It's her birthday

[pecunium]

and commodorified asked me to give her a post. Since she's wonderful, and I like making her happy, I am doing so.

Because she encouraged me to play with B&W treatments of the jellyfish, and I woke up in the middle of the night to work on some more of them, I'm going to post about them.

This is the first version I did of this shot (I've done four to date).

Lacework


It's a pretty straightforward job. I didn't do anthing but adjust the exposure a bit (it was a little dark, and slightly buddy) and sharpen it.

It was ok, but from looking at the prints I pulled from Three Musketeers and, Trailing Jelly I knew this wasn't going to look as good as it could on paper.

[I took a 10.5 x 16 print of Three Musketeers with me today, matted and in a thin white frame is lookes really good. Since I did about as well as I expected {if not as well as I hoped}, i.e. I came home with everything I brought to the show, I can offer it to anyone who is interested, at a swell price. A one off printing, as I didn't save the file as printed. Trailing Jelly also printed well enough, but it's not got quite the "pop", and is unframed]

So I fiddled with it.

Lacework II


It's a lot better, and will be much better on paper. I upped the saturation, and luminosity on the flesh, and sharpened it a bit more, so the frills are more defined.

But playing with the previous photos, and looking at this:

Three Musketeers B&W GF M


I thought I could get some really nice things out of the details in the body of this one.

Lacework II IR


It's really nice.

As to the arts and crafts fair today, it was interesting, if it had its depressing moments. I had four framed prints, six mounted prints, two calendars, and about fifty unmounted prints. The framed prints were priced fairly (and two of them at the low end). The matted prints were priced low (from 50-95 dollars) and the unmounted prints were forty dollars (8x10) and 75 (11 x 17).

I suspect the folk shopping just weren't planning to spend that. I, mostly, got a quick pass with the eyes, and then they moved on. A few people said they were pretty; a number asked if I'd taken them (the mind boggles. It was an arts and crafts fair. Yes, there were people there who weren't actually selling things they'd made, but photos?).

One woman was desisive of the price, "I take it 75 means 75 dollars (as she was holding a print, about 5x8, of a Lava Gull, taken in Galapagos, double matted (color) and sleeved. Archival, and ready to frame). I said yes, and she sort of twitched her wrist and said, "For this?" before puttig it down and looking at nothing else.

The other artists were nice folks. The lady selling her mother's handbags (handmade, and well constructed; good sizes and interesting fabrics), the potter; who also does a lot of bugs and flowers, the woman with the book she did of all 17 species of penguin. It took her to four continents, and a couple of years, but she got them all; they were great to talk to.

And, as one of the jewelers said, "If nothing sells, the tables were free, and we got lunch."

I've spent worse days, and there were some lessons learned for the next time I do such a thing. It was time well spent, and I didn't leave empty handed.

Comments

[klrmn.livejournal.com]

i suspect that the 'craft fair' crowd expects most things to either be under $10 or functional in addition to pretty.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

This wasn't the run of the mill "craft fair", it was a holiday fair at a branch of a largish law firm. There was a woman there with, "garden art" for 75-125, and someone bought three of them.

The handbags were going for 50ish, and some of them sold.

I suspect part of it is that art wasn't quite what they were looking for, and some of it (because I get that a lot) is people don't know what it costs to make a decent photograph.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd say you had a church-bazaar type there. I got one of those once, who wanted to know why my prices were so "unreasonable". I asked what she considered a reasonable price, because I have things down into the $10-$20 range -- and pointed some of them out -- but no, she wanted that price on a gemstone-and-sterling necklace. I was sufficiently annoyed to point out that she wasn't shopping at Wal-Mart, and she stalked off in a huff. But what the hell, she wasn't going to buy anything anyhow.

And I know how much it costs just to mat and frame things, and how much archival-quality products cost, so I don't think that was out of line at all.

what klrmn said

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

Though we get a lot of it at the Renaissance Festival.

My favorite: "Didja buy this at W*lm*rt?" The worst happened at my knife making friends who were demonstrating and showing off damascus blades, not so much to sell. Guy asked to look at a blade, friend handed to him, He immediately asked "Is this sharp" and ran his index finger and thumb up both sides of the sharp-enough-to-shave-with blade. Friend dashed around the corner with a roll of paper towels, grabbed his now-dripping hand, wrapped it around the roll of paper towels and ordered him to hold it tight, and took the knife away. Then led him to the first aid station holding his hand above his shoulder.

And I like the single, B/W jellyfish. I really like it. But right now I'm really broke.

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

The black and white jellyfish is gorgeous. I love color photography - but I worked in black and white for 3.5 years as an ad designer for a newspaper and I have a special spot in my heart for B&W photography as a result. I even have a tattoo I refuse to have colored (it's shaded very nicely) because I like B&W.

My bf Paul was a photography major for a long time and I have many photography friends. There's a huge difference between buying a $10 disposable camera and taking a snapshot of a bird on a street and buying the camera and lenses, paying the plane fare, then renting (or building) the dark room, equipping it with chemistry, developing the film (erm, did you develop color? that's hard work!), printing it on excellent paper, and setting it up to be framed properly. I would think that $75 was eminently reasonable, and I have bought photography in the past for about that price - paper-framed landscape prints at the arts & crafts Saturday market in Portland, OR.

What's your gallery's web address? I'd like to look through it. I'm not sure I've looked at your photography beyond what's in your LJ before.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Terrence Karney Photography

Print Color?!? The horror!, which is to say, no. I still do some B&W printing, but for color I tend to work in slides, and let someone else take my money to get prints.

I miss working with B&W film. Somehow knowing the digital body works in color makes it hard to get the B&W "eye" to function.

I admit, some of the work I do is equiment dependent (the macro stuff isn't really doable without close-up lenses), but things like this:



aren't the gear, they are the experience, and the eye. When someone tells me it's the equipment, and, "if I had your camera I could take that sort of picture too," I've been known to be a jerk and offer them the camera to use, so we can compare: using the same settings.

(that photo, btw, was twenty minutes of getting positioned, and playing with where the branches were. Knowing, roughly, what sort of moving, and how closely I could approach was most of it. The picture taking was pretty straightforward; a bit of overexposure for the pale sky, and frame it tight)

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

That is really excellent framing, the way the twigs cup the bird. Nicely done.

Paul can take much better shots than I can with my own camera. Sometimes I'll see something beautiful and I will pass him the camera for than reason. I have a good eye, but I don't know how to use the gear and I have zero experience. I didn't mean to say it was all about the gear, except that the gear is pricy and makes up part of the reason why the art ends up being "unreasonably" expensive.

Thanks for the link. :)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I didn't think you were saying that. You were (I thought) saying gear (sunk costs being amortised) is part of the reason for the price.

Thanks for the comment on the bird. I'm really fond of it (it's the basis for my political/pissed off icon) Marna (the person who asked for this post) didn't think all that much of it, until she saw it in person, on an 11x17 sheet.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Oops, posted too soon: which pleased me greatly, because I am ridiculously fond of that shot; to the point of pride.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

And then he forgets to post the gallery link:

http://www.terrencekarneyphotography.com/images

The Boy, he does good work. :-)

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Oh wait, no he didn't forget.

Err. Birthday party. You understand...

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

You get all types at "craft fairs" - the church basement crowd are looking for under $10, hand knit tea cosies, sort of thing. "Art fairs" or "Arts & Crafts" or "Fine Craft" might be a better market for art photography. Figure out where your local handmade wooden puzzle guys and pottery ladies are selling ;-)

(I just realized you have no idea who the hell I am, but I lurk over at Making Light and bookmarked you for the pretty pictures. Alas, I am an infrequent art customer, because while $80 for original art or a fine art print is a reasonable price, it's also a full day's gross wage for a mercenary rent-a-clerk... )

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I understand about cost. It's part of why I have the calendars, and sent really dense images to them for inclusion. People can get 13-14 image for about 25 bucks.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Which is reasonable. Problem is, lots of people (well... okay, I'm probably not the only one) are really resistant to paying out more than about $10 on the spur of the moment for something that's purely self-indulgent. (I say "purely" because food is a necessity, so $40+ per person for sushi or dim sum gets under the rationalization wire with little more than a wince -- but even that is only once every couple of months.)

But then, you seem to move in wealthier circles than I do. At a craft fair, I'd probably stop at your table, look carefully at the artwork, decide that I like many of the items and that they're priced fairly ... then regretfully walk away, having concluded that I can't afford any of them. *sigh*

[soul-diaspora.livejournal.com]

One woman was desisive of the price, "I take it 75 means 75 dollars (as she was holding a print, about 5x8, of a Lava Gull, taken in Galapagos, double matted (color) and sleeved. Archival, and ready to frame). I said yes, and she sort of twitched her wrist and said, "For this?" before puttig it down and looking at nothing else.

Gah! How rude.

That would be uncalled for even if she was technically right to be derisive, which, having seen your work, I very much doubt.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Also, I blush. Is good post. And I love you. More than I can reasonably explain in an lj comment.

[mcduff.livejournal.com]

As you say, I really don't think people know how much it costs to get a good photograph. They see it in terms of material costs (paper, ink) and not in terms of craftsmanship.

If you're looking to sell in that kind of market more, one piece of advice would be to look into some interesting kinds of "crafty" presentation, possibly even with some of the other vendors if they make that kind of thing. I'm not talking about chocolate boxes and keyrings, but ways of presenting and framing the images that highlight the physicality of the artifact as well as the image. It wouldn't work with all the images you've taken, but some of them might go well as triptychs on wood or canvas blocks, for example.

It's a way of getting people past seeing it as "just a photograph" and considering it as a made thing. And you only really need a couple of exhibit pieces to show off with, and then go from there if they sell.

Anyway, just a thought.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'll ponder it, but that increases the sunk costs.

Part of the problem is the don't understand the material costs: The matted print she dismissed was priced at 75. I spent 45 on materials; independent of time and equipment.

Add my time in sales efforts, and I'm not making that much from the sale, when I make it.

[mcduff.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah, i completely understand that your material costs won't be low now. And anyone who knows about photography will understand that too. It was just a marketing idea, based on a what artists i know have experienced. Artifacts are easier to put a price on if the customer can't convince herself she could have done it at home with her Epson.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

does the lady with the penguin book have a website?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Probably. I don't have it handy, but I can get it from tenacious_snail. She self published it, and has been working at selling it; she's on her second printing.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

i am extremely interested, but i'm not up for buying something i haven't seen a cover of ....yanno what i mean?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes. I looked at it, the photos are nice, the text seems decent. I'll ping Les, and ask her about it (I won't be home until tomorrow evening, so I can't ask her directly).

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

no rush!

[bedii.livejournal.com]

Please do! ladyjestocost has done a number of paintings and illustrations of penguins that have been very popular ("Redmond Ho" at http://www.organ-kean.com/ was the first, and sold out of the print run) so we're always looking for more photo references...

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

from the author (Judy Wong)
My website and purchase point from the publisher is: www.trafford.com/07-3020

She can "look inside" on-line through Amazon.com's website. Under search: select Books, type in "Penguin Quest:" my book comes up first.

She can also get it through BarnesandNoble.com, if she has a membership that gives her a 10% discount.

I have the books at my desk for purchase, if she wants to save shipping and handling.

Thanks for asking and supporting me in my book distribution.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Hi there,

Thank you very much for getting this information! This is going to make a GREAT xmas gift for my sister. We both love penguins......

Warm regards,
Jenn

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

If you'd like me to get Judy to sign it for you, let me know, I'd be happy to do that and then ship it to you, if you're willing to cover the shipping from here.