Fall Photos

What a great day to get outside to snap some photos!  I am excited I got one photo of this little bird in focus. I don't know its name- they fly in packs and move fast.  Photographing birds is pretty challenging- getting the focus, tracking their movement.  I may need to get a bird guide one of these days.  One of the things I love about photography is how it makes me curious about things for which I thought I had no interest, like birds.

Time Warp

It has already been over two months since I returned from my trip to China. Where did the time go?  My grand ambitions of the editing in lightroom (which I bought but have hardly used) and writing to accompany my photos has been pretty much on hold.  I have spent a lot of time this week going back through my photos; each time I do, I see something new and have another reflection on my trip. Sadly, it feels distant already. But going back to my photos does help.

My new photography class (all about digital printing) started a few weeks ago. This week we will make our first prints.  This is one of the pictures I am eager to try on the high quality printers at the school. 

I took this picture on the top of the Great Wall. Most of my tour group continued to hike along. I instead spent time on my own taking hundreds of photos in the area right around where we ascended the wall.  Before going, I remembered friends telling me about price gouging for water on the wall. I don't know if that was the case since I brought plenty.  But I was struck by this young woman selling water on the top of the wall. What was her story? Is this her full time job? A summer job? What are her days like?  Was she still fascinated by the Great Wall or is it nothing special when you work there every day? She probably gets to meet people from all over the world.  I also thought her California T shirt was great.  Throughout my trip, I noticed I was taking pictures of all the locals working at the tourist sites.  I'll share some more of these soon.

My First Art Fair

I did my first booth at an art fair today at Art Fridays in Downtown Crossing.  I am wiped! It was a lot of work to prepare, even more than I had anticipated. The day was beautiful and I talked with many interesting people.  I had such helpful and supportive friends and family. If it weren't for their help, I wouldn't have pulled it off.  Since it was my first fair, my only hopes were to not have my tent blow away and to sell at least one photo.  I met both those goals and actually sold more than one photo. 

Here is the link to the Art Fridays website. This is a great program supporting local artists and helping to revive Downtown Crossing:

http://artfridays.wordpress.com/

How to Mount and Mat Photos

I am trying to get prints ready for possible sale at craft/art shows this summer (though I have also read that photos don't sell well at these events).  I ordered a bunch of 5 x7 prints at Costco this weekend. I also did some reading about how to mount and mat my photos. I checked out a few different craft stores but none had the mounting boards described on some of the websites I read.  So I bought a few mats and some foamcore board to see how that would work as a backing instead, since I found a foamcore cutter on sale.  The hardest part is cutting straight! I wonder if using the 45 degree angle instead for cutting would minimize any unevenness?  I started researching a good website for buying affordable mats but am not sure yet which I will use.

I want to try a few photos on mounting board and compare these with the foamcore to see which I like better.  I also liked having a black and white mat. With two copies of each photo, I could easily compare to see which I think suited the photo better. If neither suited the photo well, it made me wonder if the photo was what I didn't like.  Here are the first two I mounted and matted.

Brookline Open Studios

I went to the Brookline Open Studios the first weekend in May. The Boston Camera Club had a studio. (I have been meaning to go to their meetings all year.) One difficult thing is camera clubs mainly meet during the year and then stop in the summer, which is when I would want to go. I met some nice people with common interests. I noticed most had their prints matted and in plastic sleeves. Most used glossy prints.  Almost all mattes were white and the few frames were silver or black. I found myself asking where different pictures were taken. I always wanted to know but usually this wasn't listed anywhere. When they did write the location, it was in pencil on the matte.  I wish my printing looked better, which is yet another thing for me to work on! A possible goal for next year would be to participate in the open studio with the group. But first things first: I need to go to one of their meetings.  I am not sure where to buy nice mattes at a reasonable price. That will also go on the list of things to do.

Light Boxes

I want to learn how to do product photos/photos with a white only background. After some reading online, it seems I need a lightbox. I made two using the directions on this site:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpensive-Photography-Lightbox
Here they are. They didn't take long to make. These are a lot of fun. Below are a few of my early experiments. This makes me want to waste money at yard sales on fun things to photograph! But I can start with things I already own and can practice with fruits and veggies too. I want to learn how to get the lighting to work better. I bought some cheap clip on work lights at Home Depot for now. It is hard to position them to not create shadows. I have done a little bit of reading on this but have more to do. If I can get the lighting right there will be less work to do in Photoshop.

Taking Photography Further

How can I turn my hobby of photography into something more, such as some side income or a summer job? I spent my April vacation week giving this a lot of thought and working on some preliminary steps. There is a lot ahead of me. I need to eventually buy more equipment, need to learn business information, need to improve my editing skills with Photoshop, and need to learn a better way to organize/tag/store my photos. However, underlying all of it, I need to keep improving my photographs. Oh, and I need to stick with it and make time for it. Since I like to write I thought I might blog about what I learn and the steps I take. It will either help keep me on track or bog me down...let's see!