My pick from Betterphoto's Entries

I just discovered this picture on Betterphoto. http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=12851963&catID=560&contestCatID=5&rowNumber=41&camID= This would definately be my pick for today!

Kind Words

It's amazing what kind words can do. It can bring motivation and meaning back to your work. I have been getting a beating lately, not just constructive criticism that I do appreciate but really a beating. I received the nicest email from a customer that put everything back into prospective to me. I remember why I was so passionate about what I do. Now it is my turn to pass this on and hopefully have the same effect on someone as this did on me.

Black and White

I find it interesting the difference just a black or white background can make. Check out these two pics. It's interesting the different feel you get from them. Which on do you like better?

Niche Greeting Cards Continued

There is one other niche that I have found. It is wine related greeting cards. These are fun and pretty easy to create. I live in wine country so there are no shortages of photo-ops but the ones I posted anyone can create.

It's fun to see what your niche market might be. Check out Greeting Card Universe. There are a lot of great artists and verse writers.

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/

Thanks for reading!

http://www.stephanielaird.com/index.html

Niche Greeting Card Market

It's funny how sometimes you stumble onto something you weren't expecting. I have a line of Greeting Cards at Greeting Card Universe http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/greetingcardsbystephanielaird . It's a great place and the quality of the cards is wonderful!

My best sellers happen to be horse sympathy cards. Having horses myself and friends with horses it is one of the most painful times to go through. I am pleased that people find the cards fitting for comfort for a friend's horse.

What niche market is your artwork perfect for? It may surprise you!

http://www.stephanielaird.com/index.html

Blog Ads

Two days with the new ads. I have received some good response from the ads, although the conversions are not there. I will give it a few more days to see if things improve. Maybe over the weekend.

Blog Ads

I had no idea there were blog ads! I just placed my first blog ad and am waiting for the blogger to accept it. I will report back with how this is working for me. I have only used facebook ads with good success but they are so expensive. Very exciting to try another form of online ads!

Creative Block

So how many of you have suffered from Creative Block? I have. Sure, I get bouts of it here and there and work through it but I had an episode that lasted close to a year just recently. I just could not get into my old creative rhythm. It was very depressing. I could not come up with one single image in a year that I thought was any good. Since I didn't like what I was coming up with I stopped trying almost all together. Boy, I never want to go through that again, it was like losing your magic, that makes you happy. However going through something like that makes you appreciate the times when things flow. Something I never would have gained if I had not been dry for a year.

I finally broke the dry spell by sitting myself down and making myself play with my pictures, everyday. At the beginning the stuff was bland and just what I was trying to get away from doing, but over time the imagination kicked in and things started to flow again. I would think this is similar to writer's block.

Anyway, just happy to be creating again! Would love to hear how other's over came their "blocks"!

http://stephanielaird.com/index.html

Photo Contests

Entering photo contests are one of the best ways to see if your pictures are just as appealing to others as they are to you. I don't know about you but I thought I had created the most amazing image only to enter into a contest and have it fall very short of the other images entered. That being said, art is always subjective and some images will appeal to the judges more then others. Sometime it's hard to put your work out there for someone else to judge but in the long run it will make you learn and improve your skills. It is also a great resource to get ideas from others work. I have entered many, many contests, I have done great in some and not so great in others. I think one of the most important things when entering is to read the instructions so that you categorize your images properly. If you have an great animal picture but you enhanced it with Photoshop it may need to be entered into the digital darkroom instead of the animal category.

Like I said I have entered a lot of contests but the two that I continue to enter are BetterPhoto http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/default.aspx?id=104381&mp=V3 (this will take you to my gallery of entries) and Photoshowdown http://www.photoshowdown.com/ Both contests allow other contestants to comment on your image.

It's fun too! You can meet some pretty creative people! Some of the photos on both sites are the best I have ever seen.

http://stephanielaird.com/index.html

What is Fantasy Fusion Photography?

Fantasy Fusion Photography is the art of taking an ordinary image and creating
something creative! It can be anything from just a few teaks to give it another
feeling or mood (please see the vineyard pic) to creating a completely made up
image (please see the Pegasus pic). What I love about this art is when someone
looks at an image and can't figure out if it's photography, painting, real or
what! The most important part of Fantasy Fusion Photography is to have a blast
creating something new and different! Everyone can take a photograph of say a
place or object, but no one can change it exactly like you can! Please see more examples at http://www.stephanielaird.com/index.html

Equine Photographer's Network

The Equine Photographers Network runs an annual photo contest. The competition is fierce and open to all countries. They just came out with the finals and one of my images made it in the professional artistic division! I am thrilled just to get this far! http://www.equinephotocontest.com/peopleschoice.asp?cat=Professional

Thank you Judges for keeping me in the running!

Back to the Blog

Okay, I think it's been around a year since my last blog. So here we go again with trying to keep blogging ...

I was lucky enough to be on the Central Coast this fall for one of the more amazing and colorful atumns. Got some great pics but really nasty light. Luckily with the "Fantasy Fusion" artwork style that I do bad lighting can be changed! Check out the before and after on this. Okay, yes I know I should have gotten out of the car, but with a little Elements magic you would never know I was sitting on my rear-end with the steering wheel in one had and the camera in the other.

This particular image is being used for a set on a wine and food program http://www.centralcoastlive.com/ with their debut this Sunday March 4, 2012 at 5 p.m.

Thanks for following!

Best!

Stephanie

For More Information on Fantasy Fusion Photography please see my site at http://stephanielaird.com/index.html