• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

"BATEAUX, CHÂTEAUX, GÂTEAUX" Hanging done!

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi there
Yesterday was a tough day…
Together with Romain we did the hanging of the 40 prints (all to be the same size : 100x133 cm / 40"x52.4")…
Sounded nice to the first visitors… : )

I'm glad to post here some iPhone shots : )


IMG_6193.jpg


IMG_6189.jpg


IMG_6173.jpg


IMG_6177.jpg
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi Jerome
this gallery is the gallery of the Relais & Châteaux Saint-James in Bouliac (on the hill above Bordeaux).
You can see steps on the gravel, this is ours as we had to get there to hang the prints.
Normally one does not walk on the Gravel.
I suppose that the gravel is a deco from the architect Jean Nouvel who did a major refit of that place in 1989…
 

Andy brown

Well-known member
Nicolas. Excellent!
You must be very proud of this exhibition and what a great setting it is.

Sorry to change the subject for a moment but I do wonder. After photographing boats and food and The lovely châteaux for work, what do think you will photograph when your working days are over and you shoot just for fun?
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Nicolas. Excellent!
You must be very proud of this exhibition and what a great setting it is.

Sorry to change the subject for a moment but I do wonder. After photographing boats and food and The lovely châteaux for work, what do think you will photograph when your working days are over and you shoot just for fun?
Ah! What a good question Andy!
I've spent many many years in my professional life to show the beauty I see, because I've been and still be paid for that but also willing to share that with others.
This is embedded in my brain.
I am fully aware and feel concerned by all awful things and facts that human are facing, injustice , poorness, hunger, violence, thirst, war, unfortunately a no end list.
I could have used my skills (if any) to show this but many other are doing it and most of the time very well.
So, I wish and need to show the other face of the coin, other wise, give me a gun and I'll shoot myself.

Hence, I will continue, maybe only for selected clients and also for personal works, trying to sell these to but "du beurre dans les épinards".

Everything were I see beauty, humans, things, earth etc…
I've started already, Asher has seen a bit of this… : )

And you ?
 

Andy brown

Well-known member
Well, I'll try to be patient and look forward to your more esoteric wanderings. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the superb images you share with us.

Me, I get some minor income from photography, selling cards and books and I get the odd photo shoot for a couple of magazines.

I am currently trying hard to push myself in terms of my technical abilities and trying to open my eyes and senses to the artistic portrayal of what I see.
Part of pushing myself is to plan an exhibition of nature photography. I'm thinking of twelve months as my time frame. I already have feedback from a very good local gallery to do a show so I will be aiming for a good result, I want it to be exciting and visually stunning. I want jaws to drop but feel that realistically this work is in front of me, not something I've achieved as yet.
I've also set myself a target of a certain number of editors to pitch to in the next year (I've started already and have the usual rejections but also some excellent feedback and positive reactions).

It's all nature based stuff. I can actually shoot a reasonable portrait but nature is what excites me and it's where I'll continue to head.

Longer term, I'll stick my head underwater with a bloody big housing and live on the reef, only coming up for the odd coconut.

I do enjoy posting images here (the only place I do) because I know I can rely on honest and realistic feedback from a small but excellent group with miles and miles of experience and understanding.

Sometimes I feel the group here get a bit bored with some of my stuff, nature is not the preferred genre here I think but posting regularly is part of my M.O for my progress.

I have reached a slightly strange point where I'm starting to hold back some images for posting because I am saving them for particular projects and/or want to keep them a bit secret for now.

For instance, I sent off a set to an editor of a fine publication here in Oz and the editor replied along the lines of "lovely images but nothing I don't see regularly". This piqued my competitive nature and I shot a set the next morning which I think were unique and interesting (I've sent that set also and await a response). If they decide to run with these pics I feel I should keep them under wraps for now for my own sake and theirs.

Getting unique images is the hardest task in photography but is also completely achievable, just need to keep straining the brain.

Anyway, enough about me. Back to your fine work.
I noticed on your facebook feed some beautiful 'Gateaux' images.
We should see more of them here!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Getting unique images is the hardest task in photography but is also completely achievable, just need to keep straining the brain.


Andy,

I know I'm not alone in this, but your work always piques interest and nature is at the heart of our likes and dislikes in photography, but most of us have not taken a train outside a big city and just wandered around where wild grass or natural forrest meets the sky and hawks circle overhead looking for their next meal.

We are mostly urban and therefore a lot of pictures of things connected with out city and modern way of life. Still, beauty of human form and nature is fundamental as our reference points for everything each of us photographs.

We become good as street, wedding, portraits, objects and cityscapes, because that's what we are familiar with. Still it's refreshing to have among us Doug Herr and others to shoot birds and you and others to shoot landscapes. I will provide more of my work, I promise.

As to Nicolas, he has the Herculean task of maintaining a high and successful profile in a market for boats where there is much competition and only a few major companies with money that matters. The addition of architecture, especially the lifestyle that goes along with vineyards in the rich wine areas of France is a natural extension. But Nicolas also photographs life in Bangladesh in the "Watever" project and subtle art work with abstract writing with light as well as abstractions with the shadows on walls and plants and more.

So back to your love of nature. That is where your heart is and that's where your work will be best. Don't photograph for the editors, do it for your own soul. It will then have your marks all over it and be different, since you are different! Just cheat and ask "What is most surprising and impressive to me and what is the best context to show it in? Should I map it out now or come back at dusk?"

Everything has to be entirely selfish, attending to your own whims, wishes, angst and daring.

That Editor? He or she will eventually fall in love with your work when it represents a coherent world that is your own and has your signature on it!

Asher
 
Last edited:

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
IMG_6177.jpg




IMG_6182.jpg




IMG_6183.jpg




IMG_6192.jpg



Nicolas,

I admire, not just the photographs, which I will cover, I promise, but the presentation, itself is no small achievement. Assume one can assemble a great photograph collection to celebrate a great mansion and its grounds, but how does one fit this in?

Imagine this estate has, over the many decades, collected key pieces of furniture, rooms with a certain ambience and a flow that just fits their clientele and allow them to imbibe the Chateaux experience. There has developed, no doubt, a balance of every element in the entire estate, inside and out.

Up comes a giant delivery truck with some 30-80 photographs! Now what to do? One cannot simply invade the walls with all sorts of holes and French cleats to support the heavy frames.

So here I see a l ot of simple and clean solutions. Some pictures are suspended and others are held on very smartly made self supporting half walls with poles that are tightened against the ceiling and floor without doing damage. This is a a lot of work and only someone who has put up exhibitions can imagine the headaches working all this out and ending up with such a beautiful result.

The use of open white borders unifies the presentation and works with the numerous pieces of white furniture.

Fabulous!

Did you bring in a specialist for this?

Asher
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Hi Jerome
this gallery is the gallery of the Relais & Châteaux Saint-James in Bouliac (on the hill above Bordeaux).

I understood so much.

You can see steps on the gravel, this is ours as we had to get there to hang the prints.
Normally one does not walk on the Gravel.
I suppose that the gravel is a deco from the architect Jean Nouvel who did a major refit of that place in 1989…

I meant to ask where this was in the hotel. More specifically, if that room is underground or maybe an ancient barn.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Did you bring in a specialist for this?

Asher

Yes! Romain…

We were just Romain and I.
We prepared before in the office, which print to hang where.
It is the 3rd exhibition we fo there…
We have a very precise plan.

The difficulty was to treat equally all different "actors"/subjects.

The installation itself of the 40 prints took us about 6 hours, quite quick!

The hanging system (picture rail) is the same all the way through :
CLASSIC+.jpg

It is much more elegant and easy to use one rod only, and yes, the white border isolate the image from the surroundings…

Thanks for your kind comments!
 
Last edited:

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
I meant to ask where this was in the hotel. More specifically, if that room is underground or maybe an ancient barn.

The hotel is built on the side of a hill, there is a hallway deserving different parts, bar, restaurant, rooms, this hall way is really long and goes from up to down (the gravel part is on the lower level adjacent to the restaurant)
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Nicolas,

Did they keep the pictures in place or a few, or to the move to an entirely new collection?

Asher
 
Your images, as usual, as always exceptional, but my gosh, what a wonderful place to exhibit them. It's small rooms but they are modern yet very cozy and your wonderful work fits so well there. The current exhibit (Rouge) is exciting.. what a great idea! It's inspiring to me! :) Maggie
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Thank you Maggie, coming from you, I really appreciate the comments!
Yes it is a magnificent place to hold an exhibition!
The rooms aren't so small, (well some, yes) imagine that all prints are 4 x 3 feet…

Next exhibition in 2018 will also be about color(s) but shhhhh…
It will last all summer time
 
Top