how did i get here?

my husband, my beautiful Dragon, died suddenly at 12:03 AM on 9 February 2009. there was a cold, lovely full moon and 3 feet of snow on the ground. i "slept" for the following 10 months and "woke" to the physical and emotional pain and torments of deep grief. i "woke" to find i had moved the day of his funeral and that i am lost. i am looking for me while i figure out the abstract, unanswerable questions that follow behind any death. my art has evolved. his death changed that as well because i am forever changed and will forever bear the mark of losing the only man i can ever love.
there is alive and there is dead and there is a place in between. i am here wholly in my heart for my children, but i feel empty inside at this time. i miss him. i have not gotten very far in my grief journey. i make no apologies for this.
this is my place, my blog, where i write to tell the universe that i am still here.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Bunny's pictures

Bunny takes pictures. Bunny always has. she is a photo-freak. snap. snap snap. it is a beautiful world. way down there. way out there. way up there. everywhere.

Bunny got some emails ~~ no, the good kind. some people out there like Bunny's photos and want to buy some. Bunny smiled. Bunny tried to build a website, a free one, because, well, Bunny is quite poor. Bunny started to frown. damn those free websites. text boxes galore but no way to upload photos unless you pay, and pay, and pay. damn, damn, damn. Bunny's eyes were tearing up. her little lips were trembling. Bunny is still a little fragile and it seemed like the photo gods were laughing at her, until her son said,

"flickr!"

ah, flickr. Bunny almost swooned with relief. so this posting is Bunny's big announcement.

Bunny has two new flickr accounts; two because even flickr has a ceiling.
www.flickr.com/photos/womanNshadows/
flowers and trees
or as Bunny teasingly calls it, "flora fotos."

and then there's the "life by the ocean" photos...
www.flickr.com/photos/abandonedsouls/

there are links over there on the right to help everyone get there. now, you must promise to visit every so often because Bunny keeps adding photos to both of them. she is a very hard working Bunny. and remember, Christmas is coming. someone is having a birthday. it will be Wednesday again. pictures make great gifts. {Bunny is blushing but hey, marketing is marketing.}

whew! Bunny is tired tonight. {pssst. she stayed up late last night, waiting until the clouds all left her lovely, lonely moon alone so she could take more and more full moon photos.}

so anyway, Bunny is off to bed. she has to be at the dentist early in the morning for her permanent crown. finally. oh my heavens above. finally. and if he messes this up, again, Bunny is taking his picture and posting it for all the world to see. well, the little world that pays attention to Bunny.

and one more picture for the road. Bunny's beloved Dragon. Bunny loves this picture. Dragon was leading Bunny through the deep, dark, primeval forest that surrounds Dogtown. okay, we walked the path, but it was still spooky and twisty and turny and Dragon took the lead because he is brave and strong. Marines are not afraid of anything. we'll maybe Bunny, but that's another post. Bunny took lots of photos that day. Dragon turned around to laugh at her and Bunny took his picture.

poor little Bunny has lots and lots of pictures of her Dragon. i say poor little Bunny because she is always very aware that, now that her Dragon lives beyond the moon in Heaven, there will be no more pictures of her Dragon.

on a lighter note, if you haven't, click on the music. yes, Bunny uploaded "Kodachrome." it's a catchy little tune and fitting for a post on pictures.

8 comments:

Debbie said...

Your pictures are beautiful. I'm so impressed with all that you've done.

I'm not really familiar with flickr so this information may already be on your sites but I'm wondering about the sizes of picts you're selling and how we order them.

Good luck with your new business. You are a talented photographer!

Judy said...

I am going to look at all your pictures. You are so talented in so many way. Dragon is so proud of you!

Dan said...

Good luck with this new venture. It's a great idea.

bev said...

Looking good. Keep looking around for other photo hosting sites as well. I don't know which ones charge for hosting, but I have photographer friends who have used sites such as redbubble, and smugmug, which I believe, makes it easy for people to order prints. Both have had good luck with sales over those two sites - especially redbubble. I've bought stuff over redbubble and it's a very easy interface for people who want to order your work. Nice display format too.

Also, if you haven't done so already, look into sites such as etsy (maybe you have an etsy shop already - I can't remember?). The woman who did Daily Coyote had one and I think it was part of her whole marketing thing. Recently, a friend who flew down to visit me in AZ, met a guy in the next seat on the plane, who has a biz (with his wife), selling neat little wizard puppet character. I think they do most of their marketing on etsy, but linked to a website that they built. Anyhow, the main point I would make about selling your work is to put it up in as many places as you can think of - and interlink everything as much as possible.

Also, put names on every image so that photo researchers, or people looking for certain items, will find them. I license a lot of insect photos to books, magazines, museum exhibits, video productions, etc.., so I make sure that all images are tagged with the scientific names of the insects so that google and other search engines will pick up the images and display them when a researcher is looking for a particular species. Obviously, my market is quite a bit different, so I have to think differently, but there are angles to everything and you just have to think like a photo researcher.

Another thought. I have never used the micro-stock services, but two photographer acquaintances have - one normally sells scientific images through a specialty stock company, but he's also gotten into the micro-stock field - and so has another wildlife photographer who sells mainly large format camera images, but is marketing his digital stuff shot on a Canon G10 through a micro-stock company. They both claim they're making some money on the micro-stock sites - enough to make it worth their while.

One thing with your work is that I wonder if you could develop a niche market using "studio shots" of various characters that you have created - the sock animals, etc... I would think those would make terrific images and could, at the same time, be promoting your creations as well.

Anyhow, one other note - be sure to license everything and not give away the rights! I have one beetle photo that has been licensed many times over the years - for a science book cover, an electrical engineering magazine, an advertising campaign for a company in Europe. It has earned quite a lot of money over the years. I almost never sell the rights to any photo, especially if it is one that I think I might be able to license again in the future.

Good luck with your photo biz!

bev said...

Just to add to my comment. I just checked redbubble.com and it seems to be free and with unlimited images for marketing your work. A friend has been using only redbubble for awhile and seems to be making sales. I bought a calendar of his photos last year and it's quite lovely. I ordered while I was in the U.S. and delivery was quick. Anyhow, I think it might be worth giving a site like that a try. I don't actually sell photos as objects, so haven't gotten into that end of things, but if I did, I'd definitely give one of those sites a whirl with at least some of my images.

megan said...

and - bev told me awhile ago about kickstarter.org - I think that's it, I haven't checked it out yet.

and - yay!

abandonedsouls said...

thank you all for all your kind words and advice.

Bev, my daughter and i checked out smugmug and it looks great.

megan, i'll look at kickstarter.org, too.

Deb, i am figuring out prices right now. sizes will be standard 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 8 x 10; with borders or without; glossy or matte. i am working on getting that information up somehow and make it available.

again, thank you all. it's my latest creative endeavor to add to my income. i have literally thousands of photos from all my days out walking with my Dragon. i thought of calling it Dragon Photos, but he was the one who came up with abandonedsouls. and now, well, it just seems appropriate.

i'll keep you all posted on my progress.

Boo said...

PROUD PROUD PROUD PROUD PROUD PROUD PROUD that you are my friend x

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