Christian Aid Week sale update

A few weeks back I promised an update on the sale of prints and cards for Christian Aid Week.  On the day of the sale I reported that we'd raised £38 from a handful of sales to colleagues who work for the charity.  I'm pleased to share the news that there was lots more interest during the week, and I have now been able to pass a cheque for just over £94 to Christian Aid to help support the work of their partners overseas as they seek to help communities build their way out of poverty.  My thanks to colleagues whose generosity about my photography made that possible.

In my last blog I reported a difference between the print sales - mostly fine art or pictures that challenge the boundary between photography and painting - and card sales - simpler landscapes and floral cards.  Small cards were outselling larger cards.

With more time for consideration, A5 card sales overtook the smaller square cards, selling at more than 2:1.  This probably reflects a donation dynamic - on the day of the sale, some purchases will have been as much about supporting Christian Aid, as a vote of confidence in the photographs.   Later in the week, people were reflecting on what they like and what they want to send to friends or loved ones - so while the charity donation was why they were buyng, the what was becoming more important.  Joint top sellers were Tower Bridge Blues - featured at the bottom of my last post - and Heels and Roses, the star picture from my collaboration with the talented Linda Anderson over at filledwithlovecupcakes.org

For prints, the trend I highlighted continued.  Purely photographic landscapes and floral photos were admired but not purchased.  But venture into the fine art space, or the cross over between painting and photography and the sales continued - modestly, but continue they did.  Three pictures split top honours : for most of the week Ripples shared top billing with Monet at Stourhead? These were right in that cross over space.  But the late star was The Other Gate at Corfe Castle, including an A3 sale (to one of our key suppliers, Open Fundraising (thanks guys!)), and one special order of a canvas that will be travelling to Australia as a wedding present.  

This international photographer malarkey is very exciting - one picture is on a wall in Brooklyn, and now one in Australia!  Perhaps I should put my prices up!

I'm chuffed to have had such a positive response to my first sale / exhibition and would like to thank colleagues (and Open) for their support and encouragement.

Its all given me a lot to think about - particularly as a couple of sales to other contacts over the last two weeks have reinforced the message fine art message.  The question to wrestle with now is how to spread the word.  Know a friendly gallery owner anyone?

Finally… if you would like to purchase one of my pictures, or any of my cards and  help Christian Aid, then email me or pop over to my Etsy shop I am starting to add these prints, mention this blog (or just quote BlogCAW20) and I will make a 20% donation to their work from the sale. 

An exhibition first...

I shouldn't over egg this, but today was an exciting first for me and Sonning Creatives, my first 'exhibition'.  Well more of a sale really…

It's Christian Aid Week - the key fundraising moment of Christian Aid's year.  Thousands of volunteers on door steps, services and collections around the country, and CA staff all get stuck in with fundraising around the office.  So I took a deep breath, prepared some stock and set up a sale, with 35% of all sale proceeds going to Christian Aid to support their fabulous work around the world.  As a result of today's sale I will be donating £38 to them, with a possible few extra sales to come later this week.

So what sold?  There were two clear winning images:  Ripples - a minimalist seascape, and Autumn in Pastel - a gentle, slightly muted shot taken at Westonbirt arboretum.  Most sales were of cards, but these were helped by having A3 and A4 prints on display in 20x16 inch and 16x12 inch mounts.  A few London shots were sold including St Paul's in HDR and St Paul's the dome, with Tower Bridge Blues also popular.

Among floral shots,Outstanding Lily was popular.

So what did I learn?  Well its fun discussing photos with colleagues... Price point is important for a work place sale - £2 cards (14cm square) outsold the £2.50 A5 cards.  Solid, middle of the road cards that people can keep in the draw for when needed.  Black & White shots are marmite:  you really love, or you really don't!  £15 A4 16x12s will sell if they touch people's interest.  But its not the chocolate box floral prints that really sell at this ad hoc sale.  Its the shots that are a little different, that succeed in bringing a little of the photographer's vision to life.  And when you can do that, people will purchase.

All I have to now is make more shots like that!

Christian Aid Week runs until Sunday 19th May.  I'm happy to continue offering the 35% donation on sales up till 26th May:

A5 cards £2.50, 14cm square cards £2.00.  Prints, mounted and backed:  6x8 inch, mounted to 8x10 £8.00; A4 mounted to 16x12 inch £15; and A3 mounted to an impressive 16x12 inch £25.  Carriage at cost - lets discuss.  Email me at Colin@SonningCreatives.co.uk if you would like to discuss an order.

New work on the cards...

Its been an interesting couple of weeks:  a hard working day with the fabulous baker Linda Anderson of www.filledwithlovecupcakes.org to photograph some of her amazing cupcake creations.  

Selecting backgrounds and dressing shots - learning - again - just how unforgiving the lens is both to the quality of the cakes, and to the precision of the image.

Then a lot of hours at the computer shortlisting images, finding the right crops and processing to show her creations to best effect.  If only the taster on the right could bring you a real taste of her culinary work.

And it has all been preparatory to the launch of a new range of greetings cards to be sold alongside her cupcakes and elsewhere.  Linda will be rolling out the cards on her website and facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/FilledWithLoveCupcakes?fref=ts over the next few weeks, but if you can't wait, you can start to buy now on Redbubble too - just take a look at the cupcake gallery - and pop back to see new images being added over the next few days.

To celebrate the launch, I have reorganised all my images to display card options on Redbubble too - so please do take a peek.

See the beginnings of the cupcake collection at www.redbubble.com/people/colinkemp and don't forget to browse the rest of the card collection!  Thanks for stopping by.

To B (& W) or not to B...

I can't really argue that my dilemma is quite on a par with Hamlet's moment of indecision, but I want to risk the slings and arrows of outrageous opinion on this pair of images: not sure it its particularly noble, or even that I find myself in a sea of troubles.  In fact I hope you agree the sea in the harbour looks particularly untroublesome!

Taken last June in Boston MA, (a discovered country from whose bourn this traveller returned), and taken  later than the normal witching hour when there is still that good light in the sky that can make a great twilight image,  I pressed the shutter, expecting to be converting to black and white.  But then I looked at the original and found more of a wow factor than I anticipated.  So much so, that I published the original on Redbubble where it has had 165 views (at time of writing). ( original redbubble post here)

But I kept returning to my original intention: the picture in my head when I composed the shot: the black and white.  To convert or not to convert, that is the question.  So as a little experiment in digital dynamics and crowd sourcing of insight, I thought I would ask you to share your view: should I be offering this image in colour or black and white?  Which - if either - has the 'wow' factor for you?  Would either find their way to your wall? 

So, with apologies to the Bard for the liberties I have taken with his most famous soliloquy, help me end the heartache.  Tell me what you think: tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Its easy to add a comment to the blog: please do!

For those who like the techie stuff, this was taken on a Nikon D90, showing off its great low light, low noise capabilities with 16-85 lens at 22mm (33mm fx equivalent), 20 seconds at f14, with a dab of over exposure to allow the capture of the foreground detail. ISO 200.

On the Monet?

Photographs can inform, challenge, inspire.  They can bring excitement or moments of reflection. And sometimes they just tease. One of the photographic teases I enjoy is to set up the conundrum: is this real?  This shot is one of those.  I am often asked whether it is is photoshopped.  And barring a mild colour / contrast boost, it's not.  The Monet-esque effect is pretty much straight out of camera.  (And, for those who know I post-process with Aperture 3 not Photoshop, there was no more tweaking there either!)

There is a second tease element here too: what way up should this be displayed.  In fact, what do you think the camera 'saw'?

  

Well, the picture was taken in early Autumn at the wonderful Stourhead ( nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead/ ).   The lakes here often offer the possibility of great reflections. My usual thought would be to capture both image and mirror-image.  But here the height of the trees were challenging from the narrow path and anyway, the real interest was in the reflection on the so-slightly disturbed surface of the water.  So that's what I framed.  In a way it was an easier shot than to try to include the trees and brighter sky: I was able to concentrate on getting the exposure right - and balancing shutter speed against the movement in the water.

When I saw the final image it was a Monet moment, reminding me of his waterlilies.  So which way up would you hang it?

I was delighted to sell a 16x12 print of this at Christmas.  The gift was for a Monet fan. I understand she hung it the way it was shot.   Available as print, card or canvas over at Redbubble.com/people/colinkemp

Thanks for stopping by - do let me know what you think.

Peachy: to cure butterfly eyes

Take a moment to do something we so rarely find time for in our lives.  Take time to look.  But not just to look. Take time to really see.  

Look at a rose.  Take a while.   Can you feel the velvet touch of the petals? Almost smell the delicate perfume? It's sumptuous, its sensuous. It is beautiful.

I love this type of photography - that an image like this can capture more than our eyes usually see.  Last time you glanced at a rose, did you really take in the texture? Did you want to touch it? To feel the soft velvet? Our senses are so intertwined, so inclined to prompt each other,  that if you didn't, then perhaps you didn't really look.

Because that is what we do in our daily lives: we glance.  Our eyes are butterflies flitting from sight to sight, resting just long enough to record an impression, to snapshot a scene.

And if I have an aim, a desire in the pictures I share here - it is to encourage you to go beyond that butterfly moment, to rest your eyes in one image for a few moments, and to really see what is there.  Then next time you pause to admire a rose, you may look closer, to seek what you previously discovered in a photograph on my website or in a picture on your wall, and to savour a moment that you may otherwise have missed.

If I have tempted you to do that - come back and tell me what you found.

Thank you.

Colin

Sonning Creatives

For cards, prints and canvases of this image please visit my page here: 

http://www.redbubble.com/people/colinkemp/works/10020437-peachy

Be mine, Columbine

Valentine's day is coming fast and roses are everywhere.  But whether it's my cheesy alliteration  or the sheer joy I got when I saw this on the camera LCD - it's this shot of a Columbine with which I want to say 'Be Mine'.

So why the passion?  Well, sorry to be a camera geek, but this was taken within 10 minutes of unpacking my first proper macro lens - the trusty Nikon 105.  Bought on ebay, picked up by a relative in Hull, brought down to 'sunny Southend' where it was unpacked on a beautiful June evening.  Not being blessed with the proverbial green fingers, my garden is not well endowed with luscious blooms.  But this Columbine was  in flower,  and it was back lit by the evening sun.  What's more, the area behind it was in quite deep shadow.

Metering so that I exposed for the bloom, hand held despite this being the non-VR version of the lens, I was blown away by the outcome.  So blown away, that a good proportion of my work is now close up or macro.  I love the fine detail we can pull out with close ups, detail we may not even be aware of with normal vision… just look at those fine, back lit hairs along the petals!

So be mine, Columbine.  Or perhaps, what I'm whispering those sweet nothings to… is Nikon's Micro 105 f2.8.  Gorgeous! 

Oh… sorry Mrs Kemp!  You are gorgeous too!

You can get closer to my Columbine as a card, a print or even a canvas, over on Redbubble where this my most viewed image:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/colinkemp/works/8533760-you-are-mine-columbine