Sorry if the newsletter popup bothers you… using the blog to work out the kinks. You can sign up if you like or just close it. There’s still a bunch of things to take care of such as going to a thank you page and working on the timing etc. I’m using MadMimi for the Newsletter, and a separate plugin SimplePopUp (WordPress) for the popup part.
One of the things that is pretty amazing is that you could – if you wanted to – put a different popup on every post (I think).
Wow – isn’t that too much plastic?
Hard to believe but the feature length movie about Matt Weber – and featuring as a trustworthy sidekick MOI will be out soon. There’s more I could tell you but like all superhero photographers I must keep some powers a secret until the end of the film. But here’s the email I received from the film’s produced – Dan. The upshot of it to share to go to the More Than The Rainbow Page on FB and like it. This is just a start. The film will be getting some excellent exposure soon.Subject: More Than the RainbowHey Dave,I realize it’s been a long time. I hope this email finds things good,
or at least decent, on your end. I finally have some exciting news
regarding the movie. It’s finished, and there will be screenings this
Fall. I’m not allowed to give out more information, until the
announcement is official, but we do need to work on the modern day
marketing schemes. We have a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/morethantherainbow
If you can ask people who follow you to like this page that would be
very helpful. Just let them know that you’re in the movie, and
exciting news will soon be released.Let me add that you are great in this movie, and everyone that has
seen it, loves you and your work in it. Thanks, Dave, and look forward
to seeing you soon, and to you finally seeing the movie.Best,
Dan
In case you’ve missed it – the usual Labor Day sale is on and almost over. And just for fun – if you haven’t signed up for the Newsletter you can see what the current one looks like. I’ve been using MadMimi.com for the newsletters and it’s simple, easy to use, gives a ton of feedback. The one thing it’s missing is that timed controlled popup box to gather more email addresses. You know, when you’re on a site for a while a box pops up asking you to subscribe to the newsletter.
My own email list (at least so far) is simply customer emails. In other words, if someone has bought something, I add them to the mailing list. And there’s over a thousand names on that list.
I’m continuing to add color work. Separated the Central Park color prints into their own gallery. Adding more of my Paris work and gave it a separate gallery. All in all have tried to make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. You can browse with or without the thumbnails (for example); and I’ve even set it up so you can view all the horizontal prints, or just the vertical prints (asked for by customers all the time). Yes – you can even view the images that will give you the best extra super large prints (generally from Large Format Camera or Medium Format Camera).
Started with infrared and then painted. You can actually buy a limited edition print for $45 during the labor day weekend. This sort of thing is a long way from the street shooting I still do once in a while, but it is very enjoyable. If you haven’t tried it – you should. Just take any black and white negative – scanned – and then try and imagine what colors should be used and how they fit (hopefully) together. It can be done pretty quickly with NIK software, and at some point I should do a write up of that. But everyone has Photoshop, and that just means a lot of masking.
Since New York is basically all rectangles, this is very easy to mask in Photoshop, though you have to be careful with those trees.
Golden Clock for a Head
Another one bites the dust. They came here from Mexico twenty years ago: Rojo and Monica. When he arrived he took the first job he could find as a dishwasher. Worked his way up to short order cook. And after ten years, and gaining citizenship, he and his wife opened Monica’s on 2nd Avenue and 83rd. I was one of their first customers. The cash register wasn’t working and I help Rojo fix it.
As a small business owner myself, and being home all day, I’ve developed close relationships with the neighborhood businesses: bodegas, Fedex, UPS stores, the Indian deli, and so-on. Rojo worked like a dog. He was there before six and never left the little store until 9 (preparing for the next day).
If anyone was going to make it in this spot – it would be him. And the American Dream was shining before him. And it almost happened. His store caught on because he made great sandwiches, and his wife offered a friendly smile and home made pastries. And the little bodega was packed.
He was hit with two distinct threats: the second avenue subway (people didn’t like to walk into the store as dynamite was going off nearby); the sidewalk by his store narrowed; and the economy went where we all know – downhill.
A few days ago we were talking and although Rojo is a private person he began opening up about his financial troubles. His income had dropped so low that the Federal Tax something-or-other was going to send someone to watch what went into his cash register. Talk about a joke – you never met a more brutally honest guy. And oh – they had their first kid somewhere along the line.
What this leads up to is the usual around here – he’s going back to Mexico and his store has been shut tight with the gate down for three days and I confirmed with the garage guy that not only has Rojo shut up the store; but the Indian Deli on the other side (third avenue) was leaving. Add that to the other stores that have closed lately, or just about to close – and you get an idea of life up here on the upper east side.
Adios Jose. You told me the name of the small village you come from in Mexico and one day maybe I’ll be there myself – where I can live off social security like a king.
I pulled this shot out for a client that wanted it in Sepia – and as I went along realized that I had so many color shots of Central Park that they could finally have their own gallery in the store.
Bethesda Fountain Infrared
I know I sort of neglected this blog for a while… but I’ve been busy. Reminds me of a line from a Dylan song – which one? I don’t know. There are times that just about everything reminds me of a line from a Dylan song.
Paraphrasing it: you think you’re about to drown, and it’s half a foot of water…
All of a sudden, after a long period of desultory lack of business – several art buyers contacted me – practically all at the same time – and frankly – all wanting similar images. I began to wonder what it was all about, and went to google and searched for that phrase and voila – all of a sudden (I don’t want to say the phrase for obvious reasons) but there were my images, both in the image section of the Big G, and the normal text part of the Big G.
So that was it.
G gives and takes away.
Anyway – in the middle of idleness – I did have an interesting experience that I think it’s safe to write about now.
A bank, a foreign bank, a lovely foreign bank contacted me to make a sort of limited edition booklet… I’m not sure what you call it. It’s just a four or eight ply piece with three windows, and my pictures in those windows. The thing is about the size of a large hardcover book. I should have taken at least one picture of them before they were gone.
But the bank – the lovely bank – brings its personel to different countries when a new bank opens – and give the 25 bankers a gift – made by a local artist – and I was the local artist.
So I sat in the lobby of the Plaza hotel (I doubt if I could afford a night there) and signed and numbered 25 of these limited editions.
On my way out – I stopped by one of my favorite park shooting spots and did a few HDRs. Here’s the one I liked the best. Yes, HDR but not obvious HDR. And quite a bit of it “painted.” Painted means that I went into photoshop and added things like those highlights you see in the tree, removed the annoying people, and basically took the brush to ever part of the image in what I hoped was a subtle way. Yes – I still like it.
Very little of what I do lately falls into the “it’s real” category. And frankly, for most people it doesn’t matter.
For example, in this shot, the bandshell doesn’t belong at the end of Poets Walk. It isn’t there. The shot of Poets Walk was done with a digital DSLR and the shot of the Bandshell was 35mm b&w film.
And this shot got a good deal of attention on G+. You can see it here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116247667398036716276/posts/VYGnBV3Nm8T
However, if anyone did notice that the bandshell was in the wrong place (or not the actual place) they didn’t comment about it, and there were a lot of comments and shares. In fact the picture was picked for the top 8 pictures of August 18th:
http://www.photoextract.com/plus-extract/2012/8/18
Of course – no fair now if you read this and then comment that it’s in the wrong place. At any rate – I’ve been moving things around and taking them in or adding clouds or taking a better shot of the sun or accentuating the heck out of the rainbow…
