[smarti77]

I have returned from a recent family holiday / photographic week with a new passion for black and white...

I travelled to visit family in Millicent (South East, South Australia) where I was shown some amazing places. One of the best places I was taken to was an old abandoned paper mill that is currently being partly demolished and rebuilt... I was just amazing to get permission to explore the old building and take photos. One of the upper floors was this massive cathedral like room with high ceiling and a crane... I was incredibly hard to show the size of it within a photo. The bright daylight entering through the windows and the heavy shadows made it ideal for a hdr. While I like the colour version - I found the black and white allowed me to give it a bit more contrast and more like how I remember it...




This huge pipe (about 3 metres diameter) was propped up in the yard of the mill. I didnt like the images when I first saw them on the camera but after I played with a black and white conversion it now makes me think it looks like a combination of a James Bond intro and a time machine...




I also explored several properties with ruined cottage and old cars... Again I found that black and white was the best way to display the final resulting hdr.




While I was there I was introduced to a gallery owner that is keen to display my photos. I am now planning an exhibition (shared with a local photographer) for February / March 2008. It will be a big job to choose 30 - 40 images to display and then print and frame them all.... I will be looking to you all for advice!

[Banded Drake]

Congrats on the show ! you are well deserving . Very nice series , i am a fan of b/w too . Well done


..... Shawn

[Rabid Penguin]

those are awesome pics. well done!

[matthew]

Fantastic shots, hopefully we'll see more of them as you edit down the final series. I've had a leaning toward B&W recently myself, but haven't produced anything close to these images. Really, really well done.

[Toad]

These are really excellent - and #3 is a prize winner for sure.

I am surprised that need 30-40 shots each for a 2 man show. That's a heck of a lot of matting and framing - and it will cost a fortune. Usually about 15 to 20 is what they want from each photographer.

I did a few shows a couple of years back, and my first and biggest piece of advice is buy a good matte cutter and learn to cut your own mattes. That will dramatically reduce your costs and pay for itself easily with about 10 pieces. It is really easy to learn (Logan cutters come with an instructional DVD). Buy one that will cut 40" boards.

If you are handy, and have a good chop saw, I also suggest buying framing stock and assembling your own frames. This is trickier but far from impossible. Buy a set of corner clamps, and a very fine blade for the chop saw. After that , it is just measuring and gluing. It is easier to use framing stock with a more complicated profile - simple profiles show mistakes easier.

The profit margins on gallery photos are very slim - especially with the gallery taking 50% or more off the top. If you can do your own matting and/or framing and assembly, you can make some money on your sales.

Let me know if you have any questions about galleries or framing.

[smarti77]

Thanks for comments.

Toad - Thanks for your advice. The gallery has asked for 60 - 80 framed shots between the two of us. It may be less if we do alot of really large frames. I have done some test prints at 16 x 24 inches and I think that is the largest I will go.

I will definately look at a matte cutter. The other photographer has offered to help me put together some of the frames. We are being realistic and dont expect to sell any great amounts. We need to control the initial cost but still want it to look very professional. The gallery also suggested very plain black frames with white mattes (IKEA?)...

We are still negotiating with the gallery on some points. At this stage they will be taking 20% of any sales but the manager of the gallery expressed that she is all about encouraging new work and may take even less...

One thing I am still to decide is how to sign and mark the prints. I have seen frames done with the matte signed but I think I prefer and discrete signature on the print itself. They have also suggested marking the photos 1/1 or 1/5 for example as limited prints but I dont want to limit myself to selling each print only once. How many prints in a 'limited' run is appropriate?

[smarti77]

Heres a couple more from the trip... I will start a new thread with a bit more colour!

[Rabid Penguin]

That last one i'd like to see in colour.

[alastair_hm]

Amazing shots

[shuttertalk]

Hey Shane, that's just fantastic news! Great photos too - you've done really well.

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Shane some really great work here!

Congrats on the show!!

/Paul L.

[Wedding Shooter]

Amazing work Shane and the show sounds great. I know that Ken Duncan usually does 300 on his limited print runs and the prints sell for around $1000 - do the maths His work is very good of course.

[Toad]

If you are marking 1/5 on the photos - only mark the matte like that. I did some where I put the number on the print - and it just doesn't work. I like the signature on the photo itself - but not the numbering.

[NT73]

Well processed smarti. The truck stands out as HDR but not the others. (Not to me anyway).

[Don Schaeffer]

I really love the depth of you black and white photos. They look like they are dug into the screen with a trowel. Congrats on your show. May you have big success.

[Russt]

g'day Shane, great series of shots........I am a big fan of b&w though

really like your processing.......you could have had some fun 007 style with the pipe.

I hope the show goes well, good luck!!

[smarti77]

A massive thankyou to everyone for you support. A little flattery does wonders for the confidence. I will expect a bit more brutal feedback to help select which images to exhibit...

Rabid Penguin... heres a couple of the colour versions of the same images.









the last image has had the colours played with a bit more than normal because the water came out really grey from the start...thats what started me on the black and whites..

[Rabid Penguin]

Nice. I think they weork really well in either colour or greyscale.