Selecting Photos

So now that I’ve confirmed my participation in the Peoples Photography Exhibition 2009 I’ve been working on selecting photographs to display.

Based on my experience from last year it would take 20 photos printed at 20×30 cm or A4 to fill the display area. Now I have two choices, I can continue with A4 sized photos and select 20 or I could go up to A3 size and select maybe 12. Initially I had planned to go with the A3 option but reality kicked in. Since last year I have a box full of mounts, covers and envelopes all selected for A4 size prints. I bought too many last year and I have most of them left. It makes much more sense to just continue with the A4 size and make sure I display them correctly. I’m not going to make money on this exhibition, I’ll be lucky to sell any at all in the current market, in general most people sell none and only a few people sell more than 1.

Next I needed to decide which ones to display. Some are a mix of old ones some new from the last year. I’ve decided to be a little different and switch form color to black and white with lots of sepia. There are some that I really like, in fact there are several in sepia that I like much more than the original color image. In total I have sent 36 photos to the printers to get sample prints back. If I cant find 20 photos worth displaying from those 36 then I’m in trouble. People will like them or hate them but they are my choice and I like them. I want a display that stands out and one that people will remember.

Then I need to figure how how I want to hang the photos. There are rules about displaying art on St Stephens Green and last year my planned method was too likely to damage the railings so I had to change and use string instead. Just getting the string and mounts level took over an hour every morning. I’m not doing that this year. Some frame of or netting seems to be the best choice so I have to work exactly what I will do.

Ruby Card Photo Competition

I’ve decided that I must start to enter some more photo competitions. As they say if you’re not in you cant win. I was contacted about one on pix.ie for the Ruby Card so I thought I’d have a look and give both them and pix.ie a mention. They are looking for a photo from Ireland to put on the next release of their prepaid credit card and the winner will get €2500.

Even if you don’t want to enter the competition, pix.ie is well worth looking at. The quality of the photographs already entered is stunning. Some of the top photos might look a little photoshopped for some peoples taste but there is also a nice number of street photos and ordinary landscapes. Photography in Ireland is booming with some wonderful and very talented photographers. I don’t know what photo I’ll enter but it’s certainly an interesting challenge.

Peoples Photography Update

Another meeting was held on Peoples Photography 2009 this week. A smaller turn out than expected so it’s been rescheduled, there is just too much for a small number of people to organise and keep running year on year. Hopefully more people will show up next week so things can be fully set in motion. Still it looks like the updated website is almost ready to go, just needs to be approved by all involved and uploaded. Already the applications are pouring in so the website looks like it wont be needed to do much more than publish everyones spots since everyone seems to know the event is on again this year. If you want to take part you need to apply soon.

Peoples Photography 2009

Peoples Photography in Dublin is on again this year. I was at a meeting on Friday night where the future of the exhibition was discussed and seems to have been secured with many people volunteering to help out.

Peoples Photography will take place as always on the last weekend of August, Saturday 29th to Sunday 30th. It’s a great event for photographers of all levels to display their work and a great free exhibition for Dubliners and tourists. Go up to the website to find out more, it still contains the 2008 information but should be updated soon.

Bus delays reach new low point

A girl got on the bus this morning carrying her model of a human skeleton and put it down on the seat beside herself. Considering how bad the traffic has been lately it seemed apt to have skeletons in seats. I couldn’t resist taking a few shots with my iPhone.

I wish the iPhone had a better camera but it does allow me to do a limited amount of editing via a downloaded application and to write a blog post without a computer.