Geez Folks
Holy Moly....
I didn't expect that many nice comments!
The day got more interesting. I was off today (yes Frank, mentally as well as physically) and I was driving to meet the folks at the Audubon offices here in MA. On the way, they called and said they were looking through my pbase stuff and found another piece that they wanted to use and was wondering if I could go home and burn them a high resolution CD file, which I of course did.
Once I arrived, the girl I'm dealing with strongly suggested that I go see a friend of hers who owns a local gallery and show her my work.
When I went to meet her gallery owner friend, she was very business like and asked to see my portfolio. I had brought three books, all printed 14 x 10 or 15 x 11 on 13 x 19 stock and she flipped through every page rather silently without commenting on anything.....so at this point, Jeannie is looking at me and I think we're both figuring that this woman is gonna comment that nobody likes landscape and wildlife photos.
When she finished, she looked up at my wife and I and tells me that she honestly feels that my images ARE TOO GOOD FOR A GALLERY but that she's be honored to feature me as a wildlife photographer as long as I promised not to hook up or show at another gallery in her town for the next 12 months. She then advised that their typical commission is 40% but that if I'd agree to show there, they'd cut the % to 25% as she feels I could develop a following and actually draw folks to her gallery!
On top of that, she is setting up a one week featured show of my works, two weeks before Christmas which is her biggest time of the year and asked that I have at least 25 framed pieces there at 16 x 20 overall as a minimum size and that I should have at least 50 pieces matted for sale.
Get this...she's even going to set up a guitar player for my reception dates and the gallery will provide "the food"?????
I walked out happy...a bit overwhelmed...and very thankful that she hasn't seen Reznicks stuff!!!!!
I had forgotten to ask her opinion of how I should price my items so I called when I got home. I told her that as she would get 25% of the gross, that I'd like to price the larger pieces at $300 as I figured I'd gross $225 each and after the materials costs for the framing / matting which I'll do myself, I'd make about $175 a piece. She kinda chuckled and advised that in her experience, we should start at $450 each and see how it goes.
I no sooner end the call with her and I get a call from a restaurant that adorns it's walls with featured artists for a month at a time (all of the stuff is for sale at a 20% commission) and they are asking me if they can "book me" for the month of February with winter images and then again in July 2006 with summer / fall stuff. I had never even heard of these folks so when I asked how they had heard of me....it turns out the gallery owner who I met with today called her friend the restaurant owner and suggested that he book me. He's in another area so I guess she figures it's no conflict for her. Also, I'm guessing that they feed each other artists and clients.
All of this is coming from one sunset, one owl and one blackbird image that the folks at Audubon wants to use and some folks there taking the time to actually look at some of my gallery images.
Kinda weird?
I guess I'd better get some more paper and ink cartridges for the 2200
