Must be spring!

Feet hit the floor (Thank you Lord), clock said 10:30 (but I know it's really 9:30) and that inside/outside temperature thingy says 72 degrees.  Now I know somebody other than Washington is a liar!

 

Well, maybe not.  Both dogs wanted out at the same time this morning.  Twice!  So their junk must not be freezing.  Re: the time---- all my computer stuff (two computers, two space age phones,a Kindle and a Nook) say the time has changed and I did set the clocks ahead last night (manually).  So that must be true too.  It does feel warm outside even to me and these old bones and thin blood.  What! Washington isn't lying?  Naw! Three outa four ain't bad Jack!

 

Sold a couple of pics this weekend and that's OK.  One of them as recorded here was a sepia tone image of Nobska and both images were lighthouses.  So the product identification thing and name recognition gadget seems to be working. 

 

I will be listing these two later this morning and we'll see how they will be received.  The first is Charleston Harbor lighthouse in Sepia.  Might have to tweak that a bit more.

 

The other is another outer banks image, this time of Cape Lookout and is a composite of the original image and some more dramatic sky.

 

 

To give you non photographers what I mean by composite.  This is the color version of the above sepia tone.

 

 

And the original image before the sky was added and other adjustments were made.

 

 

Fairly ghastly huh!

 

Such manipulation turns some people off.  And purist photographers give me a raft of stuff as to it not being true photography.  Even though all the photos are mine!  Well folks, news flash....I am not in this business for the ego!  Probably have enough of that anyway.  The question for me is which one do you want to hang on your wall?  Probably the color version, but the sepia is a strong second in the "I want it, gotta have it" contest.

 

You see, I discovered a long time ago that contests bring nice atta-boys but the true test comes when the victim plunks down a wad of cash and then says "I love it".  That's the acid test.  And I much prefer to post the "I just sold" announcements over the "I just came in third" listing.  So get to work folks!

 

Don't get me wrong, I really, really, greatly, seek, hope for and love the comments about my art work.  We all thrive on recognition.  So keep those love letters coming because they do give the ego a boost and make me want to refine my craft and show more and different parts of my art. 

 

In my not so humble opinion (again it's my blog), photography changed with the advent of the affordable home computer, printer and digital camera.  No doubt about it.  Now we photographers do not simply have to be outstanding at the craft of picking the subject, picking the equipment and film, picking the right moment with the right light, and then choosing the development of the film.  That's not enough.

 

  Now we still have to do all that as well as be proficient in computer-eeeze, photo shop or comparable, packaging and marketing.............and just being an all around nice person in communications.  That last one is a real challenge to me. 

 

After all that we have to find a venue in which to attract customers.  For instance, Fine Art America alone boasts of having over 100,000 artists listed on their site.  That is real competition for a little old single owner company like mine with only two dogs and two cockatiels for employees.  I wonder if I can convince the IRS that I employ four?  Probably.

 

Let's see....McGee (The chihuahua) is VP in charge of pee breaks.  Hell, his bladder is only the size of a walnut.  Missy (the cocker/border collie mix) is VP  in charge of herding the security alarm system, McGee, and me.  The two birds (cockatiels) ARE the very annoying  security alarm system and don't have titles as they are the peon workers in this not so benevolent dictatorship.

 

Jeeeeeeeezz, I didn't know I was doing all that for 10 or 12 hours a day.  Dang, in the immortal words of Terry Bradshaw..........Ain't ah purty!

 

 

 

Sold

I sold the following images last night and am much appreciative of my Belle Harbor, NY buyer.

 

This is the New Haven lighthouse in the fog.  Actually it was snowing like crazy and foggy around the end of the point upon which this solitary tower lives.  Nasty morning but nice spot.

 

 

Nobska Lighthouse is on Cape Cod, just outside of Woods Hole.  This is only part of the complex as seen from the road in front.  The image has sold twice now and seems to be rather attractive to buyers.

 

 

 

TGIF

TGIF

 

The good news is that when you get to be a seasoned citizen TGIF doesn't mean as much anymore.  The important thing is that your feet have hit the floor once again regardless of the day.  For some strange reason the good Lord has chosen to let me do all this stuff for another day, and that's cool!

 

This last trip north was very gratifying for a lot of reasons.  Reunited with family of course the primary reason, but I also had the chance to see a print that I had made of one of my photos on metal. 

 

I had given the above image of the Key Bridge, which spans the Patapsco River in Baltimore, to my son as a birthday present.  He is VP with a small business building such things and I thought he would enjoy the photo.  I made it using a couple of filters back when I first started photographing things (not selling so much) and was trying for a sunrise/sunset effect.  I think that I got something different.  I sent him a 16x20 of this thing on metal.  Did not see the print first as it was sent directly to him, nor have I seen any other prints done by them.  WOW!

The print is sleek and modern, no frame or matte and raised away from the wall.  The depth of colors and sharpness of image are just astounding!  Of course my question of the machine that does this stuff is.............How do it know?  Granted the original image was good and has decent depth of field as well as color (blind dumb luck category there), but the presentation is just astounding. 

So if anyone of you wants a modern, sleek and very professional print (s) to hang in your home or office space, don't be hesitant to do metal.  And of course you can find them all at the website.  I did have the chance to sign it for him and that helped to make it all the more special.

This process would be all the better if done large, such as 30x40, as long as the original image is sufficient clarity to handle such size.  Sharp that is.  An out of focus image will be all the more out of focus when done in the larger sizes and technology isn't going to help all that much.  I can remember, a thousand years ago, when all of my slides were coming back from the processor just slightly out of focus.  Now, back then we did slides and it cost around $18 dollars a role for purchase and processing.  So I was cussing the processor up and down until somebody suggested that maybe my eyes needed checking.  Sure enough glasses were in order.  Jeeeeeeesh, a blind photographer just doesn't work right.  After that the processor was doing a much better job.

 

ANOTHER DIRECTION

 

A friend posted a picture of RR track with the caption "It can be lonely going in both directions".  I guess the whine of a train whistle in the middle of the night can suggest that caption, but the above is simply a RR station with no activity.  Why?  Well, it's the Strasburg train station in Amish country of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and it's closed.  Simple explanation without any of the anquish, redemption or promise of that train whistle.  In fact as I write this a whistle just went off at a crossing a half mile away.  I've gotten used to that but it took a while, never having a track in virtually my back yard.  Well, not quite but close enough.  With two major stone quarries within two miles, there is a lot of traffic and they must blow the whistle at every road crossing.....hence that agreeably lonely sound. 

 

I still get the same feelings when a flock of geese go over.  They chatter to each other constantly whether it be while feeding in a field, sitting on the water or flying overhead.

 

I guess if I lived out west, in Canada or Alaska...the howl of a wolf or coyotes would yield that same feeling.  Haunting perhaps but probably not lonely.  Sorry, no wolf photos.  Now this is lonely!

 

A friend of mine once said "There but for the Grace of God go I". 

 

So far I've been able to avoid that problem so I just keep looking for the Holy Grail of photographs.  Maybe this one will do the trick.

 

Sure hope so.  I have had lots of hits or views of this photo of Race Point and great comments.  But no buyers yet.  It did take a good while for the Barnegat one to catch on and it has been selling like crazy.  Maybe Race Point will take off as well.  It has all the elements.  Or perhaps the little light on Portland Breakwater that I just listed.  We'll just have to wait to see.

 

Want an accent for a barren wall somewhere?  Perhaps the new "Things Mechanical" Gallery will hold that magic item.

 

 

 

 

3 5 13

VISITORS AND COMMENTS

 

Some day I am going to sit down and go over almost two years of sales on Fine Art America, just so I can hone my professional marketing skills to the point that when you go out the door in the morning all you can think of is "That picture"!  All I have to do is put my 8 years of college education and 72 years of real life experience to work and become the "Mad Economist"!

You know like a song somebody sang three bars of on the TV this morning that you cannot get outa your head.  The song may not have been selling something but it sticks in that fat part of the brain that you wish you could lobotomize.  Probably the same section that holds all the nasty bathroom humor and porn you've been privy to over the years.  Privy! More bathroom humor there.  Well, I just want to be that little gremlin that sticks stuff like that in your head that you just cannot shake. 

C'mon lets sing a few bars of "Margaritaville" or the Dixie Chicks "
Earl's Gotta Go"!  You know you wanta!

 

I have looked at the numbers on the top five of my photos on Fine Art America, and found that there is not a big correlation between the number of visits, the number of comments and the number of sales.  The following is "Hey I took college Jack!  Thank you Uncle Si! Analysis 101!"

The ranking of the most number of visitors and most comments is below and does not include all sales.

 

                                                                      VISITORS      COMMENTS  SALES

 

 

BRANEGAT LIGHTHOUSE                                   6377    274                    22

SNOW TRAIL SEASON GREETINGS                   1303        0                      0    

NATURE'S UMBRELLA                                         1281        9                      0

CRANKY CRAB                                                      1042      41                      4

PANACHE                                                                1002      41                      0

CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE                          666      34                      4        

EMERGENCE                                                            552      33                      1

For all of younse what havent learnt your putur yet,  you can click on each image for the sales site.

OK, that doesn't seem to tell me a whole lot.  I thought that the more visitors the more  sales one would get.  Guess that holds to a certain degree but I need to get well over 2,000 hits for that to really work.  The number of comments certainly is an indicator, or maybe the Barnegat shot is just to red hot good.

Topic seems to be a better indicator.  Here we have two lighthouses in the top five contenders followed by the crab.  Only one of my more astute buyers bought a foggy scenic even though that image's hits were relatively small. 

LIGHTS	SCENE	CRITTERS	CHES- APEAKE	MAR	ODD	FEATHER	TOTAL
52	19	3	7	3	2	3	89
58%	21%	3%	8%	3%	2%	3%	100%

The numbers above show a total of 89 sales up to Jan, 13, 20113 and it's apparent the two topic categories should be Lighthouses and Scenic images going forward.  I don't think we have enough data for a significant statistical analysis.  Means only one thing!  To get meaningful data.....YOU people are going to have to buy!





 

3 4 12

TIME, LINES AND TRENDS

 

This last trip I decided that maybe I would look to other topics to grace my galleries of that website you all cannot bare to put down.  Yeah, I know you spend hours there when you have absolutely nothing else fruitful to do.  Nasty little secret is that I do too.

 

Something I  think more mechanical.  I mean lets face it.  Birds, while fun to photograph, don't sell too well anymore.  Oh, they were a big hit back in the 80's and 90's of that other generation.  But today....eh, not so much.  Sooooooooooo.....

 

 

Good old 7688 rolling up the tracks at the yards at Strasburg, Pa.  Right in the middle of Amish country...from steam engines to modern day stuff.  Like birds, these things don't talk back either.   A great place to take the kids or grand kids or if we all live long enough, the great grands.  Neat place even if if was closed and thirty something degrees below something else.

 

Maybe, because we have all become more sleek and in tune with the times.  Something automotive would sell.  It really does in fact.  Collectible stuff I think.

 

 

Or maybe sports or patriotic topics.  .Just cruise around a Wallmart parking lot and click away. Well, maybe better to be a Jaguar dealership. But then we'd have to explain why we didn't really want to by a jag...just take pictures for our long held fantasies. Sigh!

 

You know you've been Zambonied when you can see the reflection of the American Flag in the newly whetted ice

 

 

 

But then again let's face it.  Today, lighthouses are my best seller so why tinker with a good thing.

 

 

Guess it's better to be the best in your own back yard and not mediocre in another's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REWARDED FOR MEETING A CHALLENGE

Some things just aren't what they seem!

This last trip was fun for a number of reasons, the first being, of course playing, with family.  But I did have a chance to shot and get on the road doing what I love to do.  Free style photography.  Simply put you get in the car early in the morning and drive to places where you expect to be able to make an image or three.  Sort of like a tourist, but with an eye towards something that might sell at some point down the road.   Looking for something worthwhile that could lead someone to actually believe that I was working.

Lancaster County in Pennsylvania is always a great area to make photographs.  Normally there is always something going on.   Even the winter settings seem to be much more meaningful when one strikes the eye.  Fair Hill, Maryland is quite the horse country.  Farms are all styled so that four legged critters get their stalls cleaned before most homes.  This is the first of two covered bridges I found at Fair Hill.

 

Even with the dreary browns, greys and black of the woods at this time of year, the splash of color and the reflections in the water make this image very pleasing.  Particularly if you know that you have a steaming cup of Pike Place and a fireplace to warm your innards and soul after a morning walk.

 

The second bridge was the Jackson Mill Bridge built in 1878 and well into the center of Lancaster County, PA.

 

 

 

After many mile and hard looking I finally found a few spots in Pennsylvania famous only for a condition we males often experience.

 

But I put the pedal to the metal and soldiered on, looking for images to be made.  My mind full with new possibilities.  And then it happened.  I finally got lucky!

Only a few more miles of country roads ridden hard..... and.............................

 

 

After those experiences, I lit up a fine cigar and relaxed on my trip back home.

 

Savoring the experiences of the day.