Getting Social

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about social media and whether or not it’s all that it’s cracked up to be for the art community.

I have been a member of Facebook, LinkedIn, Fine Art America and other lesser known sites for years. I have a blog (if your reading this that is probably a “duh” moment) and a Website. 

As I have researched new and emerging sites, I’ve looked at what other artists are using.

Some of the sites I haven’t tried are 500px, DeviantArt and Behance. Sure some people like Pintrest, Instragram and flickr among others, but I’m not sure if they really help sell art. 

I’m very familiar with flickr, and twitter, but haven’t ever had someone contact me looking to buy anything from those contacts. 

At the end of the day, you want to drive potential buyers to a place where they can actually select a product and give you money, yes it’s about income.

Sites like Fine Art America, 500px, and Etsy, give your followers an easy way to find and actually purchase your work. That’s what it’s all about. You have to decide if other social media sites are worth your limited time. 

Any other social media should be to inform potential customers about you and what you do, then give them the chance to see what you have created, and finally break out the wallet and buy. 

Just my thoughts, others may see it differently.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Often my work takes me out into the desert, no matter what the temperature may be. It can be quite exhausting to be wandering around in 100 deg + heat. 

This week, I had the pleasure of escorting a film crew from the UK. Needless to say, the heat was a bit much for them, even though we barely hit 100. They were real troopers, never complained, just got the job finished. 

It reminded me of a recent trip I took to Death Valley to add to my portfolio of photographs of the National Park. I love the park, every time I go there I find new images of things that I may have walked by on an earlier trip. However, it can get really hot, especially this time of year (the highest recorded air temperature on Earth was in Death Valley in July 1913).

One of the images I took that day was of a couple out on the Bad Water Basin Salt Flats. They reminded me of the famous image of Noel Coward taken by Loomis Dean in 1954. 

https://42ndblackwatch1881.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/noel-coward-desert-dandy/

I only had a second, but think I caught my version of the classic.

I wanted to show the desolation of the location and I wanted the individuals in the image to remain anonymous. 

You can see more of my images from Death Valley at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/kenneth-drylie.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=532327