So thanks to everyone who brought me prints, or dropped them at Iris. The prints have been collected and handed over to the most awesome crew at Pack Memorial Library in downtown Asheville. Here’s what’s happening:

Posting the prints:

Tammy Silver and her colleagues have already begun printing pages for the mounting of your photographs. With the blessing of library director Ed Sheary, the library group plans to mount about 150 photos and put them in the windows along the library hall leading to the parking, and possibly windows out front.

Tammy said she expects that photos to start going up next week some time. She’ll let me know, and I’ll let you guys know. The photos will be posted for about one month.

This is a massive, time-consuming undertaking. Endless thanks to the library staffers for their support of Day in the Life of Asheville.

How you can help:

The library folks need window washers. They need volunteers to wash and clean old tape off the windows. They’ll let me know. It will probably be early next week.

The reception:

The library staff is open to us throwing a reception. They say nobody else has done it, so we’ll be the first. So we get to set the bar!

The library closes at 8 p.m. every day except Friday, when it closes at 6. So an after-work reception on a Monday-through-Thursday sounds good. We need to pick a date when the Asheville Civic Center doesn’t have a big event, because lots of folks park in the center deck and crowd the hallway on event nights.

The library will provide tables. No chairs. We probably need to focus on finger food - light and easy to clean. Drinks, but no alcohol, on county-owned property.

Music - a boombox? A local musician or two to volunteer, since we don’t have any money?

Wireless - the county is installing a localized wireless system. It looks like it will be functional by the time we get our reception together, so if people want to bring laptops to look at photos, they should be able to use the library wireless.

Hi folks,

Judging is complete for Day in the Life of Asheville.Bill Sanders has finished is picks today, and Rob finished his picks last Sunday.

So let’s start the clock ticking for submission of prints: Deadline will be Tuesday, May 13. Get your prints amde as 8×10s or as near as possible; glossy; no borders.

As far as I know, the discount deal is still on at Iris on Merrimon - 10 percent off if you mention Day in the Life, i think. 

I’ll confirm that you can leave your prints at Iris. You can also drop them off with me at the Miles Building, 2 Wall Street, downtown Asheville.

Might be good to have one more location serve as a drop-off point for photos. Any ideas?

Looks like 111 photos were chosen by the judges. That, plus another 70 or so for each individual photographer’s pick. That means close to 200 photos to put up. Not to mention a selection of Citizen Camera photos that I’ll get printed.

Everyone, please meet the deadline so we can get these photos up! 

As part of the Day in the life of Asheville project we put several disposable cameras around town for anyone to use. The results are on Flickr in the account of Citizencamera! Check it out. All but one camera are up as of 4/28, and I’m out of bandwidth in the Flickr account until May. So stay tuned…

Clark Mackey

Thanks everyone for your participation! The 36 hour shooting window was a big success and the photos are already coming in to the Flickr group. Let’s see those pictures before the Wednesday deadline!

If you need help sorting through thousands of images, well, you’re on your own. Mostly.

Here is a helpful discussion for getting the photos uploaded, tagged, and contributed to the project: http://www.flickr.com/groups/diloashvegas/discuss/72157604580862365/

Need a link to the Flickr group? A link to all the DITLO photos on Flickr (not just the ones you are adding to the group)?

Sincerely,
Clark Mackey

While Jason and Clark string up some disposable cameras to place in various places around town, Peter does a last minute gear check and Anne strolls back to the table.
High Noon, and DITLOA is up and running.

Okay, you are ready.

Are you?

Last minute things which will mess you up…

1. Batteries. Charged? Extra ones?

2. Film (whatever that is… j/k Clark) lots of it

3. Sensor cleaned? Lenses ready?

4. Weird stuff. Change for meters, business cards, various camera accouterments (accoutermoux?) velcro… lots of velcro.

5. Destinations

6. Subject matter. Hey, we live in Asheville, we have loads of that, right?

Most importantly, go out and have fun and take pictures of it all.

The Day in the life of Asheville photo art/documentary project is this weekend and we want you to participate.

++Date and time: 12:00 PM (noon) April 18th through 12:00 AM (midnight) April 19th

++Location: Asheville, NC city limits or shoot inside the symbolic Asheville area (intentionally subjective).

++What: Photographers (YOU) make images of and in Asheville, NC for the benefit of all.

++How? You take pictures during the times above, upload them to Flickr with the appropriate tags, and submit them to the Flickr group. Local judges will select a set of images to be printed and displayed at the Pack Library. The images that make it to the Library exhibit will be donated to the Pack library image catalogue (digital versions).

++Deadlines:All images must be taken/exposed during the set times of the event. Images that you submit to the project must be uploaded to the Flickr site before 12:00 AM, midnight, April 23rd. Further details for the results of the judging and submitting your prints will be available on www.ditlo.org(and here) during the week after the event.

++Number of photos:Each participant can submit up to 16 total images to the DITLO group on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/diloashvegas/). This includes 15 images to be judged and 1 photographer’s choice that you choose for automatic inclusion in the print exhibit. Once judging is complete, photographers will be responsible for obtaining and submitting their own prints (8×10). Specifications for printing will be posted on www.ditlo.org (and here).

++Tagging:When uploading to Flickr, each photographer should tag each project photo exactly as follows (without the quotes).

Your 15 photos for judging:“ditloa2008submit”

Your 1 artist’s choice photo:”ditloa2008mypick”

Your photos in your stream that are from this event:“ditloa2008all”

++Captioning:Participants should plan ahead to include their name, a photo title and a caption on the back of their print photos for the library display. Your photographs will be donated to the Pack Memorial Library’s North Carolina collection and they would like at least basic information about what’s pictured. Please also put this stuff in the Flickr caption.

++Licensing: By participating in this project, photographers are agreeing to a “creative commons” license because the photos will go to the library. The library, as you know, lends material to anyone who asks - thus the need for a more liberal license to avoid copyright hassles in the future. You really are shooting for the common good on this project. Please apply a creative commons license to your photos when you upload them if possible.THANK YOU for your membership in the DITLO group on Flickr. Please invite your friends – all are welcome to join and participate this weekend.

Visit us on the web at www.ditlo.org or on Flickr at www.flickr.com/groups/ditloashvegas/Questions? Ask them on the public Flickr group.

Benefits of the Day In the life of Asheville project

For all of us:
Increase our creative energy
Shoot with the authority of a group project
Pay it forward with images donated to benefit future generations
Get comfortable taking pictures of people we don’t know
Feel like a reporter for a day
Make people smile
Meet other photographers, amateur and pro
Participate in an event aimed squarely at the greater good
Learn to better use your camera
Take a break from our daily routine
Focus -literally- on someone else
Love life just a little bit more
Bring order out of chaos
Notice beauty all around us

For gearheads:
Get out and shoot
Use even the obscure features of your digital camera
Break out that really old camera to see if it works
Show off fancy gear at the post event celebration
Meet other gearheads

For professional photographers:
Get guaranteed display space in the Pack library as part of the exhibit
Be rejuvenated by a project that depends on lots of people (not just you)
Gain name recognition
Feel the joy of helping document life in Asheville
Grow from the challenge of thinking about “Ashevilleness”
Be free from the constraints of clients for a day

For film shooters:
Revel in the beauty of film
Have enough time to develop, scan and upload
Shoot with more megapixels than anyone else
Look cool

I can think of more but I’ll stop there. Feel free to list more benefits in the comments.  I look forward to bumping into each of you while out shooting this weekend!

Sincerely,
Clark Mackey

Mad props to my friend Lena for help with this design. 

We’ve called around only to learn that most galleries book their spaces way in advance (like a year) and most are full until the New Year. So, we’ve added our name to a couple of lists for next year (2009), but it seems our best bet for the DITLOA Spring 2008 Show is still our beloved and excellent partner The Pack Library, who are bringing in the window cleaners in preparation.That said, I put out some feelers for a possible party/one night showing, and have a couple leads in the River Arts District (thanks to Jen of Faces of Asheville).Are you interested in having a one-night party/showing?If so, which dates work best for folks? Ash thinks we should wait until after the library show is down so folks can pick up their prints. I’d love to do it sooner after the shoot, but I realize that May is busy, busy (LEAF, Memorial Day weekend, etc.).If we get the show up at the library the second week in May (as prints are due to Ash by May 5) , we could take the shots down and celebrate on May 31. Or we could wait until June. Or we could have a party without the prints and just a run a projector (which I have), which now that I think about it, might me easier anyway. We could do that as early as April 26 (Merlefest) or May 3.Feedback, please?Also, see post below for a more comprehensive update.