Kansas City
Zoo Photo Club Meeting Minutes
April
19, 2004
Bill Pasek called the meeting to order
around 7 p.m. The club met for the
first time in the conference room of the Deramus Building!
Tonight we welcomed lots of guests
and new members – Ron and Monica Johnson, Avery, Wylie, Richard McAllister,
and the Reverend Patrick Curry. Bill
welcomed the guests and invited them to attend a few meetings to see if they are
interested in joining the club. Some
of them are here because they saw our photo kiosk in the Deramus lobby!
Jim Rendina explained that he and
Bill had gotten out finally two or three weeks ago to complete a swap of the old
photos with new ones for the kiosk. We
will probably go with what we have for now; we even have an up-to-date picture
of the baby rhino.
Jim said we need to vote as a club
on what to do next on the kiosk. Do
we want to do reptile shots, since we are having the reptile exhibit here for
the summer? We should probably do a
facelift on the mats, too. It was
suggested that we do half reptiles and half lorikeets, since there also will be
lorikeet feeding this summer. What
photography options will exist at the reptile exhibit?
If the reptiles are behind glass, that might not be good for taking
pictures. Sarah O’Bryan said she
didn’t know too much about the exhibit yet.
Jim suggested we form a committee
to get together and decide what to do with the kiosk.
Carla Farris and Linda Hanley volunteered.
Sarah explained that the reptile
exhibit will open to the public May 29. Dan
asked if the rule still held that only a couple of people at a time could take
pictures of the animals. Sarah
confirmed this and said that only two or three people would be able to go in
ahead of time before the exhibit opens.
At the next meeting, we will have a
drawing similar to the one we did at the last meeting to shoot the rhino, only
this one will be for the reptile exhibit. If
the opportunity also arises to photograph the lorikeets, Sarah can call and let
us know.
A behind-the-scenes walk-through of
the zoo was discussed. Sarah said
she has no Saturday or Sunday free to do a behind-the-scenes photo tour right
now. She’s currently booked, so
she would like to hold off on this until the next meeting.
The club agreed.
Sarah passed around a list of animals
that the zoo could use photos of. These
are for the zoo’s Adopt a Wild Child program.
If you want to get some shots of these animals to donate, that would be
great! Sarah prefers digital images
at 300 dpi. This has proved to be
the cheapest way to get 4x6 images. She
can use vertical or horizontal shots. Sarah
was asked if she needed full body shots or just head shots.
She said it didn’t really matter, as long as it is a good shot of the
animal. If you can’t get her
digital images, she can scan them, but she prefers digital.
Steve Brewer was asked for an
update on our Web site. Steve said
he lost a hard drive recently and got behind, so he hasn’t got the individual
gallery pages all updated yet. He
will get them updated soon.
If you have images to display on
the Web site, get them to him or Jim. They
prefer that the pictures be in 640x480 format; 72 dpi is best, because while
these will look good online, they won’t print well.
This discourages theft of your images.
Peggy Lawrey talked about our photo
wall in Deja Zoo. She said she is
determined to keep the wall full. We
had said in the past that we wouldn’t want any person to have more than two
pictures up at a time, but Peggy said that some people have more than two,
because she wants to keep the wall full and others haven’t turned in pictures
to hang.
If you sell a picture, especially
if it is one hanging on the wall, please e-mail and tell Peggy so she can
replace it with another picture.
The rack for unframed photos is
down to about a half-dozen prints. Steve
said he was in Deja Zoo recently, and the wall looks good.
Gary Gingrich noted that our
information on the wall says we will take checks or cash, but he had a check
bounce. He suggested that we may
want to think about specifying cash only in the future, especially if anyone
else has had a check bounce.
Wayne Hickox stated that he would
like to thank Sarah O’Bryan for the cooperation and assistance she has given
the club. The group agreed and
thanked Sarah via a round of applause.
Marie Bohndorf moderated this
week’s Tech Talk. The talk was on
pricing your photos to sell.
Marie started it off by explaining
that she usually uses a price of $50 for her 8x10 or 8x12 shots matted and
framed to 11x14. For her 11x14s
matted and framed to 16x20, she uses a price of $75.
That seems to be what people are willing to pay, in her experience.
Mostly she frames with a black
metal frame. Terry Fretz says he
tries to use a neutral color, as that is supposed to be more marketable. Wayne pointed out that he doesn’t always use a neutral
color. For example, he uses a brown
suede mat with his shot of the lilac-breasted roller, and that seems to sell
well. Linda Hanley stated that
brown could almost be considered a neutral color; it goes well with many things.
What about selling matted-only
versus matted and framed pictures? Steve
said framing increases the cost and is kind of a matter of opinion in terms of
what looks best with the picture. Because
everyone has different tastes, he opts to mat his only – he shrink-wraps his
prints with corrugated cardboard behind them, rather than framing them.
Linda said she buys cellophane bags
for her prints from Light Impressions.
Marie clarified that if she is
selling matted-only prints, she usually prices them at $25 to $30, or roughly
half what the framed ones cost.
Gary stated that all the images he has
sold have been framed but without a mat. He
uses Kodak glossy paper, which is supposed to be guaranteed archival quality for
50 years. He leaves a one-inch
white border in an 8x10 frame and sells the print for $25. He’s sold about a dozen of these in the last year.
You also can cover the matted
picture with a piece of glass the size of the mat and secure it with clips.
This sells well, it supports the picture, and it can be used or replaced
with a typical frame once the buyer gets the work home.
This is a really inexpensive approach.
Wayne said that you also can order
frames relatively cheaply. You can
get a 16x20 sectional frame that you assemble for about $15 or less.
Then you add a piece of glass and foam core behind.
No one said that they priced their
work based on cost, but you do need to consider cost, of course. Marie said a fellow that used to be in the camera club who
sold quite a bit of his work told the club to price its work at three times
whatever cost you put into it.
Marie said she used to work in a
photo shop, and she learned there that you should never put the print against
the glass or it will stick – you need a mat.
What kind of paper should you use?
If you want crispness, you should use glossy paper.
Steve said he likes to use a mat finish with portraits – it hides
wrinkles and flaws better. Marie
passed around an example of three different types of finish – glossy, satin,
and mat.
Jim said that no mat and no frame
are really common in the art shows now.
It was asked whether most people
are using home printing or lab services. Micky
Norton said he has heard that Kodak rates its paper’s quality using a lot less
light than would be typical – so it may only last one-third as long as stated.
Linda said she has heard that anything printed on less than an Epson 2200
printer won’t last long, so it’s best to use lab services otherwise.
Unfortunately, these lab services won’t be in business long, as the
cost is too prohibitive.
Wayne said he thought it was hard
to make much money selling prints if you consider all the costs in gas, film,
equipment, and so on. He just hopes
to sell a few pictures. He said his
16x20 prints have about $40 of cost in them.
He gets his prints made in Colorado and buys frames from a company in
Connecticut.
Bill thanked Marie and everyone for a
good Tech Talk.
Barbara Chase passed out updated
member lists. Please check to see
if your name is on the list and the information is right.
If not, let her know.
Bill asked if anyone had anything
to Buy-Sell-Trade. Dan said he
traded in his camera and sold all of his darkroom equipment already.
A new member (Note: I
believe this was Patrick Curry) has a couple of medium-format Yashica cameras
for sale, and Steve has a Mamiya 645 and lens.
The club took a break at about 7:50
p.m. At 8 p.m., the group
reconvened. Barbara and Marie
explained about a letter they received from Friends of the Kaw asking if the
club wanted to rent a table for the Lewis and Clark weekend.
The club discussed this. The
fee would be $250 for a 10x10 booth for all ten days, from June 25 to July 4,
and $400 for a booth just on the weekends.
We would have to have someone there all the time the booth was open.
The group decided not to take advantage of this opportunity.
Bill said that Libby has been too
busy with work to cover the Treasurer’s duties.
Terry agreed to take these duties over.
Dan Paulsen was asked about the
planned trip to the Tallgrass Prairie. It
is south of here, near Emporia and about 16 miles from Strong City.
It takes about 2.5 hours to get there from 119th and Metcalf.
Dan has planned to go there on the 22nd of May, which is the
weekend before Memorial Day. It
does not cost to get in but there is a bus ride out into the prairie that costs
about $2. There is also an
afternoon hayride for two hours around sunset on a flatbed truck for $12 a
person. If we went as a group, we
might be able to negotiate for more time. There
is an interesting town south of Strong City called Cottonwood Falls.
It has an all-brick main street. If
people want to stay overnight, they can stay in Emporia; it is about 20 minutes
from the prairie. The group was
asked for a show of hands as to how many were interested; a number of members
expressed an interest. We would
need to car pool. Call Dan if you
are interested. We could meet at
the Great Mall in Olathe to car pool. He
will contact everyone about where to meet at around 7 a.m. that morning.
Wayne said he went out to Ernie
Miller Nature Park on Friday to see how it was.
He said there are very few wildflowers up yet, just some sweet Williams
mainly.
Sarah said that there will be a
place for the photo club on the zoo’s Web site soon.
They are changing one of the tabs from “Children’s Clubs” to
“Clubs” in general, and a link to our Web site will be on that tab.
Hopefully this will happen by next month.
Jim asked about whether there would
be club meetings on the same night as Starlight shows this summer. If so, we could park in the Rhino lot and just tell the zoo
staff that we are here for the camera club.
Sarah said the Starlight shows do not occur on Monday nights, so we
should be okay anyway. But let
Sarah know if you have a problem.
Gary told the group that if anyone
is interested in selling images on the Web, there is a new Web site called
photogateway.com that is looking for photographers who want to sell their
images. You retain rights to your
images and set the dollar amount for commercial versus noncommercial use.
They do all the work to support the searches, and they get a commission
– 35% of the sale. Gary has had
images up there for a week and has had people preview them but no sales yet.
On the 20th of every month, they cut checks to those who have
sold work. They have a good search
engine. You enter keywords for your
images. The images are of good
quality. They want high-resolution
images; they then offer the images in three different resolutions.
They take only .JPGs. They
have a wide variety of images. Each
photographer has to have at least three images, and you can have an unlimited
number. They display 18 images to a
page. This afternoon there were 610
pages of images so far. The site
launched at the end of February, so it is relatively new.
Clients download from the Internet to purchase.
Thumbnails have your copyright on them.
Michelle Riley is working on the
speaker for next month.
Jim will get name tags for our
three new members by next month.
The meeting concluded with our
show-and-tell program by members. Carla
showed a CD of images. She received
a first prize at the Great Plains Nature Center for her picture of an eagle from
Squaw Creek. Congratulations,
Carla!
The images included some of the new
baby rhino taken by Carla and also by Peggy.
The baby rhino is now on exhibit, hopefully on Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
Fridays, and Saturdays. The mother
has calmed down some, and the baby is jumping around like a puppy. Carla’s other shots were all taken at the zoo and included
flamingos, dingo, camels, elephants, birds, kangaroos, and the red panda.
Linda showed some slides from
Kearney, Nebraska of sandhill cranes. These
were taken about three weeks ago. She
took them with a 400mm on a digital camera, which is the equivalent of roughly
600mm on film. Some of these were
wide-angle shots of the Platte River.
Tracy Goodrich shared some slides
of a trip to Canyonlands in Utah and some from the zoo.
The meeting adjourned around 8:45
p.m. The next meeting is May 17 at
7 p.m.
-- Tracy Goodrich