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 ....

Thankfulness photos from the past 12 months, part 2 of 2

post #261
        I'm back with some more photos I am thankful for being able to make. This week it seems to be mostly people, and happenings. I am also thankful for people I haven't made a photo of, including President Obama whose bravery for his whole presidency in the face of demented racist individuals with guns and arsenals is so generous. That may sound like a strong statement, but it is the truth.  And it will be hard for him and his family for the rest of their lives. That fits my definition of generous.
        So here we go again, in part 2!  Locally, I was able to take some photos for some friends who got married this fall, and I even ended up in one taken while they applied for their marriage license. Again, bravery and generosity are factors in their lives as well.

taken by the Lexington Herald-Leader

Jennifer Reis, artist extraordinaire

my friend photojournalist John Flavell

  
 Other friends caught in important moments:
         

Jean Rosenberg, watching her husband, John, recieve an honor on stage.

            Three photos of George Ella Lyon, whom I enjoy being able to catch in all kinds of moments:

during the Appalachian Writers Conference, in Hindman, KY, with her close friend and fellow writer Gurney Norman

Our writers group happened to be meeting the day the news came out about the two year poet laureate honor!

George Ella near her childhood home (house) in Harlan, Kentucky, the day she found out that her book TRAINS RUN was accepted by Simon and Shuster for publication!! It is the second of her books written with her son, Benn Lyon, and it will be edited by her long time editor, Richard Jackson.

       My big group photo of the year was at my church -- The Lexington Friends Meeting. Our members are called Quakers. We undertook a major renovation of the building, and it was mostly completed! I feel like this is a happy photo, even though not everyone could be in it at that one time.

      Last March, one of our members, Roberta, who is a cellist, put together a program featuring her cello, two members who are poets, Melva and Judith, and some of my photos. It worked out so well. It happened in the same room as above, on a Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful, heartening event:  

before

after

         Following all this reverence, the next photo is for pure fun. I keep thinking our 42 year old fridge will stop working any day, and I know it should be replaced in any case.  Yet I am just so thankful to its reliable self for still working!! 

        Well, here is a photo of me, thankfully still working -- and yet I am older than the fridge! I was so thrilled that day to be way back in the woods with friends. Doug discovered this boulder covered with trillium, and Karen took this photo. I think it is the first photo of me on my blog since I started this weekly gig five years ago!

    I have to find a place for this next photo, just because I love it -- a granddaughter who will be spreading her wings in different ways every year, like we all are doing as well in our own way:

       Then a reminder for me that there is beauty in what lies ahead, even though there will be challenges:

          There are many other photos, friends, places and moments I am thankful for, but I end with this second view from the deck, made this frosty morning. It celebrates the light that changes and surprises, the mainstay in all my photographs. I've never seen it before looking exactly like this:

thankfulness, shown in some of this year's photos, part 1 of 2

post #260
     First of all, I am thankful for this blog and the opportunity it gives me each week to check in with my work and see what photos I took that mean something to me.  This week and next week, I'll be looking through this year's photos with my "grateful glasses," which I believe I wear part of every day of the year. Of course not everything I see with them will show up in these two posts. So, if you know me, and what you might expect is not shown, worry not - there are those pesky space considerations, AND sometimes I don't have the    right photo of something for which I am truly thankful.

      What looms largest is the weeklong cousin camp that took place at the house in August!  We had so much simple fun -- and I took some happy photos, some of which were already posted a few months ago.

THE TOSS INTO THE POND

most recent photo of cousin camp director (photo taken in Massachusetts)

      And now for a photo of the missing cousin, who had a summer job he couldn't neglect and in another state. Here is Nik setting up his drums at his house:

       Next, the two siblings together. Guess which one is showing us his or her college dorm room! Bravo for a good start to your new endeavor and its adventures!! 

     Now, as always and often on this blog, I celebrate the beauty of where I live.  I am thankful all these images show up in my life, especially when I happen to have my camera with me....

        
   I am also grateful for such moments as unexpected skies, and for the lone cow then standing there "in reflection"....and within reach.

       With these beautiful Appalachian hills come wonderful Appalachian neighbors and friends, who help me out, make me laugh, and who are patient with me and my camera.

 

       This is so much fun to do, so MORE NEXT WEEK.  Should I say, "until then, just keep on truckin'?"