Studio Sale: Lots of Good Stuff!

Building permits for the new workspace should hopefully be in hand sometime tomorrow. To that end, I am preparing for the move well in advance... an attempt to simplify my professional life (personal life to remain as complicated as ever), & reduce the studio clutter.


I've got a bunch of stuff piled up here that I could manage without. Here's an abbreviated list, I'm open to offers:

• Nikon D2X Camera Body- Well used but in perfect working order.
• Nikkor AF-S 17-55mm 1:2.8G ED Zoom with Shade
• Nikkor AF 35-105mm. 1:3.5-4.5 D Zoom 
• Sinar F 4x5 View Camera (Front & Rear Standards, Ground Glass, Rail & Tripod Mount, Bellows
• Bessler 45MXT Enlarger w/ 3 lenses , film holders
• Loersch Auto Slide Mounter with 2-Line Imprinter & almost a case of plastic mounts (Perfect Condition)
• Lots of Darkroom Gear... processing equipment... stainless tanks, reels, print washers, trays (8x10, 11x14, 16x20), thermometers, measuring containers, boxes of glassines (35mm. & 120)
• Wood/Fiberglass Darkroom Sink roughly 6' long- 3'wide with stand & shelf

I'm sure there's other stuff I will come across as the exit day moves closer. You can email me to make an appointment to come & have a look:

photoho@hawaiiantel.net 

A Bakers Half-Dozen

This morning's mission - full assault on the local bakery. Telling their story visually was an easy task when I'm surround by the smells of yeasty breads, pastries, and other delightful confections providing the internal inspiration. Staying out of their way as they busily prepared the day's goods was the hard part...

Finally! New Website Completed!

After over a month of daily effort, I'm happy to say that the new website update and galleries are, for all practical purposes, complete. At least complete for the time being... it's always an ongoing process trying to stay fresh and keep the best of the newest work up and on display.

A few screen shots: 

Opening/Home Page:

Architecture Gallery:        

                                                           

Interior Design:

                                                     

Food: 

                                               

And More Food:  

Lifestyle:  

Portrait:

                                           

Music:

            

Product/Still Life/Table Top:

  

Travel:   

                     

      

You can see the whole new site here: http://www.tonynovak-clifford.com   

Comments & feedback are most welcome.

Now it's on to getting the print folio printed and lashed together...

                                                                               

Monday, March 12

M dropped 'round the studio of friday to lend her curator's eye to new website layouts, offering several suggestions for pairings of verticals that made very good sense. Work continues getting together & uploading the last of the new images & layouts and with any luck at all, will be completed today. Took an afternoon meeting with CD @ InfoGrafik to determine a scheme & course of action for a new client's website. Shooting begins this afternoon... Scott & Don dropped by late in the afternoon to borrow the kit of focusing fresnels for a weekend video project.


Wet, chilly & windy weather kept us indoors for much of the weekend, 'cept for a short little gig in town on saturday morning. Artist & inspirator Tom Faught & his lovely bride dropped by the homestead for dinner later that evening. Spinach Salad w/ warm bacon dressing and a pasta made of caramelized onions, garlic, lemon juice, braised chard & roasted pine nuts were served up along with a couple of nice Pinots. Several pressing world problems were solved during the meal. 

Sunday brought drier weather though winds persisted. Best part of the day is the morning walk with Chester & members of the Giggle Hill Canine Social Club though many of the other usual suspects remained absent. Chester didn't mind at all...


After a short afternoon nap, a hearty pot of stew was lashed together & left to simmer as Chester & I took advantage of the dry skies and headed back down the hill for a late afternoon walk amongst picnickers and families enjoying the playgrounds and afternoon sunshine.


Rain & winds have returned this morning. Just as well, really... there's still plenty of indoor work to fill the working hours before today's shoot.

Agencies Share many Of the Same Issues We Do When Pitching Work...

Fantastic read this morning on the issues faced by Ad Agencies when pitching work to clients... it seems many overlap with the issues we face when pitching ourselves and our work to them... loss of IP, budget concerns, clients not understanding our business models, inordinate amounts of useless paperwork, RFP requests & fulfillment.


Of special note in the article are ideas that creatives & clients are entering a partnership, aiming for the start of a long & mutually beneficial relationship... 


I would encourage agencies to remember these very same points when it comes to dealing with the freelancers... we, too, wish to work together, form partnerships and provide work that is beneficial to not only the client, but to the agency brand and to our own businesses. 


Read it here: 

10 Ways To Fix The Agency Pitch Process

Paula Lerner 1960-2012

Being that today is International Women's Day it seems only fitting to mark the loss of Boston-based photojournalist Paula Lerner,  a tireless advocate for women everywhere and especially for the women of Afghanistan, tireless advocate for working photographers, founding member and former president of the Editorial Photographers group.


Though I didn't know her well, I had the opportunity to spend a few days meeting, talking & working with Paula many years ago. She was a close friend of my original mentor, Steven Minkowski. At the time of his untimely death, it was I who was handed the task of calling Paula in Boston to pass on the news. We've sporadically kept in touch over the years and I have followed her career ever since our first encounter. I remember seeing her images of Rwandan refugee camps on the cover of PDN a few years back and calling her to congratulate her. I watched with glee when she was awarded an Emmy for her work on the film Behind the Veil: An Intimate Journey Into the Lives of Kandahar's Women. From the moment I first met Paula, I knew I had encountered not only a new colleague & friend in an ego-driven industry, but a powerhouse of a woman passionate about her craft, an advocate for the things I hold near & dear about this industry and about life in general. During the couple of days we worked together, we laughed, we sweat and I came away from the experience so much richer for having had the opportunity to meet Paula, her trusty Leica always at the ready.


She was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. After initial treatment & surgery, Paula was able to return to a somewhat normal life until it was discovered that the disease had metastasised to her bones and eventually her organs. Paula left us on Tuesday. The world and the photographic industry are a better place for having had her during her all too brief life. Our thoughts & prayers go out to her family and friends.


Aloha Paula...

Steady Progress - Lessons Learned - Upcoming Exhibition

Work on the website & print book continue at a steady snail's pace. It's taken a solid month now of going through stacks of storage drives to search for fresh work to show... a serious review of the hits, near-misses, even the epic fails. Images have now been selected and work on the website is now roughly two-thirds complete. A few more images to edit, put together in some way that makes visual and/or thematic sense or resize for consistency, a new bio to invent and then we can move on the the print book... another monumental task of printing and assemblage. 


At this rate, the book ought to be ready by this time next year. Ha!


It's been years since I've gone thru the amassed work with such a critical eye and overall, the exercise has been instructional, educational and at times grueling. Two lessons have come from the experience so far:


One: For many years I was, let's just say, less than comfortable with photographing people. I don't know the reason for this other than sometimes felt as though I was imposing upon their person or taking something from them. There were even times when I felt as though I was simply using them as a means to tell my own story or to illustrate an idea that really had little to do with them at all. As I have dug through the work, I was quite happy to find portraits & lifestyle images of which I am very proud. In most cases (there are a few occasions where the subject might have felt otherwise), I believe I portrayed them all in a flattering light, sometimes hitting heroic notes and once in a while even revealing a little something about their personality through the photographs.


Two: Here comes the "critical eye" part... a signature style seems to elude me still. I'm the poster boy for ADHD... Attention Deficit Syndrome. Once I've done something one way, I am eager to move on & try doing it some other way, whether it's a style of lighting, a method of composition... I bore easily and wish to challenge myself constantly with attempts at something maybe I haven't tried before. I see so much workout there from colleagues I admire and both consciously and unconsciously attempt to emulate. If I were working in some major center or metropolitan area like LA or New York, I would imagine this might be the kiss of death to one's career. Fortunately, here in Hawaii, if one is working the the commercial & editorial realm, being a generalist and proficient at several methods of working and subject matter seems to work. Obviously, the best earning types of work here center around the resort & travel markets, high end architecture & interior design and the watersports industry. One day, it's hotel rooms & lobbies, the next day - food & beverage work with an occasional celebrity, rock star or other person of note's portraiture thrown into the mix from time to time... these are commercial assignments in most cases and for many years they have sustained me. Editorial work in this state pays very little (with a couple of notable exceptions) with fewer & fewer print publications of quality out there to display work, let alone attempt to derive any sort of meaningful income from. Fortunately, an interest in all that Hawaii has to offer remains in publications around the world. Most of these pubs offer fair compensation & usage terms, so my marketing efforts are more targeted there as far as editorial work is concerned.


There's the opportunity to also produce and sometimes exhibit personal work here in the state. I am fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to exhibit in a couple of galleries over the years and have just been offered the opportunity the hang work in a new gallery opening on the South Shore in the next week or two... check here for updates on this soon. The other artists showing work here do really great work but I can't reveal the details just yet. Stay tuned...


And, the island's most prestigious juried exhibition is just around the corner. ART MAUI 2012 will be receiving works for jurying next Thursday, March 15, and the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Schaefer International Gallery between the hours of 9:00-5:00. Artists are able to submit up to two works of art created during the past two years. Entry fees are $20 per submission. This years jurist is the distinguished Tom Klobe, professor & founding director of the University of Hawaii Art Gallery. There are a few changes to this year's entry rules so be sure to read the Prospectus.


I have been fortunate enough to have had work selected for the past two years and have two submissions ready for entry to this year's show. Both images were culled from my trip to Java, Indonesia back in December. In fact, my framer just called to inform me that the prints were ready for me to sign the mats and pick up... a week before the deadline. I will take this as an auspicious sign for my chances at being accepted this year.


See you on receiving day and, hopefully, at the artist's reception prior to the show's opening. Good luck to all entrants!


Now, back to the website...