cards! like in Note Cards!

post #262
        Photographers make money -- or not -- in a multitude of ways. One of my efforts in the earning direction consists of making photo note cards and hand selling most of them. This has become a way both to share my work and to use new photos which I feel work as cards. I don't make much money this way, but I consider it a kind of advertising. It also makes my work accessible to many who are not up to buying even a single larger framed photo. 
       Some buyers use my cards to, get this, write NOTES for various occasions! I say bravo to them!!  While I appreciate the compliment that someone doesn't like to send off a card because he or she likes it so much, this approach obviously presents challenges to my bottom line. I am not complaining -- I am happy for them -- but I'm just saying.
        For now I am sticking with my Appalachian images, mostly those in eastern Kentucky.

iris

a swarm of tree hugging bees

There goes the sun.

         There are certain hazards in this line of work. For one thing, I have a hard time giving up a card I like. The consequence of that is I have too many different cards available at any one time. Yet I realized only yesterday that I have never put my cards in the blog! How did that happen?? So I instantly decided to feature random card images and titles for a few weeks. 
         I'd like to say I have an organized way to sell the cards on line, but at the moment I do not. (First I need someone who could work with me on a parttime basis; living where I do, at some distance from town, makes this tricky to pull off. I can dream, though.) The Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead, KY probably sells the most of any place I wholesale to. (Is wholesale really a verb?)
        

A Bee on the Zinnia

Ms. Bluebird

hay rows and shadows

female cardinal

         Part of the fun of the cards for me is choosing which color paper to use to accent each photo, which are 4x6 in size. I also get to decide on a title, sometimes with the help of friends. I LOVE GETTING A GOOD WORDS/IMAGE MATCH, especially if there is some humor involved. I attach the photo to the front of the folded paper with two strips of double sided tape, since as a former migraine person I have an adversion to the strong smells of glues and such. For today's card post, I am not showing the photo with its choice of paper color, but I will be preparing a few samples to show next week.
          Note: the hay rows and shadows photo was used for Wendell Berry's editor's reprint of the WB poetry collection Farming: a Hand Book, first printed in 1971 and reissued in 2011 by Counterpoint Press. Thank you, Wendell.
       

Golden Day

spring falls in our woods

two mourning dove buddies

 

in Donny's barn

truck shot

milkweed moment, summer frog

rooster pride

      This last photo (above) is one of my "best sellers." Of course there is a story to the photo, which I made while at my friend Peg Taylor's B&B "Farm House Inn" in southeast Kentucky (McCreary County).  She and I had gone for a walk in their woods, and, when we returned, he was still up on that fence, struttin' and crowin'! I figured he really wanted his photo made....  More stories next week ....

fourth and final year of my most popular blogs, and news (Arts Fair, George Ella Lyon book)

post #218

A bluebird nesting box in our yard, opened recently to reveal an even more crowded living situation than my study!  It is nice to have beautiful companions in crowdedness....

        Who would think it.  A post from a year ago ends up on my top three from year four.  It is called a change of seasons sweep-up: post #164 on 11/17/13.  There is mistletoe, barns, a four wheeler, and information about the upcoming annual Arts and Crafts Fair at Morehead State University.  I am thinking the number of page views might have something to do with the Fair, actually, since two weeks later, on 12/8/13, for post #167, I have some photos from the Fair -- which also made the top three posts for the year.  In fact, there have been recent viewers!  I do give the link for Monarch Butterfly stations, however, a hot topic in recent years.  The post is called Updates: monarch butterfly stations, the local arts Fair, and frogs changing colors.  
         I love that little frog whom I would not have noticed perched on a milkweed pod had I not been looking carefully at the plants almost every day, for art's sake.  Here is another photo of the frog when I went back to revisit him later in the day.  He had moved to a lower leaf, still green:

tiny!

This is just another version of the frog earlier, on the milkweed pod above the leaf.

       The top post for year four includes a couple of milkweed in winter mode, several interesting but far from awesome photos of some mourning doves making do during a snow storm, and two scenes from down near our waterfalls. I don't even show the waterfalls, shaped by ice.  I have NO idea what draws attention to this post, #171, on 1/5/14.  A good mystery to have.  Maybe, now that I think about it, it might be due to the simple mention of milkweed in the title.

      By the way, I am doing the Appalachian Arts and Crafts Fair at Morehead State again this year, on Saturday, 12/6/14, in two weeks.  The hours are 9-4.  Of course my own hours are a lot more than that -- prep time earlier in the week, set-up time on Friday afternoon, and regrouping time after the 4 pm closing.   As my new bumper sticker points out, "ARTWORK IS WORK."
      This year I will have my photo note cards, as I always do, but I will have many more 8 x 12 photos matted in 12 x 16 archival mat board, each in a protective sleeve, $25 each.  I will be sharing a double booth again with Jennifer Reis!!  As I say every year after she and I do this, "ARTWORK SELLING CAN ALSO BE FUN!"
       If I manage to be on top of my game, I will post a photo from the Fair in a special blog post early that day!!  Girls gone wild!

         Speaking of artwork, it is a privilege to announce that George Ella Lyon has two books coming out in November.  The trailer for the first book, VOICES FROM THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON, has just been released, and she sings on it! Beautifully. The book contains poems written by two poets, George Ella and J. Patrick Lewis. They imagine the voices of people who took part in the march.  (Published by Wordsong, an imprint of Highlights, 2014)
        The link to the trailer is HERE.  I love the fact that her singing sounds louder and stronger just as the resolve to be there became stronger for those many people who went.

        This coming week, my plan is to take a photo a day for next week's post. I haven't actually ever done that yet, and I think it is way past time to try it.  I'm rewarding myself for finally studying the instruction booklet for my "new" camera....  In the meantime, here is a photo to keep you warm.  It shows all the wood my husband has prepared for this winter for use in our wood burning cook stove!  It is currently sheltered in the barn, with some logs used already since I made this photo.  Surprise, Frank, and thanks! 

ice, birds and a belly button

post #121
      Today has second swearing-ins for Obama and Biden and a second birthday for Will.  For me, there's a second try for belly button photos and an unexpected first -- a merlin sitting on a branch outside the bedroom window, keeping all birds away from the bird feeder which the bigger bird could keep his or her eye on.  
      So here are some new photos that bears sharing.  First the followup from last week's trunks, the promised redo of the belly button in the beech:

along the path, which we often take!  How could I have missed seeing the belly button until now??!!

belly button, detail

     Some bird visitors earlier this week:

eastern bluebirds passing through, enjoying our berries

This looks like a house finch to me -- colorful companion visitor with the bluebirds!

       The New Year's weekend ice storm wasn't terrible.  We didn't lose electricity and therefore we could enjoy its beauty.

stopping by the side of the ridge road

detail while stopped to make the above photo

very close to home -- photo made from our deck

 
    Yesterday's bird visitor:

I only noticed this bird because I caught the yellow legs in the corner of my eye, as I walked by the window, and then took a closer look.  The eyes here are pointed directly at the [no birds in sight] bird feeder.

 

This seems to be a falcon, more specifically a taiga merlin!  Does anyone have an alternative identification?  We have never seen one before.  I was honored by its patience as I went downstairs to get my camera, returned, tried different views, etc. The wind was blowing quite vigorously, so I didn't know if I could get a sharp enough photo.  So, to self, I say bravo!

            Next week I plan to share photos of our wood burning cook stove, in honor of the very cold week that may be coming up.   For now, I end with a photo from our woods I made just because I love the shape and design.

a beautiful burl, saying to me What goes around comes around.

Snapshots essay, part 2 (of 6)

post #61
     Before I start in on section two of my essay Snapshots of the work on Counting on the Woods, I'd like to confess that just yesterday my daughter showed me that nowadays we blog viewers can click on any photo in a post -- and, presto, all the photos in that post show up in a row along the bottom of the screen AND can be seen in a large size after being clicked.  Probably every one of you reading this already knew about this added blogspot innovation, but I did not.  Last week I did increase the spread size on the page, but if this causes problems for anyone, please let me know!  I will even give you my email address for the first time should you need to contact me:  annphoto@mrtc.com.

OK, here is the essay's section 2,  BOX SCORES

      One question I have never fully resolved is whether it counts as work to sit outside--in a box--for an hour or two, near a bird place.

      The cubicles of the modern corporation would seem spacious in comparison to the box I ended up in, but at least they are clearly a place where people go to get paid to work.  Why else would they be tolerated?  The same clarity doesn't apply to a cardboard box.

      And what does the bluebird I'm taken by know of business plans and bottom lines?  I am not even certain what it is I expect of him, except that I have tried photographs of this bird, this post, this nest before.  I was always too far away.  Not connected enough.  

     So my only plan now is simply to get closer.  I suspect universal truth, but what I think about is cost efficiency.  Would this box effort mean I am doing more work, less work or none at all?

     I could figure out that setting up the box is definitely work, especially when its size most closely resembles the desk chair that it once held.  Getting tripod, camera, stool and body to fit inside is be a proper chore, but does the same hold true for just sitting there?  I was shooting at that time with very slow film, Velvia (ISO 50), and I was inside the box for a dawn-breaking hour and a half.  I needed to remain alert, of course, and move my right hand every so often to click the remote control, but otherwise just sit, stay calm, and sit some more.  

      The end result has made me willing to risk not "working" ever again.  One of my favorite photographs for the book.  I hope the happy coming together I experienced was the same somehow for my bluebird.  It seems he knew his part all along, and I learned mine.  Now, if only the questions I always ask about life could achieve equal clarity and sharpness where I to pay similar attention to situation and focus.

eastern bluebird at his nest, from Counting on the Woods

eastern bluebird, on the post containing the nest, but "always too far away!"  It was more like a test shot than a photo I would use for a note card or in the book, but it's still important, which is why I show it here today.

I call this more recent bluebird photo "No, YOU bathe first."

Note:  In my writers group, where I received valuable feedback to early drafts of this essay, we still call that important work we all must do of getting truly connected to our work getting closer to your bluebird.  Good luck to everyone doing just that!