The White Plains Outdoor Art show is over, and it proved to be a great venue once again. The weather was certainly a factor on Saturday, with predictions of hail, but we survived without any real rainfall until after the show had closed, and Sunday the weather was fantastic. I have had a good run of great weather at every show I’ve done this year, which is always critical to a successful outdoor show.

Thanks again to everyone who paid a visit, and especially those who purchased prints, I deeply appreciate the support and patronage. I always send new customers a special hand written notecard with an image I feel complements the one they purchased as a token of my appreciation. We all know how difficult the economy is for many of us these days, and so I certainly know art purchases are carefully considered.

I’ve been asked a few times how the ColorBox frameless mounting compares in popularity to traditional matted and framed prints, and so far over the 10 shows since I started displaying them, they have outsold framed prints 2 to 1. This is probably due to their non-glare feature, a huge advantage over glass, as well as it being a less common method of displaying photographs. I will definitely continue to stock them and make bigger and more varied sizes. I’m also planning on having a double booth at the next art show in New Paltz Labor Day weekend, so I’ll definitely have the room to display more variety in both photographs and sizes.

I have a break in the show schedule until the middle of August, but will be very busy with workshops, and of course, actual photography!

I’ll be at the White Plains Outdoor Art Festival tomorrow, May 30th and Sunday June 1st. This will be my second year at this show, and I’m looking forward to returning to this dynamic city. It takes place in a Tibbits Park in the busy downtown district of White Plains, which makes it a challenge to setup since there is a limited amount of time that cars are allowed to park on the street. Getting everything out of the trailer and setup in the right order is something I’ve learned through trial and error, but it’s fairly routine now.

Preparation is key and I always have everything ready to go days in advance. Of course, I’m usually up the night before making last minute prints, or matting and framing ones that I want to debut or exhibit in a different size. Keeping supplies in stock, such as paper, inks, mats, frames, notecards, and various other materials is always a challenge, but my assistant (and wife) does a great job of keeping everything organized. She truly is my biggest supporter and best friend.

I’ll have a show report on Monday …

I also spent some time down at Constitution Marsh Sanctuary last week, and was able to complete a new 360 panorama which you can view here. This was one of the most challenging panos I’ve attempted because of the constantly changing cloud formations that day, but the result really captures one of the most dramatic skies I’ve seen on the Hudson. Let em know what you think…

The spring edition of the New Paltz Art and Crafts Fair begins tomorrow for the long Memorial Day weekend, and I spent the morning today preparing my booth and getting ready for the usual large crowds expected. Located at the Ulster County Fairgrounds, it is one of easiest shows for setting up, with a very relaxed environment and the beautiful scenery of the Shawangunk Mountains in the background. The weather looks to be fantastic, and the show promoters always do a good job promoting the event, so I’m looking forward to an enjoyable weekend. No doubt a three day show is hard work, and I’m generally exhausted at the end of each day, but I wouldn’t trade it for any other job in the world.

The website has undergone a substantial upgrade, though it looks mostly the same at first, there is lots going on under the hood. It was mostly driven by the need to have a better e-commerce system, making it easier for visitors to get information about the prints and workshops, and place orders with confidence and ease. I contracted Jack Brauer from WideRange Galleries, who in addition to being a great programmer, is also a fantastic photographer specializing in mountain landscapes from Colorado and other areas - well worth a visit. Thanks to Jack, I now have a fully automated gallery system for handling all of the images, and an integrated shopping cart which provides more info for each item, and gives visitors better feedback for questions and information on all of the items in the store.

Hopefully this will allow me to better serve returning and potential customers better and more efficiently, and expand the offerings in the future, which will include more workshops and other resources for photographers. More on this very soon!

A few weeks ago I was featured in a newspaper article by the Mid-Hudson Times about my photography and exhibition at the RiverWinds Gallery in Beacon. I never actually saw the article because the newspaper is not distributed on my side of the Hudson River, but I managed to get the text from the writer Matt Frey who also interviewed me for the article.

————————————————————–

Edges of Light

If you’ve ever stayed up all night to watch the sunrise or snuck out of work to take in one of those picture perfect sunsets, the RiverWind’s new exhibition, Edges of Light, might be just the thing to brighten your day.

Edges of Light features the works of longtime photographer Robert Rodriguez, Jr. Rodriguez attempts to capture on camera those fleeting moments when light, land and color combine for the greatest emotional impact. He feels that color and light have a great amount of symbolism inherent in them, and when combined correctly, they form some of the greatest artistic opportunities known to man. This philosophy, combined with other aspects of nature like weather fronts going coming in or going out and different landscapes, is what Rodriguez has built his photographic career around.

(more…)

The Sundance Channel is showing a week long series of documentaries on photographers this week, and it looks to be quite interesting and worthwhile. There is an article on the NY Times about the series:”Photographers — how they work, what they shoot, and their sources of inspiration — are the subject of a weeklong documentary series that begins Monday night on the Sundance Channel. The documentaries, made over the last decade by 10 independent filmmakers and assembled for the series, feature a broad range of photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Eggleston, Tina Barney, Helmut Newton, and Robert Mapplethorpe…”The complete show listing can be found here. Enjoy!

Shades of Paper, a paper and printer dealer based in New Jersey, is now an official sponsor of my workshops and seminars. They will be supplying me with different types of papers from different manufacturers, so that I can have a good sampling of what is currently available in todays market. This will be a great benefit to students taking my printing workshops, and help them make better choices for their own photographic printing.

I have purchased all of my paper from ‘Shades’ for a few years now, and have always received great service and customer support, not to mention the best prices I could find. A big thanks to their owner Jim Doyle, who has always been helpful and available to answer questions or offer his opinions on the products they carry. And a special thanks to Sarah Newman for making this happen!