My Photo in a Juried Photo Exhibit?

Water Skimmer

I submitted three of my images for a juried photo exhibit to benefit the Adult Day Center of Somerset County. The organizer for the Somerset County Photography meetup, Loren Fisher, is organizing the exhibit. Loren suggested a donation of 20% of the proceeds to the center.

The exhibit will open May 5, 2015 and photos will hang through July 31. The night of the show opening ( 6-8 p.m. ), light refreshments and appetizers will be served. Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Matt Rainey will be the guest speaker.

Finding an image to submit was not easy. I have captured a lot of images over the last five years and while my photography has improved with time, I have some favorites that may not be "my best work". These are images that I enjoy myself but may not be the best from a technical perspective. In any case, I set aside my reservations about being judged and after several days and hours I selected three images and send them off for consideration. The image above, Water Skimmer, was the one chosen to be framed and hung at the center. It's an image I captured back in May 2012 using a borrowed Nikon D80.

That was the easy part. Loren emailed me letting me know which image was selected and reminded me of the deadline for providing a framed print. I panicked but then remembered that Loren had written a blog post with guidance on preparing my photo for the exhibit.

Loren recommended a 16"x20" frame with a 11"x14" mat and 11"x14" print. He recommended some inexpensive options for obtaining and framing but I wanted to do it "right". I have only framed print for use at home. The results I would produce may be fine for a home but I felt I needed to step it up a notch for public viewing. I wanted to offer potential buyers with my best. I settled on two options, a print from Mpix Pro and framing by Michael's.

I called Michael's and they gave me a framing quote for a 16"x20" frame with a 11"x14" mat. The price quote assumed they would mount the image for me. The price I was quoted was $160 if I had the right coupons or $399.00 without coupons. Yikes! I was hoping to sell my image for $150. Either of these options would lead to a loss. Take out 20% for donation to the center and the loss is significant even with the discounted framing costs.

I then tried Mpix Pro. I have an account with them but rarely used it. I think I've placed one order with them since 2013. I recalled that their software, ROES, wasn't easy to use and I was right. I couldn't get the ROES software to install on my Mac under my standard account. After reading the documentation on Mpix's web site and several failed attempts I decided to follow a hunch. I attempted to install the ROSE software under the OS X administrator account. ROES installed and ran with no issues. I uninstalled ROES, upgraded my standard OS X user account administrator and attempted to install the ROES software. That worked too. So it seems the ROES software will not install or run on OS X 10.10.3 unless the user account has administrator rights. That stopped me right there.

<rant>
What sort of piece of shit software is Mpix pushing on people? Why, in 2015, is professional desktop software being written in Java? Please add some funds to your R&D budget so that customers can upload TIFF or DNG image and order prints or other products directly from your web site. If you can do it for Mpix.com then why not for Mpix Pro?

</rant>

I was so irritated by using ROES that I even though I had already added several items to the shopping cart, I closed the software and ordered a framed print from Mpix (not Mpix Pro). I ordered an 11"x14" E-Surface print with a black flat frame, white mat behind non-glare glass. I spent just over $78 -- $65 + tax + shipping. The package should arrive early next week.

Fingers crossed and I am hoping some of my readers will drop by and support Somerset County's photography community.

Author: Khürt Williams

A human who works in information security and enjoys photography, Formula 1 and craft ale. #nobridge