DOUGLAS Art Prints® News

As a professional photographer the artistic nude is subject of interest.  There is an abundance of fine quality artistic female nudes.  There is a rareness of even somewhat quality male nudes.  Could that be because the vast majority of male nude art and photography is done by men and a lot of that by gay men?

Fact is that women artists and photographers see the male nude as a subject much differently than men do.  Fact is that it is far more challenging for women to do especially male nudes and the fact is that even now it is more accepted for men to do nude art than women.

I have learned that given the opportunity women are willing to try male nudes, even if it's a "secret" at least at first.  Not that I believe the male nude will ever come close to the female nude as the subject of fine art I do believe there would be far more fine quality artistic male nudes if more was done by women.

For the first time ever DOUGLAS Art Prints® will include works by other artists and photographers but it will be restricted to women and male nudes.  I will include the opportunity for these women to sell prints of their work. (If your a woman who would like to submit your work you can go to the main website and email me.)

Here is an example of a photograph done by Beth, an amateur photographer in Cleveland, OH, that was converted into a pencil drawing.

DOUGLAS Art Prints® Catalog of Contemporary/Modern Art Prints

In June I decided to no longer offer nude prints, DOUGLAS Art Prints® No Longer Offers Nude Prints.   In our annual review it has been decided that was a mistake.  Artistic nude prints will be returning and now artistic nude photography will be added.  The DOUGLAS Art Prints® was labeled as pornography by some software people because of the nudes.  Even with the nudes having been removed months ago it may still carry that label, it's easier to get labeled these days than unlabeled.

We will be building a new "nude" catalog in the next few weeks and it will be set up on it's own subdomain but we will again have nude art prints.  If one or both of my art websites are labeled a pornography then so be it.  I tried being politically correct for 5 months and it sucks.

DOUGLAS Art Prints® Catalog of Contemporary/Modern Art Prints

In our annual review it has been decided to return to only producing our prints as limited editions of 300.  The prints are all individually produced for customers and they are individually hand signed.  The prints are all made from the finest archival gallery quality cotton rag paper and archival inks.  All of this and we were selling them for $39.95 like they were something you'd find at Walmart.  No more.

We know how many of each print we've sold.  Prints that have sold more than 300 will continue to be offered as unlimited.  Prints with sales of fewer than 300 will be numbered from the last sale and limited to no more than 300.  As investment quality limited editions the prices will rise significantly in the next week or two.

DOUGLAS Art Prints® Catalog of Contemporary/Modern Art Prints

As promised I am very pleased to announce another NEW contemporary art print, the second in a pair (see: "dessert"), this one, "dessert II".  This originated from another image I took while on an assignment with 2 nationally known chefs and TV personalities.

Again I broke from my favored stark black & whites using the full color of this most colorful dessert, with my creative twist of course.  I think one, or even better both of my "dessert" prints would look wonderful in kitchens in any fine home.

My contemporary art prints are my second creative outlet, commercial photography being my first.  I began giving some of my photographs my original creative twist several years ago.  I hope you'll visit my catalog of prints.  

This print, as are all of my prints, is produced of the finest quality archival materials.  Archival heavy weight cotton rag gallery quality paper and 100% archival inks.  Every print is produced at the time of your order.  Each print is individually hand signed.

DOUGLAS Art Prints® Catalog of Contemporary/Modern Art Prints

I am extremely pleased to announce a NEW original contemporary art print I call "dessert".  This was inspired by another of my commercial photography projects, this one I was working with 2 nationally known chefs often seen on TV.  I added my artistic twist to 2 of the desserts that I photographed.  This is the first of 2 new prints.

The other reason I am excited about this newest print is that it breaks from my penchant for stark black & whites.  This print just screamed for the color.  I can visualize this print in homes with fine kitchens or dining rooms.

My contemporary art prints are my second creative outlet, commercial photography being my first.  I began giving some of my photographs my original creative twist several years ago.  I hope you'll visit my catalog of prints.  

This print, as are all of my prints, is produced of the finest quality archival materials.  Archival heavy weight cotton rag gallery quality paper and 100% archival inks.  Every print is produced at the time of your order.  Each print is individually hand signed.

DOUGLAS Art Prints® Catalog of Contemporary/Modern Art Prints

DOUGLAS Art Prints® is most pleased to announce a major update to my long neglected contemporary art prints catalog.  There are many of my new original prints that I'm certain most have never seen because of the neglect to our website.  This was my fault.  It's fixed and a major revision is now complete.  My hope now is to regain the status and ranking I once held.

In the next day or three I have 2 new prints to add that I am very excited about.  I have once again broken from my penchant for stark black & white and they're both somewhat a new subject for me, food, very colorful food.  Spectacular deserts to be exact.

Both of these newest prints originated from my work as a commercial photographer, with my artistic twist added of course.  Both of these prints originated from desserts prepared by a nationally known chef often seen on TV.  I am excited to get  these on line as soon as possible.  I had to fix my website first though.

This day my hope is to get you to visit and see my new improved catalog of my original contemporary art prints.  Then I hope you'll return to see my newest colorful works to come.

DOUGLAS Art Prints® Catalog of Contemporary/Modern Art Prints

All of your credit card transactions with DOUGLAS Art Prints® and all of your credit card information, all of it, is handled by Elavon, the company that handles credit card and financial transactions for banks, and it is handled on the Elavon highly secure servers.  When you make a purchase on DOUGLASArtPrints.com you will see that for the payment that you are directly connected to their servers.

When you make a purchase from our DOUGLASArtPrints.com even we don't know your credit card information.  When you place an order by phone we connect to the Elavon Merchant Services secure servers for the transaction.  The customer credit card information that we do store from phone orders is never stored on our server or even our computers that are on line. It is never accessible even in the event our servers or our computers are hacked. Never.  

We pay a price for this security in more ways than one.  We pay higher rates for our credit card transactions because we think it critical that we use the highest security offered by having our transactions done completely by a major bank.  Our customers have to enter their credit card information each and every time.  I am certain we've lost customers because our website is "behind the times" by not storing this information and making it more convenient for our customers.  I am certain that we've lost customers because they find themselves transfered to another website for the payment information instead of staying on our site like Amazon does.

On Sunday June 5, 2011 alone my servers were hit 34 times by hackers in Russia.  They weren't successful but I know that even if they were there is no customers personal information at all and especially no credit card information is stored on my servers.

Big companies are getting hacked all the time losing customer personal and credit card information, Sony and Nintendo most recently.  I know that at Elavon's Merchant Services that their only concern is security.  Their IT people don't give a damn if an order is fill on time and accurately.  Their IT people don't have to be concerned if the price on a product is correct.  Their IT people don't have to save what products or what movie you viewed on your last visit to make recommendations on your next visit.  Their focus is 100% on security.

I get calls almost weekly from credit card processors that promise to save us money by offering lower fees.  My immediate response is, "we're not changing processors, period."

I pay higher fees and I'm certain I lose some customers because of my stand on secure credit card transactions.  It's worth it.

We made some subtle changes along with one major change to enhance the experience of visitors to DOUGLASArtPrints.com.  

We, as so many do, had an opening flash video on the virtues of our prints.  At one time that seemed pretty impressive.  At one time it was thought that this would generate enthusiasm to then see our prints.  Today it seemed a waste of time.  Now when you go to DOUGLASArtPrints.com you go straight to out catalog.  We did put a brief statement regarding our print quality inside the cover of our catalog for all to read, if you wish.

We eliminated a button link to a long page of text also regarding the value of archival quality prints.  We found few visitors were all that interested.  We also made a design change to the other buttons to something we find easier on the eye.

I am working on additional changes but most of these will involve offering more "fine art" photography prints.  My primary profession is that of a commercial photographer.  DOUGLAS Art Prints® is, well, a hobby.  It's a response to folks asking me for prints of things I have shot for fun.  My plan is to make more time for "fun" photography and this should result in new additions to DOUGLAS Art Prints®.