2010 Calendars!

My 2010 Photography calendars are now available for purchase! This year’s theme is “A Year of Special Places” and consists of 12 images from beautiful locations throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The calendars are printed by Mpix, the same company I have used in the past. The size is 11x17" opened. A preview is available on my website, my blog and on Facebook.

The cost remains $20, plus tax and shipping. Calendars will be printed and mailed the first week of November, so there is plenty of time to get yours. And they make great gifts! To order more than one, e-mail me directly and I will send you a Paypal invoice for the correct number and amount.

To make your purchase easy, quick and secure, click on the “Buy Now” button and you will be taken to a secure Paypal page where you can complete your transaction. A Paypal account is not necessary, and you can pay with a credit card or electronic check.

SoFoBoMo eBook!

I've been playing around with online print-on-demand services in anticipation of publishing my 2010 calendar. Since I no longer have arm-twisting access to a large portion of my customer base (co-workers from whom I purchased Boy Scout popcorn and Girl Scout cookies) I want to go with a company that has the ability to do online sales. So far the front runner has to be Lulu, partly because I have experience using them from when I published my SoFoBoMo book, and mostly because their price and quality seem to be a good balance.

I was playing around with their site today and was interested in the idea of publishing eBooks. I'm currently working on updating a digital workflow presentation and am im the process of writing a tutorial on registering copyrights, both of which I would like to publish as eBooks. To see how the process works I decided to turn my SoFoBoMo book into an eBook, which I then published and am offering for sale at $10. Not a bad deal if you ask me, except for the fact that it is available for free at the SoFoBoMo website. I'd be interested in feedback from anyone who gives it a try.

Calendars will be ready for purchase (hopefully) around October 1.

My SoFoBoMo Book is Done!

I participated in this year's Solo Photo Book Month project, a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time. The idea of SoFoBoMo is to make the photos, write any needed text, layout the book, and produce a PDF image of the book, all in 31 days. The book portion of my effort fell a little outside that 31 day window, but I felt it was important to do a good job while still getting it done by June 30. I made it.

The theme for my entry took a number of turns, as I was originally planning to shoot a series of photos out of my office window, using light and architectural details to make a series of interesting pictures. Since I don't have a job there any more I didn't think the building security folks would be too keen on letting me in there to take pictures, so I decided to do a series of photos using my W.T. Duck plush doll in various locations during our travels this spring. Due partly to yucky weather at the beach and a strong reluctance to the idea carrying around a stuffed animal and taking it's picture in public locations (not that it stops some people!) I didn't get the inspiration I felt I needed to do a credible job on that project. I finally decided to just make a book of favorite images from my various photo trips from mid-May to mid-June. It's what I do and what I am most passionate about, and I think the final result shows that.

The electronic version is available for free download here and there is a hard copy available for purchase from Lulu here.

A Hat Trick!

In hockey a Hat Trick is what you have when you score a goal in each of the three periods, and the term is often used to describe three of something in a game, month, day, etc. May is the first time ever that I've had photos in three magazines in the same month!

Our State Magazine ran a full-page layout of one of my Cape Hatteras Lighthouse photos, which is the photo attached to this post. WNC Magazine hasn't come yet but they are running a stock image I sent them for an article about Franklin, NC. Blue Ridge Country ran 4 of my photos of Hendersonville, NC to accompany an article about that town.

This shows the value of persistence, organization and more persistence. This is the first image in Our State in about a year and the first in Blue Ridge Country for almost a year. WNC Magazine is currently not doing paid assignments, but I had been keeping up with their calendar, and as a goodwill gesture I sent them some stock that included images from Franklin. Even though I told them they could use anything for photo credit they are paying me their standard rate. That's more than fair and fine by me!

The competition is tough, but it pays to be organized, be persistent and send only your best work.

Blue Ridge Country (Again!)

I just received my May/June 2009 copy of Blue Ridge Country Magazine, and they have featured 4 of my photos to accompany their article on downtown Hendersonville, NC. One of the fun things about Blue Ridge Country is that they don't tell you whether or not they are using any of your photos, you just get the magazine and look inside to see. I knew that I had sent them some good stuff and had been hopeful they would use it. It's great to see "Photos by Tom Dills" at the top of the page!

I'm a little behind on processing new work, but the attached photo is another one from our February visit to Hilton Head. This tree was right outside our condo, and I photographed it a number of times during our visit, under different lighting and with different backgrounds. I haven't decided exactly what to do with them but I'm thinking that they will make an interesting poster.

Blue Ridge Country!

I was just thumbing through the latest issue of Blue Ridge Country and for some reason looked at the list of contributing photographers and was surprised to see my name! Lo and behold they used two of my images - one from the front porch of Moses Cone Manor on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and one from Natural Bridge in Kentucky. What a pleasant surprise - that was one of my goals for the year and I made it in June (although it is the August issue)!