joe menth

We know.  It's frustrating.  You get a fancy new toy (read: camera!) and take it out of the box.  It's shiny.  All kinds of chrome-y plastic-y goodness.

And then you turn it on, leave it on AUTO, and start shooting.

While most digital cameras these days - yes, even those fancy-pants new pocket auto-everything point-and-shoots - can, and will, take pretty good pictures straight outta-the-box, there's still something greatly lacking in the way that most folks actually take the shot.

You know what we mean.  The self portraits scattered all over the interwebs on Facebook and everywhere else.  The kinda-artsy but still kinda badly composed macro flower shots that would be that much better if only the background was thrown out of focus. The sweeping scenic views...that just happen to have your goofy looking family half-way out of the frame, trash on the ground in front of the epic beach, and a blown-out sky that you swore was a gorgeous life-changing sunset when you were there.  Right?

Ok, well, photography takes practice.  The first thing: take it off of "auto" and learn a bit about exposure.  Learn a bit about composition.  Get some good glass and learn why wide-open apertures make your photos look that much more like what the pros get.

Don't know what an aperture is? Never fear, we'll make it a painless process......because FBIStudios is now offering classes!  Yes classes!  You know, those delightful educational opportunities that we've been talking about for five years?!

Well, we finally got our proverbial, er, stuff together, and we're putting on the first Beginning Photography class in just one week!

Register Here!

Here's the scoop (lazily copy/pasted from our very first ever email invitation using one of those nifty ConstantContact systems!)

Is your new camera stuck on the "Auto" setting?  Do you wish that what you see is really what your camera gets?

Come to Beginning Photography Tips and Concepts - Learn pro-level tricks without worrying about the technical stuff.  And, learn the technical stuff too without getting overwhelmed.

We'll simply help you to create better pictures.

Increase your understanding of photography & decrease your frustration with simple techniques and tricks.

Get the basics for both digital and film - even a few tips that experienced photographers will appreciate:

• exposure settings
• focusing
• depth-of-field
• composition
• camera handling
• lens selection
• accessories such as tripods and filters.

For students of all levels - get more consistent results.
REGISTER TODAY TO RESERVE
YOUR SPOT IN THIS CLASS.
Space is limited to 20.

For any questions regarding this or other classes offered by Fine Balance Imaging Studios, please contact us via email or phone.

Thank you for your interest in this new series of educational offerings from FBIStudios.  More classes and workshops coming soon!

Pretty exciting, eh?  Yeah, we finally did it.  For real.

And the list of classes coming up is pretty awesome too:

• Adobe Lightroom: Organizing, Processing, and Playing with your photos
• Adobe Photoshop: Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced classes and multi-week-courses for all experience levels
• Photographic Studio Lighting, Portrait Lighting and Composition tips and techniques, and other hands-on workshops in our very own brand-spankin'-new photo studio (soon to be relocated to our new classroom space at the Bayview Cash Store!)
• Social Media and Marketing: getting a handle on all the Facebooking Tweeting Blogging stuff...mostly for business-owners and artists, so it becomes a marketing vehicle instead of a big ol' time-sink...
• And....last but not least....Printing!  because that's what we do best.   We'll be offering classes on Alternative Printing Techniques, Printing Transfer Techniques, and all kinds of cool and alternative ways to play with your art using some of the new technologies, papers, and the like...

Got an idea for a class or workshop you think we should teach?  Shoot us an email or drop a line...maybe we'll add it later this summer or fall.

Over two dozen local Whidbey artists and photographers are exhibiting their diverse styles and mediums in a unique show at Bayview Corner, which started on February 1st.

We offer this opportunity for our clients once a year as a "Thank You" for their support.  Their support, you wonder?  How do they support us?  It's for allowing us to come in to work every day looking forward to seeing their amazing art.  We love talking with incredible artists, being inspired by the conversations and friendships that have formed, and getting the chance in life to make a living doing something we're truly passionate about.

So this is how we say Thank You.  Once a year, we host a gallery show, handle the marketing, coach artists through finishing and framing their work (and pricing!  hoo

boy...that's a big one - believe it or not, most artists have no idea how to price their work...so we try to help with that too), and throw a big reception party for them...

What's different about this show?  Well...here's the kicker:  the artists get to be in a gallery show...without the usual gallery fees – 100% of the sales go directly to the artists.  If they sell their work, they keep the money.  None of this 30, 40, 50...even 60% commission that galleries usually take.  Nope.  Won't have it.  Artists get all of the money from their sales.  Because we love them, and they deserve it.  We wouldn't be here without them...it's the least we can do.

Another thing that makes this art show different from most others is the obvious one, since, you know, we're a printing studio:  all pieces shown are giclée fine art reproductions. Giclées are considered by many high end galleries and museums to be of the same visual quality as the original art. Works shown at the Seattle Art Museum for many exhibits, including reproductions of some paintings in the recent Michaelangelo exhibit, were created using the very same process FBIStudios uses for local Whidbey artists. Many galleries offer these prints as viable alternative to highly-priced original works of art, but at a much higher level of quality and accuracy than traditional limited edition prints of the past.

A little aside, for those that may not yet know:  What is a giclée fine art reproduction?  Well, we wrote up a little history and terminology bit for you, titled (what else?), "What is a Giclée?"...it's a PDF and you can get it on the Fine Balance Imaging Studios website any time if you don't want to click through now.

But if you don't feel

like reading that, here's the basics: a giclée is a fine art print produced on real watercolor paper, canvas, or other substrate, using pigmented inks.  Yeah, it's pretty much a fancy marketing term.  Believe it or not, they were going to be called "digigraphs" by their originators, but that idea quickly tanked because pro photographers at the time (15-20 years ago) knew nothing of "digital" - the only thing digital in their world was their wristwatches...so, the creators of the first "digigraphs" quickly scrambled to rename them "giclée", because, well, it sounds foreign and fancy, and sells better than "digigraphs".  And it (giclée) means "to squirt or spray", you know, in French, so that kinda makes sense with all the ink squirting or spraying onto the paper to make the print (and you thought it was called an inkjet because it used jets?  Ha!  Nope, it should've been called an inksquirt printer...but I bet those wouldn't have sold as well).  But I digress.  A lot. Get used to it.

So now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

In any case, these archival prints will resist fading for over 200 years, decades longer than the offset lithograph process.  In fact, most giclée prints will outlast original watercolor paintings as well as traditionally printed photographs!

Ok, so back to the show...or should I be saying, "On with the show..."?

The featured artists represent all skill levels, and many different kinds of original mediums, including acrylics, watercolors, photographs, oil paintings, and mixed media collages.  Some of these artists are internationally famous, while others are just beginning their careers in art.  The artists range from 10 to 80 years of age!  And they're not all islanders either - while the majority of the 500+ artists we've worked with are Whidbey Islanders, most from around the Langley area, we've actually spread out quite a bit, and now have clients in all four corners of the country - Alaska, New York, Florida, and California.  Ok...so we don't have anyone from Florida in this year's show, but we do have a number of artists from around the Puget Sound area.  And there's some pretty cool stuff this year - some artists are really pushing the limits of what can be done with the giclée process, printing on metal and fabric and doing collages and stitching and assemblages and...well, you get the idea.  When the gallery show launches on the 19th, we'll post some of the new images here.

The Fourth Annual Gratitude Giclée Print Art Show, sponsored by Fine Balance Imaging Studios will run from February 1 – 28 in the Hub, as well as February 19 – 28 in the Open Door Community Gallery, located at the Bayview Cash Store, 5603 Bayview Road, Langley.  On February 20^th, an Artists' Reception will be in the Gallery from 5:00 to 8:00pm.  Call 221-2707 for information or email info@fbistudios.com."