Archive for March, 2006
Catching up on bit of forum reading today.
The proposed “Orphan Works” changes dominate much of the discussion – as it should. This is part of a proposed change to US copyright Law, which may remove a number of important protections in respect of unauthorized use of images. Not good news at all.
A blog has specifically been set up on keep everyone informed: http://orphanworks.blogspot.com/
It’s definitely a time of rapid change. Photographers are facing many issues. Ironically the stock industry is dominated by a few big players, but I keep hearing of photographers setting up their own websites – and selling their own stock of photographs direct, rather than submitting it to a major library where it is competing with millions more images than 5 years ago. Makes me wonder what changes the next five years will bring.
As someone who is about to launch a new website, I am pleased that – as luck would have it I have the option of offering buyers digital downloads. Initially I wasn’t going to enable this option, but sensing the changes that are happening I will be selling a small number of images on a Royalty Free basis, just to see what happens.
March 30th, 2006
Sunday is the start of the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate – I’m on stand 106 (for any buyers reading). Exhibiting my cards and prints on canvas. Well I will be when I’ve built the stand, written the marketing materials and driven to Yorkshire. Coincidentally two stand design companies have sent me details of their services. Tempting …
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Himself started a new job this week, so instead of hitting the town with friends, I stayed home just in case he’d had a bad first day. He hadn’t and the footie was on anyway, so he watched that and I got on with other jobs.
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Discovered I was a featured artist of the month on an online Gallery I’d neglected to finish uploading work to. They only had two pictures. Oops! Sent them new images anyway.
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Enjoyed a lovely dinner with friends at Ping Pong in London. My first Dim Sum meal. The loos were fun too, and oh so very modern, which prompted a conversation on unusual loos we’ve been in. Apparently I’ve led a very sheltered life in that department.
March 29th, 2006
Rang the company who were arranging our coach transfer to the airport to advise them of the hotel change. All amended she confirms. Check the pick up times on the notice board as flight times do change she advises. OK I say.
Today we are leaving so I double check the board. Flight time has now allegedly changed, and now appears to be departing 4 hours later. Weird – never had a flight change at all before. I call the tour company and they confirm, flight has changed, and then call me back again to say it has changed again. Himself and I exchange looks. Feels odd this.
Airport bus arrives, at the time we thought we should be leaving originally – we are still on the list, but for pick up from the first hotel. We grab our cases and go. Discovering at the airport that our flight time hadn’t in fact changed at all.
Came away with a few photographs of Calella, but none that really sell the place, but then it’s not been my best travel experience, and my photographs reflect that.
March 25th, 2006
Gorgeous weather. Clear blue sky and very warm – sometimes hot. Himself decided he couldn’t possible sit by the pool for three days and not jump in. – he did, discovering just how cold an unheated pool was. Managed three lengths before retreating to the room to warm up again. Not a happy bunny.
March 24th, 2006
On a trip to explore the town of Calella, himself is upset about the camera coming too, but then proceeds to spot the photographic opportunities and tell me what to shoot. I resisted the urge to hit him with the camera, during this Henri Cartier Bresson inspired shoot the decisive moment err … moment.
Spent the evening people watching. Suffice to say ‘all inclusive’ attracts a cross section of society and yes British men still wear socks with their open toed sandals. Bless!
March 23rd, 2006
Himself didn’t sleep a wink until the early hours when exhaustion overcame him, and then he was woken several times more. ‘We are not staying here another night’ he groans I didn’t get much sleep’. We came away to catch some sun, rest and sleep. Basically.
Reception understand ‘come back at 30 minutes past 12’, when we ask to be moved to a quieter room. We do. In the lift up to see the new room, we run into another couple that are about to move hotels. We get to new room, and ponder out options. Ok it’s better but the lift couple where a floor above – even further from the noisy Italian (we later learn) students. Moving hotels was an option we’d thought about, but didn’t seriously think we could do. So we ask, we move.
Wheeling our cases down the hill we run into a northern couple who stop us to have a chat about the noise levels at the hotel. They have so far managed 4 nights and tell us a lot of guests have left – like us and headed for new hotels. We can’t understand why they remain, unwilling to complain, but obviously unhappy with their trip. They went away 6 times last year, but never had this trouble. It is their holiday from hell.
So new hotel – same chain, one extra star, and no groups.
Being all inclusive himself and I feel obliged to eat and drink whenever we feel like it, which is probably why himself thought it was a good idea after two beers to join in the quiz – organised by the hotel’s entertainment team, and score sufficient points to win the wooden spoon.
March 22nd, 2006
Flew Ryan air to Gerona – that was OK.
Funny thing happened in the queue to board the plan. Man behind us near the back of the queue, quips ‘we’ll never get a seat’ as he jumps the queue of sorts. Yeah like you never get a seat on a plane.
At Calella found our bus and headed to the hotel. Apparently a 35 minute drive away – more like 1hour 35 mins, after we’d got stuck behind a slow lorry and negotiated roads not built with a big bus in mind.
Himself is getting increasingly anxious. Worried we may have failed to get off when we should, but the passengers in front are also heading for Calella.
Finally we arrive at the hotel. Last stop. Looks OK. Then we get off the bus to lots of cheering and air horns. Is there a football match on? I ask himself innocently. Well we are near Barcelona. No he says. Been to quieter Rugby matches.
Himself is normally patient, but for some reason his desire to get checked in and to our room has him at the front of the queue to check in within minutes. It’s getting nosier and we seem to be the only people without tattoos.
Is it always this noisy? I ask the receptionist. No just had a group arrive and hope they will calm down. Ring 9 if you need us. For some reason we didn’t take this as a reason to leave the hotel, but took our keys and smiled for the camera (needed for our ID cards – all inclusive stay). Dinner was OK; the entertainment was 2 girls singing. Again OK. We’ve experienced worse.
So off to bed. Ignoring that we could hear screaming, yelling, shouting, and the clickty click of heels down the corridor and down the stairs – no carpet anywhere. Believing it would all quieten down. I slept OK – with earplugs in to muffle the noise, which continued all night.
March 21st, 2006
This weekend marked the first show of the season. Two days exhibiting at Hylands House, along with 40 or so other crafts people. It was a reasonably good show, helped I am sure by the fact it was run by the Essex Guild of Craftsmen.
One lady bought my canvas of a Bluebell wood, because the picture just made her gasp. And she was actually shaking with excitment when she paid. Made my day that!
Packing up on Sunday evening I realised that I am not actually due to exhibit at a craft show again until September. I have more Art shows booked this year, plus the annual Open Studio’s event at Parndon Mill.
I have a lot of new work to show this year, so there will be plenty of opportunities to get it out there.
March 20th, 2006
Hello,
Welcome to Visual Words - the photography newsletter by Sue Kennedy.
I hope that you will find this newsletter both enjoyable and inspiring.
In todays newsletter:
Article - Photographic Art
Current projects - Pink Gerbera’s
Personal reflections - Focus
Article - Photographic Art
You may or may not consider photography to be an art form, but photographs are used a lot in everyday life. And thanks to the mass production of cameras in the late 1800’s, and the recent introduction of digital cameras most people own a camera so why not have photographic prints on your walls? Doesn’t have to be one of mine, could be one of yours.
I often hear the phrase ‘just photographs’ when showing my work, and I must confess I struggle with this. Is it a good thing or a bad thing when people say that? After all most homes and offices have some kind of all decoration be that an original painting or a print.
Interestingly other areas of art have become increasingly photographic in style, i.e. realistic paintings that resemble a photograph. Go back a couple of centuries and it was the other way around - fine art photographers then produced work that was softly focused to imitate the techniques in painting seen as contemporary then. Not all did this, others like Ansel Adams, celebrated the difference and produced sharp and detailed images that imitated only the realism of the scene they portrayed.
Today there is art available at every price point - whether it is a mass produced print bought from your local store to or one produced by the maker in limited numbers. Those can be harder to source, but if you want something that expresses your individual taste and you won’t see every where then it’s worth exploring art galleries & shows or buying direct from the artist.
Nowadays we tend to decorate using neutral colours, so introducing colour and drama through art is a good way to add some character to a room, and it’s usually easier to move pictures around than repaint.
In the next few days I will be launching a new website - still at BlueEyesPhoto.com but with a fresh look and lots more of my photograph, spanning my entire career. In fact nearly 600, so there will be plenty of new work to see.
I’ll let you know when it’s live, as I would be interested to hear your comments.
Current projects - Pink Gerbera’s
I have been shooting a lot of studio projects just recently. Having reviewed my sales, I decided that I wanted to expand my flower collection. In particular Pink Gerbera’s
The results can be seen on my website. All shot in the studio.
These shots are destined for an Art publishers site, and I hope they do well, as people will be able to buy the prints as an open edition, and I won’t have to worry about the printing as it’s all done for me.
Personal reflections - Focus
I attended the Focus on imaging trade show at Birmingham NEC earlier this month, just to see what was new in the world of photography.
Quite a lot as it turns out - the emphasis seems to have shifted toward doing everything yourself. There were lots of stands promoting framing products, as well as the usual array of manufacturers selling everything you could possibly need to manage your digital workflow.
Surprisingly Canon had no presence at all, and in fact there seemed to be less of an opportunity to check gear out, unless you were actually buying from a distributor.
For me the long journey was made worthwhile by attending three seminars on the business of Photographing babies (we have a new one in the family) and catching up with people I hadn’t seen for a while - years in fact.
Still I did pick up some new ideas from the stands, and now have a list of things I’d like to buy!
Given I’m still busy editing work to send of to picture libraries, I decided to take the opportunity to join the StockArtistsAlliance.org, primarily to learn more about the industry.
The SAA’s mission as an international non profit trade association is to protect and promote the business interests of its members with regard to the worldwide distribution of their intellectual property.
As a member I can gain access to useful information about the stock photography industry, as well as being part of a community. And boy has it been an eye opener - I already subscribe to other forums, but the resources on this site beat them hands down, their newsletter being particularly informative.
It has certainly changed my outlook on what I’d like to achieve, and probably saved me a lot of wasted energy in the process.
It also useful to see what other photographers are shooting, their differing styles and approaches and to appreciate the quality that is still being produced, especially when I picked up a travel brochure the other day to see an out of focus photograph adorning a full page introduction to somewhere they hoped I’d spend money booking a holiday. No idea where they sourced the image from, but it did put me off booking.
Until next time, all the best,
Sue
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March 16th, 2006
Thorpness windmill
Originally uploaded by BlueEyesPhoto.
Thorpness Windmill is found close to the East Coast of England in the county of Suffolk. It’s one of the new pictures that I am uploading to the new website.
March 8th, 2006
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