Welcome to the new year and the first day of my 366 days of art. One of my resolutions this year, in addition to keeping up with my daily art making and sharing is to submit my art to more shows. I feel that i did a pretty good job of putting myself out there last year and want to expand on that and start entering even more shows in 2024. The more art i create, the more opportunities I’ll have to display that art. To get me started on this goal straight away, I photographed a couple of my recent pieces and submitted them to the Michigan Annual LI. Last year was the first year I submitted to this show, and i was lucky enough to have both my pieces accepted.

One of the reasons that I had not submitted art to this particular show before last year was my intimidation over taking photos of my art. So for this first post I thought I’d share my simple set up for photographing small sculptures for entry into shows. I have little resources available in the way of equipment, lighting or cameras, but thankfully the camera on my phone takes a good quality photo. As for a background, I use an office chair, hard cover book and a sheet of watercolor paper. My lighting is just the overhead fluorescent lighting in my basement. Not the greatest, but I can correct the color in my photo app on the phone to compensate for the poor lighting.

Once you have the backdrop set up on your chair you can place your art and photograph it from a variety of angles. I take a lot of shots so I can make sure I have three in different views which compliment each other well.

This is one of the pieces I am entering. I finished him last month and was excited how my first full sized head sculpture came out. I started way back in September, so he was a long time in the making. I am proud of him and hope to get to have the chance to put him on display.

What are some of your tips and tricks to photographing your work for entry into shows?