These are the before and after booth shots. Larry did an amazing job of guiding me through the shoot and then fixing up all the mistakes. Thanks for all the feedback and advice from everyone!
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Well said, Connie. Sound advice from a true pro!!!!! Sara: I totally understand what you are saying. I was a stressed out mess the entire weekend that I dealt with my booth shot. It took several set-ups and tear downs and several trips to the hardware store and countless phone calls to Larry. I was starting to fear I was driving him crazy, but he is a saint!! Then, to top it all off, the professional camera had a problem with the lens. So, by the time I finally got the shot that Larry could work with, I was ready to collapse.
In the end, the mantra for me was: "Nothing good comes easy," and I really want to get into as many shows as I can and have a top notch, professional presentation.
All the hard work will be soooo worth it when the acceptance letters start rolling in for you. I wish you the best of luck in the upcoming season.
Computer generated image and I wonder if it can even pass a jury. They want an image of your actual display, don't they?
Please hear me on this. The jurors are way too busy looking at the work and assessing it to wonder if a booth image is computer generated. Really. The only reason we obsess about booth shots is that sometimes they can make or break an acceptance. If many applicants have beautiful work and then the booth shot is shoddy, messy, looks haphazard, it can affect the score. You make the best work you can, you prepare it in a professional manner so the judges will give you a high score, then the only mechanical thing you can do is make the booth neat, clean and well lit so it doesn't reflect negatively on your art. They are not stopping to think, oh my, I think they used a computer to get this effect.
Connie, I think I'm starting to understand. I love the OOAK show! I always have so much fun looking at all the innovative works. I just had to laugh when I saw some of the booths knowing how much stress I had worrying about mine!
This is my first year selling at OOAK and it is like nothing I've ever set up for before. The luxury of being able to screw into drywall and not worry about affects of wind and weather gave me more freedom on how to set up. The issues with visibility and lighting forced me to change my display around several times. I'm local so I did bring all of my normal display pieces, but it took a second car to carry so much more inventory than I bring to a 2 day summer show. If I was coming from out of town I would definitely pare down my display.
Sorry if this seems like incoherent rambling. After a full day setup and 3 long days of the show I need sleep. One day to go and then an attempt to tear down tomorrow!
Thanks for chiming in here, Amy. Hope you do well and report back! Participating in this show is one long lesson after another for relatively new people to the business (not that I am saying you are), akin to taking a college course.
Kudos to you Amy for dong the OOAK show! I am curious to hear how the whole experience was for you. The thought of set up and tear down there scare me to death! Hope you had a great show!
I'll write a blog post and put a link here so that we don't hijack this thread any further. Might be a day or two as I'm still recovering but there will be something soon.
Reading these posts are driving me crazy. It sounds like your shots aren't perfect enough or they're too perfect. After being at the One of a Kind show today show today I have to laugh at the amount of nitpicking about booth shots. At least one third of the booths had table coverings complete with wrinkles and I thought those were a big no no. Some booths had nothing other than a folding table with a cloth on it and jewelry stuck on the plain white wall with tacks. If people can get in a high end show ($2500 for a booth!) with these displays then I am not going to worry any more about mine. (I did have Larry put back some of the leaves so it doesn't look quite so perfect!)
We have been talking about your "booth shot," what you show to the jury to get into the show, not what your booth looks like at the show. Big difference, Sara. Do not worry about the nitpicking things in this post, whether it is "too perfect", etc. You just want it to show off your work in a cohesive way that looks classy. You have to admit the before and after shots are pretty amazing and will help you get into shows.
Now, as to OOAK: many people fly into the show with minimal equipment. If you study the booths there you will find the whole gamut -- amazingly inventive beautiful ones, gallery looking ones and then some that are rented tables with coverings on them that may or may not match the walls or complement the work. We have not been talking about what a booth looks like at a show and very FEW shows will even notice if your booth is somewhat different from the booth image you juried with. They will be interested in that the work will be the same though.
The reality of doing a show requires more inventory, chairs, a place to make sales, some signage to personalize your space.
In addition, do not judge other shows by the OOAK. The organization that runs this show wants a classy show, as that brings people in and brings them back again next year, but they really want to sell booth space so the jurying (except perhaps for jewelry) is not highly competitive. If you do 2D work, have a minimum of $2500 to spend, there is a great chance you will be accepted. Do you understand the difference here?
Hope you had a good time at the show. It is such fun to shop there!
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