[olavf]

My understanding is multi-colored subjects are fine, but multiple colored subjects are not.

In my mind, Leica‘s ladder would be great with mopsy‘s suggested cropping of the rust, but the petals in the gutter I’m not so sure about, but not for the reasons suggested. I find the brown tones, both in the concrete to the right and in the straw a bit to much color for a strict interpretation.

rav‘s picture is cool. I’d like to see what happened with a higher f-stop so the background was more in focus and you had a similar gray-scale texture matching the color textures 😉

[olavf]

I thought about it, but I more or less do it in my own disorganized way. Partially fueled by trying to get something new for each farktography contest 😉

[olavf]

I don’t doubt it. I haven’t seen one of those fail, but I’ve seen the results of the fets on a 500W servo drive letting the smoke out. It’s pretty spectacular.

[olavf]

Having covered two walls of our house with pictures, I’d say that 16×20 (frame size) is the largest I’d go. Once you get larger than that, it can start to overwhelm many spaces, and I think you’ll start limiting the portion of the audience that has their checkbook handy. Also, if you’re putting up five prints it can feel crowded depending on the space you’re working with. My house is done in the ‘salon style’ where things are crowded and grouped with the idea that everywhere you look there’s something interesting, but that doesn’t showcase the individual pieces too well. 11×14’s could work too, but given the space and size, probably not.

My gut feeling on framed/not framed – around here – is that many of the galleries have un-framed prints but many of the non-galleries that showcase artists tend to have framed prints. I don’t know is that’s a preference on the case of the artists, the locations, the potential patrons, or all three though. My gut tells me that in the case of the galleries, the frames can distract from the art, whereas in the case of the local restaurant or book store, people are more likely to imagine the work in their homes – if you can follow my logic on that.

Most LEs, by the way are generally limited in a single size, from what I’ve seen out here. So, you may do a LE run of 16x20s, but not in other sizes. Or, have a different LE run in a different size. It might help to be clear on that, but that seems to be the norm. Another thing to consider is getting handful of ‘artist cards’ that can be left out with some contact info on them, if the place is amenable. That way people can get in touch with you for other works, possibly other hangings, different sizes, etc.

[olavf]

I missed this one somehow (I miss a lot of things) but nah, I wouldn’t call it pushy or AW-y.

I think my site has gotten 250 unique visits since early December but most of those come via Facebook or the few other places it’s linked and very few Google hits. But it’s not 100% done yet so I haven’t been promoting it heavily either (stoopid holidays).

It’s good to know on the Adsense though. I didn’t set up for ads because the site is for promoting Kat, and my work – and I didn’t want any distractions from that. My server costs are also virtually nil (I pay for the domain name and have an off-site DNS provider. My stuff is hosted out of the house). But it sounds like unless you’ve got the “hot blog of the month” you’re not going to recoup your costs from the deal. That is pretty interesting to know.

[olavf]

CauseISaidSo wrote:

Or, combine your love of lethal voltage and music and build your own plasma speaker.

That’s pretty cool.

[olavf]

I’ve never built one myself, either, but I suspect getting into the 10kV+ range is the key. I’m a little surprised you couldn’t get anything at all at 4kV though.
/I’m going to keep my eyes out for a neon transformer, so I’ll let you know 😀

[olavf]

orionid, U-Man is right. It was set up by my electrical wizard brother-in-law who is now in Florida for 6 months. I think they were tall terminals with wires and copper tubing coming off of it. You would love going through his barn. He could tell you more things that you can do electrically that you have not even thought of. He also has a collection of WWII military radio communication “stuff.” I’ll e-mail him and ask for an explanation and get back to you.

Awesome! Thanks!

There’s a couple of simple schematics on the web for spark generators based on the concepts behind the Taser.

Or, you could build a Jacob’s Ladder
http://www.ee.washington.edu/circuit_archive/circuits/jacobs.html

(I considered it)

[olavf]

A lot of the galleries around here seem to be going for matting only, and that’s the direction Kat and I are taking with our stuff. If you do a hinged mat, the photos are pretty well protected, and can be hung for temporary display. Plus, you can reduce your costs and adjust your pricing accordingly… The frame is going to be the single most expensive part, and it can also be the most difficult to choose, because it has to work both with the photo, and with the location it’s hung in. A lot of the framing debate I’ve been reading has to do with this latter dilemma.

Some of our decision was also driven by shipping costs though – just the packaging for a shipping a framed print can cost as much as you’re likely to sell a print for. The web numbers I’ve seen – for an unknown artist, an 11×14 can go anywhere from $40-$100 for just the photo (and that also jives with what I’ve seen at the local art walks). LE’s are 1.5x to 2x that range. ‘Named’ artists tend to go for $150-$350 matted but not framed in the galleries here. If you’re going to go to Aaron Brothers or wherever to have that photo matted and framed, figure on that much in cost, and shipping that framed print is going to cost you that again between packaging and shipping costs.

Something else to consider, if you’re going to get serious – with a $100 mat cutter and some practice, you can do your own professional-quality matting at home for a fraction of the cost. Mine has more than paid for itself by putting our stuff up at home, alone.

But as far as which way to go, you may want to wander around some of the local galleries and see what the trend in your are is. I suspect it varies from region to region.

//and congrats harpo, and good luck!

[olavf]

I get that one too. It’s been going on a year at least. Otherwise it’s been behaving though.

[olavf]

My apologies. That sounded a lot more whiny and a lot less simply frustrated than I intended. Can I blame it on a general lack of sleep? kthx

The weather around here is, at best, completely un-cooperative though. To the point where if it is going to vary, it’ll change in the middle of the night so usually it quite literally does go from being overcast and grey one day, to clear and sunny the next. It usually rains at the most inconvenient times, and then in the most inconvenient way possible, etc. Finding decent conditions at a time when it’s possible to get out the camera can be a challenge. I think I worked on ‘rain’ for something like two months to get anything postable – and my one good shot was literally getting home from work, grabbing the camera, grabbing the wife (model) and hoofing it to the spot I’d been thinking about before the conditions changed. In the dark because it’s generally dark when I leave the house, and dark by the time I leave work this time of year.

Anyway, I’ll get something, I’m sure. I always manage to.

I haven’t missed a contest in two years or so, and I don’t intend to any time soon. In some ways Farktography is my version of Project365 – I try and get at least one good picture every week expressly for a contest. I often archive-dive too, but I try not to go there *first*. I’m not exactly expanding my horizons if I’m constantly using pictures I’ve already taken, yanno?

/tl,dr; frustrated and had to vent. My apologies. Carry on.

[olavf]

It’d be as well to let it go. It’s too far out of range.

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/eclipse110104_solar_transit_25.jpg

[olavf]

With that difficulty, you’ll be getting blue skies, and grey skies from me this time of year, quite frankly. We haven’t even had any interesting sunsets lately.

[olavf]

Whoa, the links have gotten quite a bit longer this week…

IF you cut it down to the thread# it still works though.

[olavf]

Congrats, olavf! IIRC, you’ve been on a bit of a streak lately, haven’t you?[/b]

It’s been back-and-forth. A couple of weeks ago, I had one of the worst contests in at least a year, too. I’m hoping I’m out of the slump I’ve been in overall though.
/we’ll see what happens next week though

Speaking of streaks, that was my 5th in a row where I had a top ten. I am, as the kids say (or at least used to), stoked! Anybody got a sling? I think I might’ve sprained something patting myself on the back. 🙂

Awesome!

<–Has a sling.

//not the one to which you refer. Laughing

Thanks for the visual, Borat 😉

[Author]

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