A long walk

As mentioned, I bought a new camera this past week, and was "itchin" as they probably say somewhere to take it out and try it out. I played hooky for part of yesterday afternoon and planned on a long walk to do just that.

But first, I stopped at the thrift store, the store below my apartment to check it out. I stop every few weeks, not to do my clothes shopping, though some think that is where I shop. Rather, I scan the books and see if they have any cameras. Yesterday they did, and in one week I ended up with a new new camera and an old new camera. For those of you who might care, they had a Retina III C, the ultimate folding camera that Kodak ever made. It took them 23 different models, but this one was the best. It is 50 or 51 years old, and in way above average shape. Even after 30 years of being a camera geek, I have only seen one of these, and have never owned one. I had to buy it! Actually, I paid for it and ran, hoping no one would notice the difference between the very small price and the quite large actual value. Let's just say this--it was a pretty good thrift store purchase. After I found film, I took my five day old camera and my aged camera and myself, also aged, on a walk.

All three worked, even though it was a three hour cruise around town. It wasn't fast, but it was a steady walk and it was good for me. The pictures certainly aren't the ones I want to hang on my wall, but I was frankly amazed at both cameras. The Retina did OK, though it would benefit from having the rangefinder adjusted--it focuses, but not on what you thought you were focusing on--it does lend to serendipity, but generally I like a bit more control on that. The other camera did even better than I thought, even considering user errors. It focuses on subjects that are less than two inches away from the lens, which is kind of fun.

Best of all was good to get out and walk, something that I do too infrequently and need to do more often. If nothing else, it gave me a bad case of wanderlust. I bet that there is a trip (somewhere) in my future.

So the bright yellow flowers (see above for the challenge of focusing) and the square-ish daisy pictures are from the Retina. They might be a bit better had I spent more than $2.99 on the professional film developing from Target, but they are OK. The others are from a small point and shoot, albeit an up-scale one. I liked the sign of the dentist on my block--I think I will pass on him. The bowls are on my window, taken on one of those dreary very wet days earlier this week.

Summer, finally

It is the first day of summer, the longest day of the year. Its still light here, part of the 15 hours and 36 minutes of daylight today. That said, it wasn't that great of a summer day. It rained, it blew, and when I drove somewhere at 10AM this morning, I had to drive with my lights on. When I got back home. this dramatic sky heralded even more storms, and this lake greeted me as well. The only challenge is that this lake was also my roof/deck.

Beach

I got a new camera today--I don't know--when some people have a less than a stellar day/week they go shopping or buy shoes or eat. I buy cameras. It's one way to explain why I probably have 50 cameras and I just suspect that I will buy more in the future. At least I am satisfied with a $3.00 camera and I do share those older cameras that have become, well, old to me.

It's a pretty cool camera, and way smarter than me, which is mostly a good thing. It will take one picture but it pretends it took two photos, one in color and one in black and white. Fun. I am not sure I exactly pushed its capabilities today, but I had to try it out, no matter the day/week. Now, if I can figure out how long I need to let a box of wine breathe, I will be all set for the night.

Life learning

I spent a week at a workshop on Native American history and it was great. I lived being the learner again. I do like being the student.

What is interesting is that while I have some expertise in Native American history (hey, what is a Ph.D. worth?) I clearly did not know all that much about Minnesota Native American history. I didn't enen know much about Dakota history in Minnesota.

What was good about the whole week was that I was willing/able to learn more. That is a good start.

Walking the Walker

I went to the Walker Art Center today--perhaps to see the exhibit but mostly for inspiration. It was an interesting visit...the primary exhibit was essentially about photography (and photographers) as voyeurs. It was interesting, and one that challenged me beyond what the the curators probably imagined. Essentially it was about how the photographer is/was looking AT people from the outside. Voyeurs, by any other word. It had another impact because the other "show" was Nan Goldin's show on sexual dependency, which included a very intense show that looked inward, on the photographer. She looks at the hardest, most brutal aspects of what a relationship could be.

What is interesting to me is not how challenging Nan Goldin's relationships were but rather, the different points of view of well, life. Goldin's view looks internally on her life. The other photos in the exhibit look externally on other peoples' lives. They are street photos, 35mm photos with a 35mm lens, taken of people who are unaware of the camera, or even photos from surveillance cameras. Nan's photos were internal photos of her life.

I am challenged, I guess, about my photos. Do I look inward, or outward? I think that I am pretty good at looking outward, at other peoples' lives. That is not bad, but what am I missing by simply pointing my lens away from me and not back at my life? That is a journalist's perspective, though you might argue that the photographer's life does influence HOW they look at other's lives. Still, it is an interesting question about how much the photographer needs to look inward, or much they need to or should. Look up Nan Goldin--do we need that much self-disclosure or introspection? Do we need that much at ourselves before we are look at others? At the least, I loved the museum. I even liked the bathroom, and loved the exhibit that people chose.

The (un) economics of photography

You know, it has been a long time since I made my living from photography. Thank heavens for that because I would be pretty broke if photography alone paid my bills. It is the start of the art show season for me, and I spent this past weekend at two shows in Wisconsin. It was a perfect weekend but that is where the good news stopped.

Let's review the budget for the weekend. I worked hard to make a few new prints for the shows, but I had printer challenges and had to clean my printer twice before I could get clean prints. Each time I hit that button it costs $75-100.00 worth of ink. I probably spent $75 on the prints, and I bought $140 worth of frames. My share of the entry fees for the shows was $65, and food and gas for the weekend was about $85.00. Conservatively I spent $515 to prepare for these two shows. Some of that, perhaps around 40% of that amount, is for expenses that will carry forward, but at a minimum this weekend cost at least $300.00.

But wait! The whole purpose of the weekend was to sell some of my artwork and I did. I sold one framed print for $40.00. Now I am not an accountant by any stretch, but even I can see that it is not a good business plan to have expenses that are seven times my revenue.

I have never really thought that I needed to even break even in all of this. I have too much fun doing this, or at least I have too much fun taking the pictures. But there are other costs which I am not sure I can afford. It is brutal to be at a show where you sell virtually nothing. It is difficult if not almost humiliating to experience this. It introduces or it really reinforces the self-doubt that lurks just below the bravado of all artists.

I have to think about what I have to do to sell photos. Am I willing to make tiny little photos of out-of-focus flowers or chipmunks? They were big sellers at one show. Could I sell .19 cent prints from Wal-Mart at three-for-ten dollars? Well, there are always those shots of old barns... Maybe I can make a photo with a barn, a flower, fall leaves, and a fuzzy animal. I would be rich.

I am not willing to go quite that far, but if I am going to do this art show circuit, I have to do something. I have to think about what I am willing to give up (or change) in my "art" to be commercially successful or at least a bit more successful. Of course I am laying all this on the fickle or unsophisticated eye of potential clients. Certainly my photos are perfect, so it must be the clients' fault that my pictures aren't selling. or, it could be, perhaps or even probably, that I just need to take better pictures...

I'll work on that.