[artshow_photo] Re: How original do your photos have to be accepted into a top fine art

Hi, Nick,

My two cents worth:

First you need to have a body of work that a) shows off your skills and b)
either highlights your range of subject mastery OR shows your compete and
utter mastery of a given subject. (Looks to me like you have this in your
waterfalls and cascades images.)

Second, you need to go through your body of work and cull ruthlessly (get it
down to 10-15 images tops to start with) for items that support or exemplify
your subject and show the utmost best part of your skills. Your resulting
image set needs to be the best of both of these AND they all need to be as
different from each other as you can select -- this is really important
when you're trying to show mastery of theme. (Think of it this way: Ansel
Adams was the Nature guy, Bresson was the high fashion and glam portrait
guy, Man Ray was the surrealist guy -- and Nick is the water photography
guy...)

Third, you need to figure out how best to present a sampling of these to a
jury AND how best to present them in a booth to your audience: you will
need matted and framed examples of the 10-15 best, then matted and
backboarded samples, and maybe a screensaver of your best images,
appropriately watermarked and with perfect music as a background (or a
package of notecards, or maybe a set of bookmarks on watercolour paper or
something like that) - this last is for two purposes: one to give to
prospective gallery and art show organizers as a sampling and two, as a
sampler to sell to John Q Public for $2 - $5 to tide him/her over until they
can afford one of your original or limited edition prints.

Last, you need to decide where you are going from there: you have done
beautifully with the cascades and waterfalls, so is it time to branch out
into photographing the many moods of surf at the shore, or perhaps a serious
study of the rock pools and their eco-system that line the edges of the
cascades waterways, or water shots from the viewpoint of your boat or canoe,
or something that moves your work ahead and away from its initial theme but
which is related to it. You have many choices with water shots if that is
what you want as an over-arching theme: you have done cascades, you can do
still water, you can do surf and rapids, you can do rivers, lakes or pools,
you can do harnessed water (dams, canals and chutes), you can do all the
variations of rainwater, and so on.

Eventually you may end up getting off the topic of water altogether -- and
find that the path (or watercourse) you've chosen has taken you in a
completely unexpected direction and to a completely unusual place -- and
that is a great thing.


Again,. just my opinion, offered free and probably worth exactly what you
paid for it!! LOL


Leah M.




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