2016 Photo Calendar

Yes it's that time of the year again and I've come up with another calendar for 2016 but it's a bit different this time around...

As you may have seen from our travel blog Jacq and Will went up the hill, we done a little bit of travel this year.  That means I've taken more than a few photos so trying to come up with on 12 (or 14 really) for the calendar was quite a challenge but I think the result is pretty darn good.  It features a mix of landscape (mostly natural) and wildlife photos from across three different continents so has a travel theme more than anything else.

The other thing that is a bit different is that I bulk ordered them  from a printer rather than just making them available through Redbubble.  It was a bit of a scary process to go through for the first time but the end result was worth it.  The print quality is fantastic and it means it means I can get them to you at a substantially lower cost.

The date pages are set-up with Australian public holidays and school term dates for all the states and territories, however I can ship them anywhere in the world.  Plus I'm pretty sure the moon phases are the same everywhere...

You can order them from my web site: 2016 Calendars
Or if you are not in Australia from my Etsy store.

Wildlife of Southern Africa 2012 Calendar

After many late nights since returning from my trip to South Africa and Botswana I've finally got a new calendar together for 2012!  It is filled with 13 (including the cover) of my favorite wildlife photos from the trip printed on A3 200gsm satin art paper with a sturdy top wire binding and hanger.  They are a fantastic gift idea and if you order before the 17th of December in many parts of the world then you will receive your order before Christmas (Redbubble Christmas shipping dates).

If you are looking at this post mid year and don't want to wait 6 months to get a calendar you actually select which month of the year you want you calendar to start when you order.  The default should be Janurary but make sure you double check before you click Add to Cart.

African Wildlife is not your thing then I also have several other calendars available in my Calendar Album or go to my portfolio page for card & prints of all my photos including many more from the trip.  If I can get a few more photos uploaded tonight I might have a "Birds of Southern Africa" calendar too.

For the photographers out there, all images were taken with a Canon 7D with Canon 100-400.

Photo sales

I've been doing a lot of research and thinking (and a little action) into the best way to try and sell some if my photos.  While I've done some event photography and shot some weddings, my real passion creating amazing landscape, nature and still life prints... so I figure I should follow it.  This article is basically some rambling and thinking out loud, hopefully it will give you some ideas about directions to go in photography or maybe you can leave some comments giving me some direction.  Anyway here it goes...

Right now I have many of my 'art' photos for sale on Redbubble, I also have them displayed on my web site with links to my bubblesite where appropriate.  I also use my web site to sell photos from events I've shot, so I could use this option to sell my art photos as well.  I really like Redbubble because I don't have to do anything when someone orders a photo.  I don't like Redbubble because the base price is high, the don't offer 'normal' prints and they only have a few products I really like.

There's also a printer in Brisbane called Brilliant prints who do excellent affordable canvas prints and have recently started doing block mounted photos prints which look great and are even more affordable (I have to two photos below block mounted on my wall).  But the don't do framing, cards, calendars or 'normal' prints.  I've often wondered about giving up on redbubble and just using these guys and maybe supplement it with another standard photo printer but it would be a lot of work to set-up (print sizes and cost on web site) and I'd have to do 'stuff' whenever an order came through.  I'm still pondering this option if I could find a (singular) good printer and framer to work with.

Another option is that I've just joined Imagekind who do 'normal' prints, framing and canvas printing in a Redbubble type set-up with lots of size, paper type, mat and frame options.  But they are US based and I don't want to have to point to both redbubble and these guys from my web site. Just to make things interesting I've got a Zazzle account that is somewhere inbetween Imagekind and CafePress (I also have an account with these guys but the 'free' account isn't much use to me) which I'm using to create posters, postcards and different calendar formats.

The other thing I've found is that people are more likely to buy a print or calendar if it is physically there in front of them, particularly for less-computer-savvy generations.  This is hard, because it means you need to have up front $$ to buy the products and you need somewhere to display them.  It is even more important if you are going to sell postcards, these are normally bough from a store, somewhere near when the photo would have been taken.  So this involves doing more research into printers that have products you want at good prices which also involves buying in bulk to save $$ but first requiring you to spend more $$.

This means I now have images strewn all over the internet, three sales sites (four if you include my attempts with cafepress), one flickr site, facebook site, my web site, I have a blog (two actually), a twitter account, myspace account, a printer in Brisbane and are pondering getting calendars, prints, cards and/or postcards physically into various stores/galleries/cafe's.  Which all adds up to one big mess.

So I hope you weren't expecting me to come to a conclusion about the best way to do photo sales coz I'm going to leave it there for now and keep thinking and working to, well, see what works.  Let me know if you have any comments, thoughts or ideas.  If you are in the same place as me, GOODLUCK!

Christmas pressies!

As we are all well aware, Christmas is looming fast and the race is on to find gifts for everyone. While I'm sure I'm not the only one that's a bit over all the Christmas marketing hype, it'd be silly not to take this opportunity to give you a few nice, unique, artistic gift ideas (and if it helps I can beg and plead as well . . . ).

Cards:
The quality of Redbubble cards is fantastic and they are excellent value as well so it's not surprising they are my best sellers (thanks Mum)! But if you are looking for a vibrant unique Christmas (or any other occasion) card then this is a great place to start! Order some now!

Prints:

There are a variety of options if you are want one of my photos as an art print, the easiest one is to go through Redbubble who have a large variety of print formats, or if you want something a little more specific (or just a bigger print) then I can probably arrange something for you. With Redbubble you can order; framed prints, canvases, mounted prints, laminated prints and posters. If you want a custom job then I can arrange canvas prints or photo prints mounted on a foam core backing. I've ordered canvas prints of both the images shown below, the bottom one from Redbubble and top at 1.2m wide from Brilliant prints and both look excellent. Order from Redbubble or contact me for custom prints.

2010 Calendars

The Redbubble calendars are fantastic and I've just finished putting together another one of the Sandy Point area (show to the right). It gives you the chance to have a new photo displayed on your wall every month and at the end of the year you've got 12 photos to do what you like with. I actually cut up my old calendar and stuck the photos up around my desk at work (my day job that is) to bring a little tranquility to my day. RedBubble calendars are printed on high quality satin art paper (A3 - 297x420mm)and have a hanger and white wire binding along the top. Free shipping on calendars if you order 3 or more!
Check out my calendars here.

Christmas shopping deadline

For all the Redbubble products listed above you need to order by 17 December if you want them before Christmas!


I think there are links to all the various products or sites but if I missed anything, here's my Redbubble store/site or you can contact me through my web site if you want something special.