AmBusPhoto

My First Contest - Afterwards

2011-01-23T01:15:00.000-08:00

So all in all, the exhibition/contest was a great success. For some reason, only one of my photos was displayed but I had heard that some people didn't have any of their work displayed at all. So I guess I should be thankful to have had the one.

I had some friends stop by who I hadn't seen in over a year, and co workers drove about an hour to come to the show which was a huge deal to me as it was really unexpected that they would accept the invitation. There was a huge turnout overall at the studio, so that was good to see. A woman from an independent film company had given me her card and expressed interest in licensing my frog photo (the company is Bullfrog Films), so who knows where things go from there. That was pretty unexpected and totally awesome!

I've come across something that I think is an interesting point to look at in the future. Photography as art. I certainly know that that has been discussed over and over through the years, but it never occurred to me before that in a setting such as this, photography could be looked upon by upturned noses from the more traditional artistic establishment. I'm not taking a stance on that one way or the other at this point in time, but it is something for me to explore further some day.

I didn't "win" anything other than exposure for myself, the possibility of some future revenue, and a good time with friends I hadn't seen in a while. Experience gained could be counted as a win for me as well. But since there was no division of artistic mediums, I'm pretty sure there's just no way a photo will win over the paintings and drawings that were present.

Oh, and another thing learned from this night was to pay attention to what shoes you are putting on before stepping inside the gallery. At one point, I managed to put on two different pair of shoes which no one seemed to be aware of. Then again, I probably fit right in with the rest of the artsy crowd! LOL

Ready! Set........SHOW!

2011-01-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday I finished up with matting and framing my second photo for the contest. Since I have already done one, I guess now I just think I'm some sort of pro or something, and decided to double mat the frog photo. It actually looks great, although certainly not perfect. There was a woman at a local crafting store that helped me pick out the mats and showed me how good a double mat looks. I still don't think these particular photos will do well in this particular show, but if nothing else I'm happy to have learned how to use my mat cutter and frame my photos.

I'll be sure to keep you updated on any progress with the competition. Here are actual, non-camera phone pictures of both photos framed and hung.

Because it is cold outside

2011-01-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

I'm freezing my butt off right now in my office, so I thought I'd share some warm photos which I've taken over the last couple of years which remind me of sunshine and nicer weather. Maybe just by looking at these photos, it'll bring the warmth and a smile to your face.

Preparations for the contest

2011-01-16T16:32:00.000-08:00

This weekend I got the materials needed for matting and framing my photos for the contest I'll be entering. I've gotten many photos matted and framed professionally, and I've even had a mat cut and mounted it myself into a frame, but from what I've learned I pretty much did it all wrong before.

A special thanks goes out to my girlfriend, Natalie, for buying me my mat cutter for christmas. The mat cutter is a Logan 450 Intermediate + mat cutter and it worked great. I have no experience with other mat cutters, but this one came with an instructional dvd which was all of 10 minutes long at most, and gave very clear and concise directions on how to use it properly.

Aside from that, I got the mat from a local arts and crafts store called Michaels along with the frame. At this point I thought I had everything I needed, but of course I was wrong. After some Google searching to find out how to properly mount a photo to a mat, I found out I needed something called a "backing board" which is nothing more than 3/4 inch foamcore. Also I was told the best tape to use is of a linen variety. Back out to Michaels I went. Turns out, the guy behind the framing counter at Michaels had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when I asked about linen tape. Since he was so unhelpful (nothing against him personally, but I think that if you're going to be behind the framing counter, you'd better have a good idea of how to properly mount and frame photos.), I decided to go to a local art store even though Michaels did have the foamcore backing board I needed.

The woman at this art store did at least know what I was talking about when I mentioned the linen tape, but said that they don't carry it as it is very expensive and only sold to framers. A quick amazon search shows that she was wrong, but at the time I didn't know any better and there wasn't much I could do about it. She sold me something that was called "artists tape" and said that it would work great and that it was acid free. At least this woman has an idea of what's going on, so I took her up on her choice. I also got some foamboard and went up to the counter. That's when I noticed the sign that said "Minimum $20 purchase when using credit card". DAMN! Wouldn't that figure? Who does that now a days? Well, the tape was over $8, so I just got two of them because it was easier than going to the bank and coming back. I think I'll try to return the one roll of tape and see if I can get that money back.

So I get home and gather all my materials and put grab my graphed out diagram I drew to be sure everything looked good and away I went. I only needed at this moment one mat cut, but I cut two just in case. Well it would only figure that of course, I've cut both mats incorrectly. The opening was too long on the long side, and too short on the short side. It was due to a stupid error on my part, and totally avoidable had I not been in such a hurry, but after 10 minutes of hanging my head I fixed the issue and got everything cut properly. Mounted it all and I must say it came out GREAT!!!

Sorry that the photo quality isn't all that great. It was taken by my Blackberry Bold 9700. I'll have to take a proper picture of it later this evening when I get home. Thanks for viewing!

My First Contest

2011-01-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

So this week, I will be entering my first art contest. I'm pretty excited, although I most likely won't win anything as the photos I'm entering are a bit of a stretch for the theme of the contest. The theme is relating to farms and the photos I'll be submitting are taken at a farm, but not easily recognizable as being farm related in any way. I've never had my photos displayed in an art gallery of any sort, so this excites me greatly. Also, maybe someone will be interested in buying one of my photos! A portion of the proceeds will go towards revitalizing the town in which I grew up, so it's a pretty good cause.

My mom will be entering a couple of her paintings as well, so on top of all the other excitement, it's pretty cool that this is something we can do together. Anyways, if you happen to be local to the area be sure to stop by and check out all the artwork at Studio B in Boyertown PA on Friday January 21st from 5pm to 8pm.

Here are the two photos I'll be entering:

Winter Wonderland

2011-01-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

One of my first "real" shots with my new Pentax FA 100mm f/2.8 Macro. Wanted to capture the tree in forground and in-focus with the lamp bg out of focus. Overall pretty happy. Was shot wide open so I'm hoping that's why there was some serious softness going on with the shot originally.

Pentax K-x and Sigma 10-20mm

2011-01-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots taken with my Pentax K-x and Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC lens. I haven't had the lens for all that long, so expect to see even better photos as I get better acquainted with this lens' traits.

Oddities of the internet

2011-01-12T13:13:00.000-08:00

I say oddities, but I'm not sure if that's really the best word. Anyways, one of my most favorited photos on flickr happens to also be one of my favorite photos of my girlfriend. But the reason this photo has garnered so much attention is not due to my masterful use of lighting or some deep understanding of the relationship between how a viewer sees a photo and the placement of important objects within the composition. Nope, it comes down simple fetishism, of a sort I never realized existed. The photo in question can be seen below, but my girlfriend and I had just arrived at Camelback Mountain for some snowtubing and I snapped a photo of her when we got out of the car. She was freezing, so she had her scarf on and the hood of her jacket up. Apparently, there are those out there that are really into that sort of thing. Go figure! Anyways, if any of you happen to stop by, thanks for the Fav and also for teaching me something new!

Gear and a photo

2011-01-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd add another gear item and a photo to go with it. My first "real" lens (that is to say, something designed within the last 5 years) is the SMC Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4.

This lens has wonderful color rendition and great resolving power. It's relatively cheap compared to other newer lenses at about $250 used. Fantastic low-light performance due to it's wide aperture and quick autofocus that I've not had any problems with. I've used this lens for portraits and general walk-around shooting, doing well in both. See below for a portrait I took with the lens and see a previous post for my shot of the No. 92 train at Strassburg PA.

Gear

2011-01-11T23:55:00.000-08:00

I think maybe mentioning the gear that I use could be beneficial to those of you reading my blog. My camera is a Pentax K-x. I bought it used and it's been great. I used to have a Samsung Gx-1s, so some of the photos I post on here will have been taken with that. As far as lenses, I've got quite a few. Most recently, I bought a Pentax FA 100mm F/2.8 Macro lens. It was expensive (for me at least) but totally worth it. 1:1 magnification and a great wide aperture = heaven.

More gear posts to come when I'm not so tired!

Been a while.

2011-01-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

So, of course as life would have it, i've disappeared for a while. I'm back now and the Zenfolio thing still hasn't changed much from 8 months ago or however long it's been. Oh well. It's late and I'm bored so I thought I'd update this site. I'm going to add a few favorite photos that I've taken recently. Hope you all enjoy. Assuming I can once again figure out how to post a photo!

Thanks for stopping by.

Strassburg No. 92 -- Pentax K-x and SMC-P FA 50mm f/1.4

Marsh Creek Sunset -- Pentax K-x and Super Takumar 24mm f/3.5

Recent Fav Photo

2010-08-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

http://scottspeese.zenfolio.com/p628683017/h2729047#h2729047

I really love how this lens renders out-of-focus backgrounds. The lens is a Tokina 28-70mm f/3.5 Macro which I got along with a Pentax P30 35mm flim camera. Sometimes the bokeh is very distracting, but in this case I think it looks great. Click on the link above if you have any interest in purchasing prints. Thanks!

The Beginning

2010-08-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hello, welcome to my blog. The reason I've started this blog is to chronicle my trials and tribulations from noob photography sales to internet millionaire. With such aspirations, it should be obvious that this blog will be neverending. I don't really expect there will be many people reading this, but maybe I'll learn some tricks along the way that will help a future noob photographer become a millionaire just a bit quicker. We'll see.

In the meantime, a little more about what i'm up to. 6 days ago I spent $100 for a zenfolio site (http://scottspeese.zenfolio.com/). I've owned a DSLR for about 4 - 5 years now and I've been encouraged to try to sell some of my photos and finally I decided to take the plunge. I know I'm a novice at best, but if I can make some green on the side, I'll be able to afford all those fancy workshops and club dues and whatnot.

At this point on day 6 I've tried utilizing the social mediasphere to get my name out. Linked to my zenflio site on facebook, added the link to my gmail email signature, and have posted links to photos on twitter. It's brought me a total of 7 visitors so far. and 0 sales. That's really to be expected. I'm no internet guru and besides, it's not even been a week. I have been using flickr for about 4 years now and have a decent little following of friends on there. But they generally aren't the type that would buy photos as they're probably more interested in selling their own as well.

I'm in the middle of arranging to sell photos at the Chester County Art Associations gallery in the Exton Square Mall, so hopefully that will pan out. I've just had 6 prints ordered of my most recent favorite photos and will have to see if they're worthy of being displayed there. I still need to come up with some business cards and have to figure out how to correctly price my photos.

Anyways, that's enough of a beginning right now. I'll update as things move along, and lets see how this one rides out.

Day 6. 7 total visitors to the zenfolio site. 43 photos uploaded. 0 sales.