Extending

One minute you’re cruising along doing the day-to-day routine stuff then things start ramping up and you wonder how you’re going to manage to fit everything in each day.

I am currently pushing myself and it was kind of freaking me out but I’ve just been able to try and keep that at bay by taking one day at a time, with a list of tasks that I have to complete and it’s getting there.

First and foremost, I’m having my first ever photography exhibition and the opening is in nearly three weeks time. I’ve got some photos framed but the others are still at the printers getting mattes cut. I won’t get these until a week and a bit prior to the opening. Hopefully I’ve measured everything correctly and they all fit the frames.

I’m framing everything myself to try and cut my costs down. I didn’t price getting the photos I want at the exhibition framed, but I know it would have been a lot more expensive. I’ve a collection of frames I bought from op-shops and frames I’ve been given by my beautiful friends.

I’m sick of looking at the photos I’ll be exhibiting but I know that those seeing them will see them with fresh and different eyes so I’m trying not to think about what I think of them too much.

So one step at a time, I had to decide on the photos to exhibit – probably the hardest thing. As mentioned I’m getting them printed and ready for framing.

The exhibition invites are at the printers. I should have organised them earlier and saved myself $20 in rushing the order a bit. I was going to design it myself then I came across Vista Print who have a stack of templates for so many things so I used one of those. I could have done it all in Photoshop myself but this gave me a good start and took some of the stress away.

A friend has helped write a media release and I’ll be sending that out next week. I’ve never done that before. But the worst that can happen is I get no media coverage.

I’m also in the process of putting my exhibited work on Redbubble incase people want to buy prints of them afterwards. I don’t know how this will go but the only cost to me in doing this is more of my time.

And all the little things will need doing. A list of what’s being exhibited and the prices. The prices. What to charge? That is the question. I’ve got a rough idea.

Oh, and I didn’t mention the venue. That’s what kicked all of this off, offering my work to a venue after they put a call out, and having them accept my offer.

And all the while I’ve been thinking about this, and preparing for this, I’m quite anxious. I always am when I put myself out there. I’m sure that at least some friends and family will come along to the exhibition opening and even if they don’t buy anything and I don’t sell anything throughout the exhibition (which runs for a month) then those friends and family might have an inkling as to what presents they’ll be getting in the future.

I’m sure I’ll write more about this as time goes on, but I started the beginning of this post by saying that I’m pushing myself. I think buying an investment property and having the settlement day the same day as your current work contract ends is pushing yourself. I’m hoping my contract gets extended, otherwise I’ll be pretty extended financially.

Oh, and the photo at the top isn’t in my exhibition.