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...... at Frodsham camera Club . Really nice venue and a great welcome from one and all. Big thanks to Ian Stanley for the booking and from the club members, their attentiveness and questions from the floor. As I tell everyone...any questions or clarification over all the techniques on show..well just email me and I can explain it all... So , dare I ask...are there really greenshoots, that flickering stirring of light at the end of the tunnel, the return to the 'bubble'. Just curious as for, not the first time in recent weeks, I've woken up to an inbox of emails from people wanting to buy things, image libraries having sold stuff and other sales based enquiries..pleasant change from Solar panel, Retirement annuity options and short term loan companies that my profile seems to attract. Could almost be 2008/9 all over again...ah...Golden Days.... but I've watched this roller coaster for a long time so I'll chalk this up as a blip....if it keeps going ..well that could be another story. So I can tell you what I'm doing for the next few weeks and that's uploading and keywording (oh lord he's not on about keywording again..) no just what I've got to do,and as the weather dial seems to be turning towards the cacky part for the next month or so, parking myself in my office and watching the outside turn brown and wintry is quite appealing. Could be time for a dose of wacky 'studio' portraiture as well...we'll see... okay one from the weekend. 
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Yep, been working hard to develop a range of framed images that are now looking good, well I think so and my fiercest critic but finest champion , Mrs Max that'll be, quite likes them too. Start retailing at the beginning of April in Manchester, exciting times I can tell you, it's like stepping back 30 years to when I had my first stall at Styal Mill, where basically, I had no idea about anything but bags of enthusiasm...other way round now... Still I've so many images I can make up so many different styles of taste, just got to work out how to display them best...head scratchy time.... So not taking many shots at the moment but delving into my badly organised archives and pulling out stuff from days gone by...well 4 years ago and then there's all the stuff from 2007 to 2009 that had far too much Photoshop on it....ah well we all learn and grow... and the talking at Photographic clubs season starts again soon, blimey I may even put some courses back up on the website... 
The banks of the Tyne.
..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. ..so now is the time to get cracking and start making all the samples up and getting prints sorted. It's all going to be in-house...so that'll be me being busy then. For the regular blog reader amongst you you may have picked up that I'm moving more towards retail and gallery stuff with my images which will be online, to galleries, at shows and through local advertising. So I've spent a bit of time getting work into coherent galleries, now all the right gear has turned up...the only thing I'm lacking is space. The equipment I've now got is on the chuffing BIG size and I reckon at some point I'm going to have to look at a workshop/studio to accommodate things...but that's the future and this new venture will have to generate it's own income to justify that....I'm already using part of the cellars but I'd have to get an industrial heater if i was to work down there on a permanent basis. Eagle eyed ones out there will have noticed that I have a new blank gallery called 'The Picture Shop' which will start to house all the retail stuff, although of course any image on here or here is available as a print...just pop me an email maxblackphotos@gmail.com and I'll get back to you toot suite... Sun's out..good day for ICM shots, still got a load in the can from Monday in Manchester to have a look through but may nip out again for some snapping... 
Well that was a particularly painless week of selling off lots of gear. Cash in the bank and new stuff on it's way... So heading off in a slightly different direction, as I said last time I think the Image Library business is suffering from it's own success, in fact the whole digital image online look at me sharing showing off thing has got to a point where either an Armageddon moment or some other amalgamatory (?) conjoining expiration moment will descend upon us. Still wondering why Getty don't just scoop up flickr instead of all this 'Artist's Pick' tosh and make it work as a cheapo licensing operation, now as I've said before 'pinching' images off the net is so bloody easy these days and even tickling out the watermarks is now just a swish and a click, we've got the Digital Orphans bill rumbling along, good idea if you have a read of this stop43 So not only is there too many images on the net and people pinching them but if you fail to tag, watermark add metadata and generally chase down any referrers coming on you sites who are dodgy (yandex and baiduspider based searches) and of course disable any download options, make images 'small' and low jpeg quality and add on the appropriate licensing options then quite frankly it's just like leaving your front door open with a big Neon sign flashing 'Help Yourselves, the doors open' look after your images, make sure everyone knows they are yours and keep the front door shut and switch off that bloody Neon sign..... 
...are at a record high or so I remember World Service telling me at some wee small hour or other this morning...and I think I've just added to them..one lens too heavy for special delivery so sent insured parcelforce....aye caramba!!!!!!!!!!!....I'll personally take things in a taxi next time....ah well not much gear left to flog now, may get rid of the flash stands and softboxes next week but I think gumtree might be a better idea...oh TFI friday and what a cracker of a day it is...if it had some scudding clouds I'd be out and about doing some Daylight long exposures but it's not so I ain't... More new gear turning up next week, not so much an early Christmas present as a way of shifting the focus of the business. I've come to the conclusion that the image library business is over saturated with a deluge of images going on-line by the minute and only a finite number of buyers let alone the folk who spend their time copying and nicking images from screens...now if I can remove watermarks from my images then it's not beyond the ken of mere mortals to be able to do the same...so I have stopped my subscriptions to libraries...my own online library will now be more dedicated to print sales and mounted and framed images, I'm quite excited...no really and look forward to getting to grips with all the gear that is going to be turning up over the next few weeks. I'll also be cutting back on all the 'free' stuff which is 'free training' and tutorials that I give away..I love to share things and tell people how things are done but maybe now is the time to put all my energies into trade and retail selling, Mrs Max has been telling me this for ages..I'll listen more...I will. So for the New Year I'll be out selling my images...heck was it really 30 years ago I tried this last time...you know it was and that led on to owning galleries and framing studios...I've no idea if that will happen this time but I'll be braced and ready for it if it does.....here's one from yesterday's faffing in photoshop session... 
'...biggest job I had to do Sir, did I do well...' Okay the Robert Donat version is not one for the purists but it's a film I'd gladly sit through over and over again. Tenuous connection but I think I've just taken on the biggest job and I hope I do well. Across various hard drives I reckon that I have 20,000 usable images..ones that are not personal faves but recognisable, viewable, not too hard to digestable!!!... and the trick I am about to perform is get them out to a wider market, I've already started. Templates and rough designs are already made, databases are being developed (yep very slowly though) business plans are being run up the flagpole and markets are being targeted. In fact all I'm doing is what I did 30 years ago but this time with the aid of all things digital, lets hope it involves less legwork this time but it will be taking up most of my time, clocks about to change, light becoming less; time to look through the last 6 months stuff and get tickling and faffing. Now I've relied on the internet to do the selling for me...more people are doing it and as I've mentioned before the pre crash 'Golden' days of spending really havn't returned even though 'The Recession ' is coming to an end...hmmm take a look at history first...few more years to go I think ...so less time to do other things. So time to stop spending time on non core sites, move away from social sites,unless they give me access to customers and more time on here and my library site Nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, pedal to the metal...it's time to put my Worzel Gummidge selling head on...I hope it looks good on me  |
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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