Photo Exhibition at Vane's

We will be holding our fourth Photography Exhibition and Sale hosted by my lovely niece Vanesa Romero. There's always high hopes and good expectations when we do this exhibitions that some frames will find a home in some body's wall, but even if they don't we still get the chance to get together as a family and have a great time.

Do wish us luck as we know money is tight and everyone is holding on to it like dear life, but still so far we have made a few sales and so far they have all been profitable. I continue to learn and to explore different ways to market our frames. Sooner or later we'll come out of this bad economy and customers will come knocking for some cool original photographic art... OK, that is just some wishful thinking, but hey there's nothing wrong with that.

The Stream

The Stream
Buena Park, California
Image captured by: James Duckworth
Frame Size: 27 X 21
Image Size: 17 X 12
Brown Frame
Light Blue Mat
$70.00 + shipping & handling
Click on image to enlarge

This is one of our larger frames. I wanted to experiment with the biggest picture you can print and pick up on location. Anything bigger than this would have to be ordered through the Internet and lots of shipping and handling charges would apply. Therefore we want to stay away from that kind of expense at lest for now.

In any case when we picked up this from our framer we couldn't be happier. The size was perfect, the mat we chose complemented the image very nicely and so far everyone that has seen it really likes it. I am sure it won't last too long in my stock.

Puppy

I took some of my frames to work so that some of my friends could see them. Their feedback was 100% positive, and their suggestions were noted. The next day one of them sent me three jpegs of her little dog playing by the food bowl. Actually in one of the images the dog was totally inside the bowl, it was so curled that you really couldn't make it up, a second jpeg was nice but blurry, the last of the three was really cute except I didn't like the colors. It was mostly brown and kindda blah.

So I sent the jpegs to my daughter Nikki and asked her to play with them. She gave me a sepia image, and a black and white image, immediately I noticed that the black and white looked a lot better and cleaner however the background was still bugging me. So I asked Nikki to blur out the background a little bit.

She sent me the jpeg with the changes I requested and I was pretty happy with it. I had a 5 X & print developed, went and bought a nice but simple black frame and a white border and as a surprised I presented it to her.

She wasn't expecting it so I think she was really surprised and amazed at how nice it looked. I thought so too and I was glad she liked it.

Ex Convento Dominico de la Natividad

Ex-Dominique Convent of the Nativity
Tepoztlan Morelos, Mexico
Image captured by: Jose Melo
Frame Size: 14 X 18
Image Size: 11 X 14
Black Frame
White Mat
$40.00 + shipping & handling
Click on image to enlarge

Rising above most of Tepoztlán's buildings is the buttressed Ex-Convento Dominico de la Natividad. The former convent, dating from the mid-16th century, has a facade adorned with icons dating from before the introduction of Christianity. Many of the walls, especially on the ground floor, have fragments of old paintings in earthen tones on the walls and decorating the arches. It is worth a visit just to see the building, which also houses temporary exhibitions and a complete bookstore with a good selection of books, CDs, and videos.

Text borroed from the Internet. Fodor's

We had done a different take of this beautiful ex-convent, now a church and dubbed it "The Castle". I decided to do this one because I thought that showing the facade only complete with it's colors would be an attractive piece. I was not wrong, the very next day I put this together it sold. Another favorite of many for sure.

Exhibition at Elena's

And so we continue to learn while we also collect feedback. We got to my sister's at around 4:30 pm and started to set up the frames. Michelle and I arranged the as best as possible and we even got three existing nails on the wall that we could use for the bigger frames.

At the same time, mu chica and my sister did all the finger foods, mi chica had taken a salsa from home and my sister did a second salsa. How two green salsas can taste so different is beyond me, but they did. Mi chica decided to use orange in her salsa (Did any of you that tried it know that?). My sister Elena is known for her great salsas among other things then she went one step further and made "rajas con cebolla y crema" and used the blender to puree them creating a great tasting chilli dip. Mmmm it was awesome, or should I say, "Que rico"!


Finger foods and chips and salsa, delicious!

Two of my sisters friends showed up and it was fun explaining to them about the images in those frames. One of the two told me where each picture was taken before I even told her. She is just that knowledgeable about places in Arizona. They also told me we should be displaying these works at the fairs and street bazaars, something I am interested in doing except my average of 17 to 20 frames is not enough for that, we really need to have at least 50 pieces in order to offer variety.

We will also be offering prints only. Prints by themselves can make a good profit but would have to sell a lot of them to see the difference, I believe that for many the hard part is getting a frame that compliments the image and put it together. I have already heard the "I have some very nice pictures at home and want to see them framed but don't know how to go about it" line. Some people rather pay to have their keepsakes framed.


Luckily my sister has a huge table and with the two extra additions it was more than enough.

So far we have made it a habit to come up with a frame to offer our host or hostess. From day one, my sister fell in love with this piece and really wanted it, except she had bought other pieces already so it was our pleasure to present her with it. I know she was really happy to receive it and it will be a great addition to her growing collection.

Thank you Elena, not only have you supported us from the beginning but your comments and your input is greatly appreciated. I am lucky to have you as a sister and you must know I love you a lot.

Maybe the 115 degree heat we are having here these days made some people stay home. I for one don't blame them but after all was said and done I did sell three frames for a total of $105.00 and some bowed to buy one later. The overall consensus is that they all love the frames, they like the images in them, and we continue to receive motivation to keep going.

The next show God providing will be late August or early September in California. My sister Chely tells me she is already working on advertising it as she will be my next host. Obviously traveling to California will have to double as vacation time so I am really looking forward to that one.

Then They Find a Home

Here's another of our frames that has found a home. In a little office setting, between a bookshelf and a computer hutch rests one of the first frames we did which we named "The Castle".

It's actually an ex-convent in the small town of Tepoztlan or Tepoz as the locals call it in the state of Morelos, Mexico.

It's very rewarding to put these frames together but even more rewarding to see them finding a wall in a home to be displayed and enjoyed.

CLICK HERE! for the story on that frame.

Our Third Photo Exhibit

I am proud to announce that this coming Saturday will be our third Photo Exhibition and sale. This time my sister Elena has graciously accepted to be the host.

So far it's been a good experience to put our work out there on display for our friends to see. I always enjoy taking pictures but really didn't know what to do with them. For three years I've been displaying them in my "Arizona... But it's a dry heat" blog and have received hundreds of good comments.

Now by selecting some of those images and putting them on frames, it's a good way to share them with all of you. What a rewarding feeling to see some of our frames finding their place on your walls.

For Saturday's exhibit we chose a Mexican motif. Why my daughter chose "mortys" for the invitation is beyond me but I liked it. Wish us luck, I'll let you all know how things went on a future post.

Flying with the Pope.

This is a friend of ours that spent many years flying for a well known Mexican airline as a flying attendant. It was in one of his many flights that the Pope and his court happened to be the passengers. Obviously he was not going to pass up the opportunity to take a picture with the Pope. This image, definitely one worth displaying. I really enjoyed putting this one together.


My sister took a picture of believe it or not another picture that was already in a frame, she had the jpeg for a while and really didn't know what to do with it. She wanted to get it cleaned a little to maybe have a print done so she could keep it. When she mentioned this to me I asked her to email me the image and that I would have my associates take a look at it and to perhaps have something done to it.

I sent the jpeg to Nikki and asked her if she could clean it up. She looked at it and told me that since the resolution wasn't the best there was only so much she could do with it but since she was about to graduate I would have to wait.

Well, she now has graduated and as promised as soon as she had a chance she got to work on it. She cropped it to completely eliminate the pieces of frame showing, then she brighten it a little but the real magic was in the way she almost made the flash glare disappear. If you look where the hands are touching that's the only reflection left of the flash. The final result is the illusion of electricity being passed from one hand to the other. After all he was the Pope and him possibly a pauper.

I called her and told her the picture was ready so I took it down for her to see, then I asked her if she wanted to keep it she could, she said to please finish it up by putting it in a frame. I was up to the challenge so off I went to our local arts and crafts store after a few minutes I found the perfect frame for it and after trying every mat color in the racks I decided for the one you see here. I think the final result is outstanding, possibly one of the best frames I've done to date.

I have a friend at work that after seeing the frames has asked me if I can frame a picture for her too. And so the services we provide expand. I am just thrilled to see that what we are doing is so well received.