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Whistle stop tour of Gibralatar, Andalucia and my new favourite City...Seville... Lots of images squeezed into the time we weren't travelling or sitting at tapas bars and watching the world go by. Lovely climate for this time of year as well..streets full of Orange trees full of fruit..no ICM shots just a big pile of WAPs and some architectural bits and bobs, family shots and some of the Med with bits of Morrocco peaking through the clouds. Bit of an awkward moment getting back into the UK as my Passport...'wouldn't work'... scanning, typing, faffing and fiddling...let in finally because I 'looked. British'...I kid you not....and straight into the drizzle and wind of Manchester...could have all been a dream if it wasn't for all the image files I'm about to fiddle with... 
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Fuggy flatness in the light department means a day in the workshop and on here today with Radio 6 and then 5Live for the footy. I take groups and individuals out for training in and around Manchester and one of the things I try and impress on folk is to...slow down ..and do that thing that money can't buy..think....yep think..as a concept it's not too hard to grasp but in practice it can sometimes prove elusive..I'm talking about thinking about your Images..not photos or snaps but images... and in many ways once you've cracked the thinking about image creation rather than posting a succession of photos out on the web you suddenly find that you are developing a style..your leitmotif...the way in which other folk can see 'you' in your images and in this overdosed digital world a personal style is probably the only way your images will stand out..okay I'm no stranger to the 'Twin Imposters' so developing a personal style is not the singular way to fame and fortune, loads of great snappers out there who have an individual take on image creation and have tumbleweed blowing about in their comments boxes but here's part two of this little article...thinking and creating images is the first part the second being...are you creating images so you can accumulate reams of comments and virtual love????or are you drawing something out of yourself..stopping thinking shooting creating; creating personal satisfaction from the image itself rather than the virtual love of 'friends' ?? I'm not saying there is a right or wrong a Black or White side to this but one of the things I always question myself on is why I'm shooting something in a certain way, most times it's for the personal challenge. I like seeing things my way and more often than not the image is in my' head' before I'm out there shooting it..I know I've probably just taken a left turn towards pseuds corner but all I'm trying to put over to you in this blog piece is just to stop, think and question...then get creating the best image you've ever done..and never fear the tumbleweed.......... 
...and the light is even worse..off to IKEA to grab some frames and see what these new multi window mounts look like in their natural environment and then I'll be posting them up on ETSY and maybe a few samples here on the mounts and cards page. The new mount cutter has taken a lot of the guesswork out of where the blade enters the board...so no over cuts then....hmmmmm I'm jumping into my Lightroom catalogue and rooting around for all my macro and nature stuff that never really gets an airing and I think I need to get them together into a coherent set. That after all is what I seem to be doing with all the other disparate strands of image making. I fancy a bit of ICM landscape and woodland work as well so hopefully when the sun pops out there will be snow on the ground...ice on the trees and a bit of colour in the sky...yeh..Pigs and aviation exploits... So I'll get cracking on the macro stuff and then , if I time it right off to IKEA for some frames a Dog and a Coffee.... day sorted then... 
Morning everyone..I love this weather and tomorrow I'll be off doing stuff but for the rest of the day I'll finally get all my sites singing from the same hymn sheets...so for here on maxblackphotos it'll be stuff to look at new stuff, faffed stuff, projects and this load of wittering...over on Etsy will be mounts cards and prints for the masses and over on my photodeck site will be all the stuff for Galleries and trade customers and then of course there are the image download sites..... I was looking at getting a store open on Amazon but they have such an opaque pricing structure that I gave up, well for the moment, on opening one on there. My Etsy site is going to have a lot more of the 'collage' tricksy mounted stuff on it soon and more mount packs for artists and photographers. maxblackphotos on photodeck is now the place for Trade customers to tie up and browse 3,000 mounted limited edition images, with the option of unmounted prints but those really are for (hopefully) foreign markets and I'll be adding to those on a weekly basis. I'm more than happy with the way things are going site wise and just need to add product and get on with the marketing so I'll be annoying shops and galleries around the Northwest firstly, then off to Scotlands West Coast. I'm also of on a jaunt to Gibraltar and Southern Spain next week with Nikon locked and loaded, sunshine and rugged coast..mmmm what's not to like... So great chunks of snow this weekend, I'll be there 
..I should just sit on my hands and stop trying new stuff...not the image making as I quite enjoy that..but making new products/categories of stuff to sell...it's almost like having a proper job...I mean I woke up at 4 this morning head buzzing with a product problem that got me to 'grape squeezing' anger yesterday..and the solution in the end was pretty simple. I suppose that's the moral..nothing is insurmountable if you put your mind to it and even with my alcohol depleted grey cells I figured out a 'way around the problem' instead of crashing my head against the keyboard and growling at folk who came too close to me... yep I was 'peeved' yesterday but today...meh...full of the joys... So I'm working through all my sites and getting them all lined up in a non OCD kind of way, there is and will be crossover of products as I get my head around everything and I may even drop some more sites as things progress I just need to be finished by the end of the week and get my marketing act together ......act it may well be as I fluff my way through these opening nights. I'll be out and about flogging stuff this year as well, getting it into peoples hands I actually miss that and here's today's little anecdote to end things off. I've been in the cellars a lot, clearing space for stock and equipment and I came across a drawer with all the stuff from the early 80's when I did...well..basically what I'm setting up now.a picture and mounting business..well I found a stack of old price lists and catalogues and sales receipts...all still as clear as a bell so anyway I made my way down to the far end of the village on Saturday and there in all it's pristine glory was a fully mounted 50 window framed cigarette card picture...Uniforms of the British Empire glass both sides and unmarked..for £40.00..no I didn't buy it but I gave the Manageress the background to it and when I'd made it...1983...30 years ago...lawks....I sold loads to America and Germany...I think Cigarette card dealers should give me an award for single handedly raising the price of Golf, Film Star and Motor Car ciggie cards during the 80's......and here ends the anecdote for I must away and continue designing ranges of Art Cards.....  Night at the Quays. Long Exposure in the foggy Mizzle. Well I've only gone into the camera menu system and switched the shooting mode to Black and White. Sensible folk out there may question the rationale behind this but it's done...I may even switch to shooting jpegs..no I will and see what comes out in mono totally faff free...just like the old days...Nikkormat FT2 standard lens and a couple of rolls of FP3 and some Tri-X (that was me in the 70's) to record what's out there...ah golden days and slightly warmer in the tonsorial department. And why am I doing this...well I like a Black and White image and I'd like to think I'm pretty nifty in the mono conversion LR/CS faffery so I'd like to see, for a while anyway, what Images I can get with the minimum of software intrusion. Okay there is a flaw, the camera itself has some software in it but I hope you get my drift and I hope that my shooting and image creation warrants dumping all that lovely colour info...time to get cracking. 
Here we go then, new shop opens it's doors on Etsy...er..right about now.... 
Right got 11 things listed so I need to get cracking with the Oval and circular window mounts and get those up and running. I'll also be listing things on here as well, more the one off and framed items..nightmare trying to send a framed image out through the post, I know from experience
Time to get the Prints together as well which will be going out in tubes and not flat as I first though, too much risk from bending and stuff. I'll be sending the prints out around the world but all the other stuff will be just sent to UK customers. Right, it's taken time but it's up and out there..now the hard bit ..promotion and stuff, time to hit the free advert sites and get stuff in shop windows, I'm even wishing myself luck with this one.... until the next time. Oh if you do call in click on any of those social web thingy's...I could do with getting the message out there Ooops...Happy New Year |
What's all this then????An unyeilding torrent of Photo babbel full of unconfirmed facts and manufactured photo drivel.. take from it what you like, it won't change the world but may leave you feeling nauseous... Categories
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