May 2011
72 posts
Hand-Outs and Step-by-step dropshadow Tutorial →
#pdsnews #snag
Just a reminder, you can find all of the handouts as well as a fantastic step-by-step drop shadow tutorial (courtesy of Christopher Conrad) online through the link above!
Suggestions for Future topics and/or speakers!
So now that this year’s PDS is over, we want to know who and what you want to see next year!
Sends us your comments, suggestions and ideas!
And we are off!
#pdsnews #snag
Thus concludes the Q&A session of the Professional Development Seminar! We’re glad you could join us and hope you learned something along the way!
High end vs. Low end
#snag #pdsnews
Question from the audience:
“Would you have both your high end and low end work on Etsy”
“Does having both high end and low end work on Etsy devalue the higher end work”
emiko:
“I definitely delineate and put the lower end stuff on Etsy”
“I like to put the higher end stuff up on a different site or just up on Crafthaus. I feel like...
How many photos?
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Question from the audience:
“When you’re just starting out, how many professional photographs do you really need to get started?”
Doug Yaple:
“Look at your work and pick out the strongest pieces”
“If you can only shoot 5, pick out the strongest 5”
“Talk to the photographer about what will translate best into an image, it may not...
Two different markets
#snag #pdsnews
Question from Sarah Fox:
“How do you / are their any tricks to approaching two different artists without alienating either group”
Christopher Conrad:
“I have two different brands for two different markets”
“My belief is that if you have two different markets/services that conflict, think about splitting into two different brands”
Hilary...
Expectations
#snag #pdsnews
Question from the audience:
“What can a client expect to receive from their photographer?”
Christopher Conrad:
“I will typically give PSDs and/or JPGs”
“We always keep our work files”
Roger Schreiber:
“I always give my artist clients a large TIFF at 300dpi and a JPG”
“I’m trying to cover all of their bases for...
Asking permission?
#snag #pdsnews
Question from the audience around etiquette around blogging about other artists and their work
Hilary Pfeifer:
“One way to do it is to ask an interview, since that’s sort of asking permission in advance”
Marthe Le Van:
“I blog every week and most of the time I’m featuring artists whose work I really like”
“Since I started, and I do...
Getting people to start following you
#snag #pdsnews
Question from Dorothy:
“What is your advice for someone who is just starting out, with a tiny budget and trying to market your work and get people to pay attention”
emiko:
“Just do it all the time. Always be updating”
“When you’re constantly doing it, people will start to pay attention”
“Make sure your photos are amazing”
...
Working with Models
Question from Tonya Davidson (@TonyaDavidson):
“Inside tips for working with models please?”
emiko:
“Try learning with a friend first. What’s the standard pose, what it’s going to look like, etc”
“I asked dancer friends who have good skin and posture to act as my models. Talk amongst people you know who have good posture and skin (actors,...
Niche Marketing in a small area
#pdsnew #snag
Question:
“Do you go to the people who have money, or do they come to you?”
emiko:
“That’s what galleries are for for me. The galleries promote to the higher clientel. Most of the clientel doesn’t want you know directly who they are”
“I know in America some of the larger collectors will go to the big name craft shows”
Photography style
Question from the audience:
“Do you have any tips/any ways of dealing with creating multiple setups for photos like those used on Etsy vs Print”
Question from Harriete:
“What is the photographic style for the 21st century”
Christopher Conrad:
“Good photography is good photography”
“Isolate your image and then you can place it on a different...
Payment to Photographers
#pdsnews #snag
Question from the audience:
“Should an artist get a clear cut-and-dry set of usage guidelines with images from a photographer that they pay”
Christopher Conrad:
“If you know that you want unlimited usage, ask the photographer for a Buy-Out or Work-For-Hire so that it is a retail transaction rather than a licensing transaction”
“We charge usage fees...
Niche Question
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Question from the audience:
“Do you still rely on the standard venues of galleries and stores, and how does something like Etsy play into that”
Deb Stoner:
“Those typical marketing strategies don’t really apply to me”
“One on one, personal connections tend to be how I work”
Hilary Pfeifer:
“I spent a month breaking my back...
Photoshop
Question from the audience:
“Where do you draw the line about using Photoshop to clean up the image and say remove something like a bad solder seem”
Christopher Conrad:
“I believe in using photoshop to remove lighting issues, but don’t touch something like a poor solder seem. Don’t change the actual characteristic of the work”
Marthe:
“The bad part...
Question about Gradients
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Question from the audience:
“How do you balance (and which is more important) between consistency in teh backgrounds and showing off individual elements of the piece”
Doug Yaple:
“If you’re going to use these images for various purposes, I would let the piece direct you on what is going to look the best”
“You want the image to last as long as...
Purchasing a Camera
#snag #pdsnew
Question:
“What can you suggest to us as jewelers with regards to getting a good camera”
Roger Schreiber:
“Rather than suggesting specific brands, I’d say to look for the features you need”
You need to be able to control the focus, apeture and shutter speed - absolutely crucial. Need to be able to tell the camera what color balance you want to...
Question to emiko
Question from the crowd about balancing work -
emiko:
“I don’t have any employees yet”
“I haven’t slept since high school … I’m just full on 24 hours a day. It’s really hard to find that balance”
“You really just have to prioritize. I have to balance between exhibition work and production work”
“I think it’s...
First question, ala Andy
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Andy Cooperman has the first question:
“Are you guys being asked to shoot more ‘authentic’ photos yet”
Photographers:
“No”
Andy:
“Well, that was easy. Marthe, do you see this more as an editor?”
Marthe:
“Yes definitely. When it works, it’s great, but sometimes it doesn’t”
“Rather than changing...
Kicking off the Q&A
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Just a quick note, Suzanne Ramljak had other obligations, so she will not be joining us for the Q&A session.
Q&A Session
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We’ll be kicking off the Q&A Session shortly once we’ve moved rooms. See you shortly, and send us your questions!
Marthe Le Van, Lark Books
Andy introduces our final speaker, Marthe Le Van
Marthe:
“I want to thank the people from the Professional Development Seminar for inviting me to participate”
“Coming to SNAG every year is like being with my people. It’s so exciting to get out from behind my computer and interact with the community and artists”
“It’s thrilling to work with...
Suzanne Ramljak, editor Metalsmith Magazine
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Harriete introduces Suzanne Ramljak
Suzanne:
“All I have to offer you is my opinion”
“I’m going to offer you 3 quick perspectives on photography.”
“Any discussion of images must acknowledge the backdrop of our media rich culture”
“We live in a visually polluted climate, dense with opticale smog. Most of this imagery is in the...
Roger Schreiber, Photographer
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Brigitte introduces Roger
http://www.schreiberstudio.us/photos.html
Roger’s photos have approved in Glass Quarterly, Threads, Dolls, Smithsonian, Esquire, American Craft, Ornament and many other publications!
Roger:
“I’m not talking about how contemporary photography is done, but about how to take your own photographs”
“It’s hard to shoot...
Christopher Conrad hand-out
#snag #pdsnews
Christopher Conrad has created a great handout for creating drop shadows with your photos that is available for free download here:
http://harriete-estel-berman.info/profguidelines/ProfDevSeminar.html
http://tinyurl.com/3umq8l8
Christopher Conrad, Photographer
Harriet introduces Christopher Conrad
http://www.conradfoto.com/
For 32 years, Christopher Conrad has created award winning and stock photos. His stock image company is C-Square.
Christopher:
“I’m not an expert at fine art photography”
“What you’ll definitely see from my presenation is that I am not an expert of Powerpoint presentations!”
“What I do...
Photographer Doug Yaple
Doug:
“That’s maple, with a Y” - with regards to how to pronounce his last name
“I’ve been involved in photography for over 30 years and my first love, as you may have guessed, is portraits. I really love doing them, though they’re not the bulk of what I do these days. It’s more of a side thing that I do for my own rejuvenation”
“It was a...
Brigitte Martin on Photography
#snag #pdsnews
Brigitte:
“Sometimes things go wrong” (with regards to images)
“The number one problem I see is that the image is blurry. The object in the image is out of focus, it’s underlit and like a pet peeve of mine is when people kind of hold up their work and there’s a finger or an arm in it. I can’t tell you how distracting that is. The purpose of...
Photography in Flux kicks off - Primer on Digital...
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Andy introduces the Photography in Flux portion of the conference. As usual, he is hilarious.
Harriete:
“I’m here to make sure that all of you are up to speed, or as much as possible, in digital photography”
“.gif, .jpg, .png, do you know what these mean?”
There’s a hand-out that was handed out at the conference that is available here:...
Questions for the speakers
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Just a reminder, get your questions in now for the later Q&A session with our speakers! Message us here or @PDS_news on Twitter.
Coffee Break!
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A quick coffee break for the PDS attendees and we’ll be right back in approx 10 mins.
Deb Stoner
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Andy introduces Deb Stoner
http://www.debstoner.com
Deb Stoner:
“You may know my work as this line of cast jewelry that I sell at Taboo”
“I make it because I dig it!”
“It came from an observation that these old, used files had some much life left in them as something jewelers would really like. And they do.” (on her line of old file...
emiko oye
#snag #pdsnews
Harriete introduces emiko oye
http://www.rewarestyle.com/home.html
“Like many of you I am attracted to shiny things”
She was doing a set of earrings in recycled plastic at one point and Harriete had mentioned that she was toiling too much over a $60 pair of earrings and that she should ‘take a trip down to the Lego store’.
“What is the key to my...
Hilary Pfeifer
#pdsnews #snag
http://www.hilarypfeifer.com/
Andy:
“There are makers who have found something that already exists in their lives and have leveraged it into their marketing… This is Niche marketing”
Brigitte:
Introducing Hilary Pfeifer.
“The other side of Hilary is decided practical and playful. She creates figurative sculptures for everyday events. She became...
And we're off!
Andy has kicked off the introductions and the PDS is off and running!
PDS now in its 9th year.
Began as a pre-conference event in San Francisco, and is now firmly part of the official conference.
Harriete:
We have 2 sections this year, Niche Marketing and Photography in Flux. We will begin with a short lecture from each of the speakers and then move onto a Q&A session. We’ll begin...
Professional Development Seminar Handouts →
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The hand-outs that will be used today in the PDS. Check ‘em out!
Introducing the PDS crew!
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Our experts for Niche Marketing: Hilary Pfeifer emiko oye Deb Stoner Photography in Flux with three photographers and two editors: Christopher Conrad Robert Schreiber Doug Yaple Marthe Le Van, Lark Books Suzanne Ramljak, Metalsmith Magazine
And last but not least,
Andy Cooperman Brigitte Martin Harriete Estel Berman
Lunch discussion concluded!
#snag #pdsnews
And that concludes our lunch discussion!
Tune in tomorrow for our coverage of the Professional Development Seminar!
If you have questions for any of our speakers, let us know ASAP either in the comments here or over at twitter @PDS_news
Borrowed Identity vs. Multidisplinarity in Craft
#pdsnews #SNAG
Question from the crowd:
“How do you resolve the contradiction between the impermeable facts of production vs the fluid situation in the market today”
Glenn:
“Ask not so much what is someone doing for a living, but what are they doing right now”
“Just think about Amazon or anything that has to move things around in space… I suppose that art...
Glenn:
“I just want to agree with you that the core historical work is very valuable and another hat that I wear”
“I’m not really a great historian in the metal field, more in the furniture realm”
“I do think it’s absolutely crucial to do that work” (explore the core concepts of craft)
Craft in the earlier discussion
#pdsnews
Question from the crowd:
“How do you address the side-stepping of the core ideas and framework behind craft in your earlier talk?”
Glenn:
“Part of the reason I tend to go for these sorts of things… is that something that feels explicable or clear is not often as big of a draw as those ideas at the fringes”
“There is a good question about whether or...
Assigning Value
Question from the crowd:
“When determining value (particularly when relying on others as strategic partners), how do you value that partnership in the marketplace?” - with regards to the Damian Hirst skull piece & outsourcing the work
Glenn:
“I didn’t want to seem like I was tisking the Hirst example… More that it’s perplexing rather than wrong”
...
Fine artists in the earlier presentation
Question from the crowd:
“Why did you choose examples from the fine art world in your earlier talk to talk to people who likely know more about craft than any of those artists?”
Glenn:
“To me it’s not so much how much you know, but what you do with what you know”
“I can’t seem to bring myself to do it” (stop talking about art)
“They may...
Question from the crowd:
“How to you address hiding the process (such as outsourcing to china or the impact on the environment)”
Glenn:
“Outside of human affairs only in the sense that it’s finite” - on ethical metalsmithing and the effect on the environment
“How can you stop the damage, fast”
“It’s impossible to summarize quickly…...
Narrative of the work
From Harriete Estel Berman:
“Do you always have a narrative worked out before you start your work?”
Lola:
“I almost always understand the work once I step back from it, rather than when I’m going into it.”
“I respond to a material… The story starts to tell itself”
“I am an incredibly intuitive maker”
