Printing James Dean

Magnum Photos recently posted this on Instagram:

Here's the final image:

And here's an overlay of the 2 images:

A Photographer on World Yoga Day

Yesterday was "World Yoga Day," and I saw this posted on Instagram:

I haven't done the middle one or the lower right, but I think I've done versions of the rest over the years...

Every Photograph from my Exhibition on Instagram

For the past 34 days (and for the next 10 days), I've been sharing one image each day from around my solo exhibition that recently came down from the Concordia Gallery. With each image, I also share a little "behind the scenes" info as well. Check it out by searching PhotoStenzel on Instagram!

Follow me here on Instagram.

Photography: "The Alignment of Fleeting Specificities"

Alec Soth posted something on Instagram recently that was worth saving and remembering. Here was the text, and the 2 images follow:

2002


2019

Final Moments of the 4 a.m. Exhibition

I posted this reel on @PhotoStenzel on Instagram this morning:

Direct link: youtu.be/3uAiQ0Wox4w

And currently, the gallery looks like this:

Thanks for everything, Concordia Gallery! It's been a fun month!

Here's my post about the opening reception, and here are some images from the gallery's Instagram from the opening.

Concordia Gallery's Photos from the Opening Reception of "4 a.m."

Last night, the Concordia Gallery posted this on their Instagram page (which is @cspgallery):

"Last week to visit Steve Stenzel's wonderful 4AM exhibition. Last day is Friday, March 25. Masks are now optional."

And here were some images they shared: [click each image to enlarge]

I love this because the 3 people in here are a trainer from my gym,
a former student of mine, and a friend from high school.

I'm so thankful to everyone who came to the opening, and I'm glad I got to see these photos of people enjoying my work. I actually hardly moved around the gallery at all at the opening as people were constantly coming up to me. It was strange and wonderful.

Many MANY recent posts are about the exhibtion and the prep to get to this point, but here are a few related links going back in time: a bit about the opening reception, getting ready to hang my work, some final prep, and printing some images.

The show comes down on Friday night! So see it in the next few days if you'd like: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Friday!

Instagram Reel from "4 a.m." Exhibition

I've started making reels. I feel like I'm 14 years old. Here's one that's a quick look at my 4 a.m. exhibition currently on view at Concordia University, and it's 16 quick videos from the show:

Watch on YouTube to go fullscreen.

Find me on Instagram as PhotoStenzel.

Instagram: Years Past

An Instagram Experiment

I started my Instagram account about 4 years ago. About 2 years ago, I had 400 followers. And as of a few months ago, I had 800 followers. (So it's grown pretty linearly long-term over these last 4 years.) I mainly used it as a place to dump images, and I wasn't really active at all on Instagram. Around March 20th, I thought I'd try to be a bit more engaging and see "where that got me." So I started clicking on hashtags randomly and would "like" many photos from strangers (not people I had already followed).

Doing that just off-and-on for a bit gained me 100 followers in 20 days.

And then another 100 followers in the next 20 days.

So I was up to 1,000 followers on May 1st. Throughout this process, I would "like" more than I would comment (by FAR), but if I liked a photo enough to want to leave a comment, I made sure the comments were specific enough to not seem like a copy/pasted comment that I could be leaving on hundreds of photos. I found myself following more local people who made interesting photos. And I enjoyed tunneling through all kinds of hashtags and following them down random rabbit holes - especially locally based hashtags.

After posting something specific, I made sure to interact with similarly tagged images over the next few days. So that meant a lot of "North Shore"-based hashtags after have 3 posts about Lake Superior. And then a lot of Minneapolis-based hashtags after posting some images from downtown. That way, people who I were interacting with who were curious about my page would come see things that might be interesting to them.

I discovered something everyone knows: smaller/local hashtags appear more infrequently, but might get you to something more interesting to you. And larger hashtags are so broad and so very commonly used that you might be seeing everything.

But I've noticed that I've gained more followers while interacting with "bigger" hashtags, like #photography #photographer #nightphotography and #longexposure for example.

However, I ENJOY looking at work with "smaller/local" hashtags, like #minnesotaphotographer #minnesotaartist #northshoremn #captureminnesota etc.

Just for fun (and because I had a number of car appointments, vet appointments, and lots of extra time spent waiting around), I hit Instagram extra hard over the last few days. So hard that Instagram "stopped" me 2 times for a bit thinking I was maybe a bot:

I think that just happens when you hit up ONE hashtag too much. If you keep looking through (and liking) different hashtags, it doesn't seem to happen. I could still use the app normally during that time, but I just couldn't keep liking images. I was good to go again after an hour or two.

After being much more active, I was up to 1,138 followers as of last night:

I gained 138 followers in less than 4 days by just being active on Instagram. (Overall, that's nearly 250 followers gained in less than 2 months of this down-time experiment.) There's no secret. Comment on images you like, "like" posts with hashtags that interest you, and people might come see what your page is all about.

The PRO of these last 6 weeks are that I've stumbled across more local photographers that I've followed. (I wish I knew how many people I followed before starting this, because I wonder how much that has risen... maybe by 20-30 people?)

The CON of doing this over the last 6 weeks is that Instagram has started to feel like a bad moblie game. It has the feel of a game where you don't really get anywhere, but you're still spending time to get there. Like a game where you keep playing to keep upgrading so you can keep playing. And there's a percentage of people who only follow you with the hopes that you will follow them back - if I'm off Instagram for a few days, my follower count will drop a bit as those people have given up on me.

So, if you're interested in gaining more followers on Instagram, just be active. After searching for a topic, refresh the "recent" tab of hashtags to see brand new images waiting for likes and comments. And then interact! Happy scrolling!

Oh yeah, and follow me on Instagram at photostenzel.

Instagram: Don't Fail Me Now!

I posted this on Facebook earlier this week:

I rolled up to the State Fairgrounds at 4:00 this morning. The police officer working the only open gate didn't care to see my driver's license or either of my faculty IDs. What "worked" was scrolling through my Instagram page full of 4 a.m. photos.

"Well, that's the strangest thing that I've ever let pass as 'credentials,' but head on in and make your photos" he said. Thanks officer!

And that's the EXACT reason I started a second Instrgram account 4 years ago: it's the easiest way to "prove" I'm legitimately making photos in the middle of the night, and not up to other nefarious activities. (And I sometimes get into places the general public isn't allowed into - the "drive through" snow and ice sculpture park didn't open until tonight.)

And I just HAD to add this as a comment on the post:

But truly, that was the main intention of starting an Instagram page for my 4 a.m. work. Literally the day Instagram updated and I found out that they allowed more than 1 Instagram page per user, I added a new account. When I was making photos around the Metro surrounding the killing of Geroge Floyd, I always made sure to have my phone on me with Instagram ready to go in case anyone questioned what I was doing.

Oh, and the Instagram page for St. Paul tourism asked if they could repost that image later the same day:

Find me as "PhotoStenzel" on Instagram if you're interested!

Two Fun Teaching Photos

Last week, I took my Digi Photo II class to the Minneapolis Photo Center. The next day, I posted this on Facebook:

I took my Advanced Photo class to the Mpls Photo Center yesterday, and they were blown away. They loved the place: the darkrooms, the digital lab, the lighting studios, and the building itself. I forget that Hamline University isn't the same sort of fine arts university like CVA was - these students hadn't been exposed to artist's studios/lofts or any sort of modified/renovated warehouse spaced like MPC. THEY wanted to take a class photo in a back corner of one of MPC's lighting studios, so Austin (far left) snapped this and sent it to all of us. (One student is missing.)

[And another comment I had to leave on that photo on FB:] Oh, I forgot to mention that they were AMAZED by the revolving darkroom door. They thought that was the coolest thing ever. I helped them all through, and then when I went through myself, someone said "you can do that BY YOURSELF?!?" Too funny.

And a few weeks ago, I posted this photo on Instagram of the notes from the whiteboard after my Digi Photo I class:

Caption: "This day. This will always be my favorite day
in my photography courses. #NerdAlert #Photography #Professoring"

Sidenote: just yesterday, I started a new Instagram account for my 4 a.m. photos (being my "normal" Instagram account is all "Dad photos"). Follow my new page on Instagram: @photostenzel

Review of "Chatbooks" - Easily Print a Book From Your Instagram Photos

I surprised my wife with a Chatbooks subscription for Valentines Day. I had 14 books from my Instagram feed printed and shipped to us:

My first Instagram pic of my first son pulling himself up
for the first time on the cover of our first Chatbook.

Chatbooks is an app you can install that syncs to your Instagram account. (You can also do something through Facebook and something through your "favorites" folder on your iPhone, but I haven't done that, so I can't speak about either of those options.) For $8 (INCLUDING SHIPPING) they will take the Instagram photos you select and print 60 in a book in chronological order. You can choose to have them include date, location, and caption if you wish.

Our first 7 books.


A look back nearly 5 years ago to a trip to the Minneapolis Institute
of Arts with my (then) 11-month-old (now kindergartener).

And every time you have enough Instagram photos to make a new book, they will automatically print and ship a new one for you. (My understanding is that they give you time to edit it or take out photos you don't want in it before it's printed.) They're always just $8.

Here's a QUITE hilarious video that tells you how it works. PARENTS, YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS:


Direct link: youtu.be/PTTs7ewuDY8

PROS:

- It's easy. As the video says, there's no formatting. Just select the photos you want.

- It's automatic. They'll keep printing/sending if you want them to.

- When you start you account, you can choose to get all your "old" books right away (like the 14 I just got), or you can space them out. There are different options like getting 1/month or 5/month until you're caught up. And being shipping is free, there's no extra cost to do that.

- It prints horizontal and vertical images just fine. I wasn't sure if it would crop everything to a square, but it didn't. It printed the photos the original way they were published on Instagram.

- You can choose if you want to show date, location, and or caption. Because I don't tag too many locations, I took that one off and left date and caption on.

- The cover photo defaults to the first photo in the book, but that's easily changed. I changed a few of my books, and left some with the cover being the first photo as well.

- It's pretty quick to get started. My Instagram account has nearly 2000 photos, and I got it down to just over 800 pretty quickly. (I could have spent a LITTLE more time fine-tuning it, but they still all look good.) And now it will be easy to stay caught up with future books.


CONS:

- You can't override any of the formatting. There were 2 places (among the 800+ pages of my 14 books) that I would have liked to have adjusted things myself, but you can't.

- You have to start from the BEGINNING of your Instagram account. You can't just select a random selection of photos to make a book, and then make a different book with different sections. (If that makes sense.) You have to start from the beginning and work through chronologically. Now I think there's a way around this that I just haven't explored - I think you can make a "custom" book with random photos, but again, I haven't tried that yet.

- Shipping/printing is slow. This really isn't a big deal, but it's worth noting if (you were like me and) you want to get your "old" books by a certain date. Like Valentine's Day. You can spend an extra $2/book to get it sped up, but at this point, I don't care how fast the books come once they're made.

- Some emojis don't print. OH THE HORROR!! Here's an example of emojis that WORKED and emojis that DIDN'T:

The heart and swimmer emoji turned out fine...


... but the American flag didn't come through.

NEUTRAL: (issues that aren't good or bad, but things I'd like to point out)

- Print quality is fine. It's not the best, but it works.

- Paper thickness is good. It's what it needs to be for books that size, without being SUPER sturdy.

- This is for "cute" photos (good for your family or possibly for gifts for your kid's grandparents), and doesn't have a real "professional" application. Don't make a "photo book" of your work with this book. Make an album of your cute kids, your travels, etc.

From 2.5 years ago: my youngest when he was just 2 months old.

Bottom line: I like my subscription and will continue getting books made. I average about 1 Instagram post/day, and once I edit out what I don't need printed, I would suspect I'd have 60 pics every 90-120 days or so. That's 3-4 books/year, which is $24-$32/year to have my favorite family photos archived in print. Totally worth it! Thanks Chatbooks!

"Nerdy" Week of Class

I posted this last week on Instagram:

Caption: "After my favorite nerdy week of class, we looked at some
old photos. (Dead baby photo in the lower left.)"

I love that week of class. I get so nerdily excited about teaching this stuff.

Making Frames

Nearly 2 weeks ago, I started making some frames, and I finished them up about a week ago. (One of them is for a piece in upcoming exhibition in CO at "The Center for Fine Art Photography.") Here's some photos from the process.

Sorry everyone else shopping at Menards, but I picked over their poplar stock PRETTY well.


At the Hamline University woodshop.


From my Instagram: "Playing in the woodshop. Making some frames for an upcoming exhibition."


After a pass through the table saw.


Safety selfie.


After 2 passes through the table saw.


Final frame (and mat) dimensions for the piece for the CO exhibition.


The large frame and 1 of the small frames mitered, assembled, and puttied (just the nail holes).


Another Instagrammed photo: "A 32"x41" frame for an upcoming show in CO,
and three 22"x28" frames. Puttied, sanded, and ready to be finished!"


Some tight joints.




Hanging out in my office for the weekend.

After they spent a few days in my office, I hauled them home, wiped them down, and laid them out for finishing in my garage:

Wiping on a coat of tung oil. The difference is subtle, but I like the way it gently
"warms up" the frames. (Coated on left, not on the right.)


Before / after.


Before / after.


After drying for a day.

Check out my last post for some photos of the large print that will be going in the biggest frame for the exhibition at "The Center for Fine Art Photography."