Sales and more Sales!

Saturday when I went in to High Hand Gallery to work I found out someone bought my Empire Mine Staircase gelatin silver print! And then that day a gentleman and his fiancee came in and bought one of my Bodie Ghost Town framed piece - that's two framed prints. And if that wasn't enough, I received a call from the gallery yesterday that my photo transfer of "Rodin's Re-do" sold!! Wow! But you know, that's how it goes in the art world. It goes in spurts and it goes by artist. One artist will have a great week, then it moves on to another artist. It's crazy like that! Luckily on Sunday I took in a couple of framed replacement pieces just for times like this! ; ) Who knew??

I am finally done with running errands for the household and baking goodies for my husband for when I'm gone to Europe. Today I am taking care of a little paperwork and then I am going to start packing!! I received my Global phone on Monday and took it in to Verizon to put it together. I didn't want to even have to think about that one.

I still have some photos to upload from my camera to my PC of High Hand Gallery and then I should be done with all my responsibilities.

Matting & Framing

Yesterday was a chaotic zoo! I was running around like a nut, spinning my wheels, and really not getting anywhere. Sometimes when you try too hard, it just doesn't work. Well, it wasn't a complete failure. After spending too much time at the High Hand Gallery taking pictures of the new artwork for Facebook, I then headed out to the mall looking for a frame for a 16x20 black and white picture titled 'Bryce Canyon Floor'. I ended up coming home and just using a frame I already had - still in the package. I think it looks just fine too. The photographic image I've had printed for some time now, and I wanted to do something to it to make it even better. So I hand tinted with water color pens specifically for RC and FB papers. I hand colored the mountain range that ran right thru the middle of the image. It is a pale ochre (light tan-ish yellow). Then I cut a mat that was about the same shade! Just happened to have it! I also changed out the glass for non-glare and voila! Instant jaw dropper! So now I had two pieces to take to the Blue Moon Gallery for the next month's show. The other piece is the photo transfer of the rose that I previously posted.

I got all this done by 2:30 p.m., packed up the two framed pieces, and again headed down to the Sacramento valley which is a good 45 minute drive. And it has been really hot here. At first the gallery owner wasn't sure if she would have room for the large B&W piece, but then she decided to keep it and hopefully will hang it for this weekend - tomorrow nite!

Today I was busy uploading and resizing photos for the High Hand Gallery's Facebook page. Got those done and posted! Now I have other things to do and it's not in the studio.

Photo Transfers

Yesterday I worked on framing another completed photo transfer. It is one of a rose bush my husband and I purchased in memory of my brother Joey. It's called "Just Joey". The rose is a beautiful peach/pink color. The finalized transfer / water color image is more of a deeper peach - verging on orange. I just happened to have a frame in stock that is silver and black, thin wood frame with a mat, and I added a second mat around the actual painting. The frame was a perfect match for it! I've posted the original photo and the painting. And I just want to say this is NOT how you photograph artwork. I photographed it already framed, and that's a definite no-no.

Today I need to head out and pick up another frame for the other transfer. Hopefully, I can get this completed to get on over to the Blue Moon Gallery to trade out two gelatin silver prints that have been there (and not sold!) since February of this year. Bummer. That particular gallery is geared more to the painters of the art world. Those are the types of artwork that sell there. So, hence the change out!

I haven't made it into the darkroom yet - I have so much to do before I leave on my European trip! I did purchase an external hard drive, loaded it, and have been painstakingly dealing with the addition of the new program to my PC!! Ai, yi, yi!! If you know what I mean. My PC is 6 years old and that is apparently old in the fast world of technology. But I'm not upgrading! Not now.

I did hear from my sister-in-law in regards to the old negatives I scanned for her and put on disk. She loved them!!

Web Photography

Today I'm on my way out to the High Hand Gallery to take a couple of framed photographic images to replace some I'm bringing home. BTW, I can't remember if I mentioned before that my photo transfers were juried in - so there's five new pieces of artwork for the next two months, too!

I'm also going to pick up a photo box from the client I'm photographing her candle products for the web. I tried yesterday taking the shots with just my tri-fold white cardboard easel, but that wasn't really working. I just didn't want to shell out $$ for the nylon photo box. It's hard to find them by themselves as I already have lighting equipment and tripods. So for now, I'm borrowing hers. In addition, I did go online and ended up at a photography school website for any pointers I may have overlooked, which I found out I was already on top of things for this one.

I did a previous photo shoot for this client for her website, and this time I need to shoot the photos in RAW, per her request. So this leads me to another subject that I am 'learning' about. Number one, they say shooting in RAW is the best way to shoot digital as it maintains the true colors of the subject matter. However, one should save them as JPEGs, but also keep the original RAW files for future use without manipulations that you may end up making to them. So the problem is STORAGE SPACE! I shot my Bodie and Yosemite pics in RAW. I still haven't uploaded them as I'm thinking I need another type of offline storage system. And I just haven't had the time to get over to Best Buy and speak with someone, let alone purchase IT! I'd like to sound somewhat intelligent. It's just another 'thing' for me to take care of before my upcoming trip.

More Photo Transfers

Once I got all my labels done for the gallery, I accidentally went back to the photo transfers - namely, finishing off the rose painting that was almost finished. That only took about another hour, and then all I know is the next minute I'm printing out another flower image on transfer paper and pressing it into the damp water color paper! I almost finished that one too last night. It's kind of strange to look at it - as it appears so much like the photo. It is a photo of a live lavender orchid I had at one time and it has a dark green ethereal background.

I had previously lucked out finding some pretty classy gold and antique silver frames on sale at Delta Mat & Moulding for the other photo transfers I did. Now I'll have to figure out more frames for these. I've never seen any frames of that sort at Aaron Bros. Speaking of those transfers, tomorrow I am taking them back to High Hand Gallery to have them juried in. I hope they get in. I would think they would make great holiday gifts as I am pricing them pretty reasonably!

Looks like this weekend is when I go back into the darkroom. I'll keep you posted.