Kutztown Festival – Day 1

The marathon began today with very nice weather and a good crowd. Today, and for the next eight days, I will start each day with a Starbucks breakfast sandwich and large coffee. Don’t worry, the sandwich is reduced fat.

My first sale was of the image entitled Beach Sitter in an 11×14 mat. My second sale was of the same image and size. From there the images selected were of a rather diverse nature, which I like. Sales were made to people from 5 different states, which I like.

We had a bit of excitement, unwelcomed as it was, when a tranformer blew outside building A (where I am exhibiting). A loud pop followed by darkness was not good for viewing of the art or crafts within the building. I was more fortunate than most as I am located near the entrance and had outside light to at least make my work somewhat viewable. The show managers where on the situation like bees to honey and the electrical company had the problem fixed in record time. Great service all around. In total we lost power for about an hour and a half. I’m hoping tomorrow is problem free.

I’ve still time to do some work this evening………so I’m off to it.

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Kutztown Festival Set-up Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will be setting up in Building A at the Kutztown Festival in Kutztown, PA. This 9-day festival will draw people from near and far for fun and food, but a little bit of art work as well.

I am finishing some last minute preparations this evening, but will probably be working evenings after the show to print images as needed. The Kutztown Festival is not an art show, but there are some fine artists and artisans there and the response to work was so positive last year, I do believe people appreciate fine art and crafts being there.

The event is an opportunity to see some traditional craftsmen at work and is a lot of fun for kids as well. Of course, there is no shortage of great foods to eat and drink to wash it down. Bring your camera as well for great opportunities to photography your family members in colorful settings, baby farm animals, old tractors, close-ups of craftsmen performing their crafts or just people having a good time.

Do be prepared for large crowds and a bit of walking (it’s good for you). And while your at it, come into Building A and pick out something new for your wall, or as a gift for someone you care about. I’ll look forward to seeing you.

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WPOTY Results

The BBC/Shell Wildlife Photographer Of The Year competition is probably the most prestigious nature photography event in the world. I received my email telling me how far I got this year and once again I made it to the semifinals, this time with two images. This year though I was able to find out which images were selected and they are pictured below.

The first image was selected in the In Praise of Plants category. It is of a Rose Hibiscus that I made in Bucks Co., PA. The image was made with a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens with camera on a tripod.

The Second image was selected in the Creative Visions of Nature category and is of light reflecting off of a spider web. This image was also made with a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens, but this time I worked handheld.

I always look forward to buying the hardbound book publication of all the winning images. It is a visual feast and I look at the books often for inspiration and just pure enjoyment. I’m already anticipating next year’s competition and have some ideas for my entry. It’s an honor to make it through the first round of selections, but getting further certainly wouldn’t suck.

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Down and Dirty – part 2

Brien Szabo sent me a picture of myself (on right) and good friend Jim, working in the Pine Barrens. Being careful not to harm the delicate plant life and trying not to get too wet and muddy, I was making close-up images of several flowers indicative to the area. I wanted to imply the flower’s surroundings without allowing the background to distract from the form and color of the primary subject. A tripod here is necessary as my magnification was high and the equipment fairly heavy. In this picture I am working with a Canon 300mm f4.0 L IS lens with Canon 1.4X teleconverter and both 12mm and 25mm extension tubes. All are attached to a Canon EOS 30D (with its own 1.6x crop factor) which gives quite a bit of equivalent focal length. The depth of field was nice and shallow which I generally like.

I’m wearing a long sleeve white “Bug Off” shirt over a T-shirt which kept the bugs at bay and didn’t absorb much heat from the sun. My cap is an L.L. Bean “Bug Off” model as well. Gore-Tex boots and wool socks keep the feet comfortable and zip-off, light weight pants round out my field attire. This was one of the few times I didn’t wear a photo-vest, but found I was more comfortable without it.

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Down and Dirty

Not too dirty really, but the potential was there at the workshop I attended this past Friday-Sunday. The leader was Brien Szabo of NJ (see his link under Photographers). Brien was well organized, and structered a workshop/photo tour of sections of the NJ Pine Barrens that I would have never otherwise experienced. Brien is fun to be with and has great energy and enthusiasm for photography and the subject matter being explored. He is knowledgable without being wrapped up in the technical minutia.

I enjoyed the image making even though at times I was feeling that I wasn’t quite fully connecting with the locations. Ultimately, this made me work a little harder at analysing what I was seeing and what excited me. I am pleased with the pictures I made and enjoyed the weekend (even if we did get up at 4:00am both mornings). I recommend Brien’s workshops and would certainly do another. I think it especially true in a busy schedule world that booking a workshop is a great way to force yourself to make the time for your art.

We were very lucky to have cool temps and little in bug problems. This made just being outdoors worth the effort. My own image making included a range of spacial scales from macro to intimate landscape and wider vista. Stylistically, I worked to create abstract (e.g., grasses in  dusk reflecting bog waters) as well as representational images (e.g., portraits of individual flowers). I’m especially pleased with the intimate landscape work I created.

This image below is a wider perspective with waning light and gives a good sense of one of the locations where we worked.

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Carded

This year will be my second exhibiting at the Lehigh Valley Guild Of Craftsmen Holiday Marketplace. The postcard is wonderfully done and not just because it includes my image Beach Sitter (red fox). I’ll be handing out cards at upcoming shows. Mark your calendar now for this little gem of a show at the Swain School in the Lehigh Valley.

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Daily Business

I finished yesterday a custom order made at the Peddlers’ Village show and will have the Delivery Dept. (Me) handle it tomorrow. That leaves me with one order left from that show for which I am still waiting to receive a frame in the correct size (my initial order was sent in the wrong size). The Purchasing Dept. (Me) handled the reorder. I received a shipment of mats and frames today that the Shipping and Receiving Dept. (Me) will unpack and store. Work continues on preparing for the Kutztown Folk Festival making prints and then matting and framing them. The Production Dept. (Me) is on schedule or slightly behind.

Tonight was the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen picnic. We had a nice evening outside and were lucky that the lightning that is now hitting all around me as I write this, held off. It’s always good to spend some time with the creative folk of this fine guild.

The postcards for upcoming guild shows at Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster (Nov.) and locally here in the Lehigh Valley (Nov.) are in hand and will be available at upcoming shows. What’s left I will try to get into the mail.

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En plein air – photography

This may just sound plain silly, or maybe plein silly? Nonetheless, maybe there is some significance to the concept. In painting circles, en plein air refers to the practice of painting “in the open air”, that is outside, on location, while observing the very scene that is being painted. As a nature photographer, all my work is done outside and on location. My images reflect both real events and real subjects in real time.

When I worked solely with color slide films, my creative effort was entirely restricted to what I could do in the field. This was neither good nor bad, it just was. Ansel Adams on the other hand had a three part process which started with field work and then continued with a 2-stage darkroom process (film developing and then printing). His images made in the camera were only the starting point for the final product – the print. So maybe he wouldn’t qualify as being a strict plein air photographer, but those who use slide film I think reasonable can be. There are also however, plein air painters who do the bulk of their painting in the field and then finish it in their studio.

Digital format has replaced slide film for many nature photographers and has resulted in a new work flow that is much more like the black & white process of Ansel Adams (and anyone else who works in B&W). Now I photograph in the field in RAW format (somewhat analogous to a digital film negative), develop that RAW file in a converter program (again somewhat analogous to film developing), and then print that image using additonal software elements (often doing very analogous darkroom actions like dodge/burn, contrast control, exposure adjustment, color filtration, crop, etc.).

Whether using slide film or a digital sensor to record my vision, the ultimate image is still representative of real events in a real setting and in real time. But the process in the digital workflow doesn’t end with the release of the shutter as it did when I used slide film. However, what is still true is that what I present to the viewer is not a conglomeration of different elements brought into one image. The snow owl on the beach in NY was really there with me as were the two bears in the woods in Virginia, and whether I work with a camera loaded with film or a digital sensor, my imagery is still made en plein air.

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Father’s Day

My daughter is more full of life than any person I know. Living with that energy and spirit has to have an impact on a person. Even if I can not fully verbalize how my daughter has influenced my approach to a specific image, I’m sure that I am not the same person I was a little over ten years ago (or probably last year for that matter).

When it became clear to my wife and I that both of us working full-time careers out of the home would no longer be possible, we took it as an opportunity to have me devote myself fully to the photographic arts. Now in my fourth year, we are sure it was the right, and maybe only decision we could have made.

Pursuing art full time is not a decision I would have likely made without the needs of my daughter as the foundation. I was making strides with my art while working a full time job, but it was not ideal. I needed more time and freedom to create new work and exhibit at more venues. I was at a point where either I continued to move forward, or I was risking moving backward.

Father’s Day reminds me that being a dad influences every aspect of my life and has had positive consequences beyond those I anticipated.

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A Garage Sale

We had a garage sale today, our first. We placed in the driveway a variety of items that we wanted to sell and offered them at low prices. Most of these items (e.g., books, toys VHS movies, dishes) had some value left in them but were not worth anything much to us any more. Most items sold for less than their value, but everything sold for more than they were worth to us. As the hours went by I began to think about the difference between value and worth and how it relates to the sale of art. 

There is much art with great value that I consider of little worth. Likewise, I see many pieces that are worth more than they are valued. An example, an excellent carver has sold many pieces at shows. More recently she gave up shows because her pieces weren’t selling. They were priced below what I feel their value was, yet not enough people saw the carvings’ worth. If you compared her carvings based on quality and price to others, it is clear that they were a great value. What was missing were people who saw their worth. With rare exception, art is not bought based on value, but based on worth. What is it worth to experience a piece of art as part of your life? The way it makes you feel, the thoughts that it generates, the ideas it gives you – what is that worth? And yet those things have no real value (monetarily). 

As an artist, I have to place a value on my work. Value can be determined by cost of materials, hours of work, comparison with similar items. The price that I put on each piece is one measure of that value. But the buyer is the one that places worth on my art, that is something I can not do. I can do things that contribute to the work’s value by using quality materials and crafting, but worth is less tangible. Worth is the thing that I struggle with the most in my imagery, it is the thing that I want my work to have more than its value. If my work touches you, makes you feel good, reflective, emotional, then I can say that there is worth in my work and you can tell me you value that enough to make it a part of your life.

 

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