Official Crafty Bastards Photographer and Washington City Paper alum, Geoff L. Johnson, knows a thing or two about taking a really good photograph.

A photographer since he was a teenager, Geoff’s love of documenting friends and the spirit of his personal photography is at the heart of his professional work.

Having been friends with Geoff for the last 7+ years, I can’t even begin to describe how talented he is. Here is just a small glimpse into mind of Geoff Johnson, Photographer.

1.) How did you get into photography and what led you to doing wedding photography?
I was first taught black and white photo’y and basic darkroom skills in high school, just outside of DC. after graduating from SCAD, with a degree in graphic design, I worked as a designer and art director, all the while still making photo’y. then about 10 years ago, some creative-minded friends that were getting married asked me to take photos at their wedding.

2.) Many photographers do only wedding photography and many won’t shoot weddings at all. Do you do other types of photo’y?
Yes, I take on editorial projects (such as documenting the always exciting Crafty Bastards)… model and fashion… I love location and travel photo’y… the only thing I don’t do is studio photo’y.

Wedding photo’y can be tiresome, repetitive, stressful work. my work process keeps wedding photo’y fun for me and I think that comes through in the images. I limit the number of weddings I do, travel as often as I can (Jamaica wedding in October) and always make sure that I’m a good fit with the couple. I document real moments as they happen, by working unobtrusively and spontaneously. looking through my wedding galleries (www.geoffsphotos.com) you’ll see an approach that is: part fashion photo’r, part photo-journalist, part travel photo’r.

3.) What other photographers or other artists do you admire most?
The last 2 books I bought were a Joel Peter Witkin and Cindy Sherman. In June I attended the “Festival of the Photograph” (www.festivalofthephotograph.org) an annual photo’y festival in Charlottesville, Va. The 3 key speakers were Mary Ellen Mark, Joel-Peter Witkin and James Nachtwey, all world-reknown with decades of experience. I’m a fan of straight photo’y, as opposed to digitally manipulated, so I’m generally drawn to artists that work that way. I’ve always loved Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sally Mann, William Eggleston, Bruce Davidson, Wim Wenders. and there’s so much great stuff happening today that you can’t even see it all. I look at blogs, national geographic shooters, www.aperture.org, www.magnumphotos.com, www.digitaljournalist.org…

You’ll find Geoff shooting his way through 25,000 people at this year’s Crafty Bastards DC. After the fair, you can check out his handy work on washingtoncitypaper.com/craftybastards.

Geoff Johnson is available for commercial and personal projects, big and small, locally and globally. To contact Geoff or check out his portfolio, go to geoffsphotos.com.

Washington City Paper and Urban Outfitters want you to vote for your favorite 2008 Crafty Bastards vendor!

10 vendors from 10 different craftegories have been selected by City Paper Staff based on construction, creativity, originality of product and use of materials. From those 10, you can vote for the one who you think should be crowned The Craftiest Bastard of 2008.

Here are the 10 City Paper picks (in no particular order) you can vote for:

• Craftiest Jewelry – Alitas Jewelry
• Craftiest Designs – El Jefe Design
• Craftiest Home Decor – Bright Lights Little City
• Craftiest Beauty Products - Biggs and Featherbelle
• Craftiest Plush - My Paper Crane
• Craftiest Clothing Line – Mignonette Designs
• Craftiest Accessories – Cherrybox Studios
• Craftiest Paper Products – Goshdarnknit
• Craftiest Kid’s Line – Sheriff Peanut
• Craftiest Illustrations – Jamie Zollars

The lucky Crafty Bastard with the most votes will receive a grand prize package valued at $1,900, including:

• $250 Urban Outfitters Gift Certificate
• $100 Gift Certificate to Café Trope
• One City Paper 1/2 Page color ad to advertise their product(s)

Cast Your Vote online here until October 1st, or cast your vote at the City Paper booths, on-site at the Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair on Sunday, September 28.

Good luck to the top ten, and stay tuned to see who was picked as The Craftiest Bastard of 2008!

Celebrate summer shopping in DC with the Mid-City Dog Days of Summer Sidewalk Sale. This weekend-long event will take place on August 2nd and 3rd in Mid-City, the area surrounding 14th and U Streets NW.

This Sidewalk Sale is not only a great opportunity to eat, drink and shop at discount prices, but it also takes place during DC’s Tax Free Holiday, which is an awesome bonus!

Mid-City doesn’t have the frenzy of tourists that Downtown has, nor the shopping frenzy of places like Georgetown… and that’s a good thing for locals. Mid-City’s attraction is its ever-growing assortment of small restaurants and cute boutiques that ooze neighborly charm… and it’s the cute boutiques make this area a definite stop for weekend shopping.

We all know that shopping for affordable indie finds in the District used to be almost impossible…. but Mid-City has become a hub of sorts of eclectic clothing stores with handmade dresses and accessories from local independent designers, not-your-average shoe stores, funky shops that sell everything from magnets to one-of-a-kind glassware, and a Saturday Farmer’s Market that supports local growers.

Some of my favorite Mid-City shops that support local indie crafters and artists, or are just plain cool, include:

Dekka (1338 U Street, second floor)
Nana (1528 U Street)
Lettie Gooch Boutique (1911 9th Street)
Garden District Interior (14th and Church Streets)
Miss Pixies (1626 14th Street)
Pop (1803-A 14th Street)
Go Mama Go (1809 14th Street)

So get down to Mid-City this weekend for the Dog Days of Summer Sidewalk Sale. You’ll be in for some sweet shopping and a host of other free activities. For a full list of participating shops, restaurants, bars theaters and galleries, as well as discounts and events, check out midcitylife.com.

The Crafty Bastards Discovery Series is in full swing! With our second workshop in the series under our belt, we’re gearing up for the next one in August.

The Crafty Bastards Discovery Series has crafting experts come to Whole Foods on P Street once a month, to talk to the Crafty community about ways to make crafting a successful endeavor on many levels. The first workshop, hosted in June by Tina Seamonster, gave crafters all the info on how to sell successfully at craft fairs.

Our last workshop, Crafting Online 101, was hosted by Caitlin Phillips of Rebound Designs, who went over various web tools and popular online programs to help artists and crafters sell and promote themselves on the web.

Below is a brief summary of what was discussed at Crafting Online 101. For more details, check out Caitlin’s blog on her site at rebound-designs.com.

CRAFTING ONLINE 101
Having a strong online presence is quickly becoming essential in the crafting world. With the huge boom in the popularity of indie craft, competition is fierce, so the more people who see your work, the better. Here are some tips on how to use the Internet to get your craft business going, or to promote your existing business to new audiences. Don’t get too overwhelmed – you don’t have to do it all at once. There are so many different tools to use online and new ones are popping up every day.

Your Online Presence: Yourshop.com vs. Etsy
Having a place online where customers can find you is essential to success today. There are two main options: Your own website vs. an Etsy shop. There are pros and cons to each.

You can always have both an Etsy shop and your own website, and link to your Etsy shop with an Etsy mini. (See example here: www.rebound-designs.com ) Etsy minis can be put on a blog, or a Myspace page as well.

A few thoughts on Myspace and Facebook: These can be useful tools for promoting your business, but they should not be the only online presence you have. If you are sending customers who are attempting to shop to a Myspace page with blinking graphics and embedded MP3s, it makes you look very unprofessional. Use sparingly.

The #1 Most Important Rule of Websites: Have good photos! Your online store is the only way a customer across the country can see your products, so make sure your pictures are well lit, in focus, and show the product properly. There are lots of good tips on product photography if you search online.

Accepting Credit Cards Online
Having awesome photos isn’t enough. Customers have to be able to buy your work easily online. The simplest way to get started with accepting credit cards online is through PayPal. You can do this in several ways. For no set up fee, and no monthly fee, you can use Website Payments Standard. This lets you either install a cart system, or single purchase ‘buy it now’ buttons, which link to the secure PayPal site. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside.

Blogs
This is a huge marketing tool for the craft world. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of blogs devoted to discussing indie craft and design. Some are personal blogs of artists who share their creations, how to tips, favorite things, and so forth. Some are more commercial blogs, with semi- to full-time professional writers keeping up with the hippest new things, and with paid advertisements.

Some of Caitlin’s Favorite blogs include:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/craftybastards/
http://www.designspongeonline.com/
http://indiefixx.com/
http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/
http://www.ohmythatsawesome.com/
http://blog.craftzine.com/
http://extremecraft.typepad.com/
http://modish.typepad.com/
http://readymademag.com/blog/
http://www.boingboing.net/
http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com

Twitter
Twitter is sort of a microblogging tool, which lets you send out short messages under 140 characters. You can send them from your phone, or the web, and you can include links (tiny url is useful here). You can follow other people’s twitters, and they can follow you. You can twitter about a new blog post, or a new item in your shop, or to let people know about a craft show you’re doing.

Flickr
Flickr is a great site for sharing pictures of your work. You can have a gallery of past work, works in progress, your booth displays, or whatever, and you can tag them so others can find them. You can join groups with similar interest, and this is really the best way to get your pictures seen.

It is against the Terms of Service of Flickr to exploit it for commercial purposes, so just posting pictures of crafts with the intent to sell them or advertise them is not cool. But, you can still drive traffic to your site in many easy, legal ways.

Social Bookmarking
Check out Wikipedia for a good breakdown of this bookmarking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking.

Mailing Lists
A mailing list is an efficient and direct way to keep in touch with all of your customers and fans. You can send out announcements for shows you are in, upcoming sales and promotions, shop updates, etc. It’s great because past customers that may have wanted to purchase again often forget, and an email is an instant reminder. Every time I have sent out a mass mailing, I have received orders in return. The best way to send out a mailing list is to have a program that collects, manages, and sends the mail for you.

Overwhelmed?
The most important thing to remember about online marketing is that you don’t have to do it all. Try a few things out and see what works for you. But as crafting as a business gets more and more popular, it will get more competitive, and the more ways you have of reaching potential customers, the more sales you will make. The more customers are personally interested and invested in you, the more excited they will be about your work, and it doesn’t get better than that.

Read more from Caitlin on her blog, at rebounddesigns.wordpress.com.

The Next Crafty Bastards Discovery Series workshop is coming up in August. If you’d like to get the exclusive invite, just sign up for the Crafty Bastards mailing list and you’ll automatically receive the invite about a week before the event. You must have an invite to attend, and our friends at Whole Foods provide the yummy treats… cause you can talk about crafts on an empty stomach!

Crafty Bastards alum, Thembe Fashions, is hosting a Trunk Show & Sample Sale at Dekka this Thursday night.

Dekka is the new, funky, hip place to shop and hang in the U Street Corridor. The Dekka showroom hosts fashion, art and music, and showcases local artists, designers, DJ’s, musicians, and other pretty darn cool talent.

Thembe Fashions handmakes classic, unique, and original accessories and clothing.

Philissa Williams, the mastermind behind these ultra chic designs, has made a name for herself in the DC area creating wearable pieces of art with vintage materials.

Learn more about Thembe Fashions in our previous Crafty Bastards Vendor Spotlight post here.

Thembe Fashions Trunk Show & Sample Sale
Thursday, July 17, 6-9pm
Dekka Showroom, 1338 U Street NW (2nd and 3rd floors)

Crafty Bastards Silver Spring host, the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, is opening their new Community Arts Store in the heart of Downtown Silver Spring. Join in the Grand Opening celebration this weekend!

The Pyramid Atlantic Community Arts Store will showcase affordable prints and artist books, handmade paper, and the work of local painters, ceramicists, jewelers and as well as other artists and crafters. Profits from ALL sales at the store will benefit local artists and the arts programs for young people in Montgomery County and the District of Columbia.

HOLY ART COW!

As part of the Grand Opening of THE PYRAMID ATLANTIC COMMUNITY ARTS STORE, Pyramid will be raffling off the chance to win an original artist print FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE from the Pyramid Atlantic Art Collection. The winner will receive one print a year.

Stop by the store this weekend, and participate in these Grand Opening happenings:

• Complimentary Food Sampling from Silver Spring Restaurants Nicaro and Ollazo (Friday)
• Wine Tasting (Friday)
• Art Contests (Saturday)
• Hands-on Arts and Crafts activities for children and youth (Saturday)
• Readings by local childrens’ author (Saturday)
• Demonstrations by artists (Saturday)
• Complimentary Champagne and Mimosas (Friday and Saturday)
• Snorkels: an experimental paper sculpture exhibit by artist Tatiana Nelson (Friday & Saturday)

Grand Opening

Friday, July 11th, 5-8pm

Saturday, July 12, 9am-7pm

Regular Hours: Thursdays – Noon-8pm, Fridays – Noon to7pm, and Saturdays -10am to 7 pm.

Store Location: 924 Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

For more information contact the Pyramid Atantic Art Center at 301.608.9101, email Sarah Levine at slevine@pyramid-atlantic.org, or go to pyramidatlanticartcenter.org.

Crafty Bastards and Craft Magazine are teaming up to offer all you crafty folks a chance to win a free, one-year subscription to the raddest, how-to craft mag around.

Craft Magazine is your complete resource for rainy day ideas, craft equipment know-how, knitting, sewing, baking, felting, paper-making, embroibery, duct taping, wood-carving, and anything-you-can-dream-up crafts.

Craft Magazine is also a proud sponsor of the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair. Check out their nifty publication at craftzine.com.

Enter to win your free subscription here!

Contest ends June 24th at 5pm.

Interested in volunteering at Crafty Bastards Silver Spring? Then come on down to The Pyramid Atlantic Art Center next Wednesday, May 28th, from 6:30-9pm, for the Crafty Bastards Silver Spring Volunteer Party!

Join fellow craft-minded folks, and a great group of volunteers at this party, to get the lowdown on all the festival happenings, and sign up for work shifts. Yummy treats will be provided by Crafty Bastards Sponsor, Jackie’s.

AND…. Bring your own T-shirt to screen! All volunteers will have the opportunity to silk-screen their own Crafty Bastards shirt (bring up to 2). You’ll be the first on the block to own a Crafty Bastards Silver Spring tee and you’ll be able to show it off the day of the fair! Silk-screening supplies and know-how will be provided by Pyramid Atlantic.

While there is no monetary pay for volunteers, you will receive FREE MOVIE PASSES, a FREE CITY PAPER TEE, and get to SCREEN YOUR CRAFTY T-SHIRT FOR FREE at this party. We promise lots of FUN for all volunteers, while working with a great group of like-minded crafty folks.

Volunteer Party: Wednesday, May 28th, 6:30-9:30pm at The Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910)

Questions? Email craftybastards@washingtoncitypaper.com.

The Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair is coming to Silver Spring, MD on Saturday, June, 28th, and we need volunteers to help us make this Crafty Bastards the best yet!

We’re looking for volunteers to help us by working in 3-5 hour shifts at the fair. While there is no monetary pay, you will receive FREE MOVIE PASSES, a FREE CITY PAPER TEE, and get to SCREEN YOUR CRAFTY T-SHIRT FOR FREE at the exclusive volunteer party. We promise lots of FUN while working with a great group of like-minded crafty folks.

The Volunteer Party is scheduled for Wednesday, May 28th at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center; more details to come soon.

If you’re interested in volunteersing or have any questions, please email Kimberly at craftybastards@washingtoncitypaper.com.