Finished at last

Finally finished checking and photoshopping all the photos Luke and I took at the wedding.  The canvas that Alison ordered has arrived and waiting for a phone call from her, and two DVDs of the photos were given to Pippa last night.  Big sign of relief.  I reckon  it took over 20 hours altogether, excluding the time at the wedding.  I won't do that again.

Feeling chillier out there tonight - Autumn is coming and with it lovely colours, misty mornings and opportunities for some good photos.

I invested in a UV filter - nice blue sky in the sunflower photo below.  Might lash out and get a polarizing filter before my holiday in two weeks time.

Wedding photos

I've just had a look at Luke's photos.  Apart from one or two, they are BETTER THAN MINE!  He is happy to just steam in and take a photo, whereas I tend to hang back.  All a bit depressing.  Even more depressing is the one or two shots that have included me.  I've realised that I am old, fat and my hair is going grey.  Ah, well, c'est la vie.

Village wedding review

The wedding all went off to plan, even the rain stayed off until all the photos had been taken in the castle courtyard.  I have been reviewing and doing some tidying up of my photos.  They are OK, but not wonderful.  The one I like best is, strangely enough, a landscape.  I took this photo on my way home, in the rain.  The rose petal confetti is just starting to stick to the ground.

Village wedding

I am checking and charging batteries etc. ready to go down to the church at 11.30am to photograph Clare's wedding.  I refused to do the 'formal' photos and one of Mark's relatives is going to do this.  Luke and I are going to be roving snappers to suppliment the formal photos.  I am sure Luke will be good at this, but I am a landscape photographer.  I am used to taking pictures of things that don't move about!  I need time to check all the settings to get the best photo.  So I think I'll be lucky to get anything very interesting/satisfactory.

To make matters worse, it has been raining heavily overnight and the forecast is for showers/light rain then heavy rain.  So perhaps there won't be much photography after the service.  If it's all going to be inside the castle, the light isn't very good, so I'll have to think about that.  And people keep moving about!!  Argh!!!

Christmas cards in August!

I spent most of yesterday researching the cost of producing Christmas cards on my own printer and level of prices for sale at the next lot of craft fairs in November.  Only found 10 images that were appropriate.  I think that maybe notelets/blank cards that can be sold all year round, and at a higher price than Christmas cards, might be a better line.  I could use some of the more popular images from the website.  The cost of production would be the same as Christmas cards, but the profit/sales should be higher and there would be a more definite link with the canvases.  More research needed!

This all started when I printed out two customer notelets thanking customers for buying from us.  They looked so good that I thought of the Christmas cards/notelets.  Maybe double size blank cards, singly wrapped would also go down well.  I know these sell in the shops for between £2 and £3.  Even more research needed!!!

Luke's first photos for sale on website

Luke took some photos of the Cathedral and Castle from the train as he headed down to York.  He used the Lumix camera that I gave him for his birthday and came up with two excellent views.  I cropped them and did a little work in photoshop and they look stunning!  Looks as though I'll be able to hang my camera up before long!  Shame I've just bought a Canon Ixus compact camera so that I can have it with me all the time!

Vane Tempest craft fair

We went to the Vane Tempest craft fair, but it's not suitable for us - mainly small inexpensive items.  Since then I have tracked down several possibles at Durham Town Hall, New College Durham, Washington Arts Centre, Lumley Castle and maybe Barnard Castle.  Luke says he's up for it, ie. every weekend in November and early December, so I'm just waiting to hear the charges for some of them before I finally book a place.

Fortunately all except Barnard Castle are close enough for me to drop Luke off and return to collect him and his takings!!

We've been thinking about how to display the canvases. All the venues look as though they won't let you hammer panel pins in the walls!  I think we've decided on concertina trellis which can be balanced on a table and leaned against the wall, though Luke is going to a craft fair in Bradford that his mother is involved with and will see if he can see a better solution to the problem.

Two more canvases sold

Two more canvases have been sold as a result of the craft fair.  Luke has sold a second canvas of The Village (medium) to Geoff Harrison, and Carole Reed decided she wanted a large canvas and chose Eyemouth Harbour.  I have included them in the calculations of costs and profits for the craft fair.

The craft fair has turned out to be much more worthwhile that any of us thought.  Fingers crossed for the Christmas fair in November.  I had a quick look round the fair and there was only one other stall selling pictures - drawn pictures of animals - very nice and attractive, but fortunately not in competition with us.

Tomorrow, Luke and I are going to have a look at the monthly fair held in Vane Tempest Hall to see the set up, how many stalls there are, and whether it's the sort of fair for us.