News and Information About HABS, HAER and HALS Photography
Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about the Vaillancourt Fountain at the Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco. The fountain is historic, and these two photographs were taken of the plaza and fountain in 2022 when I was documenting the Market Street Historic Landscape District, a 2.3 mile-long section of Market Street from The Ferry…
Take a look at our latest projects, interesting HABS tidbits, and random architecture sightings on the @HABS_photographer Insta. HERE: https://www.instagram.com/habs_photographer/ If you’d like more information about HABS/HAER/HALS photography take a look at our website. HABSPHOTO.comStephen Schafer,Architectural Photography,Ventura, CaliforniaPhone: 415-857-HAERE: schaf@west.net
There’s a really good (ongoing) discussion on the Large Format Forum about camera-scanning 4×5 and 5×7 negatives for HABS, HAER, or HALS. I use a DSLR (or Mirrorless) camera and a copy stand to photograph my negatives and create 30+ Megapixel digital photographs. Follow the discussion here: https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?157757-4×5-amp-5×7-Negatives-Camera-Scanning-with-Nikon-D800E&highlight=habs
There’s a really good (ongoing) discussion on the Large Format Forum about doing 4×5 photography for a living as a HABS, HAER, or HALS Photographer. Not working for the National Park Service or Heritage Documentation Programs, as an in-house photographer, but rather doing freelance HABS/HAER photographs of historic places for Cultural Resource management firms, cities,…
As one blog ends, another begins. Here in September 2025, my blogging platform since 2010 – Typepad – is going offline. So, I have migrated some of the old posts here to HABS-HAER-HALS.com at WordPress. I’m still not sure if that old Typepad blog will go away or be frozen as an archive. From 2025…
HABS Photography exposed and explained on my new Substack.
Middle of May 2025 Four more records transmitted to the Library of Congress last week. Three Historic American Engineering Record projects and a Historic American Buildings Survey project. Presidio of San Francisco, Aircraft Hangar (HABS CA-2942) Natomas Ditch System, Rhoades' Branch Ditch (HAER CA-144-B) Southern Pacific Railroad Bayshore Cutoff, Tunnel No. 3 (HAER…
I'm giving a webinar on HABS/HAER via zoom through the University of North Texas. April 23, 2025. https://library.unt.edu/news/2025/03-19-lecture-habs/ more info link: https://library.unt.edu/news/2025/03-19-lecture-habs/ If you’d like more information about HABS/HAER/HALS photography take a look at our website. HABSPHOTO.com Stephen Schafer, Architectural Photography, Ventura, California Ph: 805-652-1000 E: schaf@west.net
My Path to Preservation: Insights from a HABS Photographer INFO LINK Members Non-Members FREEDate: May 20, 2025Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Join the California Preservation Foundation for our My Path to Preservation series, a webinar program with the goal of sharing insights with students, interns, graduates, emerging professionals, and anyone interested in a…
Today, I got an official HABS number from HDP, after looking through some files and finding the negatives. HABS CA-3002. This week the motel was lost in the Palisades Fire.