My formal training has been spread across The University of San Diego, The San Diego Photo Lab and the Pacific Northwest School of Photography. In 1977 I was fortunate to have studied with Ansel Adams at his workshop given in Yosemite. I have received several regional and national awards and have been published in different journals and magazines. Certainly, education should be an ongoing process and I continue to include a yearly input of classes and seminars given by the top photographers and digital artists throughout our country.

Today’s photography embraces not just the skills with a camera in gathering the intended input. Its reach has extended into the digital realm which allows enhancements to the native image that could never have been fulfilled when using film. While I try to stay true to my subject, I sometimes italicize the scene with different inputs from some of the many different digital tools available. While it might start as a basic photographic image, the feeling I received during its initial encounter might find me emphasizing certain colors, sharpening your attention to certain areas, or rendering the entire image to a painterly effect.

Actually your recognizing that I have the skill, tools and experience necessary to handle your photographic needs, is really the function of this entire web site. This Why Steve Peterson Photography section should really be in how we focus our talents in satisfying your needs.

With this in mind, let me first list for you, our business promises to you - our customer:

• We will listen to your ideas and expectations and combine them with our creativity and unique settings to return images of the highest quality in professional standards.

• We will take elegant portraits combining careful attention to detail with visual creativity to produce timeless images that capture your personality at its best.

• We will help to put you at ease allowing the creation of your images to be more a visit with friends rather than "a trip to the dentist".

• We will help you choose the correct picture arrangement, albums, frames, and displays that will best portray your feelings of love that embrace each illustration.

• We will be mindful of your pocketbook and not force the selling of anything you do not want.

• For groups and events, we will be there for the necessary moments, yet we will not impose, in any way, upon your special day of celebration.

• We will expedite your order in a timely fashion, paying particular attention to all the necessary particulars and to your custom specifications.

• To further back-up our promises check out our Guarantee.
  

Speaking of posing, many people don’t realize just how important posing is. The most important word when it comes to posing is “NATURAL”. You absolutely don’t want to look stiff and fake! One of the most common comments we hear from our clients is how “natural” the portraits look. Our clients love how good they look, but they also love how “natural” they appear in the images.

I understand that you want to look really great, but also you don’t want to be put into some weird, stupid, pathetic pose that makes you look stiff and unnatural.

The best “posing” comes about through a collaboration by taking account of what you naturally do (standing, sitting, leaning against a prop) and sprinkled with a little refinement from me as to how this will best look in the camera.Yes, I will “guide” you so the composition and “look” of the portraits is really great. But I will not push you around and try to put you into unnatural positions that are just plain crazy looking. You and I will work together to help bring out YOUR best “looks”.

It is not for you to reinvent the wheel in looking this way and that for appropriate and individualistic positions. My directions are minimal and I definitely want YOUR PARTICIPATION. The best posing comes about from how you look naturally. I simply try to touch up those positions much as one would adjust a grouping of flowers in order to display them to their best. My participatory approach to posing is really “posing without being posed” it becomes fun and exploratory and much more satisfying for you to become involved in producing your own creative imagery.

Try our method of posing. I guarantee you will never be satisfied in going back to another photographer who simply tells you “how to stand” or to “put your hand to your face and “look like this.”

One of the things that digital has allowed me to do is to expand upon the different products and services I can offer you. No longer are we tied to the physical need of a variety of backgounds for studio work. For studio portraiture I use the ChromaKey process or greenscreen material which allows any sort of image - background if you will - to be placed behind you. I have reasoned, that since they do this technique all the time in television and in the movies why not for still photography?

Now just exactly what does this mean to you? Well practically a limitless supply of backgrounds which can be specifically tailored to your needs and color coordinated exactly to the outfits that you will be wearing. Nobody else north of Seattle is doing this - you've got to see it to believe it.

To get an idea of some of the different backgrounds that you can have in your photographs Click here. (When you are looking at these backgrounds, keep in mind that the colors for any of the background patterns can be changed to practically any hue, saturation or intensity of color. Your advantage???? Almost any outfit that you will be wearing can be perfectly color-keyed. Therefore, when look at these backgrounds, look for patterns, shapes, mottled color patterns that you best like - NOT THE COLOR OF THE DESIGNS YOU ARE LOOKING AT.

If you’ll look at the photographs I’ve included on this web site, you’ll see how natural and comfortable they look. And read the comments the people have said about their portraits. Hopefully that will all be of aid in helping you in selecting the best photographer for your purposes.

Whether your need is for commercial, individual, business or family portraits, my job is to interpret your wishes to a finished print. In doing so I want you to feel comfortable with me and know that I will be responsive to your questions, ideas, likes and dislikes. Remember, the best of you can only come forward when you are relaxed and trusting of the person you are working with. I will work hard to be that person.