I'm relatively new in the Pacific Northwest. I regularly do art festivals, usually w/ some degree of success. Well, I just returned from a 3 day show in Roseburg OR and my sales were dismal(worst ever, I didn't even cover my booth fee). I have a large framed image of a spotted owl in my booth, one that I am quite proud of. Over the weekend, I noticed lots of people point at the "spottie"...whisper to each other..and then keep on walking right past my booth. Then, on Sunday morning a young couple spent a few minutes looking at my work, seemingly friendly enough until she said "we think we'll take the spotted owl so we can bring it home and burn it, my husband is a logger". They both shot me a look and walked out of my booth.
My booth has a conservation theme, without being preachy. Although, I think several factors contributed to lousy sales, in retrospect i wonder if just the sight of a spotted owl turned many potential customers off. I know Roseburg is one of many towns that have been hit hard by the owl controversy. I am not one to say we should never cut another tree down and damm loggers to hell, as a matter of fact I have a lot of sympathy for them.
Looking back, maybe I should be grateful no one vandalized my booth at night!
Where else should this newbie to the Pacific NW avoid? So far, Bend and Ashland have been very good to me. Anyone know if Brookings, OR will kick me to the curb? Should I remove the photo from my booth altogether?
Loggers weren't the only ones affected either. When they shut the woods down, my fathers small town grocery store went out of business within 2 or 3 years, and with the business went his retirement, and soon came bankruptcy. He only saved his house by filing a Homestead Act claim. Something you can only do once in your lifetime.
The loggers and their wives had to get other jobs out of town (i.e. portland/vancouver) and so they did their grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, Costco and WinCo on their way home. Many other small businesses that relied on trade from the logging industry personnel went out of business too.
I care as much as the next guy about the environment, but when drastic steps are taken without any consideration for the effect on people's lives, the environmental cause acquires more enemies than friends.
Dan, this is a very sore issue for some, and changed many people's lives forever, like Curtis's dad's.
But I would hope people coul still appreciate a wonderful photo, even if the topic is something that upsets them...but this is probably too much to ask.
I hope you'll consider out wonderful (huge) Sandy Mountain Festival - this July. The application deadline was the end of Match, but i bet you could still get approved if you wanted. If not, please share your great photos with us next year!
An old expression come to mind, "Perspective is often determined by whose ox is being gored"!
However, without dwelling on any other issue than the financial success of marketing and sales of an image, I suspect you (we all) should be guided by the principal of knowing your audience and meeting the needs of the same. As an analogy, you cannot expect to sell many sirloin burgers at a vegetarian gathering!
An old expression come to mind, "Prospective is often determined by whose ox is being gored"!
How very true.
And BTW Dan, I do like the photo... I wish there was more detail around the eyes, but it definitely shows how well he blends into his environment. And I'm kinda sorry for the little diatribe, but I was trying more to give you additional perspective than grind an axe... Many areas like Woodland have since mostly recovered, but there are still scars here and there, and the recovery was long and difficult.
I try to avoid Roseburg alltogether, but would especially do so as a location for photo sales. Brookings....I don't know much about the place. Eugene is your market for sure though, as is Corvallis.
The Spotted Owl finally made people look. They really hadn't done that before. You can't keep cutting old growth forever. An end HAD to come sooner or later, and the Spotted Owl just happened to be one thing (of many) that finally did it - and people latched on to it. Those mills, those towns, those people - it was all going to crash anyway because by the late 80's they had already cut 90% of available native forest not protected under the wilderness act.
Regardless of how each of us feels about the spotted owl issue, I happen to strongly agree with you, however, I think if you want to sell in any particularly market place you need to be aware of the audience/customer and their needs/wants in order to be financially successful.
BTW, at the very least, half of all timber jobs were lost due to the lumber companies automating. They're like any other business, if they can cut costs, they will, even if it means wiping out a small town.
Simon - I agree. Since I don't suspect Dan has any of those old shots of one-tree trucks going to mill, or decapitated Spotted Owls, I think avoiding Roseburg is a good idea.
I might have to disagree about staying away from Roseburg. My father was transferred to the VA hospital down there in the late 70's. Though he and his wife are liberal living in a highly conservative town, he loves it. He went through the spotted owl depression but the town has rebounded quite nicely and now it's actually thriving. It's really close to alot of beautiful scenery and recreation. It's also a slow paced town where he decided to retire. Of course every town has it's bad apples and it shouldn't be judged stereotypically. After I met Rosalie (my wife), I discovered her father lives there also so we both make many trips down there and we really love that town. BTW, I was all for saving the spotted owl's habitat.
Posted by Marc Adamus on June 25, 2007 at 10:28 PM
You guys are totally right. I'm part kidding here, of course, but I have also seen the really bad side of that place. I still wouldn't avoid it just on that basis.
Posted by Tom Kloster on June 25, 2007 at 11:39 PM
Thanks for posting your comment on automation being the real culprit, Mark - sadly, the working loggers and other small town residents affected by the owl listing were played big time by the timber corporations. Most of the automation "efficiencies" were well under way during the 80s, and the timber corporations worked hard to keep their right to ship raw logs overseas for processing, where labor was cheaper. So the spotted owl listing in the early 90s was a convenient distraction when the timber finally ran out, and a lot of workers were duped in the process. Flash forward to today, and I wonder how many struggling loggers in Roseburg are aware that their Republican president is now responsible for cutting back the federal support to timber counties that was put in place to shore them up after the owl listing? Public services are already drying up in these communities, as a result.
Dan, if you look at a map of "blue" and "red" counties in Oregon, you'll see that the Willamette Valley, northern portions of the Coast and Deschutes County are left-leaning zones -- and Ashland in the Rogue Valley, where you live. Of course, most Oregonians live in these areas, so that's a good thing from a marketing standpoint! I would think you'd fare well with a conservation theme here in Portland.
Thanks for all of the feedback.
Curtis, I didn't take what you wrote wrong. Despite my belief that we need spotted owls(and their habitat), what your dad went through is as tough as it gets.
Sandy, thanks for the tip, I looked into the Sandy Mountain Festival earlier this year, but decided to test the waters closer to home first.
Marc, your comment "The Spotted Owl finally made people look. They really hadn't done that before. You can't keep cutting old growth forever. An end HAD to come sooner or later......." sums up my thoughts very well.
Simon, you are right on to figure out what your market is. My mistake!
As far as the town of Roseburg goes. Sitting at an art festival for three days gives you a good glimpse into who lives in any given town. Roseburg had the feel of a much more blue collar, conservative town than Ashland or Bend. At some point, I'll be anxious to check out Eugene, Corvallis and Portland(still never been here).
Tom, thanks for the summery on red and blue counties.
Blah, blah, blah....Thanks for the input everyone.
Dan,
Sorry for the lack of sales. I've been doing art shows here and there...and one thing I noticed very clearly...you can never judge/predict your sales. You can show up 5 times to one area, and sell nothing, but the 6th time, you could walk away with either very large sales or some major contacts. I doubt your lack of sales had anything to do with the owl image...just a bad sales weekend. I'm sure it did offend some people, but where they going to buy one anyway? Not saying anything bad about your work, but just looking at practical probablility.
I grew up in Roseburg for about 15 years then moved up to PDX about 15 years ago. I love the Roseburg area, but to be honest...it was a hick town when I left. Believe it or not, when I was a DJ at a bar there, I was the first to introduce RAP and doing the MC Hammer "Running Man" dance! Well, it's changed/grown a lot since then, but the ol hick charm of a small town is still there (and I use the term hick in an endearing manor). I've also found that shows in small towns like Roseburg don't usually do as well as shows in larger towns or with more tourist traffic. I guess what I'd also like to say is dont give up on any area till you have a real proven track record of failed sales...not just one instance.
And for the image...great catch, but it doesn't pop enough for me. The owl is a bit dark and blends in with the tree too much.
Rick, you are absolutely right. The owl issue was one of many things going on. I had a huge double booth of buy/sell garbage right next to me and a spice company on the other side. Hardly good company for me selling 300$ framed images. There were 8 photographers in a 125 booth show. Crafts sell much better in a "hick town" than fine art. I could go on.....Just a really bad show. I've come to expect making a certain amount of money at a show and to fall so far short really stung as well as someone offering to burn one of my images for me.
As far as this image goes, it's far from technically perfect. Terrible, terrible light made pulling this one off difficult. It's more about what it represents.
heh this is my first post here and i don't want it to define my online persona, but i met dan at that show, he told me about this forum and i wanted to say something.
first i respect that he had the guts to hang that photo up in a timber town even if he didn't know it at first. he kept the image up and stood his ground. i'm sorry you didn't have a good show but if it helps, i barely broke even too.
i was a wildlife biologist from 1996-2001 and deeply involved in this issue, most of the work i had done was with marbled murrelets and many other threatened and endangered wildlife and or survey and manage species than the owl per se, but nonetheless most time off was spent chatting with other biologists about the issues.
the owl was instrumental in the reduction of timber production from pnw forests. but it was also a convenient scapegoat. the timber companies automated and started exporting and processing logs in asia and shipping them back here. i don't have the export statistics handy, but the numbers are significant. i think that any logger who wants to 'blame' the owl or environmentalists (or even a poor photographer just trying to take photos of cool critters) ought to take a look at the large corporations who laid them off before blaming anyone else. if we opened the forests back up to 'free for all' logging how long would the jobs last? we cut 94-97 % of our forests from about 1920 to 1990 in about 70 years, so if my math is correct, i think that would mean anywhere from about 2.1 to 4.2 years of employment. then what would we have to show for it but a total loss of a natural resource that will take centuries to renew.
sorry to get on the soap box, but i think it's something that i need to do more often
anyway dan, keep up the good work, and just avoid the timber towns, brookings should be fine.
Discussion
17 repliesMy booth has a conservation theme, without being preachy. Although, I think several factors contributed to lousy sales, in retrospect i wonder if just the sight of a spotted owl turned many potential customers off. I know Roseburg is one of many towns that have been hit hard by the owl controversy. I am not one to say we should never cut another tree down and damm loggers to hell, as a matter of fact I have a lot of sympathy for them.
Looking back, maybe I should be grateful no one vandalized my booth at night!
Where else should this newbie to the Pacific NW avoid? So far, Bend and Ashland have been very good to me. Anyone know if Brookings, OR will kick me to the curb? Should I remove the photo from my booth altogether?
The loggers and their wives had to get other jobs out of town (i.e. portland/vancouver) and so they did their grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, Costco and WinCo on their way home. Many other small businesses that relied on trade from the logging industry personnel went out of business too.
I care as much as the next guy about the environment, but when drastic steps are taken without any consideration for the effect on people's lives, the environmental cause acquires more enemies than friends.
But I would hope people coul still appreciate a wonderful photo, even if the topic is something that upsets them...but this is probably too much to ask.
I hope you'll consider out wonderful (huge) Sandy Mountain Festival - this July. The application deadline was the end of Match, but i bet you could still get approved if you wanted. If not, please share your great photos with us next year!
Sandy
http://www.sandymountainfestival.org/
http://www.pacifier.com/~smfa/artists/main.html
An old expression come to mind, "Perspective is often determined by whose ox is being gored"!
However, without dwelling on any other issue than the financial success of marketing and sales of an image, I suspect you (we all) should be guided by the principal of knowing your audience and meeting the needs of the same. As an analogy, you cannot expect to sell many sirloin burgers at a vegetarian gathering!
Trust you have better success at your next event.
Regards, Simon
And BTW Dan, I do like the photo... I wish there was more detail around the eyes, but it definitely shows how well he blends into his environment. And I'm kinda sorry for the little diatribe, but I was trying more to give you additional perspective than grind an axe... Many areas like Woodland have since mostly recovered, but there are still scars here and there, and the recovery was long and difficult.
The Spotted Owl finally made people look. They really hadn't done that before. You can't keep cutting old growth forever. An end HAD to come sooner or later, and the Spotted Owl just happened to be one thing (of many) that finally did it - and people latched on to it. Those mills, those towns, those people - it was all going to crash anyway because by the late 80's they had already cut 90% of available native forest not protected under the wilderness act.
Regardless of how each of us feels about the spotted owl issue, I happen to strongly agree with you, however, I think if you want to sell in any particularly market place you need to be aware of the audience/customer and their needs/wants in order to be financially successful.
Regards, Simon
Simon - I agree. Since I don't suspect Dan has any of those old shots of one-tree trucks going to mill, or decapitated Spotted Owls, I think avoiding Roseburg is a good idea.
Dan, if you look at a map of "blue" and "red" counties in Oregon, you'll see that the Willamette Valley, northern portions of the Coast and Deschutes County are left-leaning zones -- and Ashland in the Rogue Valley, where you live. Of course, most Oregonians live in these areas, so that's a good thing from a marketing standpoint! I would think you'd fare well with a conservation theme here in Portland.
-Tom
Curtis, I didn't take what you wrote wrong. Despite my belief that we need spotted owls(and their habitat), what your dad went through is as tough as it gets.
Sandy, thanks for the tip, I looked into the Sandy Mountain Festival earlier this year, but decided to test the waters closer to home first.
Marc, your comment "The Spotted Owl finally made people look. They really hadn't done that before. You can't keep cutting old growth forever. An end HAD to come sooner or later......." sums up my thoughts very well.
Simon, you are right on to figure out what your market is. My mistake!
As far as the town of Roseburg goes. Sitting at an art festival for three days gives you a good glimpse into who lives in any given town. Roseburg had the feel of a much more blue collar, conservative town than Ashland or Bend. At some point, I'll be anxious to check out Eugene, Corvallis and Portland(still never been here).
Tom, thanks for the summery on red and blue counties.
Blah, blah, blah....Thanks for the input everyone.
Sorry for the lack of sales. I've been doing art shows here and there...and one thing I noticed very clearly...you can never judge/predict your sales. You can show up 5 times to one area, and sell nothing, but the 6th time, you could walk away with either very large sales or some major contacts. I doubt your lack of sales had anything to do with the owl image...just a bad sales weekend. I'm sure it did offend some people, but where they going to buy one anyway? Not saying anything bad about your work, but just looking at practical probablility.
I grew up in Roseburg for about 15 years then moved up to PDX about 15 years ago. I love the Roseburg area, but to be honest...it was a hick town when I left. Believe it or not, when I was a DJ at a bar there, I was the first to introduce RAP and doing the MC Hammer "Running Man" dance! Well, it's changed/grown a lot since then, but the ol hick charm of a small town is still there (and I use the term hick in an endearing manor). I've also found that shows in small towns like Roseburg don't usually do as well as shows in larger towns or with more tourist traffic. I guess what I'd also like to say is dont give up on any area till you have a real proven track record of failed sales...not just one instance.
And for the image...great catch, but it doesn't pop enough for me. The owl is a bit dark and blends in with the tree too much.
As far as this image goes, it's far from technically perfect. Terrible, terrible light made pulling this one off difficult. It's more about what it represents.
first i respect that he had the guts to hang that photo up in a timber town even if he didn't know it at first. he kept the image up and stood his ground. i'm sorry you didn't have a good show but if it helps, i barely broke even too.
i was a wildlife biologist from 1996-2001 and deeply involved in this issue, most of the work i had done was with marbled murrelets and many other threatened and endangered wildlife and or survey and manage species than the owl per se, but nonetheless most time off was spent chatting with other biologists about the issues.
the owl was instrumental in the reduction of timber production from pnw forests. but it was also a convenient scapegoat. the timber companies automated and started exporting and processing logs in asia and shipping them back here. i don't have the export statistics handy, but the numbers are significant. i think that any logger who wants to 'blame' the owl or environmentalists (or even a poor photographer just trying to take photos of cool critters) ought to take a look at the large corporations who laid them off before blaming anyone else. if we opened the forests back up to 'free for all' logging how long would the jobs last? we cut 94-97 % of our forests from about 1920 to 1990 in about 70 years, so if my math is correct, i think that would mean anywhere from about 2.1 to 4.2 years of employment. then what would we have to show for it but a total loss of a natural resource that will take centuries to renew.
sorry to get on the soap box, but i think it's something that i need to do more often
anyway dan, keep up the good work, and just avoid the timber towns, brookings should be fine.
it was nice meeting you and your wife
cheers