DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. News

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has reached an agreement with a new client to provide the virtually the same services of a staff or in-house commercial photographer without the expense of hiring and equipping one.  DOUGLAS has consulted with the client regarding an area at the clients facility for an "on site studio" and DOUGLAS will provide all of the photography equipment and lighting etc. as needed.

The client is making a one time investment in an area to be used as a studio at their facility and saves the additional significant investment in photography and lighting equipment.  They also save by not having to pay for the use of a commercial photography studio.  This in fact will save them additional money by not having to ship their products to and from a photographers studio not to mention the loss from damage to the products. 

In the non-financial benefits there is the fact that by DOUGLAS Photography working at the clients site and working with them this quickly becomes like being a member of the staff.  We all learn what is needed and to work together.  The clients staff and even management can oversee or assist when needed but continue their regular responsibilities, unlike being tied up all day away at a commercial photography studio.

The savings are substantial for the business / commercial photography client and DOUGLAS Photography has a new cleint.  Truly a win - win.

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. is a business and commercial photographer serving clients both nationally and internationally for over 25 years with studios in Westlake, Ohio.

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.

800-226-1083

Commercial photographer DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has teamed with an architect and builder of fine homes for the design and construction of custom photography sets for clients.  Whether it's a set for a building material manufacturer or an appliance manufacturer.  Whether it's a small set in the studio or a full size room on location the sets are designed and built just like the real thing by people who design and build the real thing.

By teaming up with an architect and builder this also provides the sources for top quality windows, doors, counter tops, cabinets or appliances.  

This team also provides us with possible sources for the use of real homes.  We are working on setting up a photo shoot in the recreation room of a $6 million home right now for a client.

Quality commercial photography is more than just taking pretty pictures. 

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.

800-226-1083

I recently completed my second day photographing the ground crews at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, in the cold and the snow.  It was almost like watching a ballet and a swarm of insects at the same time.  Before the plane lands the concourse on the ground is vacant, not a person in sight but the minute the wheels touch the ground it's another story.  "Tugs" pulling baggage carts, pulling the equipment to fuel the planes from the underground fuel storage, trucks with the food for the correct number of passengers, the cleaning crew and the truck to empty the toilets.  The external heating and air conditioning is hooked up.  Even the pilot exits the plane to visually examine the craft for damage before the next flight.

The plane is cleaned, fueled, the baggage that has to come off the plane at this stop comes off.  The baggage going on the plane is x-rayed by the TSA, any suspicious content and the bag is opened and examined and then it is loaded for the next destinations.  The baggage that came off is on the carrousel for the passengers to pick up within minutes.  It takes 3 people signaling each other and the pilot to guide the plane away from the concourse and another "tug" to push it into the area where the jet engines are started and the plane heads for deicing and then for the runway.  All usually in less than 30 minutes.  All of this in the snow, the wind and today a wind chill of 6.  A minute later the ground around the concourse is vacant again until the next plane arrives.

It all has the look of a group of insects scurrying when a piece of food hits the ground but if you really see, as I did, it's really a ballet.  With the grace of dancers everyone has a job and they all move as if synchronized.

One of the things I love about what I do as a commercial photographer is that I have the opportunities to see and work with people like the ground crew at CLE.  In the cold, the wind and the snow these were a great bunch of people to work with.  One big thing I learned.  Like many I've watched my checked luggage on the belt behind the ticket counter vanish through the rubber strips and wondered if I'd ever see it again.  Now I've seen behind those rubber strips and I've seen people that really care, that work to make sure your bag gets where it's supposed to go.  I've seen the work and the coordination that goes into making sure it does.

I learned that the men and women, and there are many women on these ground crews, they are all like one big family.  They're a team that makes it all work and if it wasn't a team it wouldn't.  

And for the airline security people, I had to be cleared through the FBI days before the photo shoot.  I had a constant authorized airline official that escorted me at all times.  I was not permitted out of his sight.  My escort had documents that authorized my being there for the security people and I had to show ID every time I entered or re-entered the airport grounds.

Despite my being in the cold, the wind and the snow this was a great experience.  I love being a commercial photographer and I thank God for giving me the talent to do it.

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.

800-226-1083

December 17, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has been hired to photograph the events a commercial airliner goes through between landing and takeoff at Cleveland Hopkins Airport for an annual report.  From the plane being directed into the concourse gate, luggage unloaded and loaded for the next flight, refueling,  the visual safety inspection to snow removal and de-icing before being directed away from the concourse to the next flight.

As a commercial photographer the opportunity to see, and to some degree experience what happens on the ground during those few minutes a commercial airliner is on the ground is exciting.

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.

800-226-1083

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. is now working from new larger facilities in Westlake, Ohio.  The new location has 2 commercial photography studios, 1 set up for table top product photography and the second studio for both executive portraits and larger product photography.  The new location also provides additional space for full service digital photo editing.

This is a major expansion providing the ability to handle more than one project at a time, a high volume of products, large products, custom sets and the ability to provide additional photo editing services.  The new location is in a quiet almost park like setting at 1650 Crossings Parkway in Westlake across from Crocker Park.  It is 2 minutes from the I90 Crocker Rd exit, minutes from downtown Cleveland, Elyria and Lorain.

Please call for an appointment.

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.

800-226-1083

November 14, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has found it necessary to move their commercial photography services to a new larger facility with a larger studio and additional office space.  

The new facility was needed to efficiently handle the higher volume of product photography Douglas has obtained.  The new facility provides for an expansion of the photo editing and Photoshop services as well as some new photography services.  The new facility also provides Douglas with a more pleasant atmosphere for clients.  

The new location is at 1650 Crossings Parkway in Westlake, Ohio less than 2 minutes from the Crocker Basset exit on I90, a short walk to Westlake's Crocker Park and only 15 minutes from downtown Cleveland.

November 3, 1009 - As the owner of DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. and as a commercial photographer I have both worked with in-house photographers and acted as an outsourced in-house photographer.  This has proven a Win-Win situation.  I have a client that needs a photographer frequently and my client has priority and gets what they need when they need it.  Much like a staff or in-house photographer I get to know everyone.  I learn what to expect as does my client.  The only difference is I'm not down the hall but it's almost the same.  I invested in my own internet server just so my clients have the ability to have access to their images, see almost in real time editing they need on their images and can have images available to their vendors.  Just like an in-house photographer.

If your photography requirements are high enough but not high enough to warrant am in-house photographer this type of working relationship can provide almost all of the benefits of an in-house photographer without the cost.

I have been doing this for years.  This morning I read a story on Advertising Age (.com) about an ad agency that discovered what I have known for years,  In-house and Outsourced Aren't the Only Options for Your Clients.  This is a report on how ad agencies are, or can respond to clients cutting costs by taking their ad work in house.  

"We didn't want to stand by and watch our clients take that work in-house, nor was it in their best interest for us to try to force-fit it into our standard agency model. So, a few years ago, we created a second model, one we call the 'in-house outsource,' or studio model."

This story goes on to explain how this ad agency cut out the middlemen, account executives, traffickers etc. and still make their creative people available (and the income). 

November 2, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has their own web servers and because of that we can and do provide our commercial photography clients with the ability to have their images, or even selected images, available anywhere in the world using password protected FTP special individual client accounts in hours.

Example:  DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.  recently completed a major commercial photography project for an international client's marketing department.  Each day the project continued the marketing staff, the artists and management had access to the images for review.  Even management could make suggestions and changes daily as the project progressed from their offices.  When it came to editing images it was done in seconds over the phone because everyone was looking at the same image from different locations.

When the project was completed a select few of the images were needed by the clients web designer.  Within minutes the web designer had their own password protected FTP special account on the DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. servers with only the high resolution images, edited and sized to specification, they required.

For this client it meant managing a photo shoot without having to be there.  It meant management having the ability to follow the progress and suggest changes without being there.  It meant having the ability to edit images in seconds over the phone.  It also meant selecting specific images for one of their projects and having just those high resolution images available in minutes.

One might imagine that the cost savings to the client by having even management be able to follow this project without meetings and at their convenience, marketing and art staff having control without being there or attending meetings and even being able to edit images and see the results over the phone, one might imagine the cost savings are significant.  

All of this and even deadlines that are just a few hours away can be met.

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. means service beyond the photography.

October 29, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has totally re-designed their website which they are calling DOUGLASPhotoInc.com 3.0.  After a year long review of visitors, their marketing strategy and the deliberation of a top designer the new clean and animated DOUGLASPhotoInc.com 3.0 was born.

"As much as I like the new look to the new site I must admit I have some concerns," Douglas Konkol, commercial photographer and owner of DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. said.  "In many ways this new site defies the normal website success theories.  No buttons to take you to other pages and virtually no text.  I like it though.  It's clean and there's no BS.  Actually this is more my style.  Time will tell."

DOUGLAS is a commercial photographer based in Cleveland, Ohio with clients nationally and internationally.

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October 20, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - Having the ability to have quality product photos when you need them and not having them cost prohibitive is maybe more important now than ever.  This truly can be a question of cost -vs- quality.

No one is spending money before they have to.  Today it just makes sense.  Today it's a matter of survival. That makes things like product photography, now more often than not, a choice, a decision.  Do you use the same old photos or do you get new ones to update your marketing?  If you decide on new photos can you have them done as fast as you need them or will this cause a delay in your marketing program?  Then there is the question of having to pay rush charges because you need them in a hurry.  Then there is just having Bill do new photos.  He has a nice camera and I mean how tough can it be?  He can do them right away and it won't cost anything.

Service means doing things that are more than expected.  As a commercial photographer I know as well as anyone that with budgets and less staff things happen faster now than they used to.  They have to.  I guess more companies needing things faster could be a good thing for me.  I make more for rush jobs, or I could.  I could choose to not take advantage and do things for a client that they need yesterday and not charge extra.  I'm more interested in gaining a long term client than a short term profit.  I don't charge extra for rush jobs.

The other fast thing that is required is getting the images where they need to be when they need to be there.  I don't email images.  That's a receipt for trouble.  You get a damaged image and as far as you know that's what I provided.  I have invested in my own server that allows me to provide my clients with password protected FTP service for downloading their images, anywhere in the world.  I also gives me the ability to make the images available from my server often in hours at no additional cost to my clients.

Many professional commercial photographers rates are based on either a half day or a full day.  What if you don't need that many photos?  What if what you need really only will take an hour or two to photograph?  I could never quite understand charging a client for my time spent doing nothing for them so I don't.  If I can get it done in an hour or two that's what you pay for.

Experience has also taught me that less than perfect products or product that has been damaged in delivery to me causes delay.  That's fine if your not on a short deadline but if you are.  My solutions to this challenge is, if possible, I pick up the products for the photo shoot so I can examine them or I set up a location studio and do the shoot at my clients facility where the convenience and access to "another one" is seconds away.

I hope you will allow me the opportunity to prove what I can do for you.

Douglas

Cleveland Commercial Photography  |  DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.  |  DOUGLAS Commercial Photography™

Advertising Image Services™  |   DOUGLAS Art Prints®