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Wow - so impressed by you all! Love all that artistic work and the thought of traveling for years ...wow! I married a younger man so I'll be 80+ by the time he retires. I do manage to travel on my own a bit and with like-minded single friends. 

 

@Betty LaRue thank you for introducing me to Fine Art America years ago. The last couple of years I've made more there than at any single stock photo site. I've also shown my work in galleries around the metro NY area, including at The Museum of the City of New York. I started entering work into various juried shows and at one point had two openings the same night 30 miles away from each other. I sold work at both of those, but felt like a heel running out from one show to the next after making a sale. It got a bit overwhelming - takes a lot of work to print and frame images - and I was struggling with vertigo and other health issues at the time, so I decided to take some time off from it, but I may apply to a couple of shows with due dates later this year that open in January. It was really encouraging to discuss my art with people while they were viewing it. Maybe that lack of showing my work is why I seem to be in an artistic slump these days. 

 

This is some of my digital experimentation on Fine Art America - I've exhibited and sold some in the top few rows, but am still experimenting with style.  My black and white work is what I really consider my "fine art" photography, though in finding the link, I realize I have a lot more of it printed for shows than I have available for sale online. Getting that up to speed is another project for the cold weather ahead! 

Edited by Marianne
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@Betty LaRue and @gvallee  - if you are interested in a memoir about life on a sheep ranch in the outback, I suggest “The Road From Coorain” by Jill Ker Conway. It was a NY Times bestseller in the late 1980's so I'm guessing it's still available from the library if not from Amazon. She had been the president of Smith College when I was there, so I read it when it came out. I remember being really taken with how different her life was from my own experience. She went on to receive a medal from President Obama and was still going strong the last time I saw her in 2010, but sadly she died last year. She's written other memoirs as well but those were about her later life in Canada and the US. 

 

Anyway, it's a good read, even if there aren't any zombies. 💀

Edited by Marianne
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3 hours ago, Steve F said:

 

I'm glad you're having some success. Lots of people don't on F.A.A. I think. I've just been having fun trying to work out which are original watercolours and which are manipulated photos. I'm very impressed nonetheless, I think they look amazing. Yeah, I used oils for a year (wait 2 weeks for a layer to dry) and then discovered acrylics and never looked back.

 

Thanks for the compliments. I'm not patient for some things, but I am for art and photography. Architect was my second career choice and you can see this in the paintings.

Steve

Ah! Now I understand the excellent detail!   Speaking of F.F.A., I just got an order for 8 items for the same image. Totes, pouches and wall art. Somebody is buying Christmas gifts! It was of the little girl running to the sea in St. Croix.

Betty

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6 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

Why not? Two years ago I travelled 4 months on my own in a Ford Transit campervan off the beaten track. I loved every minute of it. Lots of women travel on their own in Toyota Coasters in Australia, and they're mechanically savy as well! Admittedly, they seem to travel with dogs rather than parrots!

 

Of course, I can't vouch for safety in the US, I have travelled there numerous times but never in an RV. Last time was to see the sandhill cranes migration at Bosque del Apache, New Mexico. Lift off is a dawn. Travelling alone in pitch black at 5 am, my wretched rented car decided to turn on a red warning light on the dash. Then, I missed the turn off to the reserve and ended up on a dirt road. All at night and in freezing temperatures. I love adventure!

 

Anyway, I'm glad you left bad times behind and turned the corner Betty, life sometimes seems out to test one.

Well, just recently a middle-aged couple, touring the US in their motorhome were slain and buried on Padre island in Texas, and their RV taken across the Mexican border, seemingly by an illegal. Some years back two or three escaped convicts broke into another couple’s RV and murdered them. I think that was New Mexico. 
On our RV trip to leaf-peep in New England, we stopped in the parking lot of a supermarket to eat dinner in our RV. A homeless man tried to break in. We quickly started up and left. That was in Connecticut, I believe.

My kids would hog tie me if I tried! No lie, they would be terrified. They hated it enough when I drove alone 2000 miles round trip to help my son with his dying wife this past spring. I wasn’t stopping into parks and nature preserves lollygagging around with a camera, either.

Betty

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1 hour ago, Marianne said:

Wow - so impressed by you all! Love all that artistic work and the thought of traveling for years ...wow! I married a younger man so I'll be 80+ by the time he retires. I do manage to travel on my own a bit and with like-minded single friends. 

 

@Betty LaRue thank you for introducing me to Fine Art America years ago. The last couple of years I've made more there than at any single stock photo site. I've also shown my work in galleries around the metro NY area, including at The Museum of the City of New York. I started entering work into various juried shows and at one point had two openings the same night 30 miles away from each other. I sold work at both of those, but felt like a heel running out from one show to the next after making a sale. It got a bit overwhelming - takes a lot of work to print and frame images - and I was struggling with vertigo and other health issues at the time, so I decided to take some time off from it, but I may apply to a couple of shows with due dates later this year that open in January. It was really encouraging to discuss my art with people while they were viewing it. Maybe that lack of showing my work is why I seem to be in an artistic slump these days. 

 

This is some of my digital experimentation on Fine Art America - I've exhibited and sold some in the top few rows, but am still experimenting with style.  My black and white work is what I really consider my "fine art" photography, though in finding the link, I realize I have a lot more of it printed for shows than I have available for sale online. Getting that up to speed is another project for the cold weather ahead! 

I am quite captivated by your three Wonder Wheel and plane series, and Snow on a White Picket Fence, among others. Keep it going! I remember encouraging you back then to try FFA.
Like you, my sales are better there. People like art, I guess, and are willing to pay more than business people for stock photos. It’s the mindset.

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More likely it was drug dealers stealing the van so close to the border. But scary for sure. 

 

The US, like most places, really depends on where you are. Connecticut has some of the country's most expensive zip codes but also some really rough towns with gangs and homelessness, two major problems.  I grew up in NYC but there are places in presumably "safer" states where I would be nervous. As a woman traveling alone you have to be very careful and cognizant of your surroundings, and as we get older it's also an issue. I would be scared to sleep in a camper van in the US, so I'm not disagreeing with you, but I wouldn't worry about roaming around a park on my own with my camera. Growing up in the city I also probably have that street-wise Spidey sense we have to develop. It sounds like Australia really has a population that is far more in touch with that sense of adventure. 

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Just now, Betty LaRue said:

I am quite captivated by your three Wonder Wheel and plane series, and Snow on a White Picket Fence, among others. Keep it going! I remember encouraging you back then to try FFA.
Like you, my sales are better there. People like art, I guess, and are willing to pay more than business people for stock photos. It’s the mindset.

 

Thanks, yes, I think people are more willing to pay for art than for "Royalty Free" photos on the internet - people get all annoyed when they realize that "free" in this context doesn't mean "no cost."

 

Love your painterly style and congrats on the latest big order! 

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1 minute ago, Marianne said:

More likely it was drug dealers stealing the van so close to the border. But scary for sure. 

 

The US, like most places, really depends on where you are. Connecticut has some of the country's most expensive zip codes but also some really rough towns with gangs and homelessness, two major problems.  I grew up in NYC but there are places in presumably "safer" states where I would be nervous. As a woman traveling alone you have to be very careful and cognizant of your surroundings, and as we get older it's also an issue. I would be scared to sleep in a camper van in the US, so I'm not disagreeing with you, but I wouldn't worry about roaming around a park on my own with my camera. Growing up in the city I also probably have that street-wise Spidey sense we have to develop. It sounds like Australia really has a population that is far more in touch with that sense of adventure. 

I have always had eyes in the back of my head when out and about. I traveled Oklahoma a lot, parks and rough nature, and some here in Kansas, and always felt safe. I think it’s because I know the people. When farther out of state, I’m more nervous.

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2 minutes ago, Marianne said:

 

Thanks, yes, I think people are more willing to pay for art than for "Royalty Free" photos on the internet - people get all annoyed when they realize that "free" in this context doesn't mean "no cost."

 

Love your painterly style and congrats on the latest big order! 

Thanks! I thought my iPad had a virus when 8 sales of the same picture kept rolling in. I was already mad, lol. But on checking I saw different products. First time for everything.

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4 hours ago, Marianne said:

@Betty LaRue and @gvallee  - if you are interested in a memoir about life on a sheep ranch in the outback, I suggest “The Road From Coorain” by Jill Ker Conway. It was a NY Times bestseller in the late 1980's so I'm guessing it's still available from the library if not from Amazon. She had been the president of Smith College when I was there, so I read it when it came out. I remember being really taken with how different her life was from my own experience. She went on to receive a medal from President Obama and was still going strong the last time I saw her in 2010, but sadly she died last year. She's written other memoirs as well but those were about her later life in Canada and the US. 

 

Anyway, it's a good read, even if there aren't any zombies. 💀

 

Thank you for the tip Marianne. I'll keep an eye for it in second hand bookshops here because one of the consequences of being on the road is that we have no address for deliveries.

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2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Well, just recently a middle-aged couple, touring the US in their motorhome were slain and buried on Padre island in Texas, and their RV taken across the Mexican border, seemingly by an illegal. Some years back two or three escaped convicts broke into another couple’s RV and murdered them. I think that was New Mexico. 
On our RV trip to leaf-peep in New England, we stopped in the parking lot of a supermarket to eat dinner in our RV. A homeless man tried to break in. We quickly started up and left. That was in Connecticut, I believe.

My kids would hog tie me if I tried! No lie, they would be terrified. They hated it enough when I drove alone 2000 miles round trip to help my son with his dying wife this past spring. I wasn’t stopping into parks and nature preserves lollygagging around with a camera, either.

Betty

Doesn't sound too relaxing!!

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3 hours ago, Marianne said:

More likely it was drug dealers stealing the van so close to the border. But scary for sure. 

 

The US, like most places, really depends on where you are. Connecticut has some of the country's most expensive zip codes but also some really rough towns with gangs and homelessness, two major problems.  I grew up in NYC but there are places in presumably "safer" states where I would be nervous. As a woman traveling alone you have to be very careful and cognizant of your surroundings, and as we get older it's also an issue. I would be scared to sleep in a camper van in the US, so I'm not disagreeing with you, but I wouldn't worry about roaming around a park on my own with my camera. Growing up in the city I also probably have that street-wise Spidey sense we have to develop. It sounds like Australia really has a population that is far more in touch with that sense of adventure. 

 

There are freak events in all walks of life and it’s easy to list them. On the other hand, I have travelled solo up, down and around the USA by car, sleeping alone in tents in primitive campsites. All over California. On an extended road trip from Las Vegas to Denver. Several different trips through Utah. No wayard events ever. Just bliss. People constantly ask me if it’s safe. It’s far safer than walking down the street in Oakland where I live, I tell them. And I do that too, late at night.

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7 hours ago, spacecadet said:

..and far less in touch with firearms, methinks.

 

Yes, the bane of our existence here. If only people didn't use them for hunting humans. My niece lost a friend in that horrible primary school shooting in Connecticut - one of her friends was a first grade teacher, And that was in a lovely safe upper middle class town. When the shooting of 6-year-olds couldn't get people to rally around gun control, well, I felt like we were lost. And yet, when there were folks working on restoring downed light poles on my block here in New York who had come all the way from Mississippi after Hurricane Sandy, I also know that there is a lot of good in my country, it's a conundrum for sure. 

 

I lived in a sketchy neighborhood in Manhattan in my 20s and wandered around late at night, and I also wander through state parks now after sundown (when they are officially closed) without much concern, though I do keep those eyes in the back of my head open.  More concerned with meeting a coyote than a human predator, but then I've had the occasional coyote in my driveway (and I'm just an hour north of midtown Manhattan). 

 

OMG yet another HS shooting this morning. So horribly sad. 

Edited by Marianne
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17 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Well, just recently a middle-aged couple, touring the US in their motorhome were slain and buried on Padre island in Texas, and their RV taken across the Mexican border, seemingly by an illegal. Some years back two or three escaped convicts broke into another couple’s RV and murdered them. I think that was New Mexico. 
On our RV trip to leaf-peep in New England, we stopped in the parking lot of a supermarket to eat dinner in our RV. A homeless man tried to break in. We quickly started up and left. That was in Connecticut, I believe.

My kids would hog tie me if I tried! No lie, they would be terrified. They hated it enough when I drove alone 2000 miles round trip to help my son with his dying wife this past spring. I wasn’t stopping into parks and nature preserves lollygagging around with a camera, either.

Betty

 

What I tell people who want to drive down to Central America is start 150 miles north of the US border and keep going until you're 200 or 300 miles inside Mexico.  Lots of people make the drive without problems, but the standard advice is to stay on the major highways and don't stop in isolated places for the night.

 

People who stop in isolated areas for the nature and traquility don't get how visible tourists are and if they go down a dead end road, the thieves can wait and go in later when they're asleep.

 

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1 minute ago, MizBrown said:

 

What I tell people who want to drive down to Central America is start 150 miles north of the US border and keep going until you're 200 or 300 miles inside Mexico.  Lots of people make the drive without problems, but the standard advice is to stay on the major highways and don't stop in isolated places for the night.

 

People who stop in isolated areas for the nature and traquility don't get how visible tourists are and if they go down a dead end road, the thieves can wait and go in later when they're asleep.

 

Smartest thing I’ve heard. Great advice.

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Thank you so much for this post, Ian. I am suitably impressed. 

 

Before I ever owned a camera, I was a musician. First jazz (trumpet) then a folk singer. Along the way there was a pop record (but that's best left to the mistakes of history). When I left Oxfordshire in 1987 after losing a small fortune on Black Monday, I went back to music and completed learning to be a composer. Not a song writer, a composer and arranger of classical music for films. I did ghost writing for some old jazz friends I used to play with who had established themselves in Hollywood. After a few years of that it became obvious that I wasn't going to make a living at it. Unfortunately, six or seven years ago, my Spanish guitar exploded on the wall of my NY flat. I miss playing. 

Edited by Ed Rooney
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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Norfolk-Photographers-Pocket-Places-Locations/dp/0993553605/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MSZ506XBOU98&keywords=norfolk+for+photographers&qid=1574510106&sprefix=norfolk+for%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1

 

Published a couple of photographic guides to my/our local counties, learnt a-lot along the way, and really enjoyed it, sold a few hundred on Amazon and in local bookshops. But one review did say "worst photography book I have ever bought" so you need a thick skin.

Steve Kelly

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4 minutes ago, Steve UK said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Norfolk-Photographers-Pocket-Places-Locations/dp/0993553605/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MSZ506XBOU98&keywords=norfolk+for+photographers&qid=1574510106&sprefix=norfolk+for%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1

 

Published a couple of photographic guides to my/our local counties, learnt a-lot along the way, and really enjoyed it, sold a few hundred on Amazon and in local bookshops. But one review did say "worst photography book I have ever bought" so you need a thick skin.

Steve Kelly

 

 

Steve, There are also others such as this:

 

I was given this lovely book as a present. It is a nice book to take out when walking in Norfolk, and is packed with ideas on how to take better photographs and on how to compose more interesting views. From this book I have been given many ideas on where to go and what to record on my camera. A joy to read and look at.

Edited by geogphotos
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I tried diversifying into video - which meant looking for a new agent.

When I found one I discovered they sell short clips of music as well.

So I bought a cheap manuscript composing software program, dusted off my O Level harmonising skills and started writing string quartets and piano duets.

There's half an idea to link them with suitable video footage one day to make a complete package - if I ever write anything suitable.

I do it at weekends mostly, so I don't feel like it's getting in the way of doing something that might actually make some money one day.

Edited by Phil Robinson
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One branch of my ancestry is rooted in northeast Tennessee (where I was born and live 100 miles from).  In the past few years I've learned a bit about my genealogy (back to 1770s), and have set myself the goal of doing some sort of photo documentary related to this interest.  It's all still pretty vague, but will likely be focused around the principal river(s) of the area, and the families whose lines go back to the late 18th century on those river(s).  Currently reading a lot, and making a trip a month (5-7 days) to the area in my small camper to explore and to practice my landscape photo skills.  Also doing lots of physical training for difficult mountain hikes with camera gear. 

 

Michael

 

 

Edited by MilesbeforeIsleep
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