- Joined
- Oct 8, 2001
- Messages
- 12,348
First some history and then impressions.
2010 would be our fourth year at Blade. We are off in the far reaches of the centernear the seminar rooms and by the escalator to the mall downstairs. Its possibly the farthest away from anything Blade.
That drawback aside, we have a long triangular shaped room that has a BIG table for my extensive backgrounds, and is well-suited to our needs. There is no other extra room closer that would suit us.
Susan and I look forward to this opportunity, although I know I will need to take a DEEP breath: It is WORK of the highest order from the moment I show up. Susan has a background of cheery salesshe worked in a sporting goods shop for ten yearsand she helps to disarm the tensions of questions, spending money, and scheduling to our clients. She was at the writeup desk the whole time.
I am privileged to have Buddy Thomason as a friend and an advisor in knife photographyand life in general. That he would be interested in working with us at the show was VERY assuring to us both. Buddy brings a HUGE sense of calm and knowledge to the room, and his work advising/walking/talking to makers in retrieving and delivering knives was an inescapable facet of our success. Buddy is capable of highest quality images on his own, but he has shown himself to work easily with all others. (In 2008 he helped Eric Eggly).
As much as I try to be calm and unfrazzzled, I am cognizant of scheduling misscalls and unpredictably hard shoots, and they all conspire to put me behind. I really work hard at lighting and display formats for each knife and inset (this is my style) and it takes more time than you may think. Like all good productions if the end result looks easy then it probably had a LOT of experience or fussing or both.
Im also a personality myself, and all my clients would like to talk directly to me. I know this and I need to do thisfor both of us. I love this time. I also had to shut the door of conversation quickly, as I needed to.
Saturday and Sunday mornings, I was doing quiet work on my own at 6:30am till 8:30 when the staff showed up. This was my most productive time. Like you, I focus clearly alone.
Having Susan and Buddy there minimized distractions, and we motored along fairly predictable to the schedules promised. I cant tell you enough how valuable they were to our work, and my sanity.
Whatever weve been doing has been working. I fully expected to be ready for a decrease in work, just because. In contrast, the amount of clients who found us and were recommended to us (To this order we thank YOU for any recommendations!) was an increase over all previous years. I actually had knives I just could not get to by Sunday afternoon.
I spend all my time capturing the images at the show. I do NO editing or printing there. I do not have a simple format for processing my montage work, and I am my own best editor. So, I promise my clients a speedy return on their work after the show. Best I can do, and its worth the wait for them. Plus, they know I will also do my best in showing the work offhere and on my website (Hey, my website actually shows your knives)
Instead of blasting you with a single feast of images all at once, we will savor the results like a long meal: Serving after serving. As I work through the edits and get approvals, I will post the work updates. I am going in alphabetical order, and although its not a perfectly fair system, everyone will have their images in short order anyway.
Jim, Susan and Buddy
2010 would be our fourth year at Blade. We are off in the far reaches of the centernear the seminar rooms and by the escalator to the mall downstairs. Its possibly the farthest away from anything Blade.
That drawback aside, we have a long triangular shaped room that has a BIG table for my extensive backgrounds, and is well-suited to our needs. There is no other extra room closer that would suit us.Susan and I look forward to this opportunity, although I know I will need to take a DEEP breath: It is WORK of the highest order from the moment I show up. Susan has a background of cheery salesshe worked in a sporting goods shop for ten yearsand she helps to disarm the tensions of questions, spending money, and scheduling to our clients. She was at the writeup desk the whole time.
I am privileged to have Buddy Thomason as a friend and an advisor in knife photographyand life in general. That he would be interested in working with us at the show was VERY assuring to us both. Buddy brings a HUGE sense of calm and knowledge to the room, and his work advising/walking/talking to makers in retrieving and delivering knives was an inescapable facet of our success. Buddy is capable of highest quality images on his own, but he has shown himself to work easily with all others. (In 2008 he helped Eric Eggly).
As much as I try to be calm and unfrazzzled, I am cognizant of scheduling misscalls and unpredictably hard shoots, and they all conspire to put me behind. I really work hard at lighting and display formats for each knife and inset (this is my style) and it takes more time than you may think. Like all good productions if the end result looks easy then it probably had a LOT of experience or fussing or both.
Im also a personality myself, and all my clients would like to talk directly to me. I know this and I need to do thisfor both of us. I love this time. I also had to shut the door of conversation quickly, as I needed to.Saturday and Sunday mornings, I was doing quiet work on my own at 6:30am till 8:30 when the staff showed up. This was my most productive time. Like you, I focus clearly alone.
Having Susan and Buddy there minimized distractions, and we motored along fairly predictable to the schedules promised. I cant tell you enough how valuable they were to our work, and my sanity.
Whatever weve been doing has been working. I fully expected to be ready for a decrease in work, just because. In contrast, the amount of clients who found us and were recommended to us (To this order we thank YOU for any recommendations!) was an increase over all previous years. I actually had knives I just could not get to by Sunday afternoon.
I spend all my time capturing the images at the show. I do NO editing or printing there. I do not have a simple format for processing my montage work, and I am my own best editor. So, I promise my clients a speedy return on their work after the show. Best I can do, and its worth the wait for them. Plus, they know I will also do my best in showing the work offhere and on my website (Hey, my website actually shows your knives
)Instead of blasting you with a single feast of images all at once, we will savor the results like a long meal: Serving after serving. As I work through the edits and get approvals, I will post the work updates. I am going in alphabetical order, and although its not a perfectly fair system, everyone will have their images in short order anyway.
Jim, Susan and Buddy
