Website & Show Updates

Hello everyone! Some updates for y’all!

Website:

First of all, I’m updating some things in preparation for my show upcoming in November. I want to make sure all the photos I have prints of are in my portfolio. I am also checking to make sure all photo descriptions are complete. Other than that, I am making some small tweaks

The second website is that I’ll be adding a photo project I’m working on. I doubt many people are interested in, but I have been having fun with. I call it Tails of LAX. Essentially, I am trying the capture the tail of every aircraft used by every airline that flies into LAX. It’s pretty much and impossible task due to some airlines only having flights at night or, as in the case of Frontier, every aircraft has a different. I’ve already been highlighting these on my Jeff Gacad Aviation Photos Instagram. Be sure to follow me there as well.

RAW Artists show:

Reminder, it’s coming up November 7th at Los Globos on Sunset in Silverlake/Los Angeles. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at rawartists.com/jeffgacadphotography

I’m finalizing my space and have almost completely gotten everything set up. I pretty much just have my table and lighting to go. I hope to see some of you there!

Second RAW Artists Show!!!

Well, I booked my second RAW Artists Show, this time in Los Angeles!! I super excited about this one. Because of my last show, I don’t have as much prep to do. Also, I am making some changes because of what I saw other artists do at the last show.

Here are the changes for this show:

• All my framed print will be 11 x 14 and in the same frame

• I will be having a contest where antendeess will be able to win a matted 8 x 10 framed print .

Here are the contest rules:

1. Winner must be in attendance (unless I know them and can personally deliver the prize)

2. An entry will be given for different things

   1. 2 entries for each ticket purchased

   2. 2 entries for each framed print purchased

   3. 1 entry for each matted print purchased

   4. 1 entry for an Instagram follow (current followers can show me at the show)

   5. 3 entries for acrylic print purchase

I’m thinking about doing the drawing at around 9:30 or so. I figure this will be a popular addition. Just like the last show, I am required to sell tickets at $30 each. However, I don’t need to sell as many and like last time, I get an amount of each ticket sold over 15. Hopefully, I’ll be able to meet my quota. I haven’t sold any yet, but it’s only be about two weeks.

If you would like to attend see/purchase my art as well as other local artists go to www.rawartists.com/jeffgacadphotography to purchase tickets. It’s sure to be a great show and it’ll be good timing for people looking to purchase Christmas gifts! I hop to see you there!

Utah Road Trip

Today I made the trek from SoCal to southern Utah. Hoping to visit a variety of National Parks in the area as well as other sights. Unfortunately, two of my top places are not going to happen. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is closed for the winter and will not be open until May. Booo. I also wanted to visit Vermillion Cliffs, but apparently it you have the ability to go off-roading, so that is no longer an option either. Oh well. Hopefully I ‘ll add some new photos soon!

First RAW Artist Show!!

I guess its a bit late, but I’m showcasing at my first RAW Artist show tomorrow! It’s been quite a journey, but it’s finally happening! I’ve spent a lot of time and money preparing for this show and hopefully it shows. I’ll do another blog afterwards, but I just wanted to do this quick post. Also, if it goes well, I may be doing a show in LA!!!!! Stayed tuned!

Happy Pride Month!

As an ally to LGBTQ+ people, I just wanted say a quick Happy Pride Month! Here’s hoping that one day everyone will be given equal rights and everyone will be love whoever they want. #loveislove #proudally

Welcome to the New New

Just wanted to write a quick note to welcome everyone to my freshly renewed website. I’ll probably be still making some tweaks, but I’ve added lots of photos and some format changes. Let me know what you think!!

It's Been Awhile...

Greetings! It’s been a minute. I haven’t posted in a while or updated this site in general. The last several months have been brutal. Work has been ridiculously busy and I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked to take photos up update this page. I did do some photography in Laguna Beach, Death Valley and Monterey/Big Sur. I haven’t had much time to edit, As I get get more time to edit, I’ll add more. In the meantime, please follow my Instagram @jeffgacadphotography to see some more recent images. As always, thank you for your continued support.

Love/Hate...Social Media

How to use social media as a creative is something I’ve struggled with since I started taking my photography seriously. It’s been very much of a love/hate relationship. Social media is essential for creatives, but I feel like it’s been something that I have just not been able to make click for me.

Facebook was the first foray into social media for my photography. When I first started using it for my photography, I created a page for it. It started off ok. I used to post many of my photos there and I had a pretty decent following and interactions. I soon learned that many people didn’t enjoy the photos I liked taking the most and pivoted to create seperate pages for those (I still do them, but I rarely post/share). At some point, Facebook change the algorithms for their pages. Images views dropped like a rock. I got very few new members. Interactions (likes/comments) essentially evaporated. That is when Facebook started sending me messages that I could PAY to get more views from my page SUBSCRIBERS!!! Sorry, but that is complete B.S. I took a poll and 90% of my page subscribers NEVER saw anything I posted. I decided to transition to a group instead. This started doing well and I believe I actually had more members than I did on my page. I encourages members to participate in photo challenges and it was fun. At some point, Facebook again nerfed the algorithm so that I suddenly started to have very few views and interactions. I grew extremely frustrated with Facebook and ended up shutting everything down. The only presence I have there now is if I post anything on my personal page.

Next is Vero. This was supposed to be the next great social media hub for creatives. I really loved the format and user interface. It was my favorite social media platform I’ve used to date. Unfortunately, it never caught on with, well, pretty much anyone. Another fail.

Instagram has probably been my most consistent platform to use. Although I have somewhat recently scrubbed it and restarted it, it’s what I’ve put the most time and effort into. I currently have my main page as well as seperate ones for my surf photography and aviation photography. I don’t use the latter two much, but I have a lot of backlogged images for those two. Instagram, however, has been a source of frustration as well. I realize it’s not supposed to be about the likes or followers, but it’s a little about the likes or followers. You can’t build a brand or reputation without either. Getting new followers has been a struggle. I’ve been stuck at around 350 for about the last year. In February or March, I decided to make it a goal to get to 500. I’m still at the same number. I see other photographer’s page who I believe have vastly inferior content who have 3-5 times the number of followers that I do. For the life of me, I have no idea how to get more followers and get my content in front of new eyes. I use quite a number of hashtags, way more than I care to, and I get a couple new followers with every few posts. I usually lose a few as well which I why the numbers stay stagnant. I am really at a loss here, but I guess I’ll keep trudging along.

Finally, we have Twitter. Earlier this year, I really made and effort to create and maintain a Twitter page for my photography. In many podcasts, I’ve heard this has been a great place for photographers. I have not found that to be the case. I rarely use it now.

So there we have it. I really don’t know where to go withy this, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to give me suggestions.

Inside in Image #1

First off, sorry. I already missed the first of the weekly blogs. It’s going to happen, but hopefully I won’t miss them too often in the future…

Comet NEOWISE, Laguna Beach, CA / 15 July 2020

I thought I’d start with an image that I don’t believe I have posted on here. In July 2020, those of us space nerds were gifted with a newly discovered comet. Like many others, I spent a couple weeks chasing it, trying to get some great images. I tried three different locations: Signal Hill, CA, Laguna Beach, CA and Joshua Tree National Park. I definitely got the best images in Joshua Tree, but the ones in Laguna Beach were the most fun and surprising.

After going to Signal Hill with some friends the night before with very poor results (very faint due to light pollution), I decided to go to Laguna Beach to make an attempt. After some research, I figured that for a short amount of time after sunset, I should be able to capture it next to the famous pirate tower. I got there before sunset and it was pretty crazy as usual…sunset photographers, wedding photographers, engagement photographers, Quinceanera photographers, etc. It was a madhouse, but that’s nothing new for that spot. I was able to sneak in a few images at sunset, but otherwise it was a lost cause. I had to wait a bit anyway until the comet was supposed to be visible.

In order to estimate where the comet would be, there are a couple apps I utilize, PhotoPills and more so, Stellarium. These are a couple of the apps I use for planning for many of my astrophotography and I’ll probably talk about these in future. I knew it was going to be visible just to the left of the tower, but would be setting below the horizon after and hour or two. I set up my camera in the direction I estimated it should be. I couldn’t see anything, but I knew it should be in the general vicinity. Finally, I saw a little smudge. I zoomed in and realized I found it. I adjusted my composition and settings and was able to get a number of nice images including this one. In fact this was one of the last ones I was able to get that night. The comet never was visible to the naked eye, but it proved to me that there could be potential for future images including the possibility of Milky Way images in that location (I’ve actually seen some from there).

I was finally able to see it the following week in Joshua Tree and I got some great images from there. It was a pretty fun couple of weeks in an otherwise dreary Covid filled summer.

I hope you enjoyed this view “Inside the Image”. Be sure to check back often for more blogs. Also, feel free to comment and maybe drop a “like”…it would mean a lot!!

The Desert

The Desert. People ask me why I have a thing about the desert and so it’s made me think about it. Why is it that I am drawn to the desert?

To me, I think the easiest answer is that it’s different. I grew up on the East Coast, suburban Philadelphia to be specific. Forests, mountains, fields…greenery. That’s what I’ve been used to. I’m also used to suburban and city life. When I moved to California over eleven years ago, I got my first experience with the desert. On my drive across the country, I drove through Utah, Arizona and Nevada before entering eastern California. It was like nothing I had ever seen. I wasn’t used to the barrenness, the ruralness and the brownness. I guess at that point, it didn’t really draw me in too much because it was many years later that I took my first trip specifically to the desert, but we’ll get into that more later.

Photography was what really drew me to the desert. When I moved to California, I wasn’t much of a photographer. I liked taking photos, but that was mostly done on my phone and sometimes on my Olympus point and shoot. At some point several years later I started to be interested in doing more photography and finally in 2017 I got a proper DSLR. Watching YouTube, trying to learn photography, I came across photos from Joshua Tree. Since Landscape photography was something I was interested in, I realized I needed to go. On my first trip there, I fell in love with it. Joshua Tree is my happy place. I’ve since gotten into astrophotography, camping and hiking. I am now a proud Annual Passholder there.

I’ve since been to some other deserty areas such as Alabama Hills and Death Valley. Death Valley has also drawn me in and I’m super intrigued by it. I’m planning my first camping/photo trip there this fall. I also got an Annual Pass there too (I know I could’ve gotten a all parks pass, but I like supporting these National Parks individually). Some other places on my list are Arches National Park, Zion National Park, Capital Reef, Sedona National Park, Saguaro National Park and White Sands, National Park.

There is nowhere that I have found that has better sunsets, darker skies, more unique plants and cool critters. Now, when anyone asks why I am drawn to the desert so much, I have a answer I can give them.

New Blog Format

Welcome to my new blog format. I’ll keep this part short and sweet before the actual blog. I wanted to use this in a different way. I’ll probably do some news and updates occasionally, but I think I’d like to do more telling stories…maybe about things I like or maybe about a particular image I’ve taken. I’m going to try and post a new one every Friday..at least I’ll try my best to!