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How to Plan, Show and Promote a Photography Exhibit
A famous American humorist, Evan Esar was once quoted as saying, "Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration, and inspiration". The life of an artist, a digital photographer to be specific, is such that tons of planning, money and sweat can pave the path for success. The steps in which you take to establish yourself can be spontaneous and exciting or patient and well thought out. Given the current economic affairs, there is still room for your dreams and goals. Starting specifically with concrete goals is a great sprint into your career. Let's start with how to book an exhibit, sell your work and get your name out there.
1.Find your theme
When starting to plan your first exhibit, you should research your target audience and pick a theme from your work that they would best enjoy. Remember, you are not just a photographer but also a businessperson. Artists need to be organized enough to focus on a particular theme so that potential buyers and visitors can understand the concepts, identify with them and make sense of what's being presented. Treat your exhibit like a museum which is neatly divided into categories and topics , rather than random images. Eventually, more established artists are able to have more control over the kinds of pieces they want to showcase. It might be a matter of "swallowing your pride" but in the beginning, you have to crawl before you walk.
2. Start Small
Try any and every place where you are able to put up your work. Some great places to start are your local cafés, libraries, schools, restaurants and various public and private places where you do not have to pay to exhibit. You never know who might attend even the smallest of gatherings, so it is important to pitch your work and promote the show. Word of mouth and guerilla marketing techniques (e.g., hanging up posters on every corner if need be) have been key to any start up.
3. Build your Curriculum Vitae
A good CV is essential for promoting yourself in a few words that people will remember you by. Make sure the things that matter really stand out and use bullet points to make your points clear. Don't be too wordy and never lie. Write out tangible and concrete tasks you have accomplished in your education, experience, previous shows, and more. As a photographer, a website and portfolio are simply expected so that people have easy access to assess your work.
4. Get to know your supplier
Build your network of artist friends so that you have connections as to how cheaply you can source your supplies. Allowing you to know the people in these organizations may give you access to wholesale prices for mattes, frames, paints, and more. Make a note of all the local art supply stores, framers, matt cutters, galleries, foundations and museums to help you in this direction.
5. Choose your best work to show
Make sure you preserve and present your artwork perfectly when going to showcase it to the world. Even if you feel you have done a brilliant work of art, do not display it if it has tears, scratches, minor nicks, and slight details that people might criticize you on. Do remember that if you are asking high prices for your art, your customers will be asking for a high level of perfection from corner to corner. People also take great pride in the works that they create so don't let that get overlooked for some bad quality that could have been prevented.
6. Getting a known gallery to sponsor and/or represent you
Especially important are the galleries in which you want to showcase. The more you attend their events and know the managers, the easier it will be for you to book a show of your own. While vying for their attention, persistence is key, as rejection should be a common and forgettable part of the 'pitching' process.
7. Prepare an Invitation List for your showing
The time has come to really make or break your show. By building up a good mailing list and sending out invitations, you will be prepared for the opening. Many times, galleries themselves will also have databases, which will be a nice addition to your own. Without a proper mailing list, your efforts could be wasted, as people might not show up through word of mouth.
And finally...
The main goal after your photograph is ready to go to the market is to become a good businessperson. Even the most talented artists do not get the full rewards when they do not market themselves properly. Some great books to read up on are "Art Marketing Handbook", "Marketing Art: A Handbook for the artist and art dealer", and "Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers". After reading them, you will feel much more prepared and confident to tackle marketing. Not only will you have learned tons about your own field of photography but also tons about business.
Mapping a Network Drive
If you have more than one computer on the same switch or wireless network, then you don't have to use flash drives or email attachments to move files around. One of the best – and least understood – ways to share files on small networks of computers is to use those networks to send and receive files.
One of the simplest ways to do this is to map a network drive. If you know that you're on a network, you can locate your computers by their share name and their workgroup. To view and change the computer name and workgroup, right-click on My Computer, and left-click Properties.
This will open the System Properties menu. Click the Computer Name tab to see your computer's name, and the workgroup it's assigned to on the network. Workgroups are a form of grouping that can be used to organize small networks. Most of the time, it's easiest to keep all of your computers on the same workgroup, and the default is set to "WORKGROUP." If you want to change this, or your computer name, left-click the Change button in the Computer Name tab.
You can change your workgroup name or your computer name here. If you want to change the workgroup name, keep in mind that workgroups are for organizing computers. Creating a separate workgroup name for each computer is not particularly useful, so most of the time, using one workgroup for all computers is fine. The network change may require a restart, so be ready to shut down and reboot your computer. Click OK when you're done.
Once your done, or once your computer has restarted, right-click again on My Computer and then left-click on Map Network Drive.
This will take you to the Map Network Drive wizard. Select the drive letter that you'd like. If you don't have a preference, you can leave this at the default. Next, you will want to find the computer and folder that you want to map a drive letter to. Click Browse to open the Browse Network list.
Here you can browse for the computer and folder that you want to map. Click Entire Network, find and click the appropriate workgroup, and then click on the computer that you want to share with. You may have to wait a moment for this list to locate and list items. Find the folder you want to share and click it once. Click OK to select the folder.
Leave the Reconnect at Logon box checked. You can now click Finish in the Map Network Drive wizard. You have now mapped a folder on a different computer to your My Computer folder. Open My Computer to see it.
This network drive will work whenever both computers are turned on and connected to the network. You can use this drive just like your C: drive and make shortcuts, browse files, and move files at will. You can do this to as many computers on your network as you'd like, too – and this is a great way to make a shared folder for backing up files!
Additional Clock in Windows Vista
Do you have a need for an additional clock on your desktop? Maybe you have a son or daughter in the service overseas, or perhaps relatives living in Europe? It's always good to know what time it is where they are, so you're not calling them at 3 o'clock in the morning and disrupting their rest. So, let's learn how to pin another clock up today!
1.) Right-click on your clock in the taskbar and select Adjust Date/Time
2.) Click the Additional Clocks Tab
3.) Check Show This Clock to add a clock (you can add one or both, by the way)
4.)Select the time zone you want.
5.)Enter a display name for your new clock and click OK.
How Timely!
