So, on to the event. I lost money on ticket sales. When I was researching RAW Artists prior to the event, there was a lot of debate over whether they were a scam or not. Seems like all that really started form one guy screaming about how unfair it was for RAW to ask him to pay for the privilege of showing his work at their event. In his view they should have been paying him to be there. I am not going to give this guy the courtesy of a link, you can google around if you want. I haven't seen his work, so I can't say whether or not he is any good, but from his posts he pretty much struck me a troll. But I will give my impression of the setup. Scam implies some sort of dishonesty or falseness. I experienced none. The SD chapter of RAW put an add on CL looking for artists wanting to showcase their work. I replied and their SD coordinator called me and invited me to do the show. She pretty much laid it out, I had to commit to selling 20 tickets presale, or I would owe the equivalent amount. It was completely straightforward, they use that guaranteed money to secure the venue and for advertising. Having run large events before I think that is pretty fair. Any ticket sales over that is their profit, any sales the artists make at the event are the artists' profit, no commission to RAW. So you basically take a bet. If you have 20 fans willing to come to a party for you, you pay nothing other than your own setup costs for whatever you do (i.e.- display prints and stuff for me). And if you wind up having to pay the balance, you still get to use that ticket yourself as a guest list spot. So, RAW takes ticket money in exchange for providing a venue, advertising and some setup on site. No scam anywhere, and I was very impressed with the staff and the event, which was better run than a lot of larger events I have been part of.
My biggest disappointment was that I could not find 20 people willing to buy tickets in my name, even with the lure of free vodka from Stoli, one of the sponsors RAW was able to find. That hurt and caused me to question a lot about what I do for friends and how much of my work I have given away. Posted about that a while back so won't re-hash now, I am still churning it over in my head. And am very thankful for the ones who did support me. Some of the most fun parts of the night were hanging out with my friends who did show up. (and I also appreciate the support from people who would have made it if they could have, I know who you are too)
I also had no idea what to really expect. There were a couple of other photographers slated to be there and they all had really amazing stuff online. I was worried about how to set myself apart. My primary distinction right now is my niche of shooting performers and festivals. That was where I concentrated when picking prints to display. Then I saw images of the venue in the prep materials RAW sent me and it looked like there were some good beams in the ceiling, so I got the idea of hanging an aerial apparatus and setting up a mini photo booth to take shots of people posed on the trapeze, so maybe they would want to purchase them later. Wasn't sure I would be able to, but figured that was my best shot at being unique.
Since spaces were given out on a first come, first serve basis I got there right on time for the setup opening. Looked around, only really found one spot I would be able to set up a trapeze and a shoot. It was a less than perfect spot, but it worked.
It was a much narrower space than I would have liked, no room for light stands, so I actually wound up moving the reflector to the opposite side from what you see above and mounting my light on the staircase to the right. I knew the backdrop was likely to be wrinkled when I unpacked it, but I didn't have the ability to iron or steam it, so my plan was to put it far enough behind the bar that I would be able to add a light between the two and totally blow out the background and the wrinkles wouldn't matter. But I wound up having to mount it a few inches behind the bar, because there is another artist set up right behind it. Overall; however, except for the wrinkled background, I was pretty happy with the set up, one light (SB910 with a popup softbox) and a reflector did pretty good for the shots.
Since it was flash and low ISO, I set up the trigger on the D3200 and used it for the portraits so I would be able to use Excalibur as my walk around camera and for shooting the fashion show. (which I missed because I wound up too busy at my booth) More separation would have also eliminated the shadow. I had to hope that the portrait idea would work because after seeing everyone else set up, I realized how underprepared I was for this. The rest of the artists seemed to have a lot more experience doing shows and were much better set up than me. I hadn't even had time (thought of it too late) to make a large sign with my logo. One of the other artists even had a giant panda suit. Not really sure why, but for most of the night it guarded her booth and posed with a "meet the artist" sign. I told her at some point in the night she would have to put the panda on the trapeze for a portrait. And she did.
As it turns out, everyone loves pandas. Even models.
Overall it was a fun night and a great experience. I got a lot of great shots. I met some really cool people. I got to hang out with a few great friends who came to support. I have already had one person buy their trapeze portrait and gotten several new fans on FB. Didn't sell any pictures, but it was an enjoyable experience. One of my favorite sets of shots from the night is the last part of the promised intro. My alley was right at the bottom of the stairs to the second level. At one point later in the evening, I watched a woman carry her girlfriend down the stairs because she was a quadruple amputee. As they got to the bottom of the stairs I told them they had to pose on the trapeze for me, and they did.
Of all the awesome shots I got, these are probably my favorites, I think more than anything else because you can really see how much they love each other. When I shoot I want to capture my subject's soul, and I think I was lucky enough to really get a glimpse of something special between these two, and that alone made the whole night worth it for me even if I did lose a bit on the tickets.
You can see the whole gallery of trapeze portraits on my site and tell me what you think, but I am pretty happy with how the night went and I look forward to being part of more RAW Artists events in the future.
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