exhibitions maybe

puddles22

hi guys a few places have seen my photos and are asking me to exhibit from the local craft shop, the local airport , to a specific exhibition showing my work and have it advertised as an event within event, ive only taken photos for my own pleasure and have recently just set up a facebook page to sell a few but never displayed to the public. my question to you does anybody have any experience of this and what pitfalls to look for ?
also looking to see what you guys my peers think of my work , is it good enough to display ? u can check it out here

ronanc15

puddles22 wrote: »

hi guys a few places have seen my photos and are asking me to exhibit from the local craft shop, the local airport , to a specific exhibition showing my work and have it advertised as an event within event, ive only taken photos for my own pleasure and have recently just set up a facebook page to sell a few but never displayed to the public. my question to you does anybody have any experience of this and what pitfalls to look for ?
also looking to see what you guys my peers think of my work , is it good enough to display ? u can check it out here

Im afraid I've no experience so I can't comment on the potential pitfalls.

However your work is definitely good enough to exhibit, always love seeing your landscape photos!

AnCatDubh

puddles22 wrote: »

hi guys a few places have seen my photos and are asking me to exhibit from the local craft shop, the local airport , to a specific exhibition showing my work and have it advertised as an event within event, ive only taken photos for my own pleasure and have recently just set up a facebook page to sell a few but never displayed to the public.

Your work is really good and you should exhibit if you get the chance. Just be aware of what you might be getting into - if you have the materials already lying around then there's probably no problem, but be aware of the cost of getting say 20 of your images professionally printed and mounted or framed for display. There may well be pay back if you are intending selling them. I saw another photographer recently trying to raise €2k for a solo exhibition. Not sure of the details and i've no idea as to what it would actually cost but I wondered was it an excessive amount. It probably could be done cheaper too, so all i'm really trying to say is be aware of what you are getting into (not beware of what you are getting into).

Good luck with it. If it comes to pass, be sure to post a link / event details up if its open to the public. There'd probably be a few nosey sods knocking around these parts that would be interested in having a gawk.

dinneenp

Nice photos, go for it!
What do you have to lose, expect time and a bit of money.

I (could be naive) but you can buy frames in Ikea that hold an 8" by 12" photo with a white mount and black frame from €8- link and link2. I bought 20 last time I was there and they're good.

You can pay a bit more and get better ones, about €16 I think. they have a MASSIVE selection there.
Printing doesn't have to be very expensive.

DaireQuinlan

dinneenp wrote: »

Nice photos, go for it!
What do you have to lose, expect time and a bit of money.

I (could be naive) but you can buy frames in Ikea that hold an 8" by 12" photo with a white mount and black frame from €8- link and link2. I bought 20 last time I was there and they're good.

You can pay a bit more and get better ones, about €16 I think. they have a MASSIVE selection there.
Printing doesn't have to be very expensive.

I'd say that if I went to an actual exhibition of someone's work, bought a piece, and discovered after bringing it home that it had been mounted in an IKEA frame I'd be bringing it straight back to the gallery to get it properly mounted, at their (or rather the photographers) expense

puddles22

i was thinking of doing them on canvas ????

DaireQuinlan

puddles22 wrote: »

i was thinking of doing them on canvas ????

Really ? I'd be of the opinion that nicely done straight prints, well mounted and framed, would be infinitely preferable to canvas. I do loathe canvas prints though, I think they look cheap and tacky.

maddog

Hi Owen,
Having viewed your work I'd say that the clarity of your shots is just not there at the moment for an exhibition, you might also find that printing some of your shots on canvas at anything larger than A3 might not come out as good as you would like.
This is just my opinion by the way, and I'm very fussy on the quality of an image in terms of DOF, Light, Clarity and focal points.

Regards,
Bren:)

Effects

I wouldn't get canvas prints done. As Daire said, they look cheap and tacky. I can't recall going to any photo exhibition and seeing it printed on canvas. Steve at 360dpi does great prints and the price is pretty good. I looked at fire in the copper house gallery for a print lately and it was twice the price that Steve charges.

Effects

maddog wrote: »

Hi Owen,
Having viewed your work I'd say that the clarity of your shots is just not there at the moment for an exhibition, you might also find that printing some of your shots on canvas at anything larger than A3 might not come out as good as you would like.

You have to start somewhere don't you? I'd think it makes sense to start with a small exhibition and use it as a learning experience. Maybe try printing some stuff out to better gauge the quality of the prints and how they would look.
I had a friend who got into photography a few years back and was really gung ho about it. It seemed he wanted gratification from other people really quickly. He had the chance to have a projected exhibition in a small gallery space in a book shop in town. He just cobbled together a bunch of his favorite random pictures from his Flickr. No real thought put into it. I thought it was terrible but he loved that people could see his photos. Even if he had no coherent theme.
I know a lot of different artists and almost all of them look back at previously released works with a critical view. Isn't it all part of getting better at what you do? You create art, put it out there and get better at what you do.

maddog

puddles22 wrote: »

also looking to see what you guys my peers think of my work , is it good enough to display ? [/URL]

I was answering his question as honest as I can.

Effects wrote: »

You have to start somewhere don't you? I'd think it makes sense to start with a small exhibition and use it as a learning experience. Maybe try printing some stuff out to better gauge the quality of the prints and how they would look.
I had a friend who got into photography a few years back and was really gung ho about it. It seemed he wanted gratification from other people really quickly. He had the chance to have a projected exhibition in a small gallery space in a book shop in town. He just cobbled together a bunch of his favorite random pictures from his Flickr. No real thought put into it. I thought it was terrible but he loved that people could see his photos. Even if he had no coherent theme.
I know a lot of different artists and almost all of them look back at previously released works with a critical view. Isn't it all part of getting better at what you do? You create art, put it out there and get better at what you do.

I agree with what you are saying, you do have to start somewhere.... but if we all blow smoke up his ass by saying 'all your work is awesome'...that wouldn't help him develop as a landscape photographer... I look back on all my work and hate most of it and see errors in nearly if not all of my work. I don't even know if my work would be of exhibition standard, but I do know that if and when I exhibit my work that it will have to be of a standard that I would be happy with 100%.

Ben D Bus

maddog wrote: »

but I do know that if and when I exhibit my work that it will have to be of a standard that I would be happy with 100%.

You presumably recognise the inherent risk that if you are waiting for 100% satisfaction then you may never exhibit your work?

maddog

Ben D Bus wrote: »

You presumably recognise the inherent risk that if you are waiting for 100% satisfaction then you may never exhibit your work?

Yes I'm very aware of that Ben;);)

Ben D Bus

maddog wrote: »

Yes I'm very aware of that Ben;);)

I sense a tortured artist in the making



OP, I can't view Facebook in work but I'll check out your images from home this evening.

Effects

I'd have to agree that if you wait until you are 100% happy then you never will be. Isn't that what drives us to get better at what we do?
We're also looking at his work on facebook, which messes up the image with compression.

stcstc

facebook isnt the place to choose images for an exhibition

yes you can do it on the very cheap, BUT would suggest things like Ikea frames are really not exhibition standard. also people will rocognise them and will then preceptually devalue your work


You dont have to spend a huge ammount on an exhibition. in the past 4 years i have printed and mounted around 200 exhibitions, in terms of costs anything from a few hundred to 5-6k worth

if it helps come talk to me, can show you ideas, give you ideas of costs etc


like others have said, at some point you do just have to jump in and have a go. and you know what doesntmatter what other peoples opinions are, its your work, if your happy with it then go for it

humberklog

Before you consider how you would approach an exhibition go and look at exhibitions. I'd avoid looking at collective (groups of different people) exhibitions and concentrate on individual ones.

How many individual exhibitions have you been too in the last 6 months?

I'd avoid Ikea frames for an exhibition, the frames don't cut the mustard and the cream mounts that they come with are not flattering for photography.

I don't understand why you're showing the pics on FB. I might have missed an explanation but is there one?

dave66

Really whether or not you are ready to exhibit, comes down to you, but if you are thinking about it, then maybe it's time to take the plunge and do it.

If you're going ahead with exhibiting then approach it professionally. I urge you to take up Steve's (stcstc) offer for a chat, he won't steer you wrong and his work is superb, both on print quality & frames, what's more, it doesn't cost the earth. Your work will look good, it'll be presented professionally. My thinking is, if somebody thinks enough of your work to spend hard earned cash, they should be getting what they think they're getting a print which won't fade, mounted properly and in a good frame.

puddles22

thanks guys for all the feedback , ive taken it on board as very constructive, maddog love your work and would love advice as how to achieve that clarity you have in your pics , would it be the lens by any chance ? i use a tamron at the minute along with a canon 60d would the clarity change if i changed to a canon wide angle lens?