3/15/2006
Physical Placement
Anyway - I raised the prices last night. I was beginning to feel like the hooker with a heart of gold. After raising the prices I felt better. Now there have been several comments about there being too many photographs in the main store. That, my friends is the easiest thing to solve. There are currently 140 prints. What number should I take it down to? 50? 75? 100? TEN? Are you kidding? Only show 10? egad. That can't be right. MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE THE TOP TWENTY IN THE MAIN GALLERY. AND THEN HAVE A LINK THAT SAYS "MORE..."
Hi Dave,
I am coming to NY this weekend and would be interested in taking a look at your photography. Do you have a gallery? If so, what are the opening hours -Friday would be the most likely day I would visit.
Thanks,
C.G.
* * *
Mr. Beckerman,
I have been visiting your site for a long time and I am wondering if your prints are available in any stores or galleries in Atlanta? Please let me know.
Sincerely,
H.H.
* * *
Are you located in an apartment or a store? I couldn't tell from your site.
J.H.
(Just within the last two days).
Hi Dave,
I am coming to NY this weekend and would be interested in taking a look at your photography. Do you have a gallery? If so, what are the opening hours -Friday would be the most likely day I would visit.
Thanks,
C.G.
* * *
Mr. Beckerman,
I have been visiting your site for a long time and I am wondering if your prints are available in any stores or galleries in Atlanta? Please let me know.
Sincerely,
H.H.
* * *
Are you located in an apartment or a store? I couldn't tell from your site.
J.H.
(Just within the last two days).
3/14/2006
fan mail
Hello,
I'm just emailing you to let you know how much I love your work. I really do love black and white photography and when I searched it on the internet, your site came up. I was looking through all of your photos and there really is something about them that makes you stop and think; every one has its own beauty. They seem to reflect a great deal of simplistic happiness that does still exist, yet many people seem not to see.
Simple things like children playing or walking with a loved one or even standing in the rain. These are the real pleasures that life brings to peoples' lives and I think your work really conveys this. I can see a great deal of my own happiness and of the things that make me happy too. Your photography has somewhat inspired me to search for these things in your own depiction of life.
Yours sincerely,
F.P.
* * *
Yikes. Still no sales. Maybe I should pass the hat as I seem to be so inspiring. Tomorrow a graduate student is coming by to interview me. When sales are slow, I think the best model is to sell (if you can) your prints for big bucks in galleries to people who've got lots of dough and forget about this nickel ante stuff.
You keep the web presence, but you're too big to sell directly over the web. You are now represented by so-and-so gallery.
Do you know that I got three phone calls this week asking if the address on my website was a store?
You can't sell in the galleries and on the web at the same time. Well, you can - but you can't sell at these web prices. Galleries prints - framed - are going to be at least $500 each, probably more. So how can you sell the same print online for $75? Can't do it. I don't know. May be time to do some rethinking.
A few minutes later. Yes. Re-thinking. I know what I'm going to do. (Another crossroads). I'm going to raise the prices on the web so that they are closer to what gallery prices would be - and pursue getting gallery representation. As much as I'm not crazy about the gallery world - I can't see any other way around this web impass. Rather than trying to sell a lot at $75 - I'll see what if anything I can sell at $200. Maybe $250 on the web and $500 in the gallery. Yes - that's what I'm going to go after for the rest of this year. Because frankly, I can't sell enough at $75 a piece to pay the rent. And so I am taking on other jobs: teaching, web design etc. But I would like the prints to pay the way.
I'm just emailing you to let you know how much I love your work. I really do love black and white photography and when I searched it on the internet, your site came up. I was looking through all of your photos and there really is something about them that makes you stop and think; every one has its own beauty. They seem to reflect a great deal of simplistic happiness that does still exist, yet many people seem not to see.
Simple things like children playing or walking with a loved one or even standing in the rain. These are the real pleasures that life brings to peoples' lives and I think your work really conveys this. I can see a great deal of my own happiness and of the things that make me happy too. Your photography has somewhat inspired me to search for these things in your own depiction of life.
Yours sincerely,
F.P.
* * *
Yikes. Still no sales. Maybe I should pass the hat as I seem to be so inspiring. Tomorrow a graduate student is coming by to interview me. When sales are slow, I think the best model is to sell (if you can) your prints for big bucks in galleries to people who've got lots of dough and forget about this nickel ante stuff.
You keep the web presence, but you're too big to sell directly over the web. You are now represented by so-and-so gallery.
Do you know that I got three phone calls this week asking if the address on my website was a store?
You can't sell in the galleries and on the web at the same time. Well, you can - but you can't sell at these web prices. Galleries prints - framed - are going to be at least $500 each, probably more. So how can you sell the same print online for $75? Can't do it. I don't know. May be time to do some rethinking.
A few minutes later. Yes. Re-thinking. I know what I'm going to do. (Another crossroads). I'm going to raise the prices on the web so that they are closer to what gallery prices would be - and pursue getting gallery representation. As much as I'm not crazy about the gallery world - I can't see any other way around this web impass. Rather than trying to sell a lot at $75 - I'll see what if anything I can sell at $200. Maybe $250 on the web and $500 in the gallery. Yes - that's what I'm going to go after for the rest of this year. Because frankly, I can't sell enough at $75 a piece to pay the rent. And so I am taking on other jobs: teaching, web design etc. But I would like the prints to pay the way.
FAT SNOW!
And then it snowed and we had those nice super fat flakes for about 10 minutes:
Fat Snow #1
Matt called me a little later to tell me about the snow - but even with bronchitis I had to at least go out and stand on the corner.
Fat Snow #1
Matt called me a little later to tell me about the snow - but even with bronchitis I had to at least go out and stand on the corner.
60,000
That is amazing. But last week I hit 60,000 page views, and one $25 sale. That is a new record in terms of popularity and dismal monetary conversion. As usual, a lot of these views are from hotlinks where one of my images is used as background material for a teenage blog. The web is the new teenage angst hangout. And angst needs an appropriate background. Enter Dave Beckerman - angst backgrounds incorporated. Okay, not incorporated - but dark and mysterious enough to put your stories about how so-and-so didn't look at you right - on.
In the old days - these were posters that you stuck up on your wall and drove your parents nuts with. Now those posters are in cyberworld. And your parents don't even have the password - do they?
Now you can stick anything you can find up - and it don't cost a dime. What I should do is hold a parasitic contest. It will be based on bandwidth usage and one of the categories will be "Best Use of a Hotlinked Photograph." Another category will be worst use of same.
Well, there you go boys and girls: 60,000 page views and one $25 print sale. You do the math.
In the old days - these were posters that you stuck up on your wall and drove your parents nuts with. Now those posters are in cyberworld. And your parents don't even have the password - do they?
Now you can stick anything you can find up - and it don't cost a dime. What I should do is hold a parasitic contest. It will be based on bandwidth usage and one of the categories will be "Best Use of a Hotlinked Photograph." Another category will be worst use of same.
Well, there you go boys and girls: 60,000 page views and one $25 print sale. You do the math.
3/12/2006
Camera Info
I added which camera was in the Prints for Sale section. I can't discern any pattern. I seem to like different cameras at different times - but the amount of sellable prints (that just means that I liked them and thought others would too) - per hour used doesn't change much. I might have shot more with the 20D but you are only allowed (you'll need to talk with the creative fates here) - you are only alowed a definite number of good shots per year. That number is about the same no matter which camera I use. However - and this is a big however - the number might actually be less if I didn't switch cameras - as very often the swap gets me out shooting again. It's the change that is useful - but it has nothing to do with what I'm changing for. And - as things would have it - to confirm this theory - many times I've gone back to the same camera I traded in - and enjoyed it for the same amount of time again before my eye began to wander.
The only caveat in the camera usage statistics is that I didn't differentiate between digital cameras. If it says 20D, it could have been the: 20D, the Rebel, or one of the powershots.
The only caveat in the camera usage statistics is that I didn't differentiate between digital cameras. If it says 20D, it could have been the: 20D, the Rebel, or one of the powershots.
Hexar AF Classic
I pulled out the old Hexar to use as a walkin' around camera because I wanted to shoot with a 35mm length lens, and don't have one yet for the Leica / Voigtlander. I remember the Hexar fondly - but it has shortcomings: top speed of 1/250th.
(I thought that it went to 1/500th in Program mode, but I haven't been able to confirm that - and it might have been another one of the early designer cameras I was thinking of).
That is a serious drawback for walkin' around stuff. And, although the viewfinder is sharp and contrasty - the way the frame lines are shown (they move in a bit for parallex correction) doesn't give you that great sense of what exactly is in the frame that you have with a manual focus rangefinder.
On the plus side: the camera is very easy and comfortable to hand-hold at your side. You don't need (nor do they make) any sort of grip for it. And in "silent mode" (which was removed from the camera at some point for legal reasons) - in "silent mode" it is the quiestest of any (including Leica) rangefinder - and that's saying something.
The quality of the lens is also excellent. But all in all the camera isn't a substitute for a nice manual rangefinder.
(I thought that it went to 1/500th in Program mode, but I haven't been able to confirm that - and it might have been another one of the early designer cameras I was thinking of).
That is a serious drawback for walkin' around stuff. And, although the viewfinder is sharp and contrasty - the way the frame lines are shown (they move in a bit for parallex correction) doesn't give you that great sense of what exactly is in the frame that you have with a manual focus rangefinder.
On the plus side: the camera is very easy and comfortable to hand-hold at your side. You don't need (nor do they make) any sort of grip for it. And in "silent mode" (which was removed from the camera at some point for legal reasons) - in "silent mode" it is the quiestest of any (including Leica) rangefinder - and that's saying something.
The quality of the lens is also excellent. But all in all the camera isn't a substitute for a nice manual rangefinder.
3/11/2006
D.U.M.B.O.
Down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass
The Rollei TLR. The 4990 scanner. The Empire State Building (dead ahead). And my eyes and fingers.
3/10/2006
Quadograph Flags
P.S. I do find this kaleidoscope effect interesting. Recipe, begin with the shot in upper left corner. Flip horizontal and place upper right corner. Flip this one vertical and place lower right corner. Flip the original and place in lower left corner. You do have to schmear (I'll take a schmear of creamcheese please) the jointings a little. But almost any image that has something halfway geometric along the right and lower edges will give you this kaleidoscope effect.
I think I'll name these: Quadographs.
[Camera: Canon 20D / Post-processing effects by Beckerman Light & Magic]
27 Years Later Part 2
The things they say sound pretty cold
Hope I die before I get old...
And sure enough - that's what happened. Just about all the great ones died before they got old, at least in the wonderful world o' music. Mostly drugs - though disease and murder played their parts as well. Except for Dylan - my generation won't have to sit around and watch their idols perish.
Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Phil Ochs, Janis Joplin, Momma Cass, (Richard Manuel, Rick Danko - The Band), John Lennon (my favorite Beatle), George Harrison (the youngest Beatle).
Oh and there were the politicians as well - and that whole Camelot thing which I was too young to buy into and probably wouldn't have bought into it even if I were older. And the other brother slain - who I thought was an opportunist the way he tossed his hat into the ring only after seeing which way the wind was blowing.
But whatever. All gone. And so as I say - we won't have to sit around on our rockers and commiserate with each other about how so-and-so died at 89 (how young he was).
But - we haven't been entirely spared - because the actors - and I mean the male actors - of our generation - now they have survived and prospered.
Attica! Attica! We get to see the big trio: Pacino, DeNiro, and Hoffman - age and as I say - prosper. What we do have to look forward to is the day when DeNiro (and he isn't far from this yet in terms of film choices) will be pitchman for adult diapers. (You talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?). Sorry - my hearings been going lately and I didn't hear you. Oh, you are talkin' to me.
For some reason (less drugs?) the major stars of my generation (even Clint Eastwood) are still going strong. Who would've thunk - that when you saw Dustin Hoffman step onto the scene in his scuba suit - that he'd still be a major star 40 years later?
I mean - even Bill Shatner is still going strong. Now the actresses haven't fared as well in terms of work - but they've not kicked off.
That's all. There might be some point to all this - but I forgot what it was. Oh yes, bejesus - that we would be spared witnessing the aging of most of my generations idols because they had all split so damned soon. That was the idea. And how they did change the world in their three decades!
Not tryin' to 'cause a big -- s-s-s-ensation.
Just talkin' 'bout my generation. (the Who)
Hope I die before I get old...
And sure enough - that's what happened. Just about all the great ones died before they got old, at least in the wonderful world o' music. Mostly drugs - though disease and murder played their parts as well. Except for Dylan - my generation won't have to sit around and watch their idols perish.
Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Phil Ochs, Janis Joplin, Momma Cass, (Richard Manuel, Rick Danko - The Band), John Lennon (my favorite Beatle), George Harrison (the youngest Beatle).
Oh and there were the politicians as well - and that whole Camelot thing which I was too young to buy into and probably wouldn't have bought into it even if I were older. And the other brother slain - who I thought was an opportunist the way he tossed his hat into the ring only after seeing which way the wind was blowing.
But whatever. All gone. And so as I say - we won't have to sit around on our rockers and commiserate with each other about how so-and-so died at 89 (how young he was).
But - we haven't been entirely spared - because the actors - and I mean the male actors - of our generation - now they have survived and prospered.
Attica! Attica! We get to see the big trio: Pacino, DeNiro, and Hoffman - age and as I say - prosper. What we do have to look forward to is the day when DeNiro (and he isn't far from this yet in terms of film choices) will be pitchman for adult diapers. (You talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?). Sorry - my hearings been going lately and I didn't hear you. Oh, you are talkin' to me.
For some reason (less drugs?) the major stars of my generation (even Clint Eastwood) are still going strong. Who would've thunk - that when you saw Dustin Hoffman step onto the scene in his scuba suit - that he'd still be a major star 40 years later?
I mean - even Bill Shatner is still going strong. Now the actresses haven't fared as well in terms of work - but they've not kicked off.
That's all. There might be some point to all this - but I forgot what it was. Oh yes, bejesus - that we would be spared witnessing the aging of most of my generations idols because they had all split so damned soon. That was the idea. And how they did change the world in their three decades!
Not tryin' to 'cause a big -- s-s-s-ensation.
Just talkin' 'bout my generation. (the Who)
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