Close Meditations of a Visual Kind

Every year, starting about now, as in September because my first time purchase of a paid account occurred in December, though it got pushed back to February by a couple 'gifts', I start thinking about should I renew my Flickr account. This is as most things are a multi-factor issue. Do I get a sufficient return on investment for the cost? What are the benefits? What are my needs as a purported 'Professional Artist/Photographer' and how well are those needs being met with this account?

It is pretty much an accepted standard these days that pros in any art form (as with nearly any other business, and selling ones art is indeed a business) need a World Wide Web presence. A web site. A personal gallery or portfolio, whichever one may prefer to call it. As with all things in the world, there is also a certain social... snobbery though status may be the more polite term... attached to how any individual professional artist exhibits their work on the Web. Ultimate control is indeed within a web site and domain owned and operated by the artist their own self. Using any other site puts the artist under the control of the owners/operators thereof, who will (not may, will be responding to community pressures.

Specifically, in my case, nudes. Community pressures are, in essence, censorship. A privately held web site will be able to show more, but could still be vulnerable to community pressures. However, a publicly owned site will either place restrictions on display of 'controversial material' or will outright not accept it.

I currently use two public imagery hosting sites, Flickr, and Deviant Art. I registered an account with a third, 500Px though I've not posted any work there. These are listed in the chronological order of my registering. Before these two I used Yahoo to host some images, and when the telecommunications behemoth AT&T hosted 'Personal Web Pages' I hosted a small (and frankly not particularly impressive) Mad Shutterbug web site there. The Yahoo images site became absorbed by Flickr when Yahoo first acquired Flickr. AT&T simply stopped hosting Personal Web Pages.

A brief summary of Myself on Flickr:
1626 photos stored in 87 Sets which are in turn in five Collections
Been a member since November 2005. Paid (former 'Pro' paid account) since December 2006.
Being a grandfathered-in old Pro, I am granted Unlimited Storage.
Probably 25-45% of those photos linked to my blogs

Flickr grandfathered my account in as a former 'Pro' paid account (see first FAQ below, primarily unlimited storage). So long as I keep paying (at the rate I was paying, according to the info) I will retain all the features of the former 'Pro' paid account embellished with the upgraded features now being offered.

One element of the FAQ which is not entirely accurate, the ability to create "Collections" existed in the Pro account before the change. A Free Account could create three Sets. More sets than that, and Collections, came with the Pro account. The more Sets aspect is actually a primary reason I first obtained a paid Pro account, since I'd been hired to photograph a social function and part of that deal included putting those images on line so attendees could order any photos of which they wanted copies.

Back in May via one of the 'social networking' sites (I think it was on the blog rather than FB) tagged by my friend Betnoir (who is no longer on the blog) who wanted to know what I thought about comments made in a press conference by the new CEO of Flickr. Specifically, an answer to a question (IIRC) about how the 'Pro' account status would be 'going away'. The answer included something (not an exact quote at this point) about there are no pro photographers any more, the Internet changed all that.

I made some notes, intending to respond. Took a while, yet here is the response plus a bit.

05/22/13
Hmm... Well, for myself anyway, there is the annual debate (as someone purporting to be a professional photographer) Does Flickr provide a sufficient return on investment in exposing my work?

Which question, this year, raised a notch in my concern after Flickr (Yahoo) instituting an Auto-Billing feature. I am not, after some experience with other firms, a big fan of auto-billing. However, I decided to let it ride for a bit.

Not totally related to the subject of the link, and yet not far removed either. Sounds to me that Flickr (Yahoo) is moving the way of all Big Business these days. To (mis)quote from Pink Floyd: "... Get your hands off of my stash..."

Part of the move to follow current Big Business is that while Flickr expanded the amount of storage to 1 terrabyte for free accounts, they also started showing advertisements. So they get a revenue stream from selling ad space, plus whatever they received from all those 'Pro' account folks like myself. Along with this, then, since a lot of us prefer to enjoy an ad-free environment (when possible) they sell an Ad Free account level, still 1 Tb of storage, for US$49.99/year. Or one could purchase a Doublr account, ad free and 2 Tb of storage, for US$499.99/year. So they kicked the cost of More up a pretty significant amount.

(Note to Self and Gentle Readers, I may be mis-remembering when Flickr started showing ads. I don't remember them when I first registered an account in '05, and as noted as a paid account holder since '06 likely haven't seen ads if such started before the Big Change.)

(Second Note to Self and Gentle Readers, Deviant Art is pricing a paid account there a lot more competitively than Flickr is... YMMV)

Now, 1 Tb sounds like a lot. However, that 1600 plus images I host on Flickr currently uses 0.00054 TB of Unlimited. And, as a professional artist, I currently use (here in Studio) over a third that (387 Gb) which includes RAW work, works in progress, print-ready work, and images I've got but currently do not elect to use. It does not include most of the images I've got on film which are not digitised yet (scanned), and even the ones I do store scanned, the majority may not be high-resolution scans. So I'm going to chew through that at home terrabyte fairly soon, particularly when I get going on scanning old film. This doesn't count creation of new images or new works in progress.

Additionally, though I never made notes about this aspect, and getting back to that comment about there are no professional photographers anymore, the whole concept of skilled vs unskilled comes to play. This is a statement I've heard a number of times related to different subjects, that skilled work is not cheap and cheap work is not skilled. There may well be truth to another old saw that if one puts 1000 chimpanzees into a room with a typewriter they will eventually through random typing create something like one of William Shakespeares plays. Truth in the sense that anyone at all pounds away making a multitude of whatever, for the purposes of this discussion photographs, they will eventually make some which are very good.

After all, one of the simplest and most difficult of the lessons I learned from my first teacher is, Never, ever show anyone the trash. If they only ever see the good, then they will think you are very good.

Now, mind you, with sufficient practice one gains skills: at composition, at exposure, focus, printing (or other final display). All that skill comes together, and one produces it consistently more frequently from the start, with less and less trash in the workflow. Yet we also still produce images from the getgo which are technically high-quality work but lack Something, and so we don't show anyone those. In this manner, the customer receives a better return on their investment in hiring someone who is Professional rather than looking through a terragagilion photographs on the Web for just the right one...

Thus, Virginia, yes there are still Professional Photographers. We may be a threatened, possibly endangered species because yes, the good old new Internet certainly changed how a lot of business' conduct their business. And one of those changes is that someone who is (lucky/skilled) amateur does get a greater exposure of their work.

Some quotes from the Flickr site FAQ:

What used to be offered with a Pro account?

Flickr Pro is no longer available for purchase, but many of the Pro-only features are now part of free Flickr accounts.

Here is what you used to get with Pro:
Unlimited photo uploads (50MB per photo)
Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max, 500MB per video)
The ability to show HD Video
Unlimited storage
Unlimited bandwidth
Archiving of high-resolution original images
The ability to replace a photo
Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools
View count and referrer statistics
Limitation of maximum image size available to others
Ad-free browsing and sharing
_______________
What do I now have with a free Flickr account?

Starting on 5/20/2013, members with free accounts on Flickr will have:
1 Terabyte of space
Upload and download in full original quality. Up to 200MB per image
Ability to create “Collections”
Ability to replace photos
Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools
_______________
I've heard that Flickr Pro is no longer being offered. How does that affect me?

As of May 20, 2013, we are no longer offering Flickr Pro subscriptions to the majority of our members. Some things to be aware of (with more details below):

Recurring Pro members currently have the ability to continue renewing at the same price.
Eligible non-recurring Pro members can purchase a recurring Pro subscription.
The “Gift of Pro” will no longer be available for purchase.
Pro users will no longer appear with a “Pro” badge beside their name or buddy icon

Your Pro pricing remains the same and your benefits have improved:
Those who remain Pro will retain all their original benefits.
The photo and video size limits will be upgraded to those offered with our new free account.
If you are on a recurring Pro subscription, your payments will remain as is. To see what your current subscription costs, see the previous payment on in your order history.
Pro members will never be automatically transitioned to an Ad Free or Doublr subscription.
_______________

Notice they don't list anywhere here what the folks grandfathered in are paying; notice also I didn't mention it anywhere either. That's our business, eh! However, it is significantly less (at least for me) than the Ad Free account, so that's one reason I choose to carry on and roll over from year to year... so far.

There are other aspects, though, and I'd been thinking about those recently. Another friend, stardreamer (on DW) starcat_jewel (on LJ) put them into words. The changes made in how Flickr displays the photographs or videos hosted there cause the site to load ssssllllllooooowwwwwllllllyyyyy. As in, Dial Up Slow.

True, here at the Ranch we've moved into (or as close as) the 21st century on our Internet connection. We started by transitioning from dial-up to Sky Internet (satellite) and from that to DSL through the land-line telephony connection. Even on Hospital's true super fast Ethernet connection, however, Flickr Loads Slow. (Mind you, no, I'm not browsing my photos on Hospital time. Lunch breaks or after work, yes, not patient care time.) I've got the phone app for viewing Flickr. I rarely view Flickr on my smartphone.

So. Trade off:
Pros – easy to stay with the status quo, lots of on-line storage which at my current pace I am in no danger of ever exceeding, ability to link to work I've made in my preferred manner via this blog, not terribly expensive so long as the company continues to honour the terms of the contract we concluded (before the changes started), ability to organise the pieces stored for display to facilitate either linking or referring

Cons – slow loading viewing experience, advertisements for non-registered or Free viewers, very obscure URL for any kind of publicity such as business cards or brochures, terms of service which make displaying one of my primary subjects (nudes) an exercise in Political Correctness, fairly pricy for accounts which either no longer show ads or increase storage capacity

At this time and in the near future, the Pros exceed the Cons for me. Your Mileage May Vary. Until I get around to creating that very privately owned Mad Shutterbug Photography or Studio 318 or whatever name, at least.

It's been another week so it's time for the State Statement, eh. In some ways a lot more of the same, and yet there are other things this time around too. It is now September and while one manner of thinking may be totally psychological, the feel is real to me. Still just as hot as it's been, middle 30's and feeling like upper 30's. However, the quality changes; no longer quite so uncomfortable, no longer. The Dog Days of Summer are breaking, and cooler times are ahead.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch I finished up a biddy box chicken tiller today. The top and bottom pieces of this I cut back in June, then other projects seemed to raise their heads and threaten us so the two pieces sat on the back deck of Studio. Wire fabric isn't much, you know, yet it does occupy space and it does create a barrier and there it sat. Now these two pieces are assembled with 60 cm high 1x2 cm wire fabric, with a top hatch in place.

This is for young chicks, those hatched out by Herself in her incubator, as they get bigger. Big enough to need more space, small enough to be at some risk to night-time and day-time predators such as fox, hawk, owl, even possibly coyote. The gap in the side walls is small, no paws reaching through. And while the gap in the top is larger, not so large to allow admission to any of the above. When the young birds are big enough that they could be reached through the top, it's time for them to move into a full-sized chicken tiller.

In the past two days we've also sold five goats, all young doelings. Four went to a gentleman who's wanted to buy some of ours before (he came by with a friend then, who did buy) but couldn't afford them quite yet. He is adding to an existing small herd, and very happy to do so. The fifth, today, went to a youngster starting 4H and she will be hand-raising this goat. Todays then is younger than the other four, still not quite weaned (though she is weaned from Mom now, eh) and so we also sent along some goat milk to help the transition.

LittleJon Deere needs a new front tyre, I suspect these may well be the original tyres on this tractor and while tread doesn't show much wear, sidewalls will and that's what failed. This tyre's been leaking since we got him, and I've been refilling him regularly. The last fill I did with stop-leak but that didn't help, or maybe it did and the failure point is a different problem. The failure is a tear on the midline sidewall, nearly 10 cm long, so a good sized tear. It's dead Jim.

A few months ago I mentioned I purchased an app for the iPhone to assemble photographs into a larger panoramic shot. The app is AutoStitch, and I've been experimenting with it somewhat regularly. The current OS level for the iPhone provides the means to do panoramas, but (and here's the key point for me) only in one plane. As in, a series of overlapping photographs along a single line.

AutoStitch allows me to do more of a mosaic of shots, if one will, adding height as well as width to the final concept. This intrigues me because neither the app nor the camera care what the mosaic is; I can photograph scenic panoramas or I can do a panorama of a bodyscape.

The app is fairly simple to use; take the photos either with the camera itself, or through the app. If done with the camera, choose 'Select Photos' to select the ones desired to assemble into the panorama. The default settings for resolution are fairly middle of the road, I usually re-choose a higher resolution and re-assemble the images. As it's working, it provides a brief overview and then tells you how many of the images were used in the final cut. Sometimes things just don't seem to fit so the app won't use those.

I've done some urban ones, but the two I'm going to show are both from here at home, just so I get to say Meanwhile Back At the Ranch...

Storm Over KP Ranch

Storm Over KP Ranch by *madshutterbug on deviantART

This one (actually, both of them) are single-plane panoramas. Storm is one of the first I did, out in the evening to feed the Cows making rounds with Houdini. We still had to feed the Horses & Truffles the Pig after the Cows, so there may be some wonder that I took time to shoot the three or so images that went into this panorama.

Spectrum Interruptus

Spectrum Interuptus by *madshutterbug on deviantART

Again out feeding, this time without so much overhead threat. Turned to the east away from sundown and saw... indeed, the spectrum interrupted across the top of the arc. I suspect heavy clouds between sun and that portion of the spectrum, I do.

Overall so far I'm happy with what I've done. Another step in the experimentation will be to compare the same set of images more or less hand-assembled into panoramas using Gimp yet much the same as when I used Photoshop.®

Both of these are hosted on Deviant Art as noted; I'm still contemplating whether or not I'll keep using Flickr. There's a lot going on there, changes in how the site presents, stores, charges. Not the least thing going on is the number of images I store there for viewing. That's another story and issue though, not for this week.

One of the things which is important in being a working artist is consistency. Keeping things going, working on art. Making regular posts if one is keeping a blog, simply because that consistency provides predictability.

Thing is, I don't have a lot to say just now. Not a lot of art work in the past week.

Tomorrow evening at The Doris is the Artists Reception and opening for the GFAA 90th Anniversary show, Art for All Seasons. This is pretty much it for this week in terms of art related.

We've been working on other things. The Ranch is always a constant. No excuse for being bored if one owns a ranch. Thing is, there too this time of year is basic maintenance because it is become too bloody hot and humid to be doing a lot more. Most of our chores we even try to get done early in the morning or later in the afternoon, before heat builds and after it breaks. So, feed, water, make sure things aren't broken, maintain.

Need to mow again soon in the high traffic areas. We experienced a couple weeks with little rain. Now it's falling again, somewhat regularly. Grass likes it. Not so much good for mowing though.

Did get Herself's new PC set up, and started installing some software. Getting at the data on the old hard drive required some help from a friend and the end result is this:
- Data recovered (includes bookmarks for two browsers), to the tune of 60 Gb or so. Yea.
- Checked the disk for errors and found about half of it trashed. It's dead, Jim.

It boils down to feeling like marking time, getting through the Dog Days of Summer and then being able to get active again. Problem is, there are things needing doing, getting ready for autumn shows and such.

No energy for such just now. Think I'll sit here and breathe for a bit. Yup.

We are winding down July, which puts us well and truly into the Time of Wet. This year been a bit wetter than others, not complaining (or not much) but there is some work to be done and it isn't work to be done while being rained upon. Particularly not if that same rain includes lightning. Staying caught up with routine things, not getting ahead much on other projects

This covers the Meanwhile Back at the Ranch part of today's post. Other than we are (and will be for a bit) settling in to the routines with only one Border Collie Bro about. Houdini is wanting to be close to me a bit more than usual as well, which only makes me wonder how long his next solo walkabout will be, not to mention when. And he thinks there hasn't been sufficient Rides recently, anywhere. This may be true, since at this time of the year there is no leaving him in a parked car while running errands, not even one which is left locked with engine and AC running. Just, No.

For the past week, this hasn't been possible since Sydney Subaru Outback is at the shop, It's mostly accumulated Things Needing Done, some quite routine like filter changes (along with oil, coolant, and such). I'd thought one of the CV joints (Constant Velocity, not Curriculum Vitae... I don't think Sydney has that sort of CV) was going but our mechanic says no. We did know the brakes needed attention if only because Sydney is a venerable 312,000 kilometres (195,000 miles) old. Turns out the sound I thought indicated problems with the CV joint is/was the brake caliper on that side.

Hopefully we get him back tomorrow.

Since July is winding down, so is our month at The Doris as the GFAA Featured Artists. We took in our folding display racks and matted inventory Friday evening past since the last Friday of the month is Art Walk. I've known about Art Walk for a bit over a year; various business establishments in Downtown Gainesville either art gallery type places or otherwise that support the arts stay open late, and host a bit of an open house. Since we are currently showing artwork at The Doris we sat in for the Art Walk, and helped out pointing visitors in the correct directions for whatever. Probably will next month as well, though then it will be as part of a larger show Art For All Seasons, 90th Anniversary of the GFAA. We will each have two pieces in that show; not sure which ones yet, but two each.

Meanwhile I've also actually spent money on an app for smartphone. Might not seem such a big deal to most folks, but I'm know as a bit of a spendthrift offspring of unmarried parents on a lot of days, and from the start of my carrying anything even purporting to be a smartphone (as in the old Treo NotSoSmartPhone) all the apps either came with the phone or are free. Some of the free ones are to make it easier to conduct business with certain firms. B&H Photo in New York is one such, plus bank apps, the Weather Channel app, some others. Even if the 'functionality' is limited compared to a purchased app, nearly all are free.

The one exception (so far) is AutoStitch. This app I picked up after a good amount of research, as it meets my needs for an experimental approach to my photography. I've often said (related to cameras but true overall as well) that the most useless tool one owns is the one at home when needed. This is one of the things about smartphones I really like, always having a camera handy.

Panoramas are a type of photography where a wider image is made by overlapping a series of images. Often used for landscapes, and the word itself somewhat harkens back to that source, the concept need not be limited to landscapes. There are a number of apps about that help automate this process, which helps, yet are limited to either horizontal or vertical assembly. AutoStitch is not so limited; I can take three or even more vertical rows of overlapping images and put together an assembled panorama.

Where this attracts me so much is that I like making big prints, always have. Smartphone cameras are constantly improving, but they aren't quite up to even middle-line point and shoot megapixel rating, much less DSLR. So being able to assemble a larger photo from multiple smaller ones is one way around this limitation. I figure to be ready to post some of the results for visual sharing next week.

In my spare time.

I think I've got some spare time.

Somewhere.

Paying attention? Looking for the weekly State of teh Artist post? Not seen one for a couple weeks? One of those weeks is on me, I stipulate I didn't make the time. One, however, is on a list of weeks some folks would ask for a do-over. I don't ask for such. I won't ask. I don't want to do the past week over. Nothing happened we can't cope with, live through, deal with. Not a lot happened we enjoyed.

Some good things did happen. Monday a week past I ran an errand into town to hang some of our artwork at The Doris Bardon Community Cultural Center commonly called The Doris. The Gainesville Fine Arts Association is pretty strongly affiliated with The Doris (go read info on the site to learn why) and consequently GFAA members are given space on a monthly basis to hang their work for display and sale. July we are the Featured Artists. It is a big deal, and it's not that big a deal, because becoming a Featured Artist involves telling the GFAA member responsible for the wall that one is interested. Then you get a month.

However, Monday after that started the roller coaster. While driving over to Tioga Farmers Market, Forrest Nissan Pickup lost power, a rapid but not sudden event, and we shifted gears from our usual routine for me to go help transfer goods to Sydney Subaru Outback, send Herself on her way, and wait for AAA Auto Club to get the tow out to us. Dropped Forrest off with our local mechanic, waited for Market to finish and Herself to pick me up.

Keeping things brief, Forrest is back in service after replacing fuel and water pumps, new struts (shocks) in the rear plus a complete tune-up and all fluids/filters change. He feels much better now, at 250K Plus Change miles.

Keeping more things brief, I missed sending Hippie Birdbaths greetings over to wcg here in the Blogosphere; so Belated Hippie Birdbaths, Bill.

We've dealt with two opossum females that were raiding eggs and chickens. Chooks will not be bothered by those particular opposum, nor their current offspring, any more.

Still brief but not excessively, Monday also saw the start of the end of a decade. Squrrl Border Collie Bro felt a bit lethargic on Monday, not particularly interested in dinner (ate some). I attributed it at that point to a very hot day spent mostly outside, though also mostly in the shade. On Tuesday, though, his lethargy increased, he didn't want to go outside and did so only for body functions. Pale gums; Herself started treating him with some supplements to help. Not interested in dinner at all.

Wednesday, breathing laboured, even more lethargic. Wagging tail when I got home from Hospital, not lifting his head. I spent time with him there in the living room, and close on to 20:00 (didn't look at the clock for a bit) Squrrl took his last breath.

We buried him on Thursday morning, next to his brother Smudge.

I will write more, I will, but later. Meanwhile, going to continue carrying on, waiting for Waiting to fill a Squrrl sized hole in our souls.

I aim to misbehave here. Besides that being a touch to one of my favourite science fiction shows, it's also the case and I even fore-warned a couple people that I would be doing so. There will be a bit of talk about what the Artist is doing, because it's supposed to be my art blog and all. However, and because artists (at least this Artist) don't only make art. Believe it or not, there are a lot of Activities of Daily Living that get in the way, and other things. And when the Artist in Question also owns a small Ranch, well, it means there are things that go along with being able to say Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

( State of the Artist, State of the Art )
( Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch )

Some details, just so's ya knows.

Harrison Ford 8N (Nowadays likely a Light Tractor; used to be the Tractor):
1951, 23 horse flat-head 4 cylinder gasoline, 4 forward speeds, one reverse, clutch-driven active PTO on the rear of the tractor with Category One three-point hitch. Fuel capacity 10 US gallons.
LittleJon John Deere 2210 (Compact Tractor) (Herself calls him an Estate Tractor):
2006 (?) 23 horse 3 cylinder diesel, four wheel drive (selective), hydrostatic transimission (one forward, one reverse, selected by pedal), active PTO to rear with Category One three-point hitch and to belly for mower, selectable to run either/both/neither. Fuel capacity 5 US gallons.

On this day in History, the Battle of Belleau Wood began. Elements of the U.S. Marines advanced to drive elements of the German army out of a well-entrenched position in the wood of the name, and moved along to (eventually) one of the many nick-names by which Uncle Sam's Misguided Children are also known. Purportedly this nick-name was bestowed upon them by the Germans, or specifically one of the German commanding officers. And while there is some leeway in the accuracy of this, the name stands. Oo-rah, Devil Dogs.

I keep thinking I'm not doing so well on my goal of posting once a week on artistic endeavors. Fact is, I am getting something down even if not always about art. Then again, basic lessons from my first teacher of art, Dad. Yah gotta take care of Daily Living if yah wanna make art.

So.

Daily living includes the usual Rounds here on the Ranch, and on days I don't go to Hospital that means helping with Morning Rounds (Border Collie Bro attendance) and Evening Rounds. This being Monday, Herself is off to Town of Tioga Farmers Market, so Evening Rounds will be myself and the Bros checking on Cows, Ms. Truffles Pig and teh Horses.

In between lots of other things can happen. At least today, some of that (also before) did involve art-related work. This morning while consuming Morning Coffee I worked through a half-dozen of Herself's images prepping for Big Prints. There are still pieces in preparation inventory to mat and mount, however I feel she needs a handful more Big Prints framed, and then matted and added to Sale Inventory. First, get the images print ready. Then burn to CD. I made this task easier on myself by selecting some of her more popular images which she already prepped for printing, and scaled the image sizes up. Tomorrow I'll drop the disk off at Flair Lab on the way home from Hospital.

There is a wee deadline on this, because we shall be doing a month-long exhibit at The Doris here in Hoggetowne, in the room where members of the Gainesville Fine Arts Association are provided space on a month basis. It being a bit of a show (the pieces are listed for sale if such is the case) I want those larger prints framed up. Good to work to a bit of a deadline. Keeps me motivated. Literally.

On my own side, I've been sorting through photographs made two and a bit weeks ago, which by the end of this week I want to have watermarked and prepped to burn to disk and send to the model. At that point, I'll also be looking at posting some of those to the web, since the images provided to the model are going to be web-ready.

That's the Art accomplished today, and if it isn't creation of new things, it is work on projects that need completion. Which also reflects one of Dads lessons: making art is often continuing slogging through the work side of it, not always the Thrill of Creation. Well, OK, some of that slogging may still involve the Creation Thrill.

After feed and water time, and lunch for us, and before loading Forrest Nissan Pickup for Market, I fired up LittleJon Deere. The business with the battery mentioned last week is not a horrible ending, since charging up the battery does keep it going. However, letting LittleJon sit for more than a couple days or so and we'll see that battery needing to be recharged before he'll start on turn-over. We'll replace the battery eventually, sooner rather than later. But it's not a bad thing to 'force' ourselves to start and run him for a bit. After all, we're now into Summer here in North Central Baja Jorja, and lots of things want to Grow Grow Grow. Running a 1.5 metre (five-foot) mower over it helps discourage rampant uncontrolled growth.

It also makes it easier to walk about on the other Daily Rounds since a lot of that mowing creates the paths to the Goats, the Cows, the Hogs and such.

And, in fact, it is about now time to go gather up the Bros for the Evening Rounds walk-about.

Up bright (no, not actually) dark and early yesterday, loaded truck and on the road by 06:30, and about an hour to get to Windsor. Wee bit of grumpiness early, it passed. Probably shouldn't even have grumped then, oh well. Long day, and as far as Studio 318 is concerned no sales. However, the Ranch half of the booth did exceeding well with sales of goat milk fudge and goat milk soaps.

A light steady rain for a short period came along around 15:00, and whump vendors started packing up to go home despite another two hours to the festival. We stayed put; I dropped the outer walls on the two sides with art, and moved the jewelry display under the roof. Ditto for the soaps, and we weathered things fine. I saw several other vendors who obviously do weekend festivals a lot, and come with that underlying philosophy (often stated outright on the application forms) that it's rain or shine the show goes on. You paid your booth fee, you stay.
And while the crowd thinned down some from the rain, sales continued, particularly of the fudge, up to and after the end of the show. Now, by the 17:00 time slot, probably half the vendors had left already.

So we packed up, and covered the back of the pickup with a tarp and put the corrugated board boxes with framed artwork into the Subaru. Herself arrived shortly after the rain, so between 15:30 and 16:00.Good thing, too, because on the drive home we drove into the serious rain, which the forecast said would get to us around 19:00 and it arrived maybe an hour early.

We all went to Las Aviñas in Archer for dinner, not a big decision really since we all live to one side or the other of Archer and so we all were going there anyway. Good dinner, then home, left the truck covered for the more rain through the night and did a hot tub soak and crashed. Hard. Didn't wake until nearly 07:00 this morning.

Luxury.

Now, the Windsor Zucchini Festival is several things. Primarily it is a fundraiser for the community of Windsor to fund their volunteer fire department; besides the vendor booth space sales, they also sell chicken dinners and lunches, all involving a zucchini dish of some sort, and zucchini bread, and there are the Cook-a-Zucch contests, and of course Miss Zucchini. For these reasons alone, being a vendor (very specifically, the fact that it helps this community fund their fire department) is on the list of Things To Do again next year. Even if, again, Studio 318 doesn't make any sales. We did last year, so there.

It is also the last even we've been doing before the Summer Hiatus. Last year we did a brief stint at Bronson's first ever Fourth of July Festival; we may set up the Ranch booth this year if there is a repeat, I won't be setting up the Studio however. There is a reason for the Summer Hiatus here, and that is the combination of heat and humidity. Given time and research and experience, there may be some summer festivals we'll try our Studio booth at. Those are very likely going to be on the coast, where sea breezes help with the heat and humidity.

Here in North Central Baja Jorja, though, it's time to settle in to a more relaxed pace. There are still things to do, and get done, and outdoors, just... slower.

It's time to get moving on a couple bigger projects here on the Ranch. The back deck of Studio 318 needs to be re-planked, and the roof enlarged. That's one of them.

It's also time to review all the lessons learned in nearly two years of setting up the Studio Pavilion at weekend (and some week-day) festivals, and tune things up. During today's drying time, I made measurements of the pavilion for revamping the support system on the Art Display Walls. The walls themselves are made from shade netting fabric, purchased at Lowe's. They're holding up well enough, showing some signs of their use, and we've thought of a couple things to improve them for the next go-around. (That is, if we don't decide we are bringing in enough funds to justify purchasing the commercially available net style display walls... though I'm leaning towards the Do It Yourself variation again.)

The two side walls get the most art anyway, as that is what is most visible when people walk by. The current method of a single schedule 40 PVC tube as the weight distribution member across the top, with the primary anchors being loop and ball bungee cords, will continue to serve. However, the nearly two years of service on the current PVC tubes show a couple small problems.

The tubes are two parts, half the length of the side, so they will break down for transport inside the Subaru. Been using the slip fit which came with the tubing; this works, but it's stiff (supposed to be when using the tubing for plumbing, its primary purpose) and as the tubes aged, one broke. So I'm going to re-do these, still half the length, only with a male/female threaded coupling at the half-way point so they will thread together. Should be easier to both put together and break down for both of us, primarily Herself.

The back wall needs a revision. We knew other artists used a partial wall on the back side of their pavilions, and now from the three bigger art festivals we did we agree. Need that 'back door' to get out that side, as the place where most the extra stock and our lounging area is. So that wall will get a frame to tension the wall onto, rather than going to the poles of the pavilion itself as it has been. The tension is necessary because that's an important part of the weight distribution in our hanging display system.

I may also look at that experiment as a means to provide our own free-standing walls if we need them. So the frame will be something heavier than the 19mm (3/4”) PVC we're using for the top bar. This piece may not break down, or not the same way, so it's going to take a bit of thought. To convert it to a free-standing wall, I plan on using the same male/female threaded coupling to attach the feet.

Along with the redesign of the back wall art display, we're also figuring a means to support the back weather wall as a shade fly when we're set up at festivals. Get some rain and overnight, things move inside the main cover and the back wall comes down as the weather wall again; most of the time, however, it can provide shade for us sitting out back as needed.

Most festivals stipulate that the booth space is it, and the artists displays need to fit within the space. A lot of them, though, provide enough space behind booths for a bit of stretch. When we need to live within the space, we'll have a full wall. When we can stretch a bit, we shall.

If I call my Festival Year starting in September after the Summer Hiatus, and counting the con art shows, we've done seven shows, and sales at five of them. Counting just from New Years, we've done five shows, and sales at three. Two of those shows we made expenses, one we also made some profit, and one we didn't make expenses even with the sale. If we figure how well the Ranch Booth half of the show did at Windsor, than we made expenses and some profit at two, expenses at three, and et cetera. Not too bad, overall.

There is still a stack of prints which need mounting and matting, however tomorrow I should be clearing the decks in Studio for a session. After that session I will re-set for matting until I get that stack done. Meanwhile, in between all this I'll continue working up the greeting card ideas. May be able to offer those as a test via the blog, if anyone is interested.

Now, it's getting on evening here. Evening Rounds are done. The Bros got a flea bath today, which they tolerated because hey, it also involved several rounds of Hose! Chase the Wet! Amazing how inexpensively one may entertain themselves with a couple of Border Collies. Also useful to use their pleasure at playing a game where they chase the water coming out of a hose to tire them out.

I'm working on two applications for Autumn weekend festivals. The lead time for most of these is such that yes, in the Autumn I'm working on the Spring, and in at least late Spring I'm working on the Autumn. At any rate, after going through the process for one of these in the Spring entirely on-line, I'm perhaps a bit jaded. Or some other word. Anyway.

Both Autumn festivals are juried, as in they want to see samples of my work and of the Booth before inviting me in. For one of the two Autumn festivals, those samples may be submitted on a CD, the other however needs hard copy prints. And I'm... Hard copy? Really? And, I sell hard copy, folks, so you're getting potentially sell-able examples of my work (not that on a CD, or e-mailed, or via the web isn't as well).

Still, they're printed from the JPEG versions I use to put on-line for this purpose, so in one sense quality is limited. And, it is practice figuring out how to print using the new Mr. Printy which is important for other Studio 318 Booth related projects, so hey, all good, yes?
Still, there's that interesting, curious feeling. Hard copy? Really?

The other project is printing and packaging for sale Art Greeting Cards, which Herself and I started discussing about this time last year. With a year under the belt of Thinking About It, seems about time to actually be putting together some product and part of the concept is we can put together product pretty much all from here in Studio. No need to hire out printing, we can print our own.

The size prints that the one Autumn Weekend Festival want is on a par with the larger size greeting card we plan to offer. Basically, take a 21.6 by 27.9 cm sheet, fold in half on the shorter axis, and one now holds a 21 by 14 card. Print appropriately and the artwork is on one face of the fold, and information/credits on the opposite face, outside surfaces. Package this with an appropriately sized envelope and price accordingly and c'est voila, an Art Greeting Card.

I doubt we'll put much into Inventory by the next weekend festival (not this coming weekend, next after that), since I also want to replace matted inventory and we've more material on hand for that than we do for the cards. Still, it's good to see that A) we selected and purchased a good printer for the project and B) it is going to pan out, at least the production end.
Prices per card will be on the order of $2-$5 US, with the higher end price being a limited edition run as well as larger cards. Some of the pieces we've photographed will work quite well for smaller cards. Figuring out the printing logistics is not difficult. However, it does open a window on another problem, do I need to re-invest in an application or am I going to be able to do this with current applications.

Current applications does not include software that is so old it no longer runs in the current operating system. That's a different rant, however, about planned obsolescence and all, and I'm not going there today. So far, what I'm working on uses one of the sub-portions of Open Office which is free software, and I do recommend it after using it for a couple years now. At least the word processing and spreadsheet portions, and I use them a good deal. There is a drawing program as well (haven't opened it at all), a presentations program (vis-a-vis Powerpoint® from the Evil Empire) and a data base. I've studied the latter a bit, and the presentation program as well. It's been a while since I've done any public speaking or other teaching using a presentation. However, I think this one does a good job as well.

On the other hand, while it contributes a bit to the ability to print images, it isn't, per se, the best manner to go about document creation and printing. Based on past experience, neither is a word processor, believe it or not. Even though most word processor applications do provide a means to organise and print a document in a manner reflecting a published work, I've found that moving to applications that specialise in document layout is a better route for that.

Which is why I am considering should I upgrade one of the few applications from Microshaft I've ever felt they did a good bit in providing. Powerpoint®, Excel® and Word® dominate the market, though current news indicates that lead is slipping. I've little use for Word, in fact I use it so little and mostly work (as in Hospital) related that it is easy to dismiss on my part. The word processing in Open Office much more meets my needs and expectations, which are based on another major word processing package, WordPerfect®. And it's free (Open Office). Ditto for Excel®.

I got much better with Powerpoint®, and still see that as being one of the standards to reach for. Doesn't mean I like it. Nor did I ever purchase it; again, a big portion of my using this application related to Hospital.

I've very little use for Access® and I've also used that fairly extensively (guess where? Clues above!) and again, not on the planned purchase list. The data base app in Open Office is more akin to dBase® for those who've worked with such applications. I cut my data base teeth on Paradox® which originally Borland published, then sold over to Corel to include in Perfect Office (their response to Microshaft Office).

Publisher® from the Evil Empire, now, that one they did some good. Much more affordable than the Big Name in Publishing Software and with pretty much all the features of that BNiPS and even a few more that it didn't include. However, I'm not sure this Spendthrift Offspring of Unmarried Parents is in the mood to provide any more funding to the Evil Empire.

Not when there are (still unexplored) alternatives currently here on my PC.

Meanwhile, the metal is going up onto the roof of Big House. We are closer to the new roof being done, and it is good.

This past week felt slower, rather delightfully considering the build-up to the Spring Arts Festival. Mostly I've covered some of the Ranch things which need covering and which we postponed temporarily for the Arts Festival. One of those items didn't occur this week, it should though tomorrow. We both helped out some friends who need it, our partners in the Farmers Market booth. And other routine chores around the House.

Today with the weather being rather wetter, I worked inside Studio 318. Matted two of Herselfs pieces for inventory, framed another for her personal use, and framed up a piece which sat there waiting for quite a while, I am ashamed to admit. It is a piece from the Healing Art series and this particular copy goes to the friend who helped create it. In the long run, this is part of the plan, that this one copy, in the frame specific because it hung on the wall for the making of the original source, would go to her to hang in that same place.

Now it can. Tomorrow, though, since it's raining now.

( Recursive Series #1 )