Yesterday I was at Newspace most of the day trying to learn how to properly mat pictures. I got to work with a really nice mat cutter and cut a nice mat with beveled edge for this print. I cut the window a little wider then I wished but now I can cut another mat of a different color and insert that to give it a nicer look and tighten the window more around the image. I keep printing the entire negative that includes that reflection off of the negative carrier that cuts in to the picture rather then surrounding it. I might start looking for some different carriers or experiment with filing this one out a bit more and perhaps taping the reflective surface or painting it black. The workshop introduced me to some other products and materials for print presentation as well as preservation. I want to get a mat cutter now, though not as expensive as the one I used. I've been printing image sizes of 4x6,5x7 on to 8x10 paper and 5x7 and 8x10 on 11x14 paper, mounting the prints and framing them without mats letting the border on the paper give the picture the "illusion" of being matted. Learning how to cut mats would enable me to print image sizes up to 11x14 and then put them in mats up to 16x20 or 20x24 sizes. People like big pictures. There are two juried exhibits coming up this one at 23 Sandy in November and a new call for entries at Newspace for next year. The Newspace one intrigues me because I have a lot of botanical images and I am working on new ones all the time. I have three new flowers in the garden that I have yet to work with, and still have some 4x5 film taken of the Magnolias in July that I haven't developed as well as my carnegie dinosaur skeletons. I have a lot of older work but also so much new work and new subjects and with the time involved I could come up with some serious contenders