Like My Photos? Buy One!

People like the photos I post on Facebook and on Instagram (@PhotoQuist). Now I'll see if anyone likes them enough to buy one. I've uploaded about two dozen to a website called FineArtAmerica.com, where artists can upload their work and the site takes care of the orders, of the making the prints, and doing any framing that a customer wants.

Check them out!

New Web Site Address

To make us easier to find on the Internet — as well as making it easier to pass it along by word of mouth, we have a new URL for our website. Now you can go to photoquist.com to see samples of our work.

I thought "philiprandolphparker.com" was too long and difficult to read. Even if you write it "PhilipRandolphParker.com, it's still a mouthful. Then if you're trying to tell someone the site's name you have to specify that Philip has just one "l" and Randolph ends in "ph" rather than "f."

So photoquist.com it is!

Viewer Mail

Not viewer mail, exactly, but an e-mail from a visitor to our website. She was a referral (very cool!) and "very very interested" in hiring me (very very cool!).

She had some questions about the service and how the shoots worked. Things like how much direction do I give versus the client choosing his/her poses, shooting at multiple locations and having wardrobe changes.

I wrote a detailed note answering them and thought I'd share it here in case it helped anyone else better understand the business model of Philip Randolph Parker Photography.

Hi C-----,

Thank you for checking out my site! I appreciate the interest.

The pictures I shot with Jahara were great fun. I made suggestions for some of the shots -- like the ones when she walked on the railroad tracks in her heels (what a good sport she was!) -- for others she did what she wanted and I tried to capture the moment.

It's a collaborative process where we bounce ideas off of each other so that we get the shots you want for your portfolio and I get to brag that I took them!

For the $200 you get digital copies of ALL the shots we take on our shoot. I don't remember how many shots I took with Jahara. My most recent shoot with a couple and their 8-month-old daughter was 380 shots. They're not all great shots, I'll tell you that up front. No photographer is going to nail every single frame.

And some shots are very similar as I snap several frames of every pose we do. Of those 380 shots with that couple and their daughter, I posted 14 on my website — the ones I considered the best of the best. There are 19 of from my shoot Jahara on my site. She might be able to tell you how many shots she considers portfolio-worthy.

Remember, you don't pay me until you've seen the photos and decide they're worth it. We'll review them on my laptop right after the shoot. Of course, if you decide they're not worth paying for, you don't get to keep them.

I provide only digital copies. Many photographers will have low-priced session fees and then require that you buy your prints from them. That's pretty standard in photography and I don't want to give you the impression that you're getting ripped off if you hire a photographer who works that way. But, at least for now, I don't. I give you digital copies that you can take to any printer you choose. I've used Wal-Mart and been pleased with the results.

As for shooting in a garden and in Ybor City, I designed the $200 service for single location shoots. That's mainly because the early morning light that gives us the best photos lasts for only a few hours. We'd lose too much of that light driving from one place to another. It's better to spend that time shooting.

Wardrobe changes are no problem as long as they don't take too long. You might remember a shot I took of Jahara as she put on a boot during the wardrobe change she did on our shoot. Another couple featured on my website's gallery page — Erica and Brandon — also brought a change of clothes and changed up their look. Just remember that we have a limited window — one to three hours — of really good light to work with.

I'll be happy to call you to talk more about what kinds of shots you want and to set up a time, let me know when a good time to reach you is.

Have a great day!

John McQuiston

For more information about singles, couples & family photography — including location portraits and engagement sessions, visit www.photoquist.com.

And They're Off!

Ah, the handy racing cliche on the day we launch the new photography website and its companion blog. (That would be the one you're reading right now.)

When a 50-1 shot whose owner towed him 17 hours from New Mexico to Louisville wins the Kentucky Derby, that gives hope to a lot of long shots.

I lived and worked as a TV sports reporter in Lexington, Kentucky for three years. As you might imagine, I spent a lot of time covering racing. Central Kentucky is known for two things: the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Basketball.

I learned a lot about the race that dates back to 1875 — only 10 years after the Civil War ended! — and has run every single year since. Two world wars and one Great Depression failed to stop the streak.

Though I still watch the Triple Crown races, I've lost touch with the sport since I moved back to Florida. I do visit our local track, Tampa Bay Downs, but it's mostly to take pictures. My last trip was a couple weeks ago. Here are a few of the shots:

It Counts

Now the new site is up and running, I've e-mailed some of the folks I've shot with asking them for testimonials of my work. A couple of them had offered before so I didn't feel like I was imposing.

I also put a call out on my personal Facebook page soliciting feedback on the site. They probably thought it was spam but if they're friends, they'll look anyway. I hope they're friends. I haven't used my Facebook page to create a wide network of people I don't know. I do not have any Facebook friends whom I have not met face-to-face.

Some people seem to use the site almost to collect names. I've gotten requests from people that not only did I not know, I had never heard of them and had no idea what possible connection I could have had to them.

But I digress.

I also added web site counters to the new site and this blog. It will give me an idea how many people visit and approximately where they're from. I'm not trying to track people; I just want to know if people are seeing the sites. If you're reading this, you can't say the effort didn't count for something!

Welcome!

Pardon the sawdust as we get the new blog and website going. As you may have surmised, this one centers on photography. In particular, photography by a new company in the Tampa, Florida area formed to provide such a service.

I wanted the blog to have a plain design to match that of the new PRP website, which has an acutely simple layout. The reason is not because I'm lazy. Or that I'm a largely unskilled web designer. Or some devious combination of the two.

The idea was that the plain site would help the photography stand out.

Oh, and I should mention that "I" am John. The name Philip Randolph Parker comes from the middle names of me and my brothers. While, as you know, there is "no I in T-E-A-M," for the moment I am the team. I take the photos, I build the website and I write the blog.

They really are labors of love. But sometimes they are labors!

They are also works in progress. However you happened to have stumbled across this, I welcome your feedback — nay, I implore you for it.

If nothing else, the creation of even that simple looking site gave my HTML and CSS muscles a real workout. (HTML and CSS are some of the codes computer geeks use to make websites.) And I made a breakthrough discovery about sub-domains, which will interest absolutely no one outside of the guy writing this sentence, I realize, but this blog is brand new and I don’t imagine I’m talking to anyone but myself right now.

If I am mistaken about that, I thank you for reading.