Good grief. You get on a roll sometimes and things just pass you by. Like blogging. Or presenting at a club meeting. Or eating lunch……etc, etc, etc.
Yesterday was one of those busy days. Several metallic prints, finishing up 8 canvases, receiving a few more paintings to image and color match. Yeah, busy.
Who has been keeping me busy you ask? Well, I’ll tell you…….
Derrick Reynolds, a relatively new client requested 5 canvases for an upcoming show. Several weeks ago I did 5 24×36 Optica One prints for him as well. He’s gearing up for the show season.
Russell Johnson is currently showing his new collection from the Grand Canyon over at The Frame and I. I had to image Russell’s “monster” piece recently and set it up for reproduction. Two days ago I ran a 36×45″ repro of his new canyon, and you can see it below. You can also see (and purchase) the original from Russell over at The Frame and I. Check it out if you have the chance!
Barbara Palmer popped in as well with two new paintings that she recently finished. I just put the finishing touches on her color match, and I’ll see her a little later today to review the results. I’m pretty impressed, and I hope she will be too.
All three local artists are shown here in town. I’d suggest you check out their works and pay a visit to downtown Prescott. 🙂
To sum up……Lots of imaging. Lots of color matching. Lots of canvas……..a ton of money going out of my pocket to resupply…….
Resupplying….ah yeah
In case you’re thinking about getting into this business, let me tell you……..it ain’t cheap. Sometimes it’s a labor of love and nothing more. As I’ve been dealing with more clients lately you’d think I’d be rolling in the cash. And I do see revenue coming in. But then it goes right back out for supplies.
Recently I resupplied on more canvas from Breathing Color. Optica One, Vibrance, 30MS. Then there’s the Sunset Metallic from LexJet. And a few rolls of Canon Satin for good measure. Uh, kiss some bucks good bye there.
Then there’s the printer itself. In the past month I’ve had to get some new ink tanks. Yellow, Gray, Photo Gray, Black, Photo Magenta, Matte Black, & Photo Cyan. Oh, and I had to replace the maintenance cartridge in the 8300 as well. All expensive. And it’s looking like I’ll be replacing print heads very soon on the 8300 as well………
So, just as I thought, “Hey, you might pay yourself this month” all the resupplying has showed me, nope, not this month. 🙂 Ah, small business at its finest!
Don’t get me wrong, not complaining. Just sharing with readers the fact that this business ain’t cheap. Did you know that in 1.5 years of using the Z3100 before it went flakey that I spent over $25,000 in ink alone? Sad, but true!
Watch it, learn it, apply it – A portrait session tomorrow.
Tomorrow I’ve got a client coming by for a few head shots. They need to update their website and marketing material. So, yesterday afternoon while working on everything else I logged on to KelbyTraining.com to re-watch Scott Kelby’s “Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It.” Man, Kelby is a good instructor. Actually, everybody that works with him is good. What an impressive organization.
I had an idea for tomorrow’s client, and knew that in Kelby’s series, #2 demonstrated what I had in mind. Figured it would hurt to keep Scott on in the background and soak up some of his thoughts.
A subject was wrangled (thanks by the way) and I did a few test shots. Nothing complex. White background, pleasant lighting. Almost everything in the shot below was done in camera. I used Photoshop Lightroom to add some punch to her eyes and soften the skin ever so slightly. In the end though, a pleasant image to be sure. Wrote my settings down, and now it will be easy to setup for tomorrow’s client.
What was used you ask? Well, a Lastolite Chroma Key Background, a Canon 580EX II (main light), a 24″ Lastolite EZYBox, and my new Alien Bee 800 (which lit the Chroma Key). The 5D Mark II was the camera here, my 70-200mm L Series Lens, and it was shot at 1/200th, f/6.3 at 70mm. What you don’t see is a reflector in front of her too. I know, had it a little low, but we did do some shoulder and head shots only and that’s where the reflector really shined (ah, get it……heh).
Alright, there you go. Sorry for neglecting the blog yesterday. Poor neglected blog.