We are a two-person photography practice working out of a north-facing daylight studio. We photograph people, objects and rooms, and we try to do it quietly: fewer setups, longer looks, files you can actually use.
Bookings run as half days and full days. Most sittings are finished and delivered inside of two weeks. If you already know what you need, write to us with dates and a rough shot count and we will send a written quote the same week.
About the studio
Stillwater Studio was set up in 2013 by two photographers who wanted a working space rather than a showroom. The room has changed very little since: a bank of north windows, a set of scrims on a track, a painted cyc wall in the corner, and a long table that has taken more punishment than most of the equipment.
We work in three areas and we keep them deliberately close together. Portraits teach us how to keep someone comfortable in front of a lens. Product work teaches us how a surface behaves when you move a light six inches. Interiors force both of those lessons into one frame, at a scale you cannot control. Clients often arrive for one and come back for another, which is how the practice has stayed steady without ever getting large.
Most jobs are booked directly by the person who will use the pictures: a founder who needs a set of headshots before a funding round, a ceramicist with forty new pieces and a catalogue deadline, an architect documenting a finished flat before the furniture arrives. We are comfortable with an art director in the room and equally comfortable when nobody has ever commissioned photography before. In the second case we will simply ask more questions up front.
We do not keep a large staff. On a normal day it is the two of us; on a busy production day we bring in a digital technician and, if there is styling involved, a first assistant. We will always tell you in advance who is going to be in the room and what they cost. There are no surprise line items on a Stillwater invoice, and we would rather quote high and refund the difference than the reverse.
A rotating selection from commissioned and personal work. Titles are internal; captions note the format and the year. Full case sets are available on request for anyone weighing up a commission.
Prints of personal series are made in short runs and are not sold through the site. If you would like to see a physical print before commissioning interior work, we keep a small folio at the studio and you are welcome to look through it during an appointment.
Everything below is quoted as a booking, not a package of extras. The rate covers the shoot, the selection, and the finished files. Retouching beyond ordinary clean-up is quoted separately so you are never paying for work you did not want.
From $520 · half day
Sittings for individuals, partners and small teams. We shoot against the cyc wall or in window light depending on what the pictures are for, and we plan for two or three looks rather than a dozen.
From $840 · full day
Catalogue, packshot and editorial still life on a table or a sweep. We work in consistent setups so a range photographed over several days still cuts together on one page.
From $980 · full day
Finished rooms, showhomes, hospitality spaces and completed projects for architects and builders. We shoot on a tripod, level, and we correct verticals as a matter of course.
Nothing here is unusual, but writing it down saves a lot of questions. A typical commission moves through these seven stages over three to five weeks.
You write with a rough idea of what you need, when you need it and where it will be used. If you are not sure about any of those, say so — that is a normal starting point and we will ask the questions that fill the gaps.
We send a written quote within three business days. It lists the booking length, the crew, the number of finished frames, the licence and the delivery window. If a job needs a location scout or a prop budget, those appear as separate lines.
A date is held for seven days without obligation. To confirm, we ask for a signed quote and a deposit of one third. The remainder is invoiced on delivery, payable within fourteen days.
A week before the shoot we agree the running order, the shot list and who is attending. For product work we ask that samples arrive at the studio two working days early so we can test surfaces before the clock starts.
Half days run four hours, full days run eight with a break. We shoot tethered so you can see frames as they are made, whether you are in the room or looking at a live folder from your own desk.
Within five business days you receive a proof gallery of every usable frame, watermarked and numbered. You choose the finals; we do not choose for you unless you ask, in which case we mark a suggested set.
Finished files arrive as high-resolution JPEGs plus web-sized versions, named to your convention if you have one. TIFFs and print-ready CMYK conversions are available on request at no extra charge.
The shoots that run best are the ones where the brief arrived early. In practice that means: a list of what must be photographed, an idea of where each picture will sit, and one person who can make decisions on the day. A single approver saves more time than any piece of equipment we own.
For portraits, ask sitters to bring two or three changes in plain colours and to avoid anything that has just been bought and not yet worn. For product, send more samples than you think you need, and include any packaging that will appear in the frame.
We arrive early, we do not smoke, and we leave a location as we found it. If we damage something we tell you the same day. If the weather ruins a set of interior frames we will say so rather than deliver something soft and hope nobody notices.
If a shoot overruns because of us, the extra time is free. If it overruns because the samples arrived late or the room was not ready, we will keep going where we can and invoice the additional hours at the standard rate, which is always stated on the quote.
Prices below are the current studio rates and hold until the end of the calendar year. Everything is quoted in advance; nothing on this page is a subscription, a retainer or a hidden minimum.
| Booking | Duration | Finished frames | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait sitting | Half day, 4 hours | 6 included | $520 |
| Extended portrait | Full day, 8 hours | 14 included | $940 |
| Team headshot day | Full day, up to 20 sitters | 2 per sitter | $1,450 |
| Product, half day | 4 hours, up to 18 items | 1–3 per item | $480 |
| Product, full day | 8 hours, up to 40 items | 1–3 per item | $840 |
| Interiors, half day | 4 hours on site | 6–8 frames | $560 |
| Interiors, full day | 8 hours on site | 10–16 frames | $980 |
| Archive / reshoot | Half day | Matched to brief | $620 |
| Consultation | Per hour, min. 2 hours | Written shot list | $180 |
| Item | Notes | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Additional finished frame | Beyond the included count, from the same shoot | $45 |
| Overtime | Charged in 30-minute blocks, agreed on the day | $130 / hr |
| Digital technician | Added on high-volume product days | $340 / day |
| First assistant | Standard on interiors and large sets | $260 / day |
| Advanced retouching | Compositing, removals, colour matching | $90 / hr |
| Travel beyond 30 miles | Mileage plus time; quoted before booking | $0.68 / mi |
| Rush delivery | Finished files within 48 hours, subject to slot | +30% |
| Studio hire, dry | Space only, no crew, weekdays | $220 / day |
One third on booking, the balance on delivery, payable within fourteen days by bank transfer. We are happy to work against a purchase order and can raise invoices to a finance address that differs from the person commissioning the work.
For commissions over $5,000 we will split the balance into two payments at no extra cost. We do not charge interest on late payment for the first thirty days, after which the statutory rate applies.
Cancel more than fourteen days ahead and the deposit is fully refunded. Between seven and fourteen days, half is retained. Inside seven days the deposit is retained in full, because that slot is very unlikely to be filled again.
Weather is the one exception. If an interior or exterior shoot has to move because of conditions we could not have planned around, we reschedule once at no charge and the deposit simply follows the new date.
Licensing & usage
Copyright in the photographs stays with the studio. You receive a licence to use them, and for almost every commercial client that licence is broad enough that the distinction never comes up in practice.
Unless we agree otherwise in writing, every commissioned shoot includes a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive licence for the commissioning business to use the delivered images across its own marketing: website, social channels, email, printed brochures, trade stands, packaging, press releases and product listings on marketplaces you sell through. There is no annual renewal, no per-impression counting and no expiry.
You may crop the images, resize them, place text over them and use them in layouts. You may pass them to an agency, a printer or a distributor who is producing materials on your behalf. You may keep using them after our working relationship ends. What the standard licence does not cover is resale of the photograph itself as a product — prints, stock libraries, or sub-licensing to an unrelated third party for their own promotion.
Paid advertising placements are included where the spend is ordinary and the images sit within your own campaign. Large out-of-home buys — billboards, transit wraps, national print advertising — are quoted separately, not because we want to charge twice, but because those uses usually require model releases and higher-resolution retouching that the standard delivery does not include. Tell us at the quoting stage if a campaign of that size is even a possibility, and the extension will normally be a modest flat fee.
For any shoot involving recognisable people we ask each person to sign a simple release covering commercial use. Sitters can decline specific uses, and we will note any restriction on the delivery sheet so that nobody discovers a limit two years later. Personal portrait clients receive a licence for personal and social use; if a personal portrait later gets used commercially, write to us and we will extend it, usually at no charge.
A credit is appreciated but not required. Where a publication asks for one, the correct form is “Photograph: Stillwater Studio”. Please do not credit a photographer by name unless we have confirmed who shot the frame, since on team days that is not always obvious from the file.
We keep raw files for two years and delivered files for five. Within that window you can ask for a re-delivery at no charge if a drive fails or a file is lost in a website migration. After five years we may still have them, but we cannot promise it, so please keep your own copy of anything you rely on.
If you need images that will never appear anywhere else, including in our own portfolio, we can quote an exclusivity uplift. Full copyright assignment is possible for some product work and is priced case by case. Both are unusual requests and neither is necessary for the great majority of commissions, so please ask before assuming you need one.
Shared with permission. Names of businesses have been shortened at their request; anyone considering a larger commission is welcome to ask for a reference we can put you in touch with directly.
“We had photographed the same eight products four times in three years and never got a set that matched. Stillwater built the setup once, wrote it down, and we have been adding to that library ever since without a single reshoot. The catalogue finally looks like it was made by one company.”Operations lead · homewares brand
Two full product days, ongoing archive sessions each spring.
“What I appreciated most was the quote. Every line was something I could understand, and the final invoice matched it to the dollar. After a decade of commissioning photography I did not expect that to be the thing I remembered.”Marketing manager · food producer
Half-day product session with a written shot list agreed in advance.
Nine hundred and forty square feet on the top floor of a converted works building, with north windows down one long wall and enough ceiling height to put a light where it needs to be.
The shooting area is roughly twenty-eight feet by twenty-four, with a painted corner cyc on the short wall. Windows run the length of the north side and are fitted with a track of diffusion panels, so the daylight can be softened, cut or blocked entirely without moving a stand. On a bright day we rarely turn a light on at all for portraits.
There is a kitchen with a kettle and a fridge, a changing area with a mirror and a rail, a washroom on the same floor, and a long steel-topped table that doubles as a product bench. Two folding tables and a stack of apple boxes cover most other requirements. Wi-fi is available for anyone who has to keep working while they wait.
The building has a goods lift and a loading bay at the rear, which matters if you are bringing furniture or a pallet of samples. Street parking is metered and usually findable before ten in the morning; there is a paid car park two minutes' walk away that we can validate for full-day bookings.
The building has step-free access from the rear entrance and a lift to all floors. The shooting floor is level throughout with no thresholds. The washroom on our floor is accessible. If you have a specific requirement, tell us when booking and we will confirm exactly what we can and cannot accommodate rather than guessing.
The room is available dry-hire on weekdays when we are not shooting, at $220 for a full day. That includes the space, the daylight, paper rolls of your choosing and the tables. Lighting kit is $80 on top and comes with a short handover if you have not used the heads before. Hire days are booked one week in advance and cannot be held on a provisional basis.
We are glad to show people around before a booking, and it is usually the fastest way to work out whether the space suits your project. Appointments run Tuesday to Thursday between ten and four. We ask that you write ahead rather than turn up: if a shoot is running we will not be able to open the door.
Yes, and for product work we would prefer it — decisions about which face of an object reads best are much faster with the person who made it standing next to the monitor. For portraits it depends on the sitter. Some people relax with a colleague present and some tighten up completely, so we will ask the sitter rather than assume. If you cannot attend in person, we can share a live folder so you see frames on your own screen as they are captured and can send a note back between setups.
Usually. Send us five or six examples of the existing set and we will tell you honestly how close we can get. Matching a background, a crop convention and a general colour treatment is straightforward. Matching a specific lighting signature made on equipment we do not own is harder, and in that case we will say so before you book rather than after.
Regularly. Interiors are almost always on location, and we take portraits and product out of the studio when the context matters. Within thirty miles the travel is included in the day rate. Beyond that we quote mileage and travel time up front. For anything requiring an overnight stay we will price it as a two-day booking and show you the breakdown before you commit to anything. We travel light enough to work in a domestic room without blocking a hallway with cases.
High-resolution JPEGs in sRGB as standard, plus a web-sized set at 2000 pixels on the long edge. TIFFs, Adobe RGB versions and print-ready CMYK conversions are available on request at no additional charge — just tell us which profile your printer wants. Raw files stay with the studio, which is normal practice and keeps the archive consistent. If your web team has a preferred long-edge size or a maximum file weight, tell us and we will export to it rather than leaving you to batch-resize a hundred images by hand.
Through a download link that stays live for sixty days, organised into folders that mirror the shot list. If your team prefers a shared drive we will upload directly to it. For very large product deliveries we will post a physical drive at cost, which is often less painful than pulling ninety gigabytes down an office connection on a Friday afternoon. Whatever the method, we send a plain contact sheet as a PDF alongside it so somebody can check the delivery against the shot list without opening every folder.
For your own business marketing, yes, with no renewal fee and no expiry date. The licensing section above sets out the boundaries in full, but the short version is that anything you are doing to promote your own business is covered, and the only things that need a separate conversation are reselling the photograph itself or a very large paid-media buy. If you are ever unsure whether a particular use is covered, one email will settle it, and we have never charged anyone for asking.
Tell us straight away. If the images do not do what the brief asked for, we will reshoot the frames in question at our own cost, and that has happened a handful of times in twelve years. If the brief itself changed after the shoot, we will still help, but that becomes a new booking. Either way we would rather sort it out than have you quietly use pictures you are unhappy with.
Yes, and we are used to being one supplier among several on a larger project. We will work to your production schedule, attend a pre-production call, take direction on set and deliver to whatever naming convention your asset manager requires. We invoice the agency directly and can provide our insurance certificate and standard supplier documents on request. If your client wants to meet the photographer before signing anything off, that is easy to arrange and we are used to sitting quietly in someone else's pre-production meeting.
Get in touch
The most useful first email says what needs photographing, roughly when, and where the pictures will end up. Two sentences is plenty. We answer everything within three business days, including enquiries we are not the right studio for.
Enquiries — hello@stillwater.example.com
Accounts — accounts@stillwater.example.com
Telephone — +1 (555) 0143
The phone is answered between ten and five on weekdays and goes to voicemail during shoots. Email is genuinely faster and leaves a record both of us can refer back to.
Stillwater Studio
Fifth Floor, Unit 12
Riverbend Works
Northbank Quarter
Visits by appointment, Tuesday to Thursday, ten until four. Goods lift and rear loading bay available — mention deliveries in advance so we can meet you downstairs.
| Day | Shooting | Enquiries |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | By arrangement | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Tuesday | 09:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 – 18:00 | 10:00 – 17:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 – 16:00 | 10:00 – 15:00 |
| Weekend | Location work only | Closed |
We close for two weeks at the end of December and for one week in August. Those dates are confirmed on the studio voicemail well in advance, and any booking that falls near them is flagged at the quoting stage.
Privacy & terms
We collect the minimum we need to do the work: your name, the email address and telephone number you contact us on, the billing address for an invoice, and whatever brief material you send us. We keep enquiry correspondence for two years, contracts and invoices for seven as our accountant requires, and delivered image files for five.
We do not sell, rent or share contact details with anyone. The only third parties who see any of it are our accountant, who sees invoices, and the file-transfer service used to deliver images, which sees the email address a download link is sent to. Neither uses the information for their own purposes.
This site does not set advertising or analytics cookies and does not embed third-party trackers. Nothing on this page is loaded from another domain. Our web host keeps standard access logs, which record the address a request came from and the page requested; these are rotated on a short cycle and are used only to keep the site running.
You can ask us at any time what we hold about you, ask for a copy, ask for corrections, or ask us to delete everything that we are not legally required to keep. Write to hello@stillwater.example.com and we will respond within thirty days, normally much sooner.
Where a shoot involves recognisable people, we ask each person to sign a release before or on the day. A signed release records what the pictures may be used for. Anyone can decline, and declining does not affect the booking — we simply photograph around it or restrict the use. If a sitter later changes their mind about a specific use, write to us and we will remove those frames from our own portfolio and tell the commissioning client, though we cannot recall material a client has already printed.
A booking is confirmed when we receive a signed quote and the deposit. The quote, together with these terms, forms the agreement between us. Where they conflict, the quote takes precedence, since it describes the specific job.
Copyright in all photographs remains with Stillwater Studio. The licence granted is described in the licensing section above and in the quote. Delivery of files does not transfer copyright, and files may not be sub-licensed or resold as photographs without written agreement.
Payment terms are one third on booking and the balance within fourteen days of delivery. We reserve the right to withhold publication-quality files until the balance is settled, though in twelve years we have never had to.
Cancellation terms are set out under Rates. Where a shoot is postponed rather than cancelled, the deposit transfers to the new date at no charge for the first move; a second move is treated as a fresh booking.
Our liability for any single commission is limited to the fee paid for that commission. We carry public liability and professional indemnity insurance, and certificates are available to any client who needs them for site access. We are not liable for delays caused by circumstances outside our control, including weather, illness, site access being refused, or a building not being ready on the agreed date.
If something goes wrong, tell us. We would far rather hear about a problem in the first week than read about it later. Complaints are answered by one of the two partners, in writing, within five business days.
Rates, hours and equipment listings are kept current and were last reviewed at the start of this year. If you are reading this some time after that, treat the numbers as a guide and ask for a written quote, which is the only figure we are bound by.