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Animal Assistance League

Every picture ever taken with a little 35mm camera would have looked better if it had been taken with a medium format Hasselblad camera, regardless of who actually took the picture or what 35mm camera was used.

I'm available for your Destination Event

My professional photography services are available nation wide. 

I charge the same low rates no matter where I work.

Just get me there and back.

Depending on the location, I will buy my own room for the event.  I may not need a car.  Food and beverages will be my responsibility.

I always arrive a day or two ahead of schedule, at NO EXTRA COST.

That helps me to get acclimated to the location and it gives me time to shoot some very unique images of the location atmosphere.

That helps me tell a complete visual story.

I have worked all across the country, from New York to Hawaii and Minnesota to Cancun.  My prices are the same regardless of where I work. 

However, my primary region is all of Northern California and Southern California, including Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, The Inland Empire, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.

All of the wonderful cats and dogs that are pictured on my site are from the Animal Assistance League of Orange County.  

(   www.aaloc.com   )  

These cats and dogs are all available for adoption. 

I am a proud volunteer and Board member for the Animal Assistance League of Orange County. 

AALOC is the oldest and the largest, non-profit (501 3c), no kill animal shelter and rescue in all of Orange County. 

We routinely take care of about 200 little cats and dogs, both in our kennel and in various foster homes and facilities across the Southland.    

In addition to our rescue and shelter services, we provide a wide range of pet health referral services, pet education, micro chip and low-cost spay & neuter programs for families in need.

If you have room in your home or your heart, all of our little "guests" could use a warm couch, a nice meal and a few moments in your arms. 

(   www.aaloc.com   )

www.adagiophotography.com

paul@adagiophotography.com

www..themediamaster.com

paul@themediamaster.com

My professional services

Thank you for your time and your consideration.  I appreciate this opportunity to present my work to you.

During the last 38 years, I have personally photographed more than 6,000 Bar Mitzvahs, Bat Mitzvahs, Weddings, Debutante Balls, Private Parties and huge Corporate Special Events. 

Some of my events have only lasted for an hour or so while others have gone on for more than 80 hours, spread out, over several months.

I have worked with Representatives from the White House, Congress and Senate, as well as with government agencies, ad agencies national corporations, local businesses, non-profits and with thousands of individual families.

.  My goal, in every assignment, is to capture the very soul of everyone and everything that I shoot.  I am fast, quiet, obsessively detail oriented and professional.

.  I will own nothing.  You will own and you will receive everything that I will graciously create for you and your family. 

.  The Copyrights, for your images, will be transferred to you upon payment in full.  I will retain a limited reuse authorization, allowing me to use your images to help market my services online, in related publications, in my trade show booth and in my meetings.  Nothing will ever be offered to anyone, at any time or for any reason, for reuse or sale.

.  I will charge you $150.00 per hour, with a 1-hour minimum, plus expenses.  Beyond that 1-hour minimum, I will bill you in 15-minute increments.  With my help, you will decide, for yourselves, exactly how much time you will need to buy.

.  Depending on how much actual time you buy, I offer thousands of dollars worth of FREE gifts, including free time, free helicopter rides, free meals and free pictures.

.  If you are active military, the least I can do, to show my utmost appreciation, is to give you 50% off of your final cost for my services.

.  I can work with almost any budget.

.  I will charge you an additional flat rate of $300.00 to "post-process" all of your original 25mb or 65mb RAW picture files.  This post-production, RAW file conversion process, has to be done and it takes me an extra day or two to complete.

.  As required by the State of California, Rule #1528, Sales Taxes will be charged for all of my time and materials, for in-State assignments.

.  This is my company and I will work alone unless the job is too large for me to complete in the time allowed.  I will be your professional photographer.  I never sub-contract with other photographers.  I don't need an assistant, which will save you money.  I don't need a second shooter.  I shoot more usable images than do teams of two or three 35mm shooters, at any event.   

.  I will arrive a couple of hours, or, in the case of a Destination Event, a couple of days early, at your event, at no extra cost.

.  I will personally shoot, post-process, Photoshop, sharpen and deliver all of your files.  No one else works for me.

.  I will shoot your wonderful, high definition pictures with the best, 22 or 60 million pixel, medium format, cameras in the world... Hasselblad H1's.

.  I will use my studio-quality, soft, flattering, body-wrapping, Lumedyne, on-camera flash system.  I will also use multiple, powerful, Lumedyne, off-camera flash systems, with huge umbrellas and "soft boxes" to light up dark reception ballrooms.  This is what makes my ballroom pictures look so good.  These are the same kinds of lights and controls used for professional magazine shots.

.  NOTHING will be shot with the smaller, lower cost, consumer-grade, lower quality, 35mm cameras.  35mm cameras can't synchronize their film plane shutters with flash, at higher shutter speeds.  So, 35mm shooters don't use flash fill and that makes their pictures look dull and dark, especially outside.  Very little professional or ad agency work is actually done with 35mm cameras.  35's are good for sports or the less important "breaking news" kinds of assignments.  Many 35mm shooters just put their cameras on "auto" an "bang" away, hoping to get about 25% usable stuff.  Typically, they throw away the majority of what they shoot.  None of them color balance on the fly.

.  Human skin is wonderfully transparent.  My softly controlled fill flash exposes the millions of delicious colors visible through the skin.  Even animals have a marvelous range of tones and colors in their skin.  Without the fill flash, there are no "catch lights" or "sparkles" in the eyes and skin is just a boring skin color. 

.  My very sophisticated 22 and 60 million pixel Hasselblad cameras record 16 colors and 16 subtle shades of each color, for every one color recorded by the lower quality, amateur-style, 35mm digital cameras.  That's why my pictures look so incredible.  It is not so much me.  Mostly, it is just the incredible equipment that I use.

.  35mm cameras record white wedding dress fabric, for instance, as a solid mass of rather stark white.  35mm cameras can't hold onto the wonderful tones and subtle shadows that make white fabric so beautiful to see.  My 22 million pixel, Hasselblad camera system, on the other hand, records all of the subtle folds, individual tones, soft white shadows and each individual thread.

.  35mm cameras record black tux fabric, for instance, as one big mass of black, with very few, if any, details or shades of black color, other than flat black.  With my high definition, 22 million pixel, Hasselblad camera system, I can see black buttons on black fabric and each of the black threads that make the black tux pockets.

.  Black and brown skin tones, for instance, have a fantastic array of colors deep inside, under the skin.  I can shoot into that color range while the 35mm cameras will only record the most basic black or brown tones.  Black and brown toned people have darker eyes and darker "whites" in their eyes.  They need the wonderful little "catch lights" to help make them sparkle and to separate their various darker colors.

.  35mm photographers often record their digital images as tiny, highly-compressed, 4mb or 6mb JPEG files.  I record my pictures as huge 25mb and 65mb RAW files.  Those are huge files, holding a huge mass of digital data.  35mm cameras physically can't record as much visual information, vibrant color information and fine detail information with their smaller, highly-compressed, JPEG picture files.  Essentially, that is why 35mm cameras produce such low quality pictures. 

.  This "color thing" is just something that has to be seen to be appreciated.  Look at the larger pictures, at the bottom of my web pages.  Then, look at what the other shooters are showing you, on their web pages.  Think that is amazing?  Wait until you see it in person!

.  I will shoot from 100 to 200 beautifully composed, creatively lit, properly exposed, color-balanced, 25mb or 65mb, RAW file format pictures...  per hour. 

.  I'll shoot creative candids, perfect personal poses, wonderful documentaries, tiny details, professional studio setups and emotional, sentimental stories.  I will give you "shot sheets" that will help you to decide, before your event, what you would like to shoot and exactly when it will be possible.

. I urge you to take the time to take the shots. 

.  I will shoot your original pictures as huge, 25mb and 65mb RAW files.  Then, I will convert all of your original 25mb or 65mb RAW picture files into high definition, beautiful, vibrantly colored, sharp, 300dpi JPEG and TIFF files, at any size you wish, up to 20x24.

.  This RAW file conversion process, called "post-production", has to be done.  It can take me an extra 2 or 3 days worth of time to convert 1,200 to 2,000 original RAW pictures.  This is why no one else shoots RAW files.  They don't want to spend the time to improve their pictures.

.  All of your incredible pictures will be color-balanced, cleaned, cropped, density-controlled, Photoshopped and sharpened before you ever see them.

.  In about a week, you will receive and you will own all of your RAW, JPEG and TIFF files.  All of your files will be transferred to your provided external, USB2, Western Digital or LaCie, 300GB-1TB hard drive. 

.  Your pictures will be delivered to you ready for printing.  They will all be 300dpi, which is the highest possible resolution for current digital photographic printers.

.  You'll be able to print your own sharp pictures at my preferred professional photo lab, called "A.V. Partners", in Santa Ana (949.955.3699) or at any professional photo lab in the country...  or I can do it all for you.

.  You'll be able to print as many beautiful, sharp, high definition, color-corrected and properly composed pictures as you wish, at any size you wish ( from wallets to 20x24) and whenever you wish...   all at wholesale prices.

.  Your professionally-printed, Fuji, luster-surfaced,  Crystal Archive, photographic, 8x10 prints will only cost about $2.50/each.  16x20 Fuji prints will only cost you about $12.00/each. 

.  I do not recommend any inkjet or pigment prints because they will be lower resolution, soft, muddy, spotty, non-continuous and artificially colored.

.  The bigger my pictures get, the better they look.  That is when they start to reveal all of the tiny details and fantastic, 3D colors not possible to see in the small prints.

.  Prints made from the small, lower quality, highly compressed, un-Photoshopped 35mm JPEG files look best when they are kept small.

. Your professionally-printed, photographic pictures will last a lifetime.

.  You can build your own album, or, through me, you can buy any album, from any manufacturer in the world... at wholesale prices.  Beautiful, professional album materials start at about $800.00.  The cost for the album design service will be extra.  There are as many different albums and album design ideas as there are people to buy them.

.  You can Google "Do It Yourself" (DIY) digital photo or digital wedding albums to compare the basic prices.  Some look like High School Yearbooks, so be careful.  You can go to my "Price" web page and see a list of every album manufacturer I can find.  My list is linked to all of their web sites.

.  You can design your own albums, with some album companies.  With other companies, you just send them your selected picture choices and they do the design as a feature of their albums.

.  If you need my help, I will charge $100.00 per hour for my album design services.  Most albums take between 8 and 40 hours to design, with your hands-on help.  You will have to sit with me to "assist" me with the approved ideas and picture selections.  I don't like the album templates, so every album page will be totally custom.  It is a fun process if you have never seen it done before.  The cost for the album design time will be in addition to the cost for the actual album materials.  I never markup the album materials.

Like I said, I am obsessive about the tiny details and I have no secrets.  I need for my families to know about every aspect of my business.  I let my families run my business for me.  It's easier that way.

How may I help you?

Call me.

$150.00 per hour, $300.00 to process, 1-hour minimum and any album in the world... at cost.

I would love to meet you at your home, office, church, temple or Hotel lobby.  Then, you will be able to see, with your own eyes, the amazing colors and details of my huge sample pictures.  I urge you to compare my work with anything you have seen from any other photographer around the country.

There will be no cost, no pressure and no obligation.  It will be my pleasure to meet with you.  I'm not a picture "salesman".  I'm just a professional photographer. 

My wonderful work speaks for itself.