Decisions, Decisions...

Future Vegetarian

It's coming down to the wire now...

Frank & I are hanging my new show "Sojourn in Venice" next week (on Wednesday) and I'm having trouble deciding exactly which images to print at which sizes... you know, so that the show will tell a cohesive story.

It's my first solo show and there are worse problems I could have --- But I've been blessed with a gallery and gallery owner that likes my work and gives me the freedom to try new & different things. The world is my oyster here and I guess it's a little scary.

Okay... time to jump and start hitting the print button... Andiamo, babies!

Lessons Learned...

I did my first outdoor festival this past weekend and I'm still "recovering" from the experience. All in all, it was fun and enlightening --- I got to meet some cool people, I discovered that I have more stamina for standing around 8 hours a day than I imagined, I added quite a few people to my gallery guestbook, etc.
What remains to be seen is whether or not this was a financially smart move. I did not sell enough of my work to cover the cost of the space rental... but from what I understand, not many people did. While I was riding the shuttle van back to my car one day, one of the other vendors remarked that no one was really selling anything and that was pretty much the story in the entire area --- people balked at paying over $5 for any sort of art. Paying $10 for a burger was not an issue, but art... that's another story.
A tinge of bitterness in my voice? Maybe a little... but I guess it's just a different mindset... a difference in what is important to different people. Or quite possibly, the outdoor art fair is simply not the place to try to sell art. Maybe it's a marketing tool.
Hopefully I'll have a good turnout for my gallerry show on october 3rd...

Lensbaby Luv...

It's difficult enough getting pictures of my cat when she's not in the mood to be my model... That's why I'm particularly fond of this image.

I'm still learning to use my LensBaby 3G. I still feel like I'm all thumbs and when I do manage to get a shot of her, it's usually of the back of her head.

But when I look at this image, I realize that I can actually accomplish something that I like. More experiements to come...

They Shoot Bellydancers - Part Deux...

Bellydance shows are usually exciting... The costumes, the choreography, the festive atmosphere... And since I also dance with many of the people that I photograph, I get the privilege sometimes of knowing when things go wrong and witnessing the "save." Sometimes, things go wrong that are completely outside the dancers' control... Saturday, August 16th, 2008 was just such an evening.

Asali put on Evening in the Orient 2 in Dallas, NC to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She had a great space in Myers Auditorium at Gaston College and a fantastic lineup of area dancers and her own students.

Naima was performing her solo early in the second half of the show when the fire alarm went off. She kept dancing, but also kept looking toward the wings to see what was going on. She finished abruptly but gracefully and then Asali came out and informed the audience that we had to evacuate.

All the dancers grabbed their things from the dressing room and headed outside. A couple of the dancers helped me schlep my portrait gear outside as well (hey... at least I had gotten everything packed up during intermission!) Everyone was quite upset because there were still quite a few dancers who had not performed.

Then two fire trucks arrived. One of the dancers remarked

"Please let you guys be HOT!"

The guys got out of the trucks and rushed into the building. Lots of activity. No smoke. The word that they were trying to reset the alarm so we could go back inside started filtering through. Everyone started relaxing.

Five minutes passed. Still no smoke. The official word was that as soon as the fire department reset the alarm, we could continue the show.

Then five more fire trucks arrived.

No smoke... just fun photo ops.