History…. Short and Sweet.

2005. Steve Hartson celebrated 20 years 'in the biz' !

20 years of business activity in any industry is a big milestone.
Since the late 1970's Steve has practiced both photography and electronics; then after 2 years of college, he landed 17 years employment with the Boeing Company which greatly expanded industrial and scientific skills. Work 'inside' the aerospace business was a real cool gig, however, Seattle hardly heard of Steve until 2003 when begain work as an independent contractor.

Activity since then included a few technician contract jobs and of course photo projects. Creative work in photography continued and produced ads, brochures, publicity headshots and corporate work... all good! Also, Steve enjoyed creating 8x10 Polaroid transfers and sold many in Seattle galleries. By the fall of 2012 Steve landed daily work with Seattle City Light - the career keeps-on rolling! ;)

206 . 525 . 8514

Today.

Since 2003, Steve expanded his independent work to include both light-industrial contracting and commercial / construction photography. Hartson Photography become a multi-disciplined service provider with web design services. A recent full time assignment fills the weekdays, however, Hartson Photography is still active across weekends and evenings... with Steve's practiced approach + competitive pricing - Give us a call! 206-525-8514

Biography. (The long version.. for all you inquiring types)
Steve W. Hartson began work in the late 70's contracting a few photo assignments around Everett Washington... all while in high school. Soon, Steve landed a 5 year stint with decorated PPofA Master of Photography and Fellow of Photography Robert (Bob) Benson (Everett WA.), and through those 5 years, he formed his own ‘classic look and style’ - in portraiture, commercial, and industrial photography.

Client list includes: Scott Paper Company, Fluke Electronics, Western Gear, The Port of Everett, Everett Steel Companies, Snohomish County Public Utility District, Everett School District, Lake Stevens School District, Olson's Foods, and many other regional businesses and industries.

Eight years later (in 1985) and now a new graduate from Bellevue Community College with an AA degree in Bio-Medical / Scientific Imaging, Steve began work as a industrial technician and photographer with The Boeing Company and moved to Seattle... Hartson Photography was then officially licensed with the city of Seattle and so 'officially launched' as a bona-fide business in 1986 to promote contracting opportunity. Steve soon shared a studio space with Preston Wadley in Seattle's Capitol Hill district. From here, all was set for the next 10 years -- Steve enjoyed both a creative studio life and being an active technician with Boeing. On a side note, by mid 1990's Steve's 8x10 Polaroid Transfers were selling in local galleries.. and in 1997 The Polaroid Corporation selected Steve's 8x10 inch 'Bucket of Fish' transfer+watercolor print from over 400 entries to represent Seattle in their national Transfer Art exibition... a nice recognition! As you could emagine, between the daytime work at Boeing, studio work at night, art galleries, and enjoying transfer art... Steve was busy!

In 1993, photo work at Boeing stepped to digital capture and the first '35mm style' camera (built by Nikon and Kodak -the DCS-200) became a new tool in Boeing techical documentation. Every engineering project quickly switched to 'all-digital' methods since it made perfect sense to pair digital photos directly with engineering records. This new direction also spawned the development of a unique digital archive / filing system for Boeing Structures Lab. Here, Steve worked with the lab's computing and engineering staff to create online databases to support 145 engineers across the region. Also, it was compatable with both PC and MAC computer systems.

1994-5 -A Boeing special assignment. A 9-month stint as the focal photo-documentation specialist for the huge 777 Full Scale Static Test- The largest airplane test ever done by Boeing engineering (to date). This close to a billion dollar 'do only once' test successfully completed when the final structural test destroyed the 777 airframe (a planned event). The project was full of special designs - custom camera and sensor mounts, optical connections, power management and isolation, remote controls, and routing over 30+ miles of cabling. All final photography and documentation went very well... and the test was Steve's career highpoint. Then, for the next 8 years, Steve returned to the Developmental Center Structural Test Labs (Seattle) where he co-managed a satellite instrumentation office with veteran photographer Les Engle.

All seemed ok up to 2003. And then Boeing downsized... again. Today, Steve has collected many well-rounded and time-tested industrial skills with 30 years of uninterrupted professional industrial experiences... and so far with no gray hair. Yet. Steve's trademark easy-going 'can-do' style still shines on and with some new services too! What could be better?

Let's work our success together!

An electronic technician with a practiced eye in photography... A great combination !

Thank you for visiting the site !

Whoa, and you actually read this far? -
Thanks ! -Steve.