UnCritical Mass acceptance

Urban Redevelopment #10, 2008, copyright of Douglas Stockdale

Well from the ashes of defeat, a really nice post-submission group exhibit.

I was “juried In” to the group exhibit, UnCritical Mass, by Liz Kuball, who also had an UnCritical Mass submission. And from a review of those of us that did not get pass the first cut, the judging must have been a really tough assignment, because just look at the awesome work by those who did not make it. You know what, I am equally honored to be in Liz’s group exhibit.

Critical Mass rejects

Well on Tuesday afternoon I was not a happy camper. I received that bad news that I did not even make the first cut in my Critical Mass submission. Sigh.

You know that you are not doing well when you read the first line; If you are a Finalist, you should have received an email earlier today letting you know how to proceed. And this is the first notification you have. So if you want to see some names of those who made the first cut and double check that in fact I am not on the list, go here.

Then today I found over on Lenscratch that fellow C.M. rejectee Liz Kuball is putting together a CM reject show on her blog. Her call for (reject) enteries is here. So if you are licking your wounds and still glum, pop over to Liz’s place and provide her with one of your rejects, you just might feel better in the morning.

Sharpening for POD printing

Just a quick update.

While I was preparing my workshop materials for the pending POD (Print on Demand) class in Portland, I was reviewing some of my earlier postings about creating a POD book. And then I received a call from Laura Russel about my book,  Sharpening Photographs for Blurb Printing.

A POD Workshop in development

detail, Hutong Re:Development #17, 2008 copyright of Douglas Stockdale

I have been working off line with Laura Russel, 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR, who asked if I would provide a Print on Demand (POD) photographic book workshop next Spring at her gallery. She has been the third person who has approached me about providing something like this, but the one who has been working with me to make it happen.

And so it appears that this will happen!

How do you finish a project?

Randy’s Roadside Memorial, Nevada, 2007 copyright of Douglas Stockdale

How do you finish a photographic project? I am begining to think that I don’t know this answer.

I guess that there are many ways to find closure on something, whether it is on events in your personal life or a photographic project. Then there are those things that seem to happen that bring everything back in focus. Emotional triggers as some are called for personal issues.

For a photographer, such as me, the fact that it takes a while to complete all of the tasks that I want to do for a particular project, I seem to get caught in the drifting technology improvements. And with my engineering background and belief in the motto of continuous improvement, I evaluate the new technologies and products and find out that these new innovations can improves my photography. And since I have a project in progress, I start to bring in the changes, and it seems to impact everything that I have done for the series. Yikes.

At times it seems that I am like the painters whom I have read about who don’t know when to stop working on a canvas, even after it has been exhibited and the image published and cataloged.

For my series In Passing, it has been published, but yet here I am making changes that have been a result of improved matte papers, which have a wider tonal range and a beautiful surface. Now most of the images have not changed, but some, like the one posted with this article, have. And the tonal hue & saturation has changed as a result of this paper, as well as my own personal perspecitve on the series.

So far, I have not made any additional photographs (yet) for this series. But the longer I continue to develop the series, the greater the chance of that as well.

And I was working on a Special Edition for this series, and Blurb just announced that they have a new premium paper available.  And the current book cover just looks too dated. So I forsee another version of the hardcover limited edition book, but then do I also update and create a second edition of the softcover as well. Another sigh.

Well, maybe I can finish all of the parts of what I intend for the project In Passing by the end of the year and move on to my other projects. Maybe.

Best regards, Doug

11/18/09 Update: Second edition of In Passing is now published and available here.

Fragility of our existence

Since I am back working on the photographs from my series In Passing, I also find myself thinking about the essence of this series. The way things are progressing, having completed a major redo of a half dozen images from the series, I will probably also re-publish my Blurb book as well.

That being the case, I will probably also update my thoughts about this series. I don’t know if that means just tweaking the Introduction or adding a new Forward for the second edition. Right now, I just don’t know.

October 13 – more tonal adjustments

Another day of making more tonal adjustments for mu series In Passing on the Harman FB Mp papers. (FYI; 11/18/09 Update: Second edition of In Passing is now published and available here.)

What I am realizing is that I am not detecting the slightly greenish hue in the printed image until the paper really dries down. When I set the new print next to a previous comparison print of a stronger Hue or Saturation, I can then detect the every so slight color difference.

In Passing – Special Edition

In Passing, Speical Edition, Artist Proof (A/P) I by Douglas Stockdale

Seems like a number of things have been coming together this week.

First, as a result of publishing The Photo Book and linking a number of publishers and gallery bookstores to my journal, I now have an accepted gallery industry trade name for what I have been developing for In Passing, which is a “Special Edition“.

In the past, I was aware that these were called Limited Edition Portfolios, but when I added the Limited Edition hardcover book, well it just became a little complicated. From the advice of Laura Russel (23 Sandy Gallery, Portland), “keep it simple”. So now I have my first A/P completed for my Special Edition. nice.

In Passing – more than image tweaking

Detoriating Wreath, Texas, 2006, copyright Douglas Stockdale

Initially I thought that converting my folio to the Harman FB Mp paper from the Moab Entrada was just going to entail a little bit of image tweaking.  Now in my book, to tweak an image means making some minor adjustments, that probably mean a lot more to me than anyone else. But I get real fussy about my image print quality and probably obsesse way byond the point of reason. But it matters to me, and for me, that is reason enough.

Tuesday, Oct 7th

I am so all over the map. So today, just to publish some follow up stuff,

I did buy some more of the Harman FB Mp, both bright and warmtone, and Calumet was very gracious and took two boxes of my unopened Moab Entrada back in trade. Nice that when you have an account, they can see your recent transactions, as well as puchase history, to realize that I am an ongoing customer. And I ordered a 17″ wide roll of the Harman FB Mp bright white to print out some of my larger Re:Development prints, which on the Epson 4800 will be 15″ x 45″ long.