About Me

Cleveland (Cliff) Francoeur

Email: cleve@cfrancoeur.com
Cell: 617-455-5385
Serving Rhode Island and Massachusetts from Tiverton, RI
Mon. – Fri. 5:00PM – 11:30PM, Sat. – Sun. All Day/Night
www.facebook.com/clevelandfrancoeurphotography

About Me
Originally born in a farming community in Southeast Michigan, I spent the first 20 years of my life rather isolated from the rest of the world. Growing up out in the country allowed me to be able to connect with nature on an almost daily basis, something now that I truly appreciate and miss. In my early 20s I worked for a book printing company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I would sometimes travel for this job to different parts of the country and was amazed at all the different sites there were to see and how beautiful the nature in each area truly was. Though there were visits to large cities, they were very brief, and I never fully got to experience what big-city life might’ve been like. An opportunity came up in my mid-20s to move to Seattle for a small consulting company. At the I time packed up my car with as many things as it could fit and headed West. The stay in Seattle was brief, lasting less than a year, but the exposure to the immense natural beauty and all of the water surrounding area made me want to live near the ocean again. I ended up moving back to Ann Arbor where I would remain for another few years until deciding to move to the East Coast.

Boston and Providence were amazing to me, with all of the people, buildings, diversity, entertainment and history. Photography had been a hobby of mine on and off throughout my life, but never a serious one until relocating. Since most of my family still lived in the same small town that I grew up in, I wanted to take pictures of the different things that I saw to share with them. My hobby quickly grew to a passion which with sheer luck I was noticed by a couple of publishers and some of my images made it to print. Other images were used by local news sites from time to time. As with anything, with practice I became better at my craft. In recent years I have been doing more and more private and commercial photography shoots and have decided to formalize the business side of my photography.

As you’ve probably noticed, this is not the typical bio of your typical commercial or professional photographer. I am professional in my approach to photography, and will work with you in a calm and collected approach. When working with the client, I want them to be involved in the creative process as well. This ensures that the end result will be what you had in mind. If for instance, you are looking for a portrait, I will ask you what kind of portrait you are looking for. What kind of feeling do you want to convey? Is this to be a formal portrait or casual portrait? What is the mood you want to convey? Do you want a formal posed portrait, or a more casual photojournalistic style portrait? Together, I’m certain we can produce images that you will be happy with.

Rates
A typical photo session will be $85-$150

My rates are also on a sliding scale. What does that mean? I can work with you and your budget for the photos that you want produced. The economy is and has been tough for the last few years. I am not only aware of this, but I’m one of the millions of people who are happy just to be able to make ends meet every month. I am passionate about photography and understand how some moments only happen once in a lifetime and having that moment captured is important. I also understand that life moments that you want captured don’t always happen when your budget allows for it. If that is the case, I may ask for a small deposit, and we can set up some sort of payment arrangements that will be mutually beneficial. A typical payment scenario would be having a limited amount of the photos delivered upfront in low-resolution for social media or e-mail, and the rest of the photos as well as the high-resolution versions of them delivered upon final payment.

Travel costs may apply depending on travel distance.

Portrait Sessions
A typical portrait session lasts from 1 to 2 hours. At the end of the session I will do postprocessing on the images within one week of the date of the shoot. This will include, at no extra charge, touchups to the eyes, skin, teeth, objects that take away from the scene they can be easily removed and or any stray hairs that happened to appear either on clothing or in the wind. You will have anywhere from 12 to 30 images that will be supplied and high-resolution for print and a low-resolution version for posting to social media sites.

Scheduling
If the scheduled portrait session is to be an outdoor shoot and the weather turns out to be bad, or if you need a last-minute rescheduling all I ask is at least two hours notice before I am to be on location. This also includes if an infant or child becomes ill on the day of the shoot. I will make every effort to be flexible with you and your scheduling requirements.

Newborns/Infants
Do you want photos of the hospital right after your baby is born? I understand that it is nearly impossible to know exactly when your child will be born, so scheduling would need to remain loose. With family and friends visiting shortly after the child is born, you may wish to set up a specific time for when certain people will be at the hospital with you. If you are thinking of having a newborn session done at the hospital, please contact me and let me know the estimated delivery date selecting key my schedule open for you. A common concern that comes up is the use of flash with the newborn’s eyes. Depending on the lighting in the hospital room it is very likely that it will be possible to do the entire shoot without the use of flash at all. If a flash is to be used, it will be indirect and pointed at the ceiling or wall behind me, but never directly if the baby’s eyes.

Deliverables
12-30 Final retouched high-resolution JPEG’s (or TIFF files if you prefer)
12-30 Final retouched low-resolution JPEG’s optimized for viewing on social media websites
A link to an online gallery at cfrancoeur.com and the option to download the gallery for posting on your own personal webspace

Prints
Though the quality of prints from major retail locations may be acceptable, I strongly suggest using an online service such as MPix.com to get your final prints done. For extra quality or archival prints I can order your photos on your behalf through my MpixPRO account. There are additional products available through that account that are not available on the main website. For a current list of prices for prints through MpixPRO please contact me with the sizes you would like produced. There are no quantity discounts through this service.

Archives
I will retain copies of your final images indefinitely with triple redundant storage. One copy will remain online through my website, another copy live on a hard drive that is no more than one year old in my computer. A final copy will remain on either optical media or an extra hard drive stored in a fire safe in my home. To retrieve your images simply contact me and I will forward you the link to the archive on my website. Though every effort will be made to ensure that your images will always be available through me, it is highly advisable to back up your images to a CD or DVD and keep them in a fire safe in your own home.

Lessons
Just got a new DSLR camera and want to learn the basics? Maybe you already know the basics and want to learn some advanced techniques? I can offer one-on-one coaching on the basic and advanced functions of your new camera as well as photographic principles. Though I shoot with a Canon, the same exact principles apply regardless of the camera that you have. Items that will be covered are the following:
JPEG vs Camera Raw
Color Temprature/White Balance
ISO
Aperture (f-stop)
Shutter Speed
The relationship between ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed
Use of your camera’s internal light meter
Exposure Modes
Manual Mode
Exposure Lock
Lens Basics
Basic Camera Care/Maintenence
Shooting in the early morning, midday, early evening, “the golden hour” and nighttime shooting
Basics of Portraiture
Basics of Landscape/Cityscape Photography
Basics of Close-up Photography
Rule of Thirds and other basic composition rules
Use of the fill-flash/built in flash
Use of a bounce-flash (if avaialable – if your camera is a Canon you may use one of mine)
Use of external flash(es)
Use of lens filters
Shooting for Black and White
Shooting for HDR
Shooting in inclement weather
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Managing your digital photo collection
PhotoShop retouching basics
PhotoShop Lightroom photo managmenet
Use of your camera RAW processing software from the manufacturer
Why tagging your images now can save you headaches later (from someone with a massive photo library spanning several years)
Archival safe-practices

Lesson Rate: $25/hour, 2 hour minimum, plus parking if applicable.