and NRA board member) Ted Nugent. Then you understand the need for responsibility in "print."
Yes. http://www.photostaats.com/blo...
I don't update it daily, or for that matter weekly, but I do get to it once in a while...
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Yes. http://www.photostaats.com/blo...
I don't update it daily, or for that matter weekly, but I do get to it once in a while...
Facebook and Craigslist would be my best bets...
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Facebook and Craigslist would be my best bets...
1 Reply
...you do pets, yes? Get 4 by 6 cards or 6 by 9 rack cards printed with your best shots (I use overnightprints.com) and plastic stands (Staples or Office Depot) and take them to places where people who care about their pets go to regularly: Vets, groomers, PetSmarts, stables (if you do large...
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...you do pets, yes? Get 4 by 6 cards or 6 by 9 rack cards printed with your best shots (I use overnightprints.com) and plastic stands (Staples or Office Depot) and take them to places where people who care about their pets go to regularly: Vets, groomers, PetSmarts, stables (if you do large animals) feed stores, etc. and ask if you can leave the cards on their front counters. Even if only ten percent allow you to do it, think of how many potential clients you would have.
I invoice Net 10, and resend an invoice at 30/60/90 days after 10. If it's web work, and they haven't paid by 90 days I take down the site. If it's photography, I remind them that the copyright and use right assignments are predicated on payment of the final invoice. In 40+ years in business I...
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I invoice Net 10, and resend an invoice at 30/60/90 days after 10. If it's web work, and they haven't paid by 90 days I take down the site. If it's photography, I remind them that the copyright and use right assignments are predicated on payment of the final invoice. In 40+ years in business I have had to take only three to court; one paid the original amount of the invoice, plus service fees the day he got the summons; the other two tried to fight it, despite having published the work on sell sheets and brochures and ended up getting garnished for roughly ten times the amount of the original invoice because both the estimate and the invoice state the copyright and use right assignment. The bottom line is that stringing out an invoice is, in a word, a bullsh*t business practice. Ask them, sometime, how THEY would feel if you took as long to deliver the product they contracted for as they did to pay for it. Getting paid for your work is not something they should be frightened of; if your invoice states due upon receipt or Net 10, or Net 30 and they accept it, in writing with a signature, the onus of compliance is in their hands. Finally, one of the three (that had to be taken to court and garnished) actually called me and asked for more work; my response was "sure, but I will need one hundred percent of the estimate BEFORE I start work." Amazingly, they went for it. Letting a client know they cannot push you around isn't rude, it's good business practice.
...my advice would be to have it authored in Adobe Muse, after which you can (relatively) painlessly make changes yourself using their "in browser" editing. I know a lot of people swear by WordPress, but most of my clients swear AT WordPress when they try to do simple changes on their own. Muse...
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...my advice would be to have it authored in Adobe Muse, after which you can (relatively) painlessly make changes yourself using their "in browser" editing. I know a lot of people swear by WordPress, but most of my clients swear AT WordPress when they try to do simple changes on their own. Muse integrates seamlessly with the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite, as well, and embedding functional PayPal buttons, for example, is simplicity itself - something useful for moving products. My $.02, your mileage may vary.