Photography almost for sale..

This post is to say, FINALLY.. I'm in the final stage of getting my photography ready for sale. For years I've been wanting to sell my work. For months I've worked on accomplishing it (building website, figuring out how to sell, templates, ordering "practice" prints..etc).
A few days after New Years, the idea hit me. How to "knock out two scorpions with one stone" haha.

The problems I kept running into were:
1. Cropping, print sizing, all whacked.
2. How would I sign my work? Have a company mail me prints to sign, go to a Kinko's and sign and mail..whatnot.

First problem I fixed by ordering Paint Shop Pro 9, and by using a program called JPEGCrops. With these two, and a little help from a web-based ratio calculator, I figured out what sizes my photo's needed to be, to print at my desired size. In doing this, I also decided, I could use my signature from work (just a little jpeg file) and the text feature in PSP, to put in the extended canvas size.. What this means, is I cut out a whole process entirely. When one orders a print, all I have to do, is accept their payment, and pay for the print, and have it directly mailed to the person ordering it.

LIKE WOAH! I guess my brain did come back to life after the holidays..
I've ordered 3 prints with my newly added "features". I have to test how they come out before I sell them, but when I get those back, I may just be ready to have a "prints for sale" page.

Portland Maine

Today I thought I'd go out and take some pictures after I did some errands, cause I actually had the day off. Wow! I like it when I have days off and it's nice out. I was trying to find this cemetery someone told me about, but failed to find it. Instead I decided to drive around the "decayed" parts of Portland and take some photo's.

First 20X30 Poster Print!

I now have my very own 20X30 poster-sized print! SEEE..



That picture was a series I did for a friend actually. She had her daughter photographed every year in black and white. I thought it was a cool idea, and was happy to be her photographer of the year. Just thought I'd share, since I beat my old record (and it was SUCH an old record) of 18X24. I think 20X30 is as high as I'd go. The photo lost a small bit of it's clarity (though from a normal viewing point it looks perfect). I'm not sure if I'll sell the 20X30's. I probably COULD, but I think I'd rather stick to a 18X24 if it's better quality. 18X24 is big enough.

First Poster-Sized Print

My first poster-sized print!!



It came out very well! I'm soooooooo happy.. I'm gonna probably go buy a frame for it today.

Berlin, New Hampshire

After my grandparents brought me out to lunch, and we were driving back to their house, I kept seeing all of the great pictures I could be taking. I drove back through the town on my way home, and took a few pictures from my car window. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to walk around and take pictures.

This church is right around the corner from my memere and pepere's house. I was fascinated by the design of it when I was younger. I love Russian Orthodox style churches, unfortunately they're really aren't that many that I'm aware of in Maine or New Hampshire.



This is just a small church (or religious structure of some sort) right along the "downtown" strip of Berlin. I just snapped a picture of this for no reason in particular.



This is a building alongside the river and near *A* mill. I just liked the look of this building.



Berlin is a mill city (seriously, it WAS ONCE a city, the population dwindled a lot, just checked and I guess technically it is a city, though a smaller one than it was.) The downtown is amazing to me. It's pretty much in shambles. The inner-side of the downtown (on the other side of these buildings) isn't too bad. I *think* almost all of the storefronts are being used, but I honestly don't drive down that way very often (it's a one way street, and not on the way to my grandparents house). This side is pretty sad.



All the way down the strip there are boards up. Besides two competing drugs stores, pretty much RIGHT next to each other, there aren't any real stores open, until you get down to Dunkin' Donuts. (There is a city office and a bank on the other side of the road, but not much else). So sad..but so pretty to me.

I will, in the future, take MANY more pictures of Berlin. I often wonder if the huge amount of decay, the mills, factories, warehouses, run-down apartment buildings with clotheslines on the porches...little decayed bridge underpasses (pictures to be taken later), railroads...old churches..all of it, kinda attributed to my obsession with urban decay and stuff. I love the character of it all..the feeling I get when I look at certain buildings that are practically falling apart is almost like a rush. The fact that many share the obsession weirds me out. I've always liked the dark side of those things for some reason..the old rail tracks, alongside old unused, dirty, factories and warehouses of sorts..
The broken windows, the boarded doors, the mystery of what's inside..