cameras & cats

So i thought I'd share with you a couple of my favorite things!!

Firstly my cats, of which i had two but the second (damn-it) wasn't feeling particularly photogenic, as opposed to Cujo who loves anything shiny thus way easy to get her attention. Anyway these (along with my friends) are my sanity, keeping me company when the husband is at work, tdy or deployed, & scarily i can watch them play for hours on end. They're my family!!

& my cameras which are slowly starting to take over the house, i told my husband i wouldn't stop collecting until i had as many cameras as he has beer glasses. I love everything about them, from the small plastic ones, to the novelty & of course there's the classic box Bownie.  My plan is to start taking photos with some of them, experimenting & seeing what the results will be. It's amazing to look at where technology has come from the most basic to the digital ones of today. 

Chopper Club Rally

A few years ago i went to a chopper club rally with a close friend, a close friend who recently lost his life in Iraq. It was a fantastic weekend, with every kind of bike you can imagine & here are a few of the photos i took over that weekend. I miss Jase. God bless you!!

solitude

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.  

                               ~William Penn

new (old) photos

So in the process of making a sale today, my customer was looking for a 4th image to go with the 3 she's already chosen, following along the lines of nature. So i started delving deep into images i have on my computer to see what i may have missed & found these 3. Take last year in Yosemite, i'd forgotten all about them but with a little work i absolutely love them & i hope you enjoy them too.

oh happy days!!

So today is a much brighter more beautiful day! I made that illusive first sale Thursdaynight & i am all kinds of excited. On top of this i have another few possible sales, which strangely enough i am incredible excited about. My business cards arrived yesterday, & I'm going to be taking part in a craft fair on base in October which if it goes well, there will another in November & December. Wow so many thing's going on, but it makes me happy. Starting my own business would be awesome, it's what i want to do (in an ideal) as well as being something i can take with me. & as my friends & family have proved recently i have all kinds of support going on which makes it easier to do. But now it's a matter of trying to figure out where i go from here. How do i get my name out there, advertise & other such thing's. All this is new to me, & finding the direction i need to go in is going to be a challenge. But i like challenges & if nothing else I'm doing what i love. 

Here's an image I'm working on for one of my best friends. It was taking in Yosemite last December, somewhere i can't wait to go back to (thank goodness i married a Caliboy). I was never a big fan of "landscapes" & "pretty pictures" before that vacation but going somewhere so stunning, & being given the chance to see what Ansel Adams saw can change even a hard heart like mine. 

Here's a favourite quote of mine by Ansel Adams: 

"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter" 

I think he got it pretty spot on!!

new photos ... new lines ... no sales!!

& the frustration is really starting to build (doesn't help that i am constantly finding items on etsy i want to buy). I am putting a whole lot of money in to this site & getting nothing out & it's driving me nuts. I really have no clue what i need to do. I have plugs all over the place, i'm "hearting" other shops, buying stuff & putting links out on facebook, to friends etc ... on a regular basis but still no sales. I really have no clue what i need to be doing here. Answers on a postcard would be nice. Next week i have my new line in notecards coming in but unless i start making some sales i'm going to have to stop getting in stock. Upside & downside to everything. So where do i go from here ... answers on a postcard please & share the link.

On another note ... a good one, one of the girls in my "homefront" team did an interview with me. Made me feel very special & a little famous (hehehe). Here's the link. & be sure to check out her shop, she does these gorgeous crochet hates etc ... way more patience than i could ever find for those things. 

http://bethetsy.com/

Ok homefront is a group of military spouses all linked to etsy/1000 markets who have their own crafts from food to graphics to sewing everything you could ever imagine! They're an amazing group of people who have been my sounding board for much of what's going on in my shop. & as any military spouses out there can tell you it's these people who know exactly what you are going through who are the people who are going to stay with you for a long long time. So be sure to check out their website as well:

http://homefrontartistryteam.blogspot.com/

& here's something to make you smile ... my "cross processed cows"

notecards

So it's been suggested i try printing up some notecards, so here are a few suggestions. Comment on what you like so i can figure out 2 or 3 to start with. They're going to be plain inside &  5.5 x4". I'm also going to print them on recycled card. I tend to buy cards that are universal, funny photos that can cover all occasions so with the one exception i hope these fit the bill. 

1000 markets.com

So yesterday i set up another shop on 1000 markets. It's very similar to etsy but on a smaller scale & you have to be "approved" to become a shop owner. Plus all the owners are in the states as payment is run through amazon, which mean using my mother-in-laws (thank you Mary) address. But it's actually a whole lot easier to set up, & i like that it's a smaller community but i guess it's not as well known as etsy which could be a draw back. Plus i have these website all over the place now & it's a little over whelming but i guess I'll manage. The other plus side to 1000 markets is advertising is free because I'm starting to get frustrated with a whole lot of outlay & nothing coming in. It's not a major deal but still I'm still waiting on that first sale. 

So all this in mind one of the Homefront girls wrote me a big long list of suggestions to get my shop noticed & one of to purchase various items to get feedback. So she suggested "small items but we all know how much i can shop with the best of them & so i bought an absolutely gorgeous pillow I've had my eye on for a while & of course a new camera. My current plan is to keep collecting cameras until i have the same amount as Kevin has beer glasses. hehehe.

So anyways here's a link to the shop owners site & a photo of the stunning pillow i bought for my bedroom, i can't wait to see it. Right here are the reason's why i want to learn to sew so i can do this stuff myself (although probably not as good) & i love that is vintage & one of a kind. A little different but the colours will work perfectly in my bedroom. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7502910

& of course here are a couple of the photos i have up for sale on both etsy & 1000 markets. Really it never hurts to take a peak!

religion

So here i am relaxing on my couch, so completely bored & the door bell rings. We live in a little village in deepest darkest germany, there's only 2 reasons our doorbell rings: 1. a friend has arrived 2. jesus has come to save me!

well it was number 2. Now i personally have no issues with people & their religious beliefs until it results in the deaths of others (growing up in england during the 1980s you get used to this), & believe we all have the right to our own catholic/muslim/pagan/hindu etc ... beliefs but i'm really not a fan of having someone stand on my doorstep & preach it to me. I believe in god, in fact i have a huge faith in him but to me it's a private thing & my choices themselves are private too. I don't appreciate the point where someone stands up & tells me what i'm doing is wrong because of something that was written how ever many years ago. Faith is still faith, & how i choose to practice is my choice. I'm pretty comfortable with the fact god isn't going to send me to hell because i don't go to church on a sunday. To me god created us different, he gave us choice & freewill & the ability to question his beliefs. We're not designed to follow one path instead we are able to get to that final destination our own way, sometimes easy & sometimes not so much. 

So having someone stand on my doorstep & tell me the choices i'm making are wrong doesn't make for a happy bunny, & it's not how i picture god showing us the way. I mean how are we supposed to learn from our own mistakes when someone else is showing us our "faults"! Plus (& no offence to anyone meant) there are some really crazy religious nuts out there (check out "god warrior on YouTube for proof).

Anyways before my tangent turns into an essay here's some "religious" photos i have taken on my travels.

etsy treasury

so today i made my first "treasury" on etsy. Now whilst this might not seem exciting to the outside world it's a little exciting for me. A treasury is picked by other sellers, & has i think 12 items on it & is basically just another form of advertising within the world of etsy.  So having someone pick my image out of however many to go in this "treasury" i think is pretty cool & after a long but awesome day (... great run with hannah this morning ... 10 minute miles make me very happy & then a fun night at work, ie. the job i do to pay for my photography) it was a nice thing to come home to. 

Anyways here's the photo in question, a picture of an old french address/telephone book i found at the hotel we were staying out. I think it's pretty cool & i personally love the shot but as we all know i can be a little biased about my work.

working on photos for etsy

so you'd think it would be easy to pick the photos i want to sell but there are so many things i have to take into account & so often i worry as to whether "everyone" is going to like something when really i already know that everyone is different & i don't want to aim my photo at "everyone". I mean obviously i want something commercial but i don't want it to be something you can buy at ikea, mass produced world wide. I want my images to stand out, have that little something that makes people want to hang it on their wall. So in this vain i'm not just picking out the images i like, i'm picking out those i think others would like too but don't all fall under that umbrella of mass produced pretty pretty same same (that's my term for it). So here's a few of the one's i'm currently working on. I hope they're all a bit different, like the variety bucket at kfc!

D-Day photos

Here on request are some more photos from our recent trip to Normandy. With the 65Th anniversary this weekend & memorial day just a few weeks ago i decided now would be a good time to show these, & hopefully a few of them will be up for sale in my shop the next few weeks. The images are all very different, i hope showing the different styles i prefer as well as high lighting the cultural effects on the Normandy beaches of today.

Below is a photo of  the beach at St Laurent, more commonly known as part of Omaha beach. Who'd have thought somewhere so peaceful could have experienced so much blood shed just 65 years previous?

 

Postcards in a souvenir shop, showing the many different depictions of the Normandy beaches from 1944 until today.

Pointe du Hoc is a french cliff, located between the Utah & Omaha beaches, it was the site of 6 casements of German guns, aimed on the beaches below. The job fell to the rangers to destroy this battlement of D-Day. Firstly the area was heavily bombarded before the rangers climbed the cliff. For 2 days the rangers held the German forces at bay until reinforcements could arrive & destroyed the guns. Of the 225 rangers who climbed those cliffs only about 90 survived. 

Part of a  US Sherman tank, preserved outside a museum dedicated to Omaha, St Laurent. 

new photos for etsy

I'm working on a new selection of photos to post on etsy for sale, & this is one of the images i'm considering. It's taken at Colleville-Sur-Mer American Cemetery, in Normandy France. Most of you would know this cemetery as the one at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, & currently contains almost 10,000 bodies.  We took a vacation to Normandy after my husband came back from deployment, & our visit included seeing various beaches & museums. Colleville-Sur-Mer is an incredible emotional place, & i still cant' comprehend what we saw on our visit. This photo i love but i worry that maybe it's a little grey as the day in question there was no sun just the clouds you see. 

business card designs

so here's a couple more business card designs. 

This is from the original photo. & underneath is me messing in photoshop, using the curves adjustment layer & then turning it into a colour negative. I think it looks pretty cool but hey that's just me!!

plugboards

so i have been introduced into the world of plug boards as a means of free advertisement on the internet. Now seriously don't ask me for the technical explanation of what one of these is because all i can tell you is it's those small flashing boxes you see all over the place that when you click on take you to another site, usually porn. So after days & we are talking days of someone trying to explain this concept to me, the finally wrote me a "dummy's guide" & i have finally managed to post my own little button on these sites, & although i don't quite know how they get traffic (do people actually look at the sites i put my button on?) i am proud of my little achievement & even if just one person checks out my site then that's one more than i would have had. 

Anyways this is my button, not the greatest but remember i am still new at this & if you just so happen to do a random search of "free plugboards" or "photography plugboards" click on my little icon. Remember i need all the help i can get at this point!!

sale?

So i'm not whether i get to count selling a photo to a friend as a sale but if i do then i made one of those today. My first in a really long time (not including my folks). It makes me happy but still i'm waiting on that illusive sale, where a stranger someone i've never met decides to buy a print. I'm also excited about getting my work up on istock, just waiting on my id to be scanned & i'm all set. Just another avenue i'm trying in the hope of making some money so fingers crossed. 

Anyways this is the photo i sold today, shot in amsterdam we printed it 32" x 24" & it looks awesome (though it's possible i'm a little biased). 

business cards

so i've started looking at business card designs ... here's the first. 

in the beginning ...

So i guess this is day one (so to speak) of my blog. I'm slowly starting to get my photography world together. My etsy shop is set up ...

http://levansphotography.com

I'm looking at setting up on 1000 markets & hopefully someone out there will by one of my prints. Well a girl can dream!!

Anyways here's something new i took the other week, something different. hope you like it & i will check back here on a regular basis.