Reception networking

My last post here was about one of my prints being accepted for the photography exhibit at this year's San Diego County Fair.

I have been aware that the organizers of the exhibit hold an artist's reception the evening before the Fair opens each year. (The Fair always starts on a Friday.) I have not gone to these receptions before because I have an ongoing commitment each Thursday evening.

But, this June, that commitment has been shifted to Wednesday evenings (it will go back to Thursdays in July.) So, I decided to go to this year's reception.

And it occurred to me last Saturday this will likely be a big opportunity for photography related networking. I decided to order business cards to point people to my photography site, and, obviously make it a rush delivery. Networking is not something that comes naturally for me, so I'm hoping having the cards to hand out will be a help. The site listed delivery for the order will be tomorrow, Wednesday. Which had better be that case, because the fee for the rush order nearly doubled what I would have been charged if I had gone with regular delivery.

One print in the Fair

I had previously posted (here) regarding submitting five prints to be considered for inclusion in the photography exhibit at this year's San Diego County Fair.

Earlier this week the results of what prints had been accepted for inclusion were released. One of my prints was selected; one of this photo.

Due to a few factors, I am feeling satisfied by this:

• This is an extremely competitive process; every year only (roughly) one-third of all submitted prints are selected for inclusion. And this year about 4000 prints from about 980 photographers were submitted.
• The judges change every year, so one can never make assumptions about what will or will not be found worthy of inclusion.

Next step is awaiting the list of prints that were awarded prizes (including honorable mentions). This is due out morning of the day the Fair opens, June 11.

What I'll be submitting to the S.D. County Fair photography exhibit

I'm taking a few vacation days this week, so decided today was the day to start process of getting the prints I will be submitting for inclusion in this year's San Diego County Fair photography exhibition.

I had ended up deciding to submit five photos. They are, in no particular order (as shown on Flickr):

• Stargazer in lily pond
• Keep back
• Waxflowers
• Spanish Village fountain
• Sunflower and bee

I've been happy the last two years with the quality of prints I've had made at a local lab, Chrome Digital, for submission to the Fair's photography exhibit, especially because each of those years a print has been selected for inclusion. (A different photo each of those years.) Also been happy with the lab's placement of the prints on the display boards that are required for each submission.

Having put the files on a CD during the weekend, this morning I drove to Chrome Digital with it and ordered the prints. Five prints and attaching them to five display boards makes for a fairly hefty fee, but I'm feeling ambitious, so decided to go ahead with all five.

This afternoon I got a call from the person at Chrome who had started processing the files. He said the resolution I had set up for each of the photos was plenty to allow for making larger prints than what I had ordered, at no extra charge, so I told him to go ahead and do so. I definitely appreciated that! And he thought they might be ready to pick up tomorrow, which would be early. All very nice!

Selling my photos

My church is in process of wrapping up a program called Seeds of Faith. The basic idea of which is members who wish to participate are given a small amount of cash (in our case, $10) to use as seed money to develop goods or services they can sell, with the money that comes in going to a need internal or external to the church.

In this case the money will be used to defray costs of refurbishing the church's youth rooms.

I decided to sell prints of some my own photos, offering a variety of sizes, getting the prints made after taking orders, and then delivering the prints.

The sales of goods and services took place last Sunday (August 16, 2009) at what was called the Seeds of Faith Harvest Fair. I decided in order to be sure to have any success, I was going to need to be present through the entire three hours of the Fair, in order to explain just what I was offering.

I had previously had 5x7-inch samples of each of the 8 photos made, and had placed them in a small album, which I had with me at the Fair, along with order forms I had prepared.

So, during the Fair I pretty quickly developed a routine of explaining to anyone who approached me just what I was offering. And I was really pleased that I ended up with having a total of ten prints ordered by eight people.

Prints were ordered of the following photos (for the site I am linking to below my member name is Landshark):

• Jacaranda blossoms (4 prints)
• Coral tree blossoms (2 prints)
• Sunflower and bee (2 prints)
• Dandelion (1 print)
• Lily of the Nile flowers (1 print)

(I also offered prints of: Mission Beach iced tea, "The Boulevard" sign, and Balboa Park walkway.

And, yes, I do seem to be unintentionally developing a specialization of being a plant photographer!)

Though I had more people walk away then order prints, I'm considering this at least relative success to be a good sign for selling my photos in future, so will be trying to develop a web-based presence for doing so.