Gallery Opening Night

My gallery opening with the FairFax Art League in FairFax Virginia was last night. It went well, even with a thunderstorm that came threw the area right before. I was amazed I had at least twenty members and non members show up for the art and photography show. Three of my past and current co-workers even made the event, and one of them was my direct boss.

For the most part, those that attended the opening was impressed with the photography that I put on display. I finally had eighteen of my favorite pieces that span my adult career in photography. I had conventional black and whites and color images from the day, mixed in with current digital images. I had the digital images printed by Miller’s Labs and used their sister company MPIX to do the printing. All very nice on the nose color printing my Miller’s. I will use them again for my photography printing.

my future aunt and multimedia artist Atti

my boss and another co-worker.

Me standing next to an image that Atti really liked from my work.

My group show has been installed.

It’s been a number of years for me to show my photography. So I decided to show some of my favorite photographs over the years. How best to start by joining the FairFax Art League, monthly show as the Feature Artist. If it wasn’t for my girlfriend’s aunt who is a multi-media painter asking me to join and show, I would not have done it.

It’s not that I don’t like to show my work, but working for the Federal Government has put a damper on going public. They feel that if you put your self out there, the crazy’s might find you and cause you trouble, and that means trouble for the government.

As I pasted my retirement age, the age that I can retire from work with a pension, the less I am concern with having a problem with putting myself out there. I will have to do it anyways, when I cross over to the general private sector, and start trying to get clients.

So this is the first of many I hope, that will get my name and photography known to the public. This photograph is from the gallery install and are some of my favorite images from the 00’s and 10’s. As you can see, design is develop into my work.

view from two panels at the show. 

These are images from my street photography days, long before it became fashionable in the 80’s and 90’s.   

Training and training

So I’m attending the Photoshop World East conference in Orlando Florida this year. I don’t go every year or even every couple of years. I assume the technology doesn’t change as fast as that, boy was I wrong.

It’s good to keep up to date with the digital trends in the business. You don’t want to fall behind the rest of the industry, but in the end, it’s not the technology tricks that makes a photographer. Any body can learn the tricks and produce a picture with that trick, but it takes an artist to make a image, a story, that goes beyond those tricks. That is what I’ve been developing all these years in photography.

This year, I’ve been learning new tricks, new technology to redevelop, or grow my bag of tools. To relearn past skills, that I haven’t used since highschool, and that is my ability to draw and relook at subjects.

I’ve taken an forensic art workshop on anatomy and studied the human bones, muscles and face structure for facial aging, a request from my agency. It’s because they discovered that I have skills in Photoshop.

That’s also the reason I’m attending the Photoshop World Conference in Orlando Florida this year. Keeping up with the technology chances in the software that I most use. I also attended a workshop from a group that is associated with the drone maker DJI.

Their workshop was all about DJI’s drones and how to use photography on that platform. That workshop was only five hours long, but it taught me more about the business of commericial drone business than what I have been reading on the FAA part 107. Part 107 is the law governing small unman drone operation. Now being a workshop also on photography, I didn’t think I could learn anything new. But I was wrong, these two drone owners, taught be a few things, and I am grateful for attending the workshopZ. You never know where you can learn something new. There is always something you can learn from someone else.

That’s why towards the end of August, I’m traveling to Maine to attend the Maine Media Workshops and take a week long class on Adobe Premier Pro, video editing. It’s a new tool in my work box.

Set backs and moving on.

My last post talked about getting sick and me not being able to video tape an event. True it has set me back, with my projects, but I’m not out, yet.

My imaging projects will always be a life time adventure, and I keep planning many more as time goes by. Who wants to set and just watch TV.

My next project, is as a featured artist during the month of June with other artist from the FairFax Art League. My girlfriend’s aunt, who is an multimedia painter, and a member of the Art League, has been asking me to join, so I finally did. She is the one that is driving me to show my work again, in the Art League’s gallery space. So, this coming June, I will be showing about twenty pieces of my photography.

This isn’t my first show, but it’s been a number of years, since I’ve shown any of my photography. My day job and several personal issues had to be resolved before I could resume my personal photography. That’s one of the problem when you work for the Federal Government as a photographer, it kind of takes over your life, but at least I have a steady paycheck.

So, what will I show. I been thinking about what kind of a show, and to be honest, most people haven’t seen my work in about twenty years. So, I plan to show a retrospect. I have images that I liked, from right after high school and college, to just recently. It will be some; street photography, landscapes, theater and architecture photography, and maybe some portraiture as well.

Most of my prints have been mounted already, I just need to make sure the prints, are still hanging nicely in the mounts. I also plan to show work that I haven’t shown to others in a long time. I will try and post some photographs from the event.

The importance of being well

When you lest expect it, it will happen. Getting sick to the point of not being able to complete your project. For the last several months, I’ve been planning a new direction with my work by adding video. I researched and purchased the equipment, started practicing with the gear. So what happen?

Some how I caught a cold so bad that I could not go to the Persian Spring party and video tape the event. My girlfriend decided that I was still to sick to come out and play. It goes to show you the need to be in good health. Even as I write this blog, I’m still felling under the weather and the outdoor event was over a week ago.

Now, I have to find another story, event to video tape, for me to learn about recording and editing video.