Fadedwords

This morning I hit a milestone in on-line (via my website) sales of my photos.  It’s a small milestone, but it’s still something that I had set a goal for back when I first started going to shows and photographing them.  I’ve sold more than that via cash and people emailing me for CDs and paying me through pay*pal.  This was my first goal for myself through only my on-line website sales.  I really like that my service with this hosting company just holds the money until I decide to get my payout or until I reach a certain amount (I think it’s $500).  I’m a long way from the cap, and even though I reached this small goal I think I will continue to let the money sit there.  It’s safe and I can watch it grow.  I suppose you’re all wondering what milestone I reached!  Drum roll…

I have officially made $100 via my on-line sales!   At least now I can say that I am 2/3 of the way toward the site paying for itself!   I think I will easily surpass that by the next time the annual fee comes due (next July).

Another really cool thing that happened today?  A woman contacted me asking questions about digital downloads.  She said that she would like to use the photos as sale photos of one of her horses she has for sale.  I was incredibly flattered because this woman is a very well-respected horse woman, her horses are beautiful, and I knew she would never use photographs that weren’t top-notch.  This woman also happens to be the same one who trained/owned Granite Ghost.  Sadly, he has been sold… but I still find it incredibly neat that I have connected with this woman.  I was just on FB and did a quick search for her farm, and she had a page.  Right there at the top was my photo with her sale info on the horse!  She also told me that she would love for me to come out to her farm one day and do some photographs.

To complete the trifecta- my friend Tracey contacted me this afternoon and asked if I would be interested in photographing a trail challenge in November.  I said I would be, and am really looking forward to talking with her and her friend Beth about the event.  I’m not sure what I’ll need to do to be prepared for it, as I’ve never done an event like that.  It’ll be nice to add another type of event to my repertoire of skills, and I’ll get to spend time doing what I love.

A good day for the photography business today.

Well, kinda!  Yesterday my Dad and I got up early and went to Saratoga Racetrack to have breakfast and watch early morning workouts.  I had really wanted to take some pictures of that, and he was kind enough to get out of bed and come with me.  We also got to take a tour of the back side, which was really cool.

You can see the pictures I took HERE.

It was a wonderful day of photography, but it was made better because I got to share it with my Dad.  We don’t have a lot of truly Dad-Daughter time, and this was one of the few times.  Truly excellent.

Last night when I took the dog out for the last time, the sky was lighting up impressively in the distance.  After a moment’s consideration I decided to get in my car, pull it up to the back yard and try to take some photos of the arcing lightning.  I got a couple that weren’t too bad, and after some research I know what I need to do differently the next time to achieve better results.

I like this last photo because, it was 9:40 at night when I took it, and you can see just how much sheet lightning was going on in the clouds.  It was so bright that it made my eyes hurt staring at it!
Next time, I will improve my technique and have some really stunning photos.  Not bad for the first time, especially for someone who is petrified of thunder.

The owner of the farm I ride at asked me earlier this week if I would be willing to feed the horses while her family went out of town over night.  This was incredibly flattering, because I know how choosy I am about who cares for my dog.  I also know how very particular I would be about who cared for my horse(s) if I had one.  Carol and her family have five.  It was also a momentous occasion, because Carol left me a message on FB saying she had thought perhaps she could trade me a ride on Pacman for this.  My frequent readers and friends will know that I fell in love with Pacman the first day I saw him, and that riding him would fulfill a dream.  It might sound silly to those of you who don’t ride, but this horse is simply amazing and I know I will never forget riding him if/when I do.

In any case, I was excited to take care of things while Carol and her family were out of town.  My excitement increased ten-fold last night because of this…

If you click on the photo, you should be taken to the gallery containing all the images I shot last night.

Then this morning, I was given yet another gift.  It looked a little like this:

If you click on that image you should be taken to the gallery containing all the butterfly goodness from this morning.

I need to live on a farm.  Spending my evenings and mornings feeding horses and taking pictures is definitely OK with me.

Today I did some 3-month portraits of my friend Bre’s daughter, Lawson.  We managed to get some great shots before it got too darn hot out!

All of the pictures are up and available for purchase!  Visit Lawson’s 3 Month Portraits!