Our web diary

SteepleChase Part 2

As you know we Marlene and I went out to Photograph the Queenscup Steeplechase last April. Basically our local camera club traded entrance fees for our photographs. Well here it is in July and I have 5 of 9 total pictures on the Southpark Magazine website and in their July issue.

My five are the First three in the left column numbers 3 and 4 in the right columns. The Queenscup owns the rights to the photographs, so I don't get captioning credit, but it it really neat to see my stuff in real print.

Paris collage

This was an interesting thing I'd thought I'd share. Sean and I collaborated on a gift for Tilly's birthday. I put together a group of photos and memorabillia from trips to Paris Tilly and I had made together and laid them out on a map of the city. Sean then took a photo of the collage and we printed it out as a poster.
It got stuck in the mail and Tilly just got this on Friday. We've put off posting this because we didn't want to ruin the surprise. I think this is pretty damn cool, if I do say so myself.

Sean's Birthday Cake

Today is Sean's birthday.
I got him a gift card from B&H photo so he can pick something out of his favourite catalog and attempted to make a "pudding cake" a la Momma Sperling. Turned out pretty tasty, but not as good as Mom's. Although Mom's made at least 100 of those cakes over the years so she has had more practice ...
Trust me, this tastes much better than it looks.
Happy Birthday Sean!

Marlene's New Toy

Marlene ponders the instruction book for her new sewing machine.

Charlotte Farmer's Market

We spent today at the Charlotte NC Farmer's Market. The State Department of Agriculture runs these markets to give local farmers a place to sell their goods. They also allow local crafts persons to sell their wares at the Craft Market on Saturdays.

I had contacted Frank the Market Manager to see if my photographs would be allowed for sale. They are of local flora and fawna. He said that would be fine and that the fee was $10.00 per space. So I figured what they heck. I need to start showing some sort of return for the investment I am making in taking these pictures.

Once I decided to go the Market I needed to make sure everything was presented nicely. To start with I had to decide on a product. Pictures are one thing, but packaging can help you get the sales. I figured that this is a flea market type atmosphere and as such people would not be willing to spend a lot of money. I was not going to be selling $100 prints here. So I made 4 x 6 and 5 x7 prints and then matted them to standard frame sizes. I found a really good supplier of mats, mat backing, and poly bags for this project. I am keeping that a secret because I can't give away the costs. I sold the 4X6 prints for $3.00 and the 5X7 prints for 5.00 with discounts on multiples.

After getting the inventory together, I needed a good way to display the pictures. I had originally thought about putting hinges on three pieces of peg board. This is pretty common at fairs and such and allows you to position the pictures easily around the surface. However, I didn't like any of the hinged solutions that I found so I took another root. I purchased a Savage Port-A-Stand background stand kit from Wolf Camera. The contains two light stands, a crossbar, and carrying bag. The idea was to hang the peg board from the crossbar. I decided on using rubber quick ties vs. hooks. They are incredbly cheap and easy to thread through the holes in the peg board and over the crossbar. A table is supplied with our rental fee and I purchased 2.5 yards of 44" wide black fabric to drape over the table. Then I found some red and black crates to hold the finished works.

The original idea was to have people look through the "browse bins". Later in the day we just laid the pictures on the table. This allowed people to see everything in one pass. I think it definately helped our sales.

Marlene was a real trooper. We both had to wake up early to make sure we got a good spot in the barn. She very helpful in getting things set up and organized. The background stands worked pretty well. We were able to get up and down in 10-15 minutes.

We didn't make a whole lot for the day, but it was a good start. We sold over 10% of the inventory and at least covered the rental. There were some craftspeople there that didn't cover their rental. It was a slow day because of the holiday weekend. In the end we did have fun. I really enjoyed hearing people speak about my work. We may not have made gobs of money, but we had a good time. The other craftsmen were entertaining and the people watching was fabulous. We are planning on doing this again next weekend.

Here are some pictures from the day.