Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Alaska Stock introduces an innovative approach in modern photography

Anchorage, Alaska - Alaska Stock has embraced digital photography and all of the benefits that come with it including quick uploads, online viewing, and e-commerce capabilities. However, Alaska Stock feels that the time is right to introduce an innovative approach in modern photography. Utilizing high end cameras and partnering with some of the leading photography labs across North America and internationally, Alaska Stock will now be exclusively accepting 35mm, medium format and large format film.

With the “popular” move towards digital, we decided to compare the quality against our new film technology. We feel the wide dynamic range offered in film cannot be matched by old style 20MP digital cameras. Film produces the ultimate HDR image far superior to the time wasting HDR manipulations of digital cameras. Additionally, films like Velvia are known for producing deep, rich colors. For example, a well executed Velvia transparency viewed through a quality lupe on a light table produces an unparalleled saturated red. When a digital image is viewed on your computer screen, the color can be any variation of “red” depending on the quality of your monitor, its calibration or the light conditions under which the image is being viewed and will never achieve the undefinable richness of Velvia. Film is always sharp and durable. You can drop a film canister a hundred times without affecting the sharpness of the film. Finally, it has come to our attention that professional film cameras, lenses and accessories are now available on the market for exceedingly low prices which will be a great benefit to our contributing photographers in producing hundreds of new photos to re-build our film archive.

Beginning April 1, 2014, Alaska Stock will now only accept film submissions from our photographers and only submit original transparencies safely packaged in Kimac slide protectors to our clients. We encourage our clients to review their Fed-ex and UPS accounts to make sure they have the correct insurance coverage for receiving and handling film transparencies.

With the recent popularity of digital, we feel we’ve lost our personal connections not only with our clients but with our photographers. It’s time to get re-connected face-to-face with our clients and photographers. We invite our local clients to come by and see our latest in the updated film collection during our office viewing hours from 9am-5pm in our downtown Anchorage office. We will provide a large light table viewing area, 10x lupe, and comfortable seating for our clients as they browse through the stacks of images we are able to provide for their project. Upon selecting an image, we will only need a quick signature accepting liability for the original and you are then free to take the transparency for scanning at your preferred lab.

Photographers are encouraged to embrace the future of film and take note of our revised list of accepted film cameras: Nikon FM2, Hasselblad, Holga, SX-70 Polaroid, and Canon AE-1.

Alaska Stock looks forward to working with you in this new age of film!

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