The last three years, I've spent several months and thousands of dollars chasing migrating birds and art festivals across the Northeast shore venues in hope of finding subjects and buyers, respectively, for my avian photography (also called "bird photography", but you can't charge as much if you call it that. ;-)
This year, thanks to a generous offer from the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor NJ (a prime spring migration spot), I was able to stay on-site for three weeks and let the migrating birds come to me. Then I drove back to Florida for a month to work up the best images before heading north for shows August through September. Rebranded as "Geoff Coe's Wild Images" instead of "Wild Images Florida", I'm now armed with a strong set of pix to sell to a wider range of Northeast buyers, rather than relying primarily on selling to Florida snowbirds in their summer homes.
At least, that's the plan. Two weeks in to the experiment, how's it going?
Petri Dish #1 was the Ocean City Boardwalk show on August 2-3-4. Run by the Ocean City Art Association, this show has been a summer staple for 51 years. And the consensus among the artists and customers I spoke with about the show's history, it's seen better days. Buy/sell, booths chock-full of manufactured beach trinkets and cheap jewelry compete with a few painters and an unbelievable number of photographers for the attention of passers-by who may--or may not--have had any awareness of the show before they began flip-flopping their way down the boardwalk.
Make no mistake, this show is a marathon: 7 AM Friday morning setup, followed by show hours of 10-8 Fri. and Sat. Sunday kicks off at 10 as well, but you could begin breaking down at 4 PM if you wished. ( I pounced on that deal.)
It's an inexpensive show to do (under $200), which helps to counterbalance the high hotel costs (I stayed in Vineland, NJ, an easy 45-minute drive away). The early-Friday-morning setup is difficult--pull up to the base of the boardwalk, dump your trailer contents on the curb, park ($15/day in one of the outdoor lots), then dolly 'til you drop, dodging throngs of bikers, joggers, and early-bird boardwalk strollers as you go. The show folks advise that you can start the process at 7 AM, but some folks were halfway set up by the time I arrived at 7:10.
In keeping with the mid-'90s appearance of the show's website, there's no email communication at all--everything is snail mailed, even though the application asks for your email address, and even though I specifically advised on the application that I'd be on the road, so email, please. As a result, I had no idea where my booth was when I got there. Unfortunately, I had no idea where any show organizers were, either. So I walked a block along the boardwalk until I got to the foot of the show and called loudly for an organizer. Some confusion ensued, since--as is usual--there is a craft show run by another group under the nearby portico. One of their organizers responded, bless her heart, but couldn't help me.
A couple of minutes later, an apologetic assistant organizer from MY show gave me my booth number--I was a long block away--and eventually I got set up in my space. It was a half-hour after the official 10 am opening time, but it didn't matter. No heat for my tardiness came from the show organizers. In fact, I didn't see a show official or volunteer all weekend.
There were three judges, and I'll give them credit: they worked hard, communicated with each other to discuss the merits of what they saw, and made a point to greet the artists and ask questions. The prize money wasn't big-time (in the two- and low three-digit range) but the check amounts were in keeping with the low booth fee.
There was also an artist dinner on Friday night in the boardwalk municipal building, immediately following the 8 PM zip-up. Most artists had finished eating by 8:25, but inexplicably, the awards ceremony hadn't started at 8:45. Having arisen at 5 AM, I gave up and left for my drive back to the hotel.
Was this show worth the aggravation? Well, maybe. I had developed a bit of a client base from my participation two years ago (you can read about that show, and the famous parking fiasco, here). Most of them came by, and a few of them bought. And enough new visitors came by to eke out a reasonable profit--a few hundred more than I made in 2012. But it was barely enough for 3 days of work.
This is a "filler show" at best: not one I'd travel a significant distance to do, but at least it put some bucks in the bank after doing only three shows since the end of April.
Week two (8/10-11), by comparision, was an artist's paradise, at the exceedingly well-run Rehoboth Beach Art League show. Go od to great sales for most artists, and quality off the charts on weekend one of this two-weekend show. I'll chime in next week with a full report.
been more successful than fine art. The best selling items tend to be in the $10.00 to $50.00 price range. 
