Internet Artisan Interview - The Photographic Aspect

OK, you're in for a treat today! Mark has to be my all-time favorite photographer, and I'm so honored he took time to respond to this interview. He has a unique way of capturing motion and color that is absolutely breathtaking. All day long, I'm surrounded by black and white images at work, in "my" archives. To come home and read Mark's blog is a real treat. If you are interested in photography yourself, you need to follow his blog and see the techniques he uses for capturing beautiful images. He has an Etsy account, but doesn't have a large stock there. You can always go by his online studio.

What's the name of your business/shop?
I came up with the name Aspect Studio about 20 years ago when I decided to start my own graphic design business. I thought it worked nicely for both design work and photography, so I have been using that ever since for both.

Do you have a registered domain name and/or a blog (urls, if available)?
My website is www.AspectStudioPhotography.net, with portfolio galleries and purchase info, and I have been writing a blog, "The Photographic Aspect" at aspectstudiophoto.blogspot.com for nearly a year. That has been a great project, because it allows me to examine my own motivations and thought processes, while at the same time getting feedback from a wide variety of viewers.

What type of handmade products do you sell?
Fine art photographic prints.


Show us a piece you recently finished

This image is from my most recent excursion (back in July) to Arizona. I already posted it on my blog recently, but maybe the readership here is a bit different than over at my place and I think it's one of my best from that trip. I haven't printed it full size yet, but it will probably be the first from that group to be printed and framed for sale as soon as I can get to it, in the next few weeks.

What are you working on right now? Any sketches?
Photography is really a multi-step process: traveling and shooting, followed by processing and ultimately, printing. I like to go back to shots I made months or even years ago and rework ones that I wasn't quite happy with, and often find new interest in ones that I completely passed over first time around. So I'm constantly working on something, even if it's just researching and planning a future trip, or something like printing greeting cards on scraps of photo paper.

If you have a website or blog, what do you use for advertising? What do your avatars look like?
Well, marketing my website was the original motivation to start up a blog, but then that in turn needs to be promoted, doesn't it? Fortunately there are quite a few tools for that and one of the most important is just visiting other people's sites and leaving your "footprint" in as many places as possible. I'm certainly not as good at it as many others, being limited in both time and energy while trying to run a business. Among all the blog directories out there, my favorite by far is BlogCatalog.. it's very useful for finding and communicating with other bloggers and being able to see who is visiting your site. I have been with EntreCard since I started the blog also.. I think quite a few readers have found me through that site and I like the proactive concept of it, but there are some things recently, especially with the paid ads and changes to the credit system that I don't like about it, too. I haven't been spending much time over there recently.

If you have a website or blog, tell us about your favorite widget.
I think the networking widgets like Friend Connect and BlogCatalog are very useful.. you can see who's been visiting and reading. I try not to go overboard with too much of that stuff in my layout; I don't like clutter and they really start to slow the site down when you get too many. I have actually stopped visiting a few blogs just because they take forever to load, with all the ad links, widgets and animations.


Which online selling vendors do you use? What do you like best about each one?
I do have a spot on Etsy, because with them you produce and ship your own work and they just facilitate the sale... but I haven't put much effort into promoting my presence there. The flood of art marketing websites and millions of artists promoting their work is making it very hard for anyone to stand out in the online environment, isn't it? Getting actual prints in front of people's eyes, in person, where they can see and feel the quality is the only thing that really works for me. I don't like sites like ImageKind or Red Bubble that just use your artwork to sell their products. If anyone is selling well under that type of system, I am happy for them, but that's just not my goal right now. I prefer to produce my own prints, and sell them directly.

Are you involved in social networking? What's your favorite and why? If you're not involved, you must have a good reason!
No, I've signed up for Twitter, and I think I even have a few followers, but I don't do anything with it. I already spend nine or ten hours per day working at a computer and that is enough for me. I haven't utilized Facebook or Myspace yet either.. I suppose I'll have to get into them eventually, though.

All of us can use a helpful business hint once a week. What's yours?
Try to work at something you enjoy, so that it really isn't work at all.

Do you have a "modus operandi" for computing the price of a handmade object? Tell us your formula?
Mostly I look at what other work that I feel equivalent to mine is selling for in local galleries or on the web... and try to stay in that range. Of course, there are a lot of variables with photography... size, matting, framing and all that, so I have quite a wide price range depending on the presentation.

We'd love to see your little corner of the world, where you create.
The answer to that is to look at my photos! It's much different than being a studio artist or designer... When I'm out shooting, I get to experience some of the most amazing, beautiful and isolated locations anyone could imagine. It's one of the true benefits of landscape photography that I need to make that effort to get out and find places that I would never otherwise see, if I wasn't so compelled to photograph them. Of course I have a work space where I do mounting/matting/framing and store my framed pieces... I guess I could show you a picture of my desk and computer, but neither would be very interesting.

Where do you see your artwork in one year? Any plans in the works?
Of course I'm constantly trying to add to my body of work and expand my audience. I plan to eventually run my own gallery, selling my work along with some complementary work by other artists/crafters; probably in the little mountain village of Idyllwild, CA where my wife and I have a home that we built back around 2000/2001. It's a very "arts-friendly" location, with lots of creative people and we plan to live there full time in the near future. In this current economic climate though, I'm very happy just to be making a living from doing commercial work, which allows me to pursue my photographic art at a comfortable pace and not have to worry every day if I sold something or not.

OK, it’s the storybeader’s turn to pick a favorite. This is very hard for me, because I love so many of them. Here’s one of the first images I saw that Mark had taken. Titled “Fall Saplings” from Utah , 2007.


Posted for the EtsyBloggers team by: storybeader.etsy.com

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Mini Monday Feature- Gallery 32

I love getting a glimpse of where the art comes from on Etsy. The profile page of the shop is a great place to start. The profile page is a place where each artist can introduce themselves, explain their background and training and let you know why they bring all their efforts to you in a shop online. The profile page of Gallery 32 by Trina does all these things. Read it yourself below.

I have always had a passion for art. When I was a child my Grandma encouraged me by teaching me how to sew, embroider and paint watercolors. These experiences still influence my work in the form of color, shape, and line. When I went off to college I decided that painting would be my major and I graduated with a BFA from the University of Kansas.

Lately I have been making photographs, which has always been something I enjoy doing. I decided to make an image a day so I started my '365 Project' on my blog. It is my way to share my daily thoughts and images.I have never been much into keeping a sketchbook. I find it a boring activity that doesn't work for me. However, I enjoy writing about my process on my blog and I think it has really helped me grow as an artist.

Painting has definitely influenced my photography in the way that I compose images in the frame. I like to include abstract images and I use Photoshop and ArtRage to make my images more painterly. My goal is to show my version of the world. I try to photograph the simple scenes in life that maybe get overlooked in our daily lives. I now feel that my work, painting and photography, are influencing each other and I am enjoying the journey exploring the world.

You can go along on her journey by taking a look at the offerings in her shop. You can keep current on this artist and her life by following her blog, Gallery 32, The View From My Lens.

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Mini Monday for Gallery 32

Welcome to the world of Gallery 32. The Gallery 32 shop on Etsy if filled with images of the state where I was born, Kansas. The images you find here can be soft but stunning. I am particularly drawn to the flower images that have been manipulated into paintings. Being the dreary snowy winter that it has been so for in much of the US I thought you might enjoy the beauty of the flowers too.
From the shop profile you get a hint into the life and inspiration behind the work of this artist.

I have always had a passion for art. When I was a child my Grandma encouraged me by teaching me how to sew, embroider and paint watercolors. These experiences still influence my work in the form of color, shape, and line. When I went off to college I decided that painting would be my major and I graduated with a BFA from the University of Kansas.

Much of this photographer's work is documented in her blog. She is now over 300 in her 365 project and I found it fascinating to go through the images. She explains why she decided on doing this project in the shop profile as well.

Lately I have been making photographs, which has always been something I enjoy doing. I decided to make an image a day so I started my '365 Project' on my blog. It is my way to share my daily thoughts and images.I have never been much into keeping a sketchbook. I find it a boring activity that doesn't work for me. However, I enjoy writing about my process on my blog and I think it has really helped me grow as an artist.

I love this image of being cozy in the blankets! I can imagine the cool morning waiting for the parade to come by. There is much more that you need to check out and I encourage you to do so. You can find Gallery 32 on Etsy here and the blog of this talented photographer here.