For noted still-life photographer Pete McArthur, the old adage,
"If you want a job done right, do it yourself", has never been more appropriate. With the launch of his own self-managed stock program online, McArthur's stock-generated sales have become a healthy, and growing, part of his photography business.

Over the last twenty years and to great acclaim, Los Angeles-based Pete McArthur has developed his highly recognizable and award-winning signature style featuring playful, clever concepts, bold composition, lush, highly-saturated colors and more than a dash of humor. He's published scores of covers and spreads in Fortune, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Kiplinger's and many others.

His high-tech clients include Dell Computers, Hewlett Packard, Xerox, Microsoft and more. Other commissions include food, toys, cosmetics and even animals. In addition, McArthur has been a popular faculty member, teaching lighting, still-life and product photography, at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena for the last decade.

Getting into Stock
Before marketing it himself, McArthur sold a limited amount of stock photography through an agency from 1992 to 1996. Sales were consistent but the agency only carried about thirty-five of his images.

Before long, McArthur realized that with two decades of creative shooting behind him and several thousand stock images in his library, he was sitting on a valuable resource.

In 1997, he created Pete McArthur Visual Arts Services (PMVAS), an umbrella company to oversee his assignment work, Licensed Stock sales and studio rentals.

Online Enters the Picture
In 1998, when McArthur put his Licensed Stock offerings online, it all came together. Beginning with a modest library of 400 images and arranged into categories, petemcarthur.com stock sales began to climb. To call this venture a success is an understatement. In fact, in the year 2000, his stock sales enjoyed a 500% increase over the previous year's.

Custom Stock
But it doesn't stop there. In spring 2001, McArthur developed and then began promoting, both in ads and on his web site, his own unique service we call Custom Stock. The way it works is that upon request and under certain conditions, he can produce images that expand upon, or modify, concepts or visual elements from his existing Licensed Stock library. Custom Stock has also met with enormous enthusiasm because it bridges the gap, both conceptually and monetarily, between licensed stock and assignment work.

Bigger and Better
Today, petemcarthur.com is in its fourth generation and features the kind of advanced design functions usually only found on larger stock image websites. With most stock sites being word-driven, involving cumbersome search and key word lookups, petemcarthur.com offers a streamlined way to get the picture quickly, efficiently and, most important, visually. What you see is what we bet you'll want to get.

Users are also now able to set up accounts, browse imagery sorted by category and create their own collections (which can be saved and e-mailed to others) in lightboxes. Licensed Stock offerings, the Custom Stock option, and Pete McArthur's talents on assignment make for the best single source for creative and dynamic still-life imagery. And with service the name of the game, Pete McArthur himself is available to personally help. Just pick up the phone and call him at (310) 815-1951.