Short and sweet...

I'm going to make this post short and sweet.  Market yourself.  Network.  Make connections.  If you plan to actually make money from your photography, you NEED to get your name out there.  Don't sit around.  "Build it and they will come" only works if you plan to build a baseball field in the middle of a corn field.  It doesn't work for a career in photography.  

How do you do this?  We'll talk more about that later...

Archive your images...

Light Impressions may be expensive, they may be slow to deliver, but their products are the best around.  I use their archival storage boxes for all my cd's filled with photo files.  I use their archival products to keep my prints safe.  I use their linen tape when mounting my prints and sometimes order their mat board (I say sometimes, because Dallas already has some pretty good places to find archival mat board at decent prices).  

So, I figured I would share info about their free shipping sale:

  

Again, they are slow on delivery and their prices aren't cheap, but their products are top quality and can't be beat.  If you plan to keep your prints and photo files safe for a long time, you should consider investing in something like this.

Playing around with shape and color...

I was on a photo shoot tonight and there was this cool, bubbling, glowing sign.  When I got back home to the studio, I noticed how interesting the movement and color was.  I decided to crop out a small portion of the bubbles, then repeat the same shape and change the hue over and over.  I think it makes for a nice abstract piece... 

   

Of course, I think it will look much more interesting if it were printed at 20x24", but that will have to wait for now.  In the meantime, we'll have to enjoy the mini version!

What you missed...

So, I attended a CADD (the Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas) event downtown earlier tonight.  It was worth attending.  As a Dallas photographer, it's important to keep track of any photography-related events happening around town.  Since this one was ALL photography, with contributions for numerous galleries, it seemed like a good event to check out.  

I will say that I loved some of the pieces and hated others.  I won't name names, since art is very subjective.  The piece I like, others may not.  My least favorites may be amazing works of art to others.  In any case, I was glad to see the art.  

I did notice that you can sponsor the CADD, and I would've done the $100 level if money weren't so tight right now.  But with the general economy tanking and the newspaper and magazine industry slashing budgets, I need to be a little more conservative with my money right now.  Right now I need to put that $100 into advertising/marketing for Janik Photography.  But enough about me and my money (or lack of it at the moment).  Let's see some art!

The following images were taken with my iphone, so please excuse the lack of quality:  

There was a decent crowd, but the event wasn't packed... at least not at 6:30pm.  More people started making their way in around 7pm.

There was a DJ at the gallery.  His name was DJ Juan Solo, if I remember correctly.  He was pretty decent, and his tunes/style matched the images well enough. 

Another view of the evening.  The space was nice and the art was interesting for the most part.  

Vanity Fair

I thought this video was interesting.  You don't see a ton of actual shooting, but you can get an idea for the amount of production involved in a big magazine cover shoot: 

www.vanityfair.com/video  

Where you can find me Thursday evening...

This looks like an interesting event (thanks to Dallas photographer Kate Mackley for bringing it to my attention)...

 
FLASH:
Photography from Dallas Galleries
Opening reception:
Thursday, March 12 5-8 p.m.

Featuring:

Robert Boland, Alain Gerard Clement, Kelli Connell, Arcangel Constantini, Wouter Deruytter, Cedric Delsaux, Dornith Doherty, David Gibson, Susan Kae Grant, Anna Krachey, William Lamson, Guthrie Lonergan, Margaret Meehan, Nic Nicosia, Andrew Ortiz, Mike Osborne, Joe Pflieger, Wendy Red Star, Tim Sullivan, Kevin Todora, Reinhard Ziegler, Jeff Zilm

On view March 12 - April 23  

For more info, contact Contemporary_Art_Dealers_of_Dall@mail.vresp.com

Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas :: CADD Art Lab
1608-C Main Street :: Dallas, TX 75201  

Are you a Dallas photographer or Dallas artist?  You should look at this...

Photopol.us Call For Artists: Announcing First Annual Oak Cliff Art Crawl!!!

Call for DFW Artists

Photopol.us and Bike Friendly Oak Cliff invite you to apply to exhibit and sell your artwork at the first annual Oak Cliff Art Crawl. Several Oak Cliff galleries will be open on April 25th from 4pm – 9pm, as well as the historic Texas Theater. Hundreds of visitors and art collectors will peruse and purchase art in the many participating venues that day. Exhibit will be open until May 10th.

ARTISTS:
There is no submission fee to apply. Simply email the following information to info@photopolus.com and attach 3 jpgs of your work. All entries must be received by March 27th. You will be notified if you have been selected by April 10th. All mediums are welcome:

Name:
Email Address:
City:
Phone Number:
Alt Phone Number:
Website:
Brief Bio (100 words or less):
Provide a size, media and description for each attachment:
Medium you plan to exhibit at the Oak Cliff Art Crawl:

Color management...

I haven't had time to sit down and watch this video, but it looks promising: 

www.mac-on-campus.com/classroom link  

Color management for a modern day photographer is vital, and any help you can get is a big bonus!  I'm betting this video (done in a power point presentation style) amy be a bit boring, but will be filled with easy to understand answers for a lot of our color correction questions...  It's amazing at how much cool stuff I find on - or linked to - the MAC Group website.

So much for Blurb...

I received this bit of info regarding Blurb (the on-demand book printing company I blogged about yesterday):  

Jason, Blurb is super easy to do. But the books are NOT impressive at all.  They truely look like something that maybe cost them 12 dollars to make.  I *might* try it out sometime again in the future...but it will be to make books for my kids.  Not for nothing else though.  And if this helps, i did choose the most expensive, one. heh.  

Well, so much for that option.  I kind of knew it would be too good to be true.  I'll continue printing out my portfolio one page at a time and hand-binding it.  It looks very nice (well-respected international photographer Stewart Cohen used the word "beautiful" when handling my portfolio), but takes SOOOO long to make.  No easy outs/shortcuts in this business, I guess.

Size matters...

It's a lot more money than your average 4 gig CF card, but it seems to be worth every penny:  

www.calumetphoto.com/item/IM18325/  

A nice, fast 16 gig card would surely make shooting go a little smoother.  The only downside is the whole "don't put all your eggs in one basket" mentality.  I subscribe to that way of life, preferring to use several small cards, just incase something happens.  Chances of one card going bad, getting lost, getting stolen?  Much higher than all four cards going bad, getting lost, getting stolen.  

But, other than having all your shots on one disc, there's nothing but positives here.  So, who wants to buy me one?!?  Oh, and maybe a few more 1.5t hard drives to go with it.  You have to do something with those images, once you pull them off the CF card...  

And, from the same company that brought you that nice big CF card, comes an easy inkjet gallery wrap option:  

Link to vidego.multicastmedia.com gallery wrap video  

Looks pretty cool, huh?  Of course, Calumet sells all the supplies you need to make that gallery wrap happen.  And, if you aren't the big "do-it-yourself" type of person, there are companies that will do it all for you.  One that I've used before is www.canvasondemand.com, though other reputable companies can be found on the web...

Wanna shoot macro?

If you want to shoot macro, but don't know much about it, there are plenty of websites devoted to the process.  here is one of many guides to getting started, provided by our friends at Adorama:  

www.adorama.com macro link  

I've done some basic macro in the past, but would love to invest in some better specialty lenses.  The macro world is a whole new world to explore...

Great work, great ideas, great help...

I'm always on the lookout for great work.  It helps inspire me.  It helps me know where trends are headed.  It helps me keep tabs on who the hot and/or up and coming photogs are.  I also like to keep an eye out for other industry people, like stylists, art directors, etc.  You never know when you'll need some help on  shoot, and you want to work with people who will make you look better.  

One group I'm keeping my eye on can be found here:  

www.blueissue.com  

They seem to have some pretty good people.  Take a look at this image - a promo for Rey Medrano: 

 

Isn't that a great image?  I'd love to work with all the people who had a hand in it.  The make-up, styling, and art direction are all great!  I hope/wish people look at my work the same way.  Hopefully they are inspired by some of my images, moved to create better work themselves.  I don't really need/want to be famous, but I do want people to get something from my work.  I want them to look at my art and be moved.

Books...

Has anyone used one of the growing number of custom book making companies out there today?  I've seen advertisements for a bunch of companies over the last couple years, and the prices keep dropping.  It's basically just a POD (print on demand) service, that allows you to create a photo book... a real book, bound and all.  

I've never heard of this company before today, but their prices look pretty darn good:  

www.blurb.com  

I wonder if the quality is any good.  For those prices, I have to ask myself if it seems too good to be true?!?  A 7x7" softcover book with up to forty pages for about fifteen dollars?  I might just try doing one, just to see.  It would be easier than my hand-bound portfolios, and might look better.  So, has anyone used one of the POD book companies yet?  A company besides the consumer-level ones... I forget some of the consumer-level brands, but they'll make a book from your iphoto images  or direct from a cd or cf/sd card (though, I've heard they look pretty bad).  

Students, show them your best work!!!

Students, click here:  

www.mac-on-campus.com contest link  

MAC Group (the company that brings all the best photo gear, like Tenba, Profoto, and Mamiya to the USA) has a monthly contest for photography students.  If you have some work you're proud of, you should think about entering.

Goodbye, old friend...

This article predicts the demise of several more large newspapers (Denver just lost one of its icons - The Rocky Mountain News):  

news.yahoo.com link  

As a newspaper shooter myself, this is not good to hear...  Or, maybe I should use the pun "this is not good news".  Luckily, I have a few magazines, some corporate clients, and commercial/advertising gigs that will keep me afloat through this hard time for photojournalism.  I can't say all those staff photographers will be as lucky.  

Canon user?

If you shoot professionally, you should become a member of CPS.  No, it's not Child Protective Services...  It's Canon Professional Services.  They provide help for Canon shooters.  The official Canon invite states:  

"The long awaited CPS web site is live and available to accept memberships into the New CPS Program.  The CPS program is available to full-time working professional photographers that meet the membership level requirements of equipment ownership and business. This program offers three levels of membership - Silver, Gold and Platinum - to qualifying members, with each level receiving better and more extensive benefits."

www.usa.canon.com