Sending Your Photos

This page was written at a time when the old Chang Gang was accepting private correspondence. While we currently do not, the tips on how to best photograph your comm are still fully valid.

If you are considering sending us pictures of your communicator prop, great! But you might wonder how best to do this... and what happens next. For starters, please know that we are flexible and sensitive to your needs and preferences. None of our policies are carved in stone. But just so that there is a place to start, here are a few preliminary thoughts and suggestions:

If you have a (potential) original prop:

1) By sending us photos, you are allowing us to both distribute them internally within our organization for review and to contact you privately with our thoughts and opinions. Please indicate up front in your first email that we are looking at a (potential) original. If we do conclude it to be authentic, we would like to make at least a few of your pictures public on our site to announce the good news, though we will dialog with you further before proceeding to that final step. However, if we decide we cannot add yours to our Master Tracking List, be assured your name and photos will never be posted here or anywhere else, allowing you to seek unfettered opinions elsewhere.

2) Start please with just one "beauty" shot (half-way up at a mid-way angle), like this:

With just a single image like this (at a decent size and focus), we'll know 99.999% of the time exactly what you've got. (Note - the above prop is a replica.)

If, however, something wonderful happens...

3) Should we suspect yours might be the real deal, moving forward we propose a two-step process. Remember the more you give us the more certain we will be in our call - and the better we can defend the authenticity of your prop against any possible naysayers. At this point we'll request nine photos that show off the key details. Those photos are: 1) top, straight down, open antenna 2) bottom, straight down; 3) top, front-left low angle, open antenna; 4) top, back-right low angle, open antenna 5) top, front-right low angle, closed antenna; 6) top, left-back low angle, closed antenna; 7) control well details, straight down; 8) bottom, Velcro details low angle; and 9) antenna inside, straight down. Samples of these nine ideal photos are shown below:

4) Please send the photos as mega-pixel as you can get, and as sharp as possible. To minimize lens "fish-eye" distortion, move the camera back a ways and zoom in to the intended area.

5) Should your prop open up by the removal of the four screws from the bottom shell, then also please include an inside photo of both top and bottom shells, showing off the inner surface texture of the plastic. If yours is a mechanized hero, then sending along some detail shots of the stopwatch and wind-up assembly would naturally be in order:

6) If we're still enthusiastic after all that, we're going to then move into Round Three and ask you for additional shots, just to be sure and to learn all the tiny aspects of your prop. It is a very high bar we must clear to opine with full confidence a prop to be an original Wah, and with the better information out there on building accurate replicas, we need to take ever more care. We trust you can appreciate our caution and efforts to get it right, both for your benefit and ours. Basically, every angle needs to be hit, which does add up to quite a few photos. Use the two following galleries as a guide. The four edge shots in the second grouping below on the right have the prop raised so that the midplate is at the same level as the camera lens, for a more revealing straight-on perspective:

And if you and we have made it to this last step together, then... may the party begin. And THANK YOU!!!