Hanging an art wall long distance

I often marvel at the technology we now have available to us, and think how different my job would be without it.  I'm just old enough that I have had it both ways and can really appreciate the tools we now have at our fingerprints.

I remember location scouting for a photo shoot in 2000 for Keds, I think, driving along the Jersey Shore from beach club to beach club with a paper map and actual film in my camera.  If I needed to call ahead to make sure the manager was around, I stopped at a pay phone.  Back in the city that evening I dropped the film at an overnight photo developing place praying the pictures would come out.  When I picked them up, I literally taped the prints together to create panoramas, put them in manila folders, and had a bike messenger deliver them to the client.

So different now, no?

My parents are just back from their house in Arizona.  This trip, the house project on the agenda was a wall of photographs in the kitchen.  My aunt is a wonderfully talented photographer, and sent my mom five 16x20 prints of horses.  I've hung a lot of art for my mom, including this wall, so she used her phone to photograph the prints and sent them to me along with a picture of the kitchen.  Using olioboard, I was able to send her my recommended layouts in 5 minutes.

With three horses:

Four horses:

And all five horses:

Proof positive that an odd number usually works better in a grouping (though of course there are exceptions.)  They decided to use all five.

The next day, my parents called from Michaels and we were able to select frames long-distance.  They loved this frame:

And I agreed, but suggested mixing in another molding to keep the wall from getting too heavy and too matched.

Later in the week, when the framing was done and it came time to hang the work, they sent me this picture.

The arrangement was too high.  They adjusted so the top of the grouping was in line with the kitchen cabinets:

And got my seal of approval.

And here's the arrangement, all hung up!

Ten years ago, I probably would have had to just go to Arizona and hang this for them.  Or there would have been a flurry of faxes and photos printed and sent by mail.  Now it's truly amazing how much we can do long distance.