Singular Images

March 20, 2019

LACP: 24 inch wide Canon Pro-2000 printer training

Filed under: Memory pods, Photography, Workshops — Tags: , — Douglas Stockdale @ 2:06 pm

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Untitled, Memory Pods copyright 2015 Douglas Stockdale

Last night I attended the LACP (Los Angeles Center of Photography) training class in their printing laboratory to learn the basics on how to use their 24″ wide Canon Pro-2000 printer. This is a wide-format printer that is available to LACP members (small fee; time plus nominal ink use cost), but they do require that you first go through their printer training class to reduce the amount of time that the staff might need to support any users. Interesting that LACP actually has two 24″ wide Canon printers, an older one and the latest Pro-2000; seems that the older one is on the side-lines gathering dust.

My purpose for learning and using the LACP Canon Pro-2000 is two fold; I want to become more familiar with this printer as a pending investment for the studio and second, I want to use the LACP printer to create a portfolio of larger print images for the Memory Pods project pending buying my own studio printer.

The training was led by Eric Joseph, who is part of the Freestyle photo supply team and their printing specialist as well as a board member of LACP. To say that he knows a lot about printers and printing paper is an understatement.

So what were my take-aways?

First; LACP has some unique requirements for digital files for their printers; the collapsed file needs to be in either a JPEG or TIFF format and regretfully the sample file I brought with me was a PhotoShop (.psd) file). The print lab has a number of Mac’s with PhotoShop loaded, so I probably could have quickly created a new TIFF file on the spot, but content to watch the others print. Also did learn that the monitors might have been color calibrated at one time, but not maintained. Eric had created 40 printer/paper profiles for this printer, so most of the usual combinations were ready.

Two; I needed to download the Canon Print Studio Pro printer software for my Pro-1. This is also the recommended Canon printer interface recommended for the LACP print lab. So I am in the process of this task as I need to get this download into the proper PhotoShop plug-in folder. Probably more about this another day. Also evident that a good monitor and printer profile can really make a huge difference in the printed results.

Three; before I start investing in some 24″ rolls of printing paper at $140 to $200 per roll, I need to  profile the papers I am interested in for my Pro-1 and do some print testing with some less expensive 8-1/2 x 11″ sheet paper. First on my list is the Hahnemuhle PhotoRag Pearl (100% cotton rag), a Glossy FineArt paper that I used for my Middle Ground project. Eric stated that the Canon Pro-1 is a pigment ink printer but the pigment inks are not exactly the same as the Canon Pro-2000 printer, but close enough to what I achieve in my studio should appear almost exactly the same on the larger LACP printer.

Last, if I can find a space for it, Eric recommends that I purchase the Canon Pro-4000 which is the 44″ wide printer. He was preaching to the choir. I would really, really prefer purchasing a 44″ wide printer over a 24″ wide printer; but my studio is pretty small. hmmmmm, so what to do? Since I am not ready to purchase either for the next few months, a question I can continue to mull over. What I have learned is that where this is a will, there is a way; now I need to figure out the way.

About this photograph from my Memory Pods project; this is another image that was featured earlier this week in my Voyage LA magazine article. I posted another version of this same photograph with a completely different appearance. Later after showing this earlier version to a group I then had a discussion with a friend who had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and his recall experience was more about having a general “fuzziness” when trying to remember specific details. I discussed this with a couple of others who had mild TBI who talked about something similar in experience; thus a re-work of this photograph that might better visually investigate their experiences.

Cheers!

December 28, 2018

2018 End of year wrap-up

Filed under: Art, Memory pods, Middle Ground, Photography, Projects/Series, Trabuco Flats Mystery, Workshops — Douglas Stockdale @ 9:56 pm

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Loss (Memory Pods) 2016 copyright Douglas Stockdale

It’s the end of another year, so time to celebrate new friends, closer relationships, accomplishments and good times. So today I am looking back and in the next day or so, I will be looking ahead as to what I would like to accomplish for 2019.

The life of an artist also has its ups and downs, sometimes success and sometimes not. Earlier this year I wrote about dealing with stress, which for many folks goes well beyond being an artist, so worth reposting the link. I also find looking back at all of the year’s accomplishments to help keep things in perspective; life is best lived one day at a time and that living is a process of putting one foot in front of the other, whether at a crawl or a sprint. Interestingly, of the many things that went well this past year, only one or two were really anticipated, while many of the others were great opportunities that materialized and I was ready to take advantage of the situation (maybe another good post for next year; be like a Boy Scout and “be prepared”).

So Chronologically, here are some of the really nice creative things that happened this year.

Middle Ground; self-published my limited edition (E of 99) artist book last spring, which I had in development for the past year and half. I also learned about the vexing intricacies of leporello (accordion) book binding. I had not anticipated that my living room was going to be a dedicated book production area for almost two months.

Solo exhibition, gallery representation and an Artsy.net featured artist for my project/artist book Middle Ground at Fabrik Projects, Los Angeles at the end of Spring.

Book designer for Christine Kaplan’s self-published photobook On My Walk that was launched at the UCLA Health’s “Back-yard Concert” & fund-raising event during the summer.

Started another new project, Trabuco Flats, while working on my Gardening for Ordnance project when I happened upon what the OC Sheriff called a “suspicious circumstance” (what they thought looked like an old sunken shallow grave). Start of a mystery investigation. So I now have three long term projects that are on-going. Yikes.

I attended a number of Los Angeles area art and photo exhibitions, book events and art fairs meeting up with old friends while making numerous new friends and acquantances. The Jasper John’s retrospective exhibition at the (Los Angeles) Broad Museum was one of the highlights of the summer.

Provided artist talks and portfolio reviews with a number of local artist organizations, including LACP, Palos Verde Art Center PADA, and during my solo exhibition at Fabrik Projects. I also inked a book design workshop with the Medium Festive (San Diego) for next March 2019 (limited space still available).

Ended the year with the Holiday Sale exhibition at Fabrik Projects and very honored to sell the two photographs (including Loss, above). I quickly framed another edition of Loss for the gallery exhibition (I can now talk about this as it was someone’s special Christmas gift) and provided a third framed photograph that was in reserve, both of which are still available for a special price until the end of this year (yes, a couple of days from now). The sale of these two photographs from my Memory Pods project has reignited the creative flames and I have been working on this over the holidays.

For my photo book review site, The PhotoBook Journal, we had some nice accomplishments as well. This is the tenth year of publishing this book review e-zine and in conjunction with the growing editorial team, we have published over 500 contemporary artist and photo book reviews. Wow.

I am sure that I have missed something, but overall, I think it was a pretty good year and now getting ready for 2019. Yes, I did purchase some photographic equipment, such as a new (used) lens for the Hasselblad, as well a bunch of new brushes for my acyclic painting (that I resumed my interest in painting might be another subject to post for next year). More about what I would like to accomplish for 2019 in another post shortly.

Cheers!

Doug

PS (update); also realized that in 2018 in conjunction with Gerhard Clausing, we started to curate a series of on-line exhibitions with the Photographers Exchange, a group of photographers who meet monthly at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA. I curated three on-line exhibitions for 2018 and I will have another, “Water & Ice“, in early January 2019. We are planning to continue this series through 2019 and probably beyond.

below: cover of Middle Ground (Note: copies of this artist book edition are still available)

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December 18, 2018

Book workshop with Medium Festival – revised dates & special Discount available

Filed under: Art, Photobook, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 9:35 pm

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Guide book-dummy, 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

First; my Developing a Creative Photo Book workshop dates for Medium have been changed to March 23 & 24th, 2017. Thus the workshop has moved to bit later, one weekend exactly, from what I had announced last month. This should still be a wonderful spring weekend to spend in San Diego having some creative and intense fun to help you move your artist book forward. You will have a chance to spend some quality time at our destination hotel for this event: Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club in San Diego.

Second, if you act fast and register before December 25th, 2018, you can obtain a 15% discount! Okay, actually you can obtain a 15% discount for any of the four 2019 workshops, including mine, being provided by the Medium Festival, which include Susan Burnstine’s “Developing the Personal Narrative”, Brandon Thobodeaux’s “Bridging Fine Art & Commercial Photography” and scott b. davis’s “Advance Platinum/Palladium Printing”. good stuff!

As a reminder about my workshop: The goal of this workshop is to discuss each photographer’s vision, mission and objectives for the publication of a photographic project and then to gain an understanding of how these conceptual aspects translate into a book object. Fundamental to the book development process is learning aspects of the editing, sequencing of the body of photographs and in the context of a book design to shape and narrate a story. The purpose of this workshop is to provide photographers with the building blocks to move from a complex unorganized mass of images into a refined edit and subsequently sequence to create a pre-visualization of their book concept.

Registration and more information can be found here.

Let me know if you have any questions, and please take advantage of this holiday discount. Just saying….

Cheers!

 

November 1, 2018

Book workshop with Medium Festival of Photography

Filed under: Art Market, Books, Photobook, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 9:07 pm

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Guide book dummy, 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale

I am very excited to announce that I will be providing my Photo Book Design Workshop in conjunction with the Medium Festival of Photography next March 23 & 24th (rescheduled, was 16 and 17th), 2019. This two day workshop will take place in San Diego at the Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club. A great location to be in March.

You can register now at: https://www.mediumsandiego.org/developing-a-creative-photo-book/

This two-day Workshop is an opportunity for artists and photographers currently working on or planning to start a project that will result in a book publication. Whether you plan to make book submissions to a publisher or self-publish your artist book, this workshop is meant to help you create a book that meets your vision.

The goal of this workshop is to discuss each photographer’s vision, mission and objectives for the publication of a photographic project and then to gain an understanding of how these conceptual aspects translate into a book object. Fundamental to the book development process is learning aspects of the editing, sequencing of the body of photographs and in the context of a book design to shape and narrate a story. The purpose of this workshop is to provide photographers with the building blocks to move from a complex unorganized mass of images into a refined edit and subsequently sequence to create a pre-visualization of their book concept.

I hope you can join me for a fun and intense two days learning the basics of book development and how this will help you move your project forward. Likewise, the editing and sequencing methodology you will learn is equally applicable to creating a strong review portfolio or organizing a gallery submission.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers!

 

September 12, 2018

Introduction to PhotoBook Design – October LACP workshop

Filed under: Art, Art Market, Books, Photobook, Workshops — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 4:36 pm

Introduction to Photo Book Design with Douglas Stockdale (Two sessions)

Introduction to Photo Book Design workshop

Los Angeles Center for Photography

Next month, October 7th and 14th, I will be repeating my popular two-day workshop in conjunction with the Los Angeles Center for Photograph (LACP). This workshop focuses on the fundamental development of a book; understanding the artists intent and how that then translates into a book object in the editing, sequencing and layout of the book supported by the book’s design attributes.

The two-day goal of the workshop is for each person to leave with a first rough draft of their book dummy of their personal photographic project. I will provide both creative and practical book design options and project critiques to help those attending to move their book publication forward.

After a morning of studying limited edition artists’ books, trade books and zines, the remainder of the first morning will be spent understanding each artist/photographers publishing objectives. Subsequently I will include discussions on the elements of book design, essence of project editing, image editing and sequencing, the purpose of a physical book-dummy, concluding with a hands-on fabrication of a saddle-stitch dummy book/zine.

The second session delves further into the book dummy development and includes discussions about the business elements of (self/indie) publishing a book, critical book production elements and making a publisher submission. The remainder of the day students will continue working on the development of their dummy book as a collaborative project as well as some one-on-one time with each participant.

The feedback I have received over the years is this workshop has been critical to many artist and photographers for their publishing success; helping provide clarity on their project and providing creative book design options. So whether you are developing your very first book or your book project is one of many, I think you will find our time together to be really inspiring.

I hope you can join me for this fun and yet intensive workshop.

This workshop is being held at the LACP facilities: 1515 Wilcox Ave, Los Angeles, CA

Let me know if you have any questions,

Cheers!

 

June 15, 2018

Portfolio Review for LACP’s EXPOSURES 2018

Filed under: Art Market, Photography, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 3:58 am

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Douglas Stockdale, portfolio reviewer, EXPOSURES 2017, Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP)

I am very honored to again to join the LACP portfolio reviewer team during EXPOSURES 2018 this July. I will be on-site providing portfolio reviews for both Saturday and Sunday this year. Similar to last year, my emphasis will be on photographic projects, editing and sequencing photographs and of course, assisting those who have a strong interest in publishing their work.

Registration is now open for the portfolio reviewers and the workshops.

EXPOSURES 2018 event: Friday – Sunday, July 20 – 22, 2018 at the Holtel MdR in Marina del Rey, CA (near the LAX airport in Los Angeles)

The Portfolio Review team includes (I did not include those who are already sold out): Chad Attie, Gallery Director, Eastern Star Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Sherrie Berger, Photo Consultant, Los Angeles, CA; Jonathan Blaustein, Contributor, NYTimes Lensblog and A Photo Editor; Kyle Bradley, CEO/Founder, Nava Print Studio, Chicago, IL; Susan Burnstine, Contributor, B+W Magazine (UK); Marisa Caicholo, Founder/Curator of Building Bridges Art Exchange, Los Angeles, CA; Catherine Couturier, Owner/Director, Catherine Couturier Gallery, Houston, TX; Chris Davies, Founder/Director, Fabrik Projects Gallery and Photo Independent, Los Angeles, CA; Michael Dawson, Owner, Michael Dawson Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Crista Dix, Founder/Director, Wallspace Creative, Santa Barbara, CA; Christy Havranek, Photo Director, Huffington Post;
Virginia Heckert, Curator, Department of Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA – (Almost SOLD OUT); Anne Kelly, Gallery Director, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; Randi Kreeft, Gallery Director, the Loft at Liz’s Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Dhyandra Lawson, Curatorial Asst., Department of Photography, LA County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Douglas Marshall, Independent Curator/Appraiser; Kristina Newhouse, Curator, University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA; Cindy Rowe, Art Producer, Saatchi & Saatchi, Torrance, CA; Aimee Santos, Editorial Picture Editor, Shutterstock; Cheyanne Sauter, Executive Director, Art Share LA, Los Angeles, CA; Hannah Sloan, Founder/Director Sloan Projects; Sybylla Smith, International Curator, Educator and Consultant; Aline Smithson, Founder/Editor, Lenscratch – (Almost SOLD OUT); Mackenzie Stevens, Curatorial Assistant, Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA – (Almost SOLD OUT); Yessica Torres, Curator, Dab Art, Ventura, CA & of course, me: Douglas Stockdale, Founder/Editor, The Photo Book Journal.

Also some cool workshops, including:

Friday, July 20

10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Workshop – Now What? Re-energizing Your Photography Career with Aline Smithson
10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Seminar – Steps to Success for Photographers with Sherrie Berger
02:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Seminar – The Business of Gallery Representation with Crista Dix

Saturday, July 21

09:30 am – 5:00 pm – Workshop – Concept Aware: Enhance Your Creative Practice with Sybylla Smith
10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Seminar – Fine Art Digital Printmaking: Why and How with Cheryl Kelleher Walsh & Eric Joseph
02:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Seminar – Untangling The Web of Social Media with Paul-Michael Carr

Sunday, July 22

09:30 am – 5:00 pm – Workshop – Pushing Your Work Forward with Jonathan Blaustein
09:30 am – 1:30 pm – Workshop – Street Shooting on Venice Beach with Julia Dean 
01:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Workshop – A to Z Grantwriting with Linda Vallejo

So let me know if you have any questions, otherwise, see you there!

Cheers,

Doug

 

March 3, 2018

Photo Book as Art – Artist talk at PADA

Filed under: Art, Middle Ground, Photography, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 8:35 pm

02-28-18 Stockdale during Photo Book Presentation for PADA by Karen Schuenemann

Douglas Stockdale’s Photo Book Presentation all photos by Karen Schuenemann

I think that my Photo Book as Art presentation that I had announced earlier was a pretty good success judging by the interaction, questions and follow-on inquires about the various aspects of book design and publishing. This artist talk was for the Photography and Digital Arts (PADA), a group of the Palos Verdes Art Center (PVAC).

I curated a small pop-up exhibition of a diverse selection of international photo books that have been recognized by the contemporary photo book community as having artistic merit. This included Mariela Sancari’s self-published Moises (one of the best photobooks of 2016), Claire Felicie’s self-published Only the Sky Remains Untouched (second place, Photo Independent’s International Photo Book Competition), Ellen Korth’s self-published CHARKOW (winner, Photo Independent’s International Photo Book Competition), Roger Ballen’s Ballenesque and The Theatre of Apparitions, Max Pam’s Ramadan in Yemen, Kate Nolan’s Neither, Andrej Lamut’s Nokturno, Renee Jacobs’s Slow Burn (limited edition version) Tymon Markowski’s self-published Flow, Harvey Benge’s Home Town Dream, Matej Sitar’s self-published America, My Way and Nancy Rexroth’s IOWA. I also shared by Blurb book dummy In Passing and introduced my photobook Middle Ground to illustrate the development of a hands-on book dummy, which I had all three versions of Middle Ground (see blow).

My self-published Guide to Self-Publishing an Indie Photo Book and a copy of LensWork #74, that includes my In Passing portfolio, were included in the raffle for those who attended at the end of my presentation.

Again, I appreciated the great hospitality (yummy snacks and adult beverages) and warm welcome for my artist talk. That I also sold a couple of my books was a nice and unexpected bonus. A great photographic group to consider if you live in the greater South Bay region of Southern California. Thank you PADA!

Cheers

02-28-18 Stockdale Photo Book Presentation for PADA by Karen Schuenemann

October 10, 2017

Intro to Photo Book Design workshop outline – Third Edition pending

Filed under: Art Market, Photography, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , — Douglas Stockdale @ 11:45 pm

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Red lines, Workshop outline, Second Edition, 2017 Douglas Stockdale

As I stated in an earlier post, in conjunction with the current workshop class, we self-published the second edition of the Workshop outline. I had really thought that this outline text was pretty well nailed-down. Alas, due to the eagle eyes of my workshop participants, Jocelyn Young, Christine Kaplan, Sarah Rooney, Alan Jacknow, Jane Szabo and Yulia Morris, I now foresee a third edition on the horizon now. Continuous Improvement!

This also underlines one of my recommendations, that regretfully waiting until the last minute to print the second edition, I did not take myself. We need another set of eyes to edit almost any text that we want to include in a self-published book. Jocelyn made a great point, although she found most of the text that needs correcting, she has issues with editing her own work. We all have this bad habit of reading what we want to see, not seeing the actual words used. Spell check can help with most items, but if I want to discuss a book launch, but typing in a book lunch is something that will not get flagged. Same for grammar.

A really big thank you for my new text editorial team! Only wish I had caught most of these before using it for the workshop. So with these fixes really to be implemented, I think it’s going to be a good idea that I have someone proof read the changes I make. Which also means not waiting until the day before to print the third edition. One of these days I am going to be looking pretty smart.

Next up is the Marketing Your Photo Book workshop in conjunction with LACP at the end of this month. I don’t think I will have a similar outline to self-publish, but highly suspect that I will have another interesting outline for the workshop participants (yes, a bit of surprise). This one-day session will greatly expand on the one-hour I spent on this during this Photo Book Design workshop. Should be another fun and practical experience.

Cheers!

Doug

 

 

October 3, 2017

Intro to Photo Book Design workshop outline – Second Edition self-published

Filed under: Art Market, Photography, Projects/Series, Workshops — Tags: , , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 10:01 pm

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Introduction to Photo Book Design workshop outline, 2017 Copyright Douglas Stockdale

In the middle of last month I wrote about updating my workshop outline for Introduction to Photo Book Design that I lead for LACP. Thus this last weekend, with the help of the workshop class, we self-published the second Edition of this awesome course outline. As expected, the workshop members enjoyed the experience and this little self-publishing task reduced a little bit the self-publishing mystery.

This Edition was of course another huge undertaking; one stiff cover with three folded sheets, thus 12 pages for the course outline. Then using the long-reach stapler (home-studio book binding equipment), each participant bound their own book. The Edition size is a whooping 18 copies. These will be signed and numbered on the last day of the workshop this coming weekend. Okay, perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek with a tiny presidential style over-statement.

One thing I had an opportunity to play with is the double-sided matte inkjet paper that is sold at Staples but made in Germany. They did not have any of the Epson double-side presentation matte in stock and having waited to the last moment to buy this, I had to improvise. This double sided paper is pretty decent, probably with a little more optical whitener, nevertheless printed nice. I can see where I am doing some experimental photo proofs, using this paper may be just fine versus using the Epson presentation matte as well as save a few bucks.

Biggest headache for the day was trying to get the double sided ink jet paper to feed through my Epson desktop printer/copier (Workforce WF-7620). The Staples paper weight of 170 g/m2 is only slightly heavier than the Epson’s 165 g/m2, so not sure what the deal was. I was using my Epson 4800 to print the image on the front outside cover and then the Epson desktop to print the copy. So I had to revert back to using the Epson 4800 to print the cover’s inside and outside copy, but even then the paper was a bit touchy going through the Epson printer three times. I now have a work around to run the paper through twice, so that should help when preparing for the next workshop.

I have found a couple of typos in the second edition, so I will see if this little self-published booklet evolves into a third edition. Ought to be making the 12 copies of the first edition all that more valuable!

Having developed the course outline earlier this year, then as editor/proof-reader for Eanne’s Self-publishing Guide, all of which came together when I wrote my Guide to Self-Publishing an Indie Artist Book. My Guide appears to be on target for release at Medium in San Diego at the end of this month.

Cheers!

 

October 2, 2017

L.A. Street photography last weekend

Filed under: Photography, Workshops — Tags: , , — Douglas Stockdale @ 11:14 pm

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Los Angeles street graffiti 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale 

While in Los Angeles this weekend to lead my Intro to Photo Book Design workshop at LACP, I thought it pure serendipity that some street graffiti of a shadowy book reader would be right in my pathway. Especially after I had posting a couple of photographs on Instagram of some book readers I had come across while roaming one of the SoCal ocean beaches. I took this street-art as a really good omen.

Below are some urban landscape photographs made this same day. While I am not sure that I am a street photographer, it sure is starting to appear from my photographs that I may indeed have that inclination. So while thinking about this, I am also starting to think that my photo book Ciociaria may have a healthy part of street photography as one of it’s main ingredients, up to now I have calling a photo-documentary. Also guessing there is a lot of overlap between photo-documentary that comes about due to street photography. hmmmmm.

Cheers!

Doug

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