Archives for June 2015

June 26, 2015 by Kat

Going to Market

Do you feel uncomfortable with the idea of marketing and selling your art? If so, you are not alone. For a long time I was uncomfortable with everything around marketing and selling my art. In my mind, “marketing” was equated with someone who wouldn’t stop talking about what they were selling, and “sales” equated with a pushy salesperson who just won’t take no for an answer. But you know what? There are lots of other ways to market and sell, and there is nothing inherently wrong with selling your art.

In fact, there are a lot of wonderful things about selling your art… You connect with other people. You make them happy. You learn and grow. The beauty of selling art is that no one buys art because they HAVE to; they buy it because it makes them feel good. So when you get to the right people for your art, you have this fantastic connection that you and they wouldn’t have had otherwise, and you don’t have to push anyone to buy. They just do, because they want the feeling the art brings them.

It’s taken time, but I no longer feel “icky” about marketing and selling my art. I’ve found ways to share what I do that work for me. One of those ways is to take my art to places people are looking for it: Art Fairs and now, a shop on Etsy.

I’ll be at an art fair this weekend, Lake Oswego Art in the Park, from Friday through Sunday. I love the interaction that art fairs bring. What other way can you get a whole bunch of your work in front of a whole bunch of people, and then be there to talk with them in person about it? I’m learning to talk about my art, how I do it, what I love about it. I’m learning to engage people and ask them what they like about it, what connects for them. I learn more about them, and I learn more about myself. And, along the way, I sell some art! People hang it on the wall, they send a card with my art on it to connect with someone else, it’s all good.

And if people don’t like my art? They can walk on by. There are no hard feelings from me.

Last weekend I also opened an Etsy shop, you can find me here. I chose Etsy because I want to be where people are looking for art. Sure, I’ll have to do marketing of my shop personally, as well as learn how to best utilize the Etsy platform, but at least I’m out there where the people are looking. I have the chance to connect with people, and maybe make someone happy to have a piece of my art on their wall. If you have time… Stop by, check out the shop and become a follower. I’ll be adding new items regularly, once I get into a groove.

If I love creating my art and I love sharing my art, why in the world shouldn’t I sell my art? There is nothing wrong with making money from something you love doing, especially when you make other people happy along the way.

I’ll see you at the market!

June 23, 2015 by Kat

Creating Permanent Albums on your iPhone (Mobile Tutorial)

It’s been a long time coming, but today we cover the final installment of the File Management series of Mobile Tutorials: Creating Permanent Albums on your iPhone. In earlier installments, we covered how to transfer image files between devices, how to transfer image files from device to computer, and how to delete all of the files on your device camera roll. The only problem with deleting all the image files from your device? There may be some files you want to keep on there! Like your portfolio or your favorite images of your kids. Let’s cover how to get those back onto your device after you’ve cleared it off.

But first, an excursion through the forest, from my latest series…

Aaahhh… Don’t you feel better? I do, every morning I hike in this beautiful place! OK, back to our tutorial…

Create Folders on Your Computer

The first step to the whole process is to create a place on your computer where you will create your permanent albums. In “My Pictures” Library, I have created folders called “iPhone Sync” and “iPad Sync,” so I can have a different set of albums on each device.

Within each Sync folder, create subfolders. Each subfolder will be an album on my device, so name the folder what you want the album to be named, and copy the photos you want in that album into the subfolder on the computer.

On my iPhone, I have albums I use for teaching classes (the “Example” folders) and albums for my Portfolios (starting with “P*_”). Since the albums will show up alphabetically on my iPhone, I name them alphabetically in the order I want them.

On my iPad, I also have texture and background images acquired from other sources or created in the past. It’s nice that I always have these favorite image files available, and easy to find on my device.

Set up iTunes to Sync with your Folder

The second step is to set up iTunes to sync your chosen folder. Attach your device to your computer, open iTunes and then…

1. Select your device by clicking on the device icon.

2. In the Settings menu on the left menu bar, select Photos.

3. Check the box to Sync Photos.

4. Select your Sync folder.

5. Click the radio button next to All folders, so that all of the subfolders you created will be transferred as albums. You can also click the checkbox if you have videos in these folders, and videos will be included too.

Sync your Device

Sync your device, and voila! You now have permanent albums in your Photos app. Open the Photos app, select Albums at the bottom of the screen, and then scroll down. You will see the albums you created in your sync folder.

You can open these image files as you would any other image file on your Camera Roll, but you can’t save into the album or delete images from the album. If you open and edit an image, you save a new version onto the Camera Roll like normal. That’s nice, because you can’t accidentally delete these images from your device.

When you want to delete individual images or an album, delete them in the Sync folder on your computer, and then sync your device. It’s that easy!

June 21, 2015 by Kat

Days in Del Mar

Another week come and gone, five days in Del Mar went by in the blink of an eye. You think when you plan a business trip that you will have more time than you really do. But between early meetings and late dinners, there was very little free time. So much for taking advantage of staying near the beach! That’s why it’s called a “business trip” and not a vacation, I suppose.

I did get a couple of morning walks in on the foggy beach…

I had one beautiful evening…

And managed to get a quick stop in at the San Diego Museum of Art. A wonderful find there is the work of photographer Lalla Essaydi. These incredibly detailed, large format color prints were exquisite and intriguing in their subject matter. I encourage you to look her up and learn more.

Now I’m back home and getting back into the routine. Until Thursday, that is, when I’m off again. Stay tuned to find out where!

June 14, 2015 by Kat

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Last Sunday I left home for a technical conference in Arizona, arriving home late Wednesday evening. I enjoyed a few short days at home and then tomorrow I fly down to San Diego to work for the week. All of this travel is fun but not very conducive to writing, so I haven’t been here on the blog much.

Today I’m dropping in for a quick note to say hi and let you know what’s up in my world…

I finally caved and took my own shoe selfie on the Portland Airport’s old carpet, which is rapidly vanishing as they replace it with new carpet. If you didn’t know you this was a “thing,” then check out #pdxcarpet on Instagram. Who knew carpet could reach cult status? Of course, I had to include the pink suitcase, which goes wherever I go. Off to San Diego!!

When I’m home, I’m still getting out hiking and enjoying the forest. This year, I’ve become enamored of playing with long exposures using the Slow Shutter Cam app. I enjoy the experimental nature of slow shutter work. You play and play and once in a while something wonderful results! I love the feelings the light and lines in the forest evoke, and seek to enhance the feeling in the post-processing. I’m now working on a series of these images. They’ve given a focus to my hiking photographs, and I’m starting to explore how best to present them. Stay tuned.

My son completed middle school! My in-laws were in town the last week to attend my son’s last choir concert of the year and to be here for his 8th grade celebration. It’s always fun to have them here! Brandon is getting very teenager-looking, isn’t he? He’s very excited for high school in the fall.

Anytime my mother-in-law comes to visit, we have a decorating project to do. I can arrange things artistically once I see them in a room, but she has a knack for finding the individual elements to pull a room together. This time the project was our hallway bathroom, which has been largely undecorated for the 17 years we’ve had this house. Now it’s a cozy place, thanks to her help!

The project also involved visiting my photographic archives to find and edit a couple of images for the frames on the wall. The sandy brown color in the room reminded me of the stone in Croatia, so I chose these two photographs, from Split and Korkula respectively. I thought you might enjoy seeing them, too. If you like the processing on these I’ve created a Lightroom preset called “Croatian Stone,” which you can download here. (Word of warning: I’m still using Lightroom 4 so hopefully it will work in newer versions.)

And with that, I’m off again! I hope to share something with you from the beach in California later this week, but given my success in blogging from the road in the past, I’m not promising anything. Have a great week!

June 5, 2015 by Kat

My iPhone Photography Book is Available for Preorder!

Pond Lily Pad Green Painting Photography Kat Sloma iPhone Photography Singapore

“Lily Pond,” Featured on the Cover

No matter how far you are going on any journey, there are points where you have to pause and take in the view. This is definitely one of them for me: My book, Art with an iPhone: A Photographer’s Guide to Creating Altered Realities, is now available for preorder on Amazon!

Is that not the coolest thing? Let’s just pause and absorb that a little bit. I wrote a book. A book that is on Amazon.

I know I’ve talked about it for a good long while. I know I spent hours developing the material, organizing it, and sitting at the computer writing it. I know that I sent the manuscript off to meet the deadline several months ago… Even so, this makes it all the more real!

There is still a lot of work to do. There is editing and layout and distribution and marketing. The release date is not until January 2016. It seems so far away, but when I look at it objectively, it’s less time to go than it’s been since I started this whole adventure. And at the end there will be a real, printed book filled with my art and words I can hold in my hands. That you can hold in your hands.

Awesome!

And now, here’s where you come in… Run on over to Amazon and preorder it now, pretty please! That will help its search rankings which will help more people find it which will help me spread the love for this wonderful art form.

We all have the capability of creating art. I want to show you how with the phone in your pocket.

June 2, 2015 by Kat

The Power of the Porfolio

You know that feeling, of having something in the back of your mind that you need to do? It’s not a priority so you write it down, you put it off, and it sits there, waiting to be done. Sometimes for a very long time. But when you finally get to the project and finish it, it feels sooooo good, doesn’t it?

That happened to me this weekend, as I finally got around to updating the Portfolio section of my website. Ever since I updated website themes early last year, I haven’t been happy with the way the porfolio worked. It just didn’t allow you to scroll through images easily or show off the work nicely. Add to that, most of what was in the portfolio was old work from my dSLR days, not even close to the style I’m currently creating with the iPhone. But it wasn’t a priority between art fairs and writing a book and living life, so I didn’t do anything with it other than write it down on a “do someday” list. Getting it updated felt like a lifting of a weight, or the relief of a low level tension that I’ve been carrying around with me. I didn’t even know that tension was there!

You know what I felt on top of that relief? Pride. There is something wonderful about choosing my best work, pulling it together in one place, and presenting it beautifully. Whether it’s an exhibition or an art fair booth or a portfolio on my website, it’s my opportunity to say to the world, “This is who I am as an artist.” And I feel really good about it when I look at my work that way. Strong and confident in who I am and what I’m doing. That’s an awesome feeling.

I’m especially happy with the Transitions portfolio. I’ve been working on these images of trees in transition for two years now with this series in mind, and it’s the first time I’ve pulled them together in this way. It is so exciting to see it as a whole! I love many images in this series but seeing them as a body of work, I love them even more.

You can visit all of my portfolios by clicking the Portfolio link on the top menu bar of my website. From there, click on any portfolio to view the artist statement/explanation and images. Be sure to click on the thumbnail images to see them larger and scroll through the entire portfolio. It’s all mobile responsive too, and looks great on any device. Can you see why I’m so excited?? Come visit and let me know what you think!

PS – If you have a WordPress site I highly recommend the gallery plugin I’m using for my portfolio. It’s called NextGen Gallery. Easy to use and very functional!

Archives for June 2015

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