Wednesday, June 8, 2016

:mic check:


I've been finishing up and sending the first edits of her photos to Theresa. So far she seems pleased with them. And in other photo-related matters, next week is the deadline for submitting to a toy camera photo show. I have several shots to choose from, but I just sent off another Holga roll of film to be developed. Hopefully it'll return in time for me to see if there are any other choices.


Earlier today I was pondering whether or not I should bother creating an artist page on Facebook, since that's pretty much the last place I haven't at this point. Perhaps if I had done so earlier. But the ever-changing rules and algorithms make it seem pointless now. I've seen some artists have hundreds, even thousands of followers, but they were most likely early adopters. Posing the question for discussion on my feed, most seem to agree, so I will probably not bother after all. I already try to share this blog on as many places as possible to hopefully cast the net out further.

In the past week I had taken part in something called the "Abundant Art Show," which was really a series of lessons in promoting and hopefully selling art online through a site/blog called - wait for it - The Abundant Artist. I've actually been following it for some time, and sadly am behind in reading it (I have the problem of collecting, almost hoarding information with little time to read it, and oh how it piles up), but I thought I'd give it a try. There was actually very little info offered that I didn't already know or was doing already (other than more hashtags to use on Instagram), which further leads me to wonder what else can I be doing?

I'm scattered over several outposts on the web, and I guess I haven't done this inventory in some time.

I now have two Instagram accounts, the first one is primarily random smartphone shots and fun with filters, and the newer one is going to be dedicated to artwork alone. I've been experimenting with hashtags on that one. I still find them annoying but they do get more people to find you.

I've been on deviantArt for 11 years now. Prints and other ephemera are available there.

flickr is for more "candid" photos, not super-artsy, although I have been messing around with the different modes in my point and shoot. I quite like the toy camera one.

FineArtAmerica is another print on demand site. I haven't put much new artwork up there, mainly because I see more of a trend toward more "ordinary" art on there, to judge from the "recent sales" page on there. My (paying) audience is out there somewhere, I'm sure of it.

Etsy still seems geared more towards "crafty" art. Right now I just have my Halloween is My Xmas series on there. I'd like to put more original artwork up there, and would love to attempt to sell the Homunculus dolls through it, but I don't know how they'd survive being shipped through the mail.

Model Mayhem is generally where I post the model-oriented photos, and has been where I've come into contact with models like Theresa up above.

Ello doesn't seem to be the Facebook-killer that it was originally rumored to be, but it does seem more geared towards showing visual art than how Facebook currently is.

And then there's my current albatross, my main website, which has been languishing, waiting for a redesign, as I sit immobilized unable to even begin, it seems. Paralyzed by too many options. So I feel that I need to put other projects aside until I finally get that done. I've been writing this blog faithfully every week for as long as I can recall, and I'd hate to break that cycle, but I need to make this a priority. If I need the extra time to work on it, then I'll have to forgo the blog for that week. Or I could just post a photo or two as an update now and again. You didn't actually read all this, did you?

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

:development:


I believe that I've gone through all the shots from Theresa's photoshoot and chosen the ones that stand out for me. I've done minimal editing on them, and I'm pleased at the fact that not much had to be done. The Photoshoppery will come later, but I will send these off to the model for now, and I want to get back to photos from another shoot done last fall. Boy, I wish I didn't have a day job sucking my precious time away. I had to pass on another shoot this past weekend because I don't want to add to the pile right now.




I managed to find film for the Polaroid, only online for now, and starting messing around with it. You can't get too close to the subjects, and lighting is an issue too (luckily mine came with a flash attachment), at least indoors. Further experimentation is needed. But with only 8 shots per film pack, I can't go nuts here.