I would LOVE your input!

Hi folks!

Perhaps spring really is on its way?  Its been raining here in Maine for the past day and a half.  The snow in my back yard is now only knee deep!  What a nice change.  I may feel differently as "mud season" approaches...

I've been plugging away in indoor work much of the winter but have gotten out photographing a bit.  Last week, I took a ride to Acadia National Park and Mt Desert Island early, early on some very chilly mornings, in search of some nice lighting and sea smoke. 

WELL!  The first morning I was out the door before 5am, but that wasn't quite early enough.  By the time I got to Ocean Drive, the sun was peeking over the horizon already.  Of course, it didn't help that the roads were very messy from the snow the night before and the folks ahead of me on the roads didn't seem to care that I was racing against the sunrise!  It was 5 degrees when I captured this image that morning.

A)

It didn't feel too cold and would have been nice to just sit, take in the view & sip on a hot cup o'coffee.  Unfortunately, my coffee was long gone and would have been pretty darn cold at that point anyway!  Still, couldn't think of a more beautiful spot to start a morning of "work"!

The next morning I was up & out even earlier.  Out the door before 4:30 AM!  You'll notice the difference in lighting on these two images.  The image below, I had to wait for things to brighten up, since I was there way before sunrise.  I did make some images prior to sunrise, but they were so flat compared to the natural light and glow on the red rocks!

B)

The second morning, the temperature was 9 BELOW zero!  I was pleasantly surprised that once I was out there & busy photographing, I hardly noticed the cold.  I was disappointed that even though the temperature & lack of wind seemed ideal for sea smoke, there really wasn't any.  Perhaps next time, conditions will cooperate a bit more.  Looking at these results and the beautiful location, the first light of the morning and the sounds of gulls & crashing waves, I wouldn't dare complain!

So, here's the question.  Which image do you like better and WHY?  I find there are attributes to each image that I like and I do like one slightly more than the other.  But before I influence your decision, I'd love some feedback.

Thanks!

Digging out...

You would think, coming into another Maine winter, I'd be talking about snow!  But I'm not.  I have started the rather daunting task of digging out my workshop space, now that my busiest season yet has slowed down to a crawl.  Yes, it was a busy season.  You have no idea how grateful I am to be able to say that, after struggling through all this "poor economy" fearing for my financial security and desperately hoping to be able to continue to do what I love so much.  I have watched so many of my fellow artists & crafters struggle with poor sales, bad shows and the stress of it all.  Trust me, I've experienced my share as well.  I am just so very relieved to have made it through another season!  With the economical situation starting to sound a bit more positive, I'd like to think the hardest times are behind me now.  We'll see.  I have never taken my situation for granted and hope that as we enter a new year, my good fortune will continue.

In case you haven't noticed, the old website hosted through Hostway is no longer.  Thankfully, my site has been transferred over to PhotoShelter and I must say, I've been quite impressed with their capabilities.  If you go to www.LoriDavisPhotography.Com it will now bring you to the new site.  Some pages of the old website may still be found on the web floating around as saved pages or bookmarks.  However, if you attempt to make a purchase on that old site, I expect you will get an error.  If you have time, check  out the new website format and let me know what you think.  I still have to do some cropping on images, add file names and do some tweaking, but that will all get sorted out this winter.  Both positive and negative feedback are welcome.

The Maine Crafts Association Holiday Store at the Bangor Mall was a huge success!  I had more sales than I had expected and with my show season winding down, the extra money was a welcomed addition heading into another long, Maine winter.  Too bad it was probably only a one time thing, since the mall had a store front that they wanted to fill during the holiday season.  NICE JOB MCA.  Thank you!

Now, the 6x10 enclosed trailer that hauls all of my product to shows is protecting my lawnmower from snow.  All of the show merchandise, racks & tables that  filled my 10x10 craft tent now clutter my one car garage "workshop".  That clutter accompanies the merchandise I've taken back from shops & galleries that have closed for the season.  Add this, MORE clutter I've left behind while rushing to get out the door after working all night preparing for a show and I've got quite the cluster going on!  If there was room for a backhoe, that would probably be the most effective way to clear a path!  However, there certainly is not enough room for that!  One of my many winter projects, is to organize my workspace.  Its a much bigger task that you'd think.  Once I have found table tops again, I can then take on the next daunting task of taxes.  After that, mat cutting, printing and production getting ready for another season of art shows.  I certainly hope I can produce enough merchandise in the off season, so I can get out & "play" a bit more this upcoming season.  With shows every weekend and producing more merchandise during the weeks in between, there hasn't been much time to get out & photograph.  That needs to change this year.

Amongst the winter projects, I plan to enjoy a bit of quiet time unwinding in front of the cozy wood stove.  I've been on the go so much, its nice to have some quiet time to  myself to regroup and recharge for the upcoming season!

Belated Happy New Year to all!  Thanks for checking back!

New website...

Just packaged my first order from the NEW website!  All seemed to process quite smoothly!  Yay!

One show to go...

But, who's counting, right?  ME!  Twenty shows in a five month period feels like a lot to me.  .The production work in between is what's keeping me the busiest.  Printing, matting, framing, the new website...  I didn't get out photographing nearly as much as I would have liked this past season.  I'm hoping to get ahead on some of the production work over the winter and allow myself more time to get out and "play" next season. 

I am not complaining.  Every day I am grateful to be self employed.  Grateful to be able to make a living doing what I enjoy most.  It is worth every ounce of hard work and I know that there are many people out there struggling to find work, to keep their homes and worse.  I am grateful (just a little tired!).

The new website is up and running pretty smoothly.  www.LoriDavisPhotography.Com   There are still many images to be added, which I hope to work on over the next couple of weeks.  The old website will remain online through the holidays or at least until I get all of the images transferred to the new site.  To access the "old" website, follow this link: http://store.valueweb.com/servlet/loridsp/StoreFront  The shopping cart feature is still safe, secure & ready for holiday shoppers!

It's embarrassing, but its been a year since my last newsletter.  I didn't get one out this spring, due to the Florida trip and other time commitments.  This evening, I sent out my holiday newsletter.  It went out later than I would have liked, but still in time to hopefully encourage some holiday shopping.  Gotta pump up that savings account for the winter!  No shows until June 2011 and the winters here in Maine are long & cold.


I'll be in Hartford, CT this coming weekend (December 3,4 & 5) for the Castleberry Christmas Craft Expo.  Visit this link for more a list of exhibitors, directions, times and a coupon off admission.  Castleberry Fairs
I hope to see you there!


Let me know what you think of the new website.  Thanks for checking back.

Sorry for my absence...

I can't believe its been almost a month and a half since my last post.  Thank you for those who have taken the time to check back. I apologize for not keeping up.  I've had shows every weekend and have been going crazy w/ production of prints, matting, framing, note cards, filling orders, etc...  You'd think I'd be RICH by now!

Another project that has been taking up much of my time is the new website.  The site I've had for a few years now, has really been very disappointing for tech support. In a desperate rush to get a new site up before the holiday rush, I've been working on that most of the past two weeks, when I'm not at or preparing for shows.   Those of you familiar with my collection of images will notice some changes.  The old site had over 800 images, the new site, at this time, only has 235 or so.  Once this is up & running, I will be able to add more images, however, I didn't want to invest lots of time adding images until I was sure the new site could do what I wanted.  The design of this site will be very different.  You will hopefully be happy to see much larger thumbnails and there will be much less clicking required.  I welcome feedback, both positive and negative. 

This afternoon, I've made the attempt to transfer my domain name of www.LoriDavisPhotography.Com to the new site.  It can take up to two days, but hopefully all will go smoothly.  You may have to update your bookmarks, since the new site will actually be LoriDavisPhotography.Com and not the shopping cart site that you were directed to before.  I'd like to thank my friend Gene Thompson for all of his hard work helping me figure out the new site.  He's been a huge help!

I've only got two shows left for the 2010 season.  My body & mind are both looking forward to a break!  I'll be in Northport, Maine this weekend.  Then the first weekend in December, I'll be in Hartford, CT for a three day show.  After that, I'll be working on adding more images to the website... even scanning some slides from trips that no one has seen yet!  I'm kinda looking forward to that.

Thanks again for checking back.  I appreciate your support!



 

Busy, Busy...

I haven't even had the chance to catch up online since I got back from the Lobster Festival in early August, now... somehow, it's SEPTEMBER already!  I must be working too hard, time is just passing too quickly.  That's not a complaint, considering my season is only about 5 months to make a year's worth of income, BUSY is GOOD!

Although Hurricane Earl, now Tropical Storm Earl has weakened, he is still likely to cause harm & damage in Bar Harbor tomorrow if the Village Green were filled with craft tents.  Thankfully, the town of Bar Harbor has allowed the Island Arts Association to reschedule our craft fair until Sunday.  PHEW!  Its only one day during Labor Day weekend, but I would still hate to miss out on the opportunity to share my work & make a bit of money at the same time.  The weather for Sunday is looking sunny & COOL!  It's been so stinkin' hot & humid up here the past few days, I can't get any work done without something sticking to me!  It will be a welcomed change in weather for sure.  Its hard to think about ordering enough fire wood for the winter now, but that will be next!

Website Status...

After countless phone calls over the past few weeks to Bulgaria (yes... BULGARIA) I still have made little to no progress on getting my website issues corrected. ValueWeb, which was once an American based company was wonderful to deal with in all the years I have been their customer.  Since they "migrated" to HOSTWAY, there have been some major inconveniences.  They have "lost" the back pages to my website, even though I have backed them up online.  My pages SHOW SCHEDULE, ABOUT MY PRODUCT, NEWS and other links have now disappeared.  Many of the links just lead back to my BIO page... I can only imagine how conceited folks out there must think I am, if all links just lead back to the "ABOUT ME" page!  Anyway, after countless hours on the phone w/ tech support, no progress has been made.  I was able to get into the code of the homepage and add the comment about my show schedule being available on my BLOG now.  I have had a few of you contact me to let me know the pages weren't working properly.  Thanks for keeping an eye out for me. 

I don't know how soon I can find a new hosting company with all of the features that I require, but at least there's peace of mind knowing that although these website issues are frustrating, the images, the shopping cart and security features have not and will not be compromised.  The website will not see any further changes until I can build a new one w/ a new host. 

Enjoy the images, feel free to continue to shop securely.  The issues is just that the back pages have been lost & nothing else.  Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.