Upcoming Show

[Torus34]

JamesD:

Please let us know how you made out.

We're rooting for you, you know.

 

[JamesD]

You guys are great! I'm fortunate enough to have an arts & crafts center here on post, so I can buy mat board pretty cheaply and cut it myself using their equipment. They also have a wood-shop, but I'm not sure I'm up to making my own frames. I actually prefer a brushed aluminum or stainless steel frame, myself, but they can get expensive, and I imagine most people (Yeah, Joe Sixpack, sometimes in a rather literal sense) would prefer an attractive wood frame--which I think I can find pretty cheaply.

I have yet to get started on this project. There's just way too much going on right now, mostly at work, and also with the creeping lung-crud uke-rig: that's been going around, and with my car's engine deciding to start chewing up and spitting out serpentine belts :banghead: . This weekend, for almost certain, though, I'll be printing. I've got some negatives I want to look at, and my fixer should be fully dissolved.

I've also got a kit of Berg gold-toner. Do you think that's a good idea? I've never done it before, so I don't really know what effect it will have. All I have right now is RC paper, and I'm thinking about getting a 25-pack of FB MC paper, which should be quite enough to print everything up.

Also, I'm not going to have this 12X12 booth all to myself; I think two or three other people might be in there as well, as it's a company setup.

Thanks, again. Y'all are great!

 

[terri]

Good luck with it all! I'd be happy knowing I was sharing a booth with others, too, the first time out. :thumbup:

Gold toner ain't one of the cheap ones. You can certainly try it out but, given the time pressure, this may not be the best of circumstances to start toning experiments. Unless you wanted to do something quick & easy, like sepia.

Post it if you do it - the images I've seen gold-toned are very unusual. Quite often it's the second toner in a dual process (go look at Motcom's lith print in the alt forum - great job).

Have fuuuuuuuun!

 

[JamesD]

Well, I've got til the end of July, so there's not too much of a time crunch yet, and this gold toner was like 80% off because nobody was buying it. I also got blue toner at the same time. I read the instructions, and it doesn't seem too difficult; it's a two-part solution, but a single bath. Apparently it shifts the tone cooler, almost blue if you leave it in long enough.

As for the others in the booth, I don't know what they're doing, but it isn't photography. I'm the only photog left in the company--well, not quite true, there is one more, but she's just starting out (just out of auto and into program...) and as far as I know, she isn't entering.

Anyway, it's going to be interesting. Thanks for the encouragement and advice. Hopefully, I'll get some stuff done this weekend.

 

[JamesD]

Oh, yeah, I meant to ask...

What are the standard frame and mat sizes for an actual full-frame 35mm image at size equivalent to 8X10? I guess that'd be... 8X12 or (more likely in my case) about 6.5 X 8.

Better yet, where can I find this information so I don't have to ask when I decide to do some bizarre crop? Which, of course, I'll try to avoid, but given the way things work for me lately....

Thanks again!

 

[markc]

I don't like using pre-made mattes and frames because the borders usually aren't even all the way around. That looks cheap to me unless it's only bottom weighted. American Frame isn't that much more expensive (and may be cheaper), and you can size them to the print.

 

[mel02monroe]

If you are going to try toner for the first time I recommend doing many test strips in the toner for different periods of time... even down to 30 second intervals. The toner will have huge differences based on how long you leave it in for. Its fun to work with, but it often looks best with certain types of images.

 

[jemmy]

"Very keen to see this 'gold toner' - sounds cool - be sure to post some!!x

 

[JodieO]

James, mind if I ramble?

I just finished up an art festival and will now be doing a LARGER art festival in September (it's juried and has about 300 artists/vendors). I will tell you what I did.

My situation may be a bit different than yours. My goal was to mainly get my portraits out there to drum up more business; HOWEVER, I also wanted to make a little money on the side, so I also sold some nature/landscape work.

Is this an outside event? Get a "pavillion" pop up type of thing. Now you need walls. Because mine was a last minute situation, I bought some plastic small opening lattice. I don't recommend it unless you are stuck in a situation like me, last minute. Now I have a company (I have to look up the business card I have on file) where I can buy these things specifically made to be walls for this type of things - that is what I am going to invest in in the new show. They will be black and will show off my work way better than this lattice did... but the lattice was a start (got a lot of compliments for some reason, I thought it looked like hell...)

Now, on to the nature/landscape "stock" work. I only showed about 14 framed pieces like that on one small "wall". I also got a canvas holder (they are fairly inexpensive) and put copies of just the print in there. The prints were packaged with a piece of acid free board behind them and I got clear plastic sleeves that closed up with a strip of sticky on the back from clearbags.com.

I'm with you, though, I'm currently stocking up on more stock images to sell in September, and I am trying to find out what people like. I personally like "deep" black and whites of lone trees, and things that move, but at the same, people gravitate toward "cutesy" for their homes... I know, it sucks, but they do. Things like a flower photographed three times at different angles and placed on a white canvas is a big hit... I have a peacock cropped pretty cool that someone with a red kitchen would want in a second... and things like herbs in pots photographed, barn scenes, etc. etc. are big hits. I print two or three of each image and put them together in the canvas holder so people can thumb through them.

Here's some images that can show you what was going on for this one... I hope this helps give a visual for you - festivals/shows are a lot of fun, enjoy!!!

Here is a closeup of the portraits mounted on standout...

 

[mysteryscribe]

So james you so busy you cant come in and tell us whats up with the show?

 

[JamesD]

James, mind if I ramble?

No! I don't mind at all! Rambling is a time-honored tradition. Plus, I'm glad you did ramble, this is good stuff! Thanks for giving me something to bear in mind.:thumbup:

 

[JamesD]

So james you so busy you cant come in and tell us whats up with the show?

Actually, up to this point, yes. I've been too damned busy for my own good... but I think there's a lull coming up, where I can get back into my hobbies. This all work, all stress stuff is sucky.

As for the show. I'm absolutely locked into it now. Before, it was just based on words; now, it's based on money.

Interestingly, the deadline for entry applications was 10:30 this morning. As of 10:20 this morning, when the CO turned in all the paperwork, I'm the one and only entrant in the photography category of the contest. Neat, eh? I'm a little disappointed; I hate winning by default... I'd rather get runner up than win by default.

However, all is not progressing as smoothly as I'd like. I still have no images, and the 29th is looming near. That's my project for this weekend, I guess... get images. Any images. Something to work with.

I'll try to get up here on the boards more often. I just really haven't had time.

 

[mysteryscribe]

good stay with us I need an ally... By the way I am working on another piece of crap camera.... what a joke this one the lens elements seal is gone they fog with any change in temperture. Im going ot toss it since it is cobbled together piece of crap anyway.

Get back and let me know how the show went.

 

[JamesD]

Will do. Gotta get images today. Got several rolls to develop, and then I need more film so I can shoot more. I have a couple of ideas again...

 

[Torus34]

For what it's worth, I enlarge my 35mm full-frames to about 6 1/4" x 9 1/4". This leaves a bit of wiggle room for final edge-cropping with an 11" x 14" matte and a 6" x 9" opening. I cut my boards so that the bottom is 1/4" wider than the top for verticals and 3/16" wider for horizontals. The effect is subtle. Mattes are set in simple 11x14 frames. Depending on the print, I may double-matte with a 1/4" reveal all around. The matteboard I use most often is usually slightly off-white.