My Images exhibited in a local gallery

Things have been busy recently. I re-designed my website and now I’m displaying my images in a local gallery. This blog is about how I got involved with the gallery and what I had to do to be able to present my work to the public.

I have wanted to display my work in local galleries for a long time now but I never went any further than discussing it with my wife. One day Nicola (my wife) came back from town and put a business card in front of me. It was a card for the Blue Indigo Gallery http://www.blueindigogallery.co.uk. We go shopping there when we need a present for family and friends. They sell loads of beautiful products that are locally made.

When I asked why she has their card she replied “I spoke to them about your pictures and they are interested in having a look and possibly displaying and selling them for you” When I picked myself up off the floor I went to my computer muttering “Thank you” to Nicola on the way.

My head was buzzing with questions but I had very few answers for them. What images will I show them, what size of images do I want to display, what frames should I use; should I use any frames?? Where do I get mounts, backing boards and bags for packaging?

The first thing was to choose images that would impress them so they would agree to display my work. After a couple of hours I had a clear idea of which images to show them. I put an e-mail together and e-mailed them some of my images. Two days later I got an e-mail back from the Blue Indigo Gallery saying that they like my work and they would be interested in meeting me with the prints so we can discuss further plans.

I had to get things moving quickly at that point. The tourist season was just starting and I did not want to miss it. I had already selected the images that I would like to display so the next step was to send them to the printers, order frames and mounts (I decided that I would have some framed images and the rest will be in mounts with backing board and packaged in clear bags).

One week later everything was ready and I went to have a meeting with the gallery owner. The meeting went well and they agreed to display my images. I was very happy, as you can imagine. What made me even happier was the cheque that arrived in the post the following month from the gallery – they had sold some of my mounted prints!!!

If you find yourself in Teignmouth and you are wondering through town, go and visit the Blue Indigo Gallery in the town centre, where you can view a selection of my images.  Alternatively, you can have a look at my online shop.

New Website

New Website!!

After four years I decided that it was time for a new website. I liked my old website but there were always things that I could not do or features that I could not have. I’m using Joomla open source CMS so that I can edit the website myself. I have stayed with it but I have upgraded to Joomla 3 (from 1.5, which is quite old now).

There were two main reasons for the upgrade:

I wanted to have an online shop where I could sell my images as prints

Smart phones and tablets! I wanted my website to be able to recognize and adjust itself for mobile phones and tablets.

Week of Life Project and Me

For those of you who visit my website you will have seen that a couple of weeks ago I put up a new section on the front page called WEEK OF LIFE (WOL). This is a new project that I became part of in July. So what is the Week of Life Project? It is an international project where people from around the world post 9 of their pictures for each day for an entire week.

Taking pictures from the plane

A couple of months ago I was asked by a local NGO, TIDE, to go on the Light Hawk flight to take images of the Private Protected Area, Marine Reserve and National Park that TIDE is managing.  The flight time was split between two, one and a half hour flights. The first flight was concentrating on Port Honduras Marine Reserve with the Marine Park Manager on board and the second flight was over the terrestrial areas to record the Private Protected Areas and Payne’s Creek National Park with the Terrestrial Biologist with us. The images were for the purpose of monitoring any illegal deforesting, construction and activities throughout this vast land and sea area.

My wedding trip

I just got married!! Well on 12th of June 2010. Last year my beautiful girlfriend Nicola and I decided that it was time to tie the knot and get married. It took us a year of planning, phoning, flying and arranging all the details with Nicola’s and my family in Czech Republic and now it is all done.

NSCC Trip to Belize

What a busy couple of weeks it has been at the end of May! Every year TIDE Tours (the company that I work for) organizes a 10 day trip to Belize for a Canadian Community Collage from Nova Scotia (NSCC for short). I’m responsible for organizing and implementing the trip. It is always a lot of work to set everything up with all the hotels, restaurants and tour operators throughout Belize but the busy part is when the students are actually here.

Taking pictures using Histograms

A couple of weeks ago I was reading one of my favorite blogs from X-Equals and I came across their post Harnessing the Lightroom Histogram. Of course I have heard about histograms and the way they work but like many new photographers I have not paid much attention to it. A lot of it had to do with not fully understanding the benefits of having the histogram on the back of your camera after each shot.

Rescued Betty

Last weekend I went for the first time to take pictures of the dog my friend Brian Holland and I rescued a couple of months ago. It was quite distressing when I found out from one of my customers that in front of the hotel (Sea Front Inn) where they were staying there was a dog that had been hit by a car.

New Wide Angle Lens

I have always wanted a super wide angle lens. I love the images that it can produce. I had my kit lens that was 17mm to 85mm but with the small chip in my camera it really could not produce the effects that I always wanted. A couple months back this lens started giving me trouble and I need to send it to Canon for repair. Well from Belize that proves to be a little difficult. I thought about it long and hard and came to the decision that with my limited funds I should invest in the super wide angle lens.

Editing pictures from the glacier

I have recently been working on my pictures that I took while travelling in Central and South America in 2004/2005. I know that they should have been processed and uploaded a long time ago, but unfortunately 5 years ago I didn’t even know where to start with processing or editing. All I knew was to take pictures (and it is questionable as well if there was any skill involved or just a beginners luck 😉 ) back them up and store them.