Curating & Elevating Your Space
A bit more on treating your walls as your own solo exhibit.
Managing a large photography studio is sometimes daunting. There are so many things to deal with to maintain a profitable and aesthetically pleasing environment. Even typical maintenance issues, from cleaning to minor repairs, tend to take valuable time away from actually photographing, running workshops, and experimenting and writing for our Substack community.
For the past eleven years we've worked daily in our current studio, one that we designed from scratch. That included an office room in which Bob and I do our post-processing, work one-on-one with clients, and do our writing and planning. For several years we had a 5’ x 9’ tryptich of Rampart Pond in Banff National Park, Canada hanging on that wall.
Stonewalling
Almost everyone who came into our office was impressed with the canvas tryptich, in part because it was sharp front-to-back having been taken with a tilt-shift lens. But for the past five years or so we've been itching to do something different with that wall, something that better reflected the evolution of my artwork.
While visiting the studio of famed Spanish bookmaker Susana Dominguez Martin in Madrid this year, she introduced me to an exciting new product produced in Germany and now sold worldwide. It's called Slate Lite
Slate Lite is an innovative technology that slices natural stone into ridiculously thin layers and adheres them onto an adhesive receptive backing. These panels come in different sizes and a very wide range of stones from around the world.
What makes this so handy for any of you wanting to elevate your game, is that these panels are flexible and shipped in flats or rolls (depending on size) for "easy" installation (using the term "easy" liberally here, as you'll see).
Bob and I are experimenting with new display options that we hope will look great exhibited on and set away from this stone wall. We'll showcase these new presentations here, so stay tuned for those changeouts as they develop. In the meantime, for those of you supporting our work through your paid subscription, a future DIY will feature the installation process for our wall. For several years we had a 5’ x 9’ triptych of Rampart Pond in Banff National Park, Canada hanging on that wall.
Workshop Updates
Advanced Awagami Printing & Display April 26 2025
We have one spot open for this workshop focused on two of the most distinctive Awagami papers, Bizan and Unryu. Participants will take home two finished, mounted, ready to hang artworks. More information and registration is available over on Les’ website.
Matting & Framing Workshop July 19, 2025
This two-day hands-on workshop focuses on traditional matting, mounting, and framing. You’ll learn how to display your own work with expert guidance every step of the way and take home your own finished work (we’ll print it for you prior to arrival). Registration and additional information.
Black & White Workshop June 6, 2025
The emphasis in this hands-on learning experience will be taking a deep dive into processing your black and white photographs using Lightroom. We’ll cover creative and artistic decisions and how to translate those into great black and white photographs drawing from the tools available in Lightroom. More information and registration is available here.
Intro To Fine Art Printing May 5th, 2025
The first workshop for 2025 is filled. but we’ve opened up another on May 5th 2025. More information and registration is on Les’ site. Don’t wait too long these one-day workshops tend to fill up quickly given they are strictly limited to 4 participants.
Portfolio Development Workshop November 14, 2025
We typically schedule this workshop 1/year. This year the Portfolio Development workshop filled up before 2025 even got started. If there’s interest we’ll look at squeezing another one in for 2025. Please express interest or questions in the comments or shoot us an email.
Why oh why would you schedule your matting and framing workshop on my wife’s birthday??? I’m hoping this will be the year I attend a workshop, but if I go to this one, I won’t have a home to go back to :-). On another note, I love the concept of a personal gallery. I’m using a wall to ‘store’ framed inventory. Initially I just put them up without regard for theme, but I’m starting to see them as an opportunity to really see how different groupings work together, so it becomes an extension of the creative process.
When you refer to using Lightroom, is Lightroom Classic acceptable? For years I assumed it was the preferred method and I have been using it exclusively. I'm especially concerned if I come to a workshop.Thanks!