HABS, as the Historic American Buildings Survey is informally called, is arguably the best documentation program in the world for historic buildings. Stephen Schafer has been practicing this archival photographic process to capture sites in California as diverse as an 1840s adobe and a Cold-War stealth ship.
HABS Photographer
HABS/HAER/HALS Documentations from 2017 and 2018
A selection of my favorite large format negatives from the last couple years of Historic American Buildings Survey photography (HABS). By Stephen Schafer, Ventura, California, (805)-652-1000
HABS Mitigation for CEQA (Part 1: Is Cheaper Also Better?)
Documentation of historic resources is one way to mitigate impacts to significant properties and photographic documentation is one facet of a comprehensive CEQA mitigation strategy, and donating it to the National Park Service through their informal donation policy is less expensive than distributing multiple archival copies locally. The data created for HABS/HAER/HALS requires a Life Expectancy of over 500 years… Can your local historical society do that?
New Book About 1500 Mission Street, San Francisco
Announcing the publication of the 1500 Mission Street Historic Building Documentation book.
MAD Stickers Ye Shall Find
7 Aspects of Integrity and CEQA stickers are here!
New Book About San Francisco’s Pier 70 Buildings
Announcing the publication of the softcover version of the San Francisco Pier 70 Historic Building Documentation book.
Archival Photo Mount Cards and Negative Sleeves for HABS/HAER/HALS Documentation
This is a resource page for those doing Historic American Buildings Survey photography and having a hard time finding the archival negative envelopes and slotted print mount cards that are required by HABS, HAER and HALS for transmission to the Library of Congress. All the specifications for transmittal of archival negatives and prints for the…
Getting a HABS/HAER/HALS Photography Quote
I field a lot of calls for HABS, HAER or HALS photography services so I wanted to put the fourteen most important questions for a HABS photography project out there. This will help you get the fastest and most complete estimate and if you’re getting competitive bids, every photographer will be quoting the same project, apples to…
Ventura, California Featured in Preservation Magazine (With my photos)
It’s always nice when my town gets kudos from the media and even better when they use my photos to illustrate the story. A view from the Ventura Botanical Gardens was the lead image, along with Watermark on Main and Paradise Pantry. Historic Ventura, California is featured in the new Summer issue of PRESERVATION…
HABS Photos Featured in Frank Lloyd Wright Book
The HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey) photographs of the Ennis House that I completed for the LA Conservancy’s conservation easement program have been featured in a new book by Pia Licciardi and Leslie M. Freudenheim called Frank Lloyd Wright | The Man Who Played With Blocks. In this “Short Illustrated Biography” published by Royalston Books, my photos are…