City Escapes Photography Newsletter - Nov. 2009

CITY ESCAPES

Nature Photography, LLC

 

 

Newsletter

November, 2009

 

 

 

Come Join Us at Our First-Ever Show!

 

On Saturday, November 28, City Escapes will be participating in the Galveston (Texas) ArtWalk.  This is our first gallery-style show, completely open to the public, and a fantastic opportunity for you to see our work first-hand.  If you are in the Houston/Galveston area, we would love to see you there!  The ArtWalk is, of course, on the island, and runs from 6 PM – 9 PM.  City Escapes will be showing inside the Coastal Community Federal Credit Union, at 2302 Church St. (at the intersection of 23^rd and Church St.).

 

We will have a wide selection of both framed and unframed prints available, including some canvases, as well as our greeting cards.  This is your opportunity for immediate gratification!  And don’t forget, spend $125 with us through November 30 -– including at the ArtWalk --, and you’ll get a 5-pack of our Overview greeting card set free. 

 

Feel free to contact us with any questions regarding our involvement in the ArtWalk at relationships@cityescapesphotography.com.  For more general ArtWallk information, contact the Galveston Arts Center at (409) 763- 2403 or see www.galvestonartscenter.org.

 

 

A Note on Christmas Orders  

 

For those of you planning on giving a City Escapes print for Christmas, please keep in mind that we need to receive your order by December 1 to guarantee Christmas delivery.  We will certainly be able to fill orders received after that date, but we will not be able to ensure a timely arrival for the Holidays. 

 

 

 

If you have any questions, or suggestions for future newsletters, please email us at: relationships@cityescapesphotography.com

 

Become a fan on Facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-Escapes-Nature-Photography/119004291172

 

CITY ESCAPES Nature Photography, LLC

www.cityescapesphotography.com

509-396-5154

 

Effectively Distributing Articles, Announcements, and Photos

Hello all,

 

As you likely know (since you are reading this) our blog is the primary avenue for us to provide some insight into our business and pass along useful information to others. The content of the blog, however, varies dramatically – from technical issues and insights, to product reviews, to general company announcements. While this is a very convenient forum to disseminate this information, few people regularly subscribe to blogs. To provide an alternative forum for our announcements, one that directly engages our friends, we have initiated a company newsletter. This newsletter (which can be signed up for at http://cityescapesphotography.com/newsletter-popup.html ) is expected to be issued approximately monthly, and will be used to share information such as new releases, specials, and other items of general interest.

 

We use Google group to manage the email list for our newsletter. This free forum allows us to collect email addresses directly from our web site, through the simple web page listed above, without requiring a google account. By adjusting the group settings, we have set it up so that only the list owner – namely me - can post to the list, and that the email addresses of our members remain private. The site also automatically archives the email messages that are sent – providing an easy place for members to look up old postings. To ensure maximum dissemination of these announcements, we email the newsletter to both our Google distribution and our blog site at the same time. From there, the blog's RSS feed sends it on to Facebook and other general distributors. We considered having the blog's RSS feed directly send email to the group list, but we did not want every blog post to be converted into a newsletter, since some of the postings focus on topics of non- general interest.

 

Our Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityescapesnaturephotography/ ) is a place for us to post snapshots of our trips. While Jodi is focused on taking photographs that are appropriate for our business, I often take snapshots that will help us remember the trip. These are not at the quality of Jodi's pictures, but can be fun in their own right, and help us preserve our memories. Since many of our friends have asked about our excursions, we have decided to post a small number of these snapshots on-line to better share our experiences in the field.

 

While we wanted to share these shots, it was important to us that we clearly differentiate them from the photos that we sell, since they are significantly different. Flickr provided an excellent forum for us to share snapshots with our friends without complicating the management of our primary gallery. Furthermore, since Flickr provides an RSS feed of the pictures through its photostream, we can automatically propagate these snapshots to other locations such as Facebook. Other photo sharing sites, such as Picasso, provide a similar functionality. We chose Flickr because it simply met our needs while providing additional features that we might want to pursue in the future.

 

Terence

City Escapes Nature Photography

 

City Escapes Photography Newsletter - Oct. 2009

CITY ESCAPES

Nature Photography, LLC

 

 

Newsletter

October, 2009

 

 

 

The Fall Release is out!

 

Come check out our newly released photographs!  With everything from waterfalls and mountain ranges to turtles and a bald eagle, this release has a little something for every fan of the outdoors – in all of your favorite sizes and, of course, canvas, too.

 

Our Newest Offering: Greeting Cards

 

We would like to introduce the newest way to enjoy some of our images: greeting cards.  There are seven different boxed sets of the 5”x 7” cards from which to choose.  Each set consists of five images, includes envelopes, and has both a 5-card (one of each image) and a 10-card (two of each image) option.  You can also order a 10-pack of a single image, if one particularly strikes you.  Our cards are printed on traditional cardstock, and all except the Christmas set have blank insides for your own message.  (The Christmas set has seasonal messages pre-printed on the inside.  See website for more details.)

 

Come check out our newest way to keep in touch – you’re sure to find a set of cards that calls to you.

 

Special Fall Promotion

 

From now until November 30, spend at least $125.00 with us and receive a 5-pack of the Overview Pack greeting cards free!  This set contains some of our most popular images, from “The Stare - Bull Moose” to “A Nation’s Pride – Wounded”, and is sure to be a nice adjunct to your Gallery Prints.  So, as you find the perfect print for that someone special on your holiday list, a little something will be tucked inside for you, too.  Or perhaps it’s the other way around?  We’ll let you decide.

 

Minimum $125.00 purchase does not include any taxes or shipping and handling charges that may apply.

 

 

 

If you have any questions, or suggestions for future newsletters, please email us at: relationships@cityescapesphotography.com

 

Become a fan on Facebook at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/City-Escapes-Nature-Photography/119004291172

 

CITY ESCAPES Nature Photography, LLC

www.cityescapesphotography.com

509-396-5154

 

New Capabilities through Expanded Web Presence

Hello all,

 

The past several weeks have been spent updating our web presence in an effort to better connect with our friends and customers. As a web-based business, our on-line gallery at www.cityescapesphotography.com has always been our primary web site - however there are several additional capabilities that we have wanted to provide that required branching out from this site.

 

Of course, we started branching out about a year ago when I established this blog as a way to share information about the business. However, we also want: a way to provide general announcements directly to people who might not be interested in following a blog that is this general; a place to share snapshots with friends;  a way to foster discussions with our friends; and a way to obtain impartial feedback from our customers.

 

To that end, in addition to this blog, we have created a newsletter using Google groups, and established a company presence on Flickr, FaceBook and BrownBook. Over the next couple of blog entries, I will outline how each of these new activities provides a complementary experience for our friends, and contributes to our overall company strategy for customer engagement. While this information is similar to advice found in several books and articles, it is a condensed description of how those general strategies have actually been implemented in our case. Hopefully, you will find it useful.

 

Terence

City Escapes Nature Photography

 

Newsletter: Subscriptions and Archives

Hello all,

We are starting a newsletter where we will be posting regular updates about activities and special events here at City Escapes. We expect the newsletter to come out approximately monthly. If you are interested in subscribing to this newsletter, you can sign up at:

http://cityescapesphotography.com/newsletter-popup.html

We value your time and hope to make these newsletters both enjoyable to read and informative. Of course, we also value your privacy and loyalty; thus we have secured our subscriber list to ensure it will not be misused. While anyone may join our list, we have restricted access so that only City Escapes employees are authorized to access or send email message to this list. Rest assured that our subscriber list will always remain in-house; we will never sell it to any outside entity.

Archives of the newsletter are available at:

http://groups.google.com/group/city-escapes-newsletter

Sincerely,

Terence
City Escapes Nature Photography

How Our Limited Editions Work

Hello again,

As I highlighted in my previous post, we are pleased to now offering limited edition prints. There are, however, several methods to designate a limited edition run, and I want to outline our specific approach.

For each photograph in our gallery, we have identified both the number of total prints that we want to release and the dimensions in which we offer that photograph. We have then allocated a fixed quantity of prints to each size. Note that we do not further distribute an allocation based on type of print (traditional or canvas) or whether the print was framed. As all of the prints in a given dimension are purchased, we will remove the option to purchase that size print.

We have chosen this method in order that our clients know exactly what we mean when we say “Limited Edition”. If we have an edition of 1000, that means that only 1000 prints of that image will be made across all sizes and media. We have come across numerous other photographers and artists who will designate a “limited edition” run of (for example) 1000 prints, but who do not tell their customers that what they actually mean is 100 prints in a specific size, medium, or both. Once that release is sold out, the photographer simply re-issues the image at a different size or medium (sometimes with only minor differences from the previous release) as a new “limited edition” release. We find this approach to be quite misleading, and frankly, a bit insulting to those clients who purchase a print only to discover later that it is not nearly as limited as they were lead to believe.

We allocate the print numbers sequentially across all sizes, as each order is processed. Thus the first person to order a print, regardless of size or print type, gets print number 1, the second gets print 2, etc. The print number will be specified on the front of the print, along with Jodi’s signature. We will also provide a Certificate of Authenticity which contains this information. We do not currently support requests for specific print numbers on orders (e.g. multiples of 100, lucky numbers, etc.).

Finally, while our Gallery Prints are limited edition, we reserve the right to use the same images on non-Print products, such as on greeting cards or in books, which are not limited edition. This is a common exclusion which maintains the value of the prints while allowing others to enjoy the images in a different format.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about our prints in general or this policy in particular.

Terence

City Escapes Nature Photography

Now Providing Limited Editions

Hi all,

I am extremely pleased to announce that, beginning with our Africa release, our Gallery Prints will be offered exclusively as limited editions – at no additional cost.

Over the past two years, we have contemplated how to improve the value of the products that we offer. We have worked hard to ensure that our printing and framing were of the highest possible quality while remaining affordable – our working definition of value. In fact, since we began operations in 2007, we have reduced our costs and passed the savings along in the form of lower prices.

Since our founding, we have often considered whether to limit the number of prints issued for each photograph. We have weighed various arguments, including the additional value to those who purchase a print early against the increased cost and potential disappointment to those who find a print they want only after the edition has sold out. While we are uncomfortable with the idea of having someone who adores one of our prints having to purchase it at an inflated price on a secondary market, or not being able to purchase it at all, we have decided that our primary loyalty must be to our initial customers – who are ultimately responsible for the success of our business – and that the additional value they receive by obtaining a limited edition print is worth the potential discomfort down the road.

Of course, a skeptic might postulate that we have only made this change in order to charge more for our prints. However, we are not making any pricing changes based on this conversion, nor will we in the future. Furthermore, we are making this change retroactive: we are in the process of contacting all of our customers who have already purchased prints from us, and providing them with certificates designating their print as a limited edition. We believe that it is only appropriate that those who have supported us as our business has grown benefit from the increased value a limited edition print has.

Terence

City Escapes Nature Photography

Upcoming Changes

Hello,

I wanted to update you on several changes that we are making to our product lines, timed to coincide with our upcoming major release.

We have spent the past couple of months evaluating the products available from several printing companies and as a result, we have been able to significantly expand our print options. In particular, we have selected several prints that we believe have the potential to act as anchor pieces for larger spaces, and we are now able to offer these prints in larger sizes than we have in the past. Expanding into these more substantial print dimensions required us to answer several important questions.

The first determination that needed to be made was what was involved in shipping such large prints. We were surprised by the limit imposed on box sizes by our shipping carrier, UPS. We were originally looking at offering extremely large sizes, up to 3.5ft by 5ft, but found that UPS would require these prints, when framed, to be shipped freight. This would add several hundreds of dollars to the cost of the print - an unacceptable burden on our customers. Because of this, until such time as we can identify a more reasonable shipping alternative or grow large enough to obtain significant discounts from UPS, we have decided to limit the size of the prints to those we can ship with standard ground.

Even within the set of acceptable sizes, increasing the print dimensions required custom ordering each frame for each print, as few frame suppliers provide premade frames in these larger dimensions. After extensive research, we have identified custom frame makers which meet our quality standards and are able to provide excellent frames in the required sizes.

The final challenge was to identify an alternative to glass for the largest of our prints. While reflection control and museum glass are used in our smaller pictures, the weight of glass makes it a prohibitive option for our largest prints. We investigated using acrylic for these prints, which is a common solution in the art world. While acrylic is lighter and is available with a similar range of reflective properties as glass, it scratches much more easily and can therefore be harder to maintain long-term. It is also still heavy enough to adversely impact both our customer’s shipping costs and their display options. As a result, we have decided to use an alternative for our largest prints: canvas. Most of our print sizes will be available in our traditional giclee prints with either our standard conservation or the optional museum glass as they have always been. However, our larger prints will be available on canvas. Canvas provides an excellent medium for large prints because it adds additional texture and depth to the print while not requiring glass or acrylic protection. In many cases, canvas will be an option in addition to our regular prints, allowing you to choose the medium that you prefer, but our largest prints will be offered exclusively in canvas.

We are excited about these new options and hope you are as well.

Terence

City Escapes Nature Photography

To Nikon or not to Nikon

Hello,

One of the most important decisions a photographer can make is what equipment to purchase. Once a decision has been made and a brand decided upon, it can be extremely hard (or at least prohibitively expensive) to change brands because camera lenses are frequently tied to a specific manufacturer. A professional will often have $10k - $25k in lenses that would need to be replaced, in addition to the body.

We selected Nikon equipment due to what has historically been a very good reputation. Unfortunately, we have had extremely mixed results and cannot offer a whole-hearted endorsement of their products. While their products seem to work fairly well in general, we have had a couple of instances where, we believe, Nikon is not living up to their reputation.

In the first case, we had purchased a D200 camera body. This camera was supposed to have a hardened body that would allow it to take more abuse than the next lower model, and it was priced appropriately higher (a couple of hundred dollars more). Our understanding was that this camera should take a reasonable amount of abuse without failing, as one would expect of any professional camera. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case. We took the camera on a kayaking trip where it got a little wet – no, it was not dunked, but rather splashed, and only slightly at that. It hasn’t worked since and the estimate to repair it was essentially the same as the cost of a new, and improved, camera. This is far from the robust behavior we expected of a hardened, professional camera body, and was extremely disappointing. (The lens continued to work fine.)

We have also had several problems with Nikon’s Nikkor lenses. In at least two cases, our lenses have lost their zoom and significant focusing capabilities (even manual focusing), presumably because a center ring has loosened or gotten dirty. It is also worth noting that with at least one of these lenses, no precipitating factors caused any damage. One frame the lens worked fine; the next, it did not, and it hasn’t since. The initial estimate to repair the larger of the lenses was about $450, while the smaller was just over $200. That is a lot of cash for lenses that have only been used for a year or two, and may be indicative of a quality issue.

In addition to the unreliable quality of the products, we have had significant problems with access to parts. Nikon appears to have a poor reputation among certain retailers for providing parts (including complete lenses) in a timely manner. This can lead to shortages and the inability to purchase or repair equipment on a reasonable, much less short, timeline. Furthermore, Nikon does not appear to provide accurate information about when they will deliver – meaning the retailers and repair shops cannot provide reasonable time estimates for delivery either. We have had multi-week to multi-month delays in both lenses and repairs due to supply problems. So far, this has generated only a couple of critical problems for us, but it has come close several other times and is always extremely frustrating. Since the same retailers are able to provide new Nikon cameras and standard, but cheaper, Nikkor lenses, this would appear to be a business decision on Nikon’s part about what products to produce and distribute.

At this point, we are continuing to work with Nikon equipment (now using a D300). However, we wanted to voice our concerns about the quality of both the service and merchandise being provided. It certainly does not appear to be providing the high quality products and service that its reputation (and pricing) would suggest it should.

Note: Though we cannot confirm this through personal experience, we have heard similar complaints from our vendors and repair shop about Cannon’s timeliness and service. We therefore suggest that, when choosing a manufacturer, you speak to a knowledgeable retailer about such issues as repair times, availability of parts, and common problems encountered in addition to the specs and capabilities of the specific piece of equipment you are considering.

Terence
City Escapes Nature Photography

Photo “Badge” for Web Site

Good evening,

For those of you who have visited our web site (www.cityescapesphotography.com ), you are sure to notice the badge at the top of our home page (the banner where pictures are dynamically filled in). This badge is similar to the common Flickr badges that have started to appear around the web. However, it is not directly associated with Flickr. This piece of Javascript was written by Joe Tan and is available open source at http://tantannoodles.com/toolkit/flickr-dhtml-badge/ (Our thanks to Mr. Tan!)

This script has a couple of important advantages over the classic Flickr badges. First, and most importantly, it can use images from anywhere on the web. You tell the Javascript which images to use and it displays them in random order. This was extremely important to us because it meant that we did not need to have a Flickr site in addition to our primary web site just to host images for the badge. This allows people who click on the image to go directly to our detail page which provides more information about the image and allows orders to be placed. This also minimized synchronization issues by ensuring the badge and the underlying pages point to the same images.

The second advantage this script has is its flexibility. You can specify exactly how large to make the banner, the size of the individual images, how many images appear, what the shape of the badge is, how often new images appear, and how often the entire badge is cycled through before going dormant. This level of flexibility was much greater than provided by the official Flickr badges that I had looked at when deciding what type of badge to use.

I have had no problems incorporating the badge into our site, and have tested it on both Firefox and IE without any problems (although I will note that IE requires Javascript to be placed outside of tables). I would highly recommend this badge for anyone looking to add a little interaction to their web pages without any serious coding.

Terence

www.cityescapesphotography.com

Review of Hyperdrive Colorspace

For our trips, we needed a way to download and backup our digital memory cards without having to connect to a laptop. While this is an extremely convenient capability in general, this was particularly important in Africa, where we were not taking a laptop and would be on the road for several weeks (we had to limit our luggage and were not going to have access to electricity, other than through the vehicle’s lighter port). After looking at several options, we purchased a Hyperdrive Colorspace with 232GB of storage space. We could not have been happier with the functionality this little device provides.

The Hyperdrive has an extremely simple interface that provides one to three button access to all of the functionality one could want in the field – copying cards, erasing cards, and confirming the quality of the copies. Any of a wide variety of card types plug directly into the unit for access. It is extremely simple to copy cards, and the resulting files appear as a regular directory when connected to the PC. There was enough room on the disk to copy approximately 12,000 pictures in the raw + jpeg format we typically shoot, which is enough for at least 3 weeks on the road. The screen is small, but gives enough of an overview of the shots to do some minimal filtering if desired (we copied pretty much everything and sorted through the images on the computer screen when we got back home).

A couple of things should be pointed out, however. The official specs outlining card copy time and battery usage were not even close to what we saw in the field. That is likely because the manufacturer is promoting the simplest case – copying without verifying the data – whereas we always verify our copies. We found that instead of the advertised four minutes, it took closer to 25 minutes to copy a 4 Gb card, and that we could copy only three cards on a single charge. While the faster copy rate (and associated longer battery life) would have been nice, we felt it was very important to ensure the copy was verified.

The only other issue we had in the field was keeping the unit charged. We didn’t have access to electricity at night, and had to rely on the car charger. When using the car adapter that the unit came with, we found that the system could barely draw enough power to keep up with a copy. In order to manage the number of copies we needed to make, we ended up using the regular 110, plug-in charger and a separate car-to-110 adapter that would allow more power to be drawn. This worked well for our trip, but still required charging the unit several hours per day.

One further, but for us small, issue presented itself when we attempted to locate specific files in the Hyperdrive. Though it is simple enough to find the file if you know where it is, the system does not allow you to rename either the file or the folder to something that means something to you. In our case, this was not a major issue, as we do not use the Hyperdrive as a long-term storage system, and we can rename the files once we upload them to our computer. Nonetheless, finding specific photos did occasionally take a bit of searching.

Overall, given the size, capacity, and usability of the system, we definitely felt we got our money’s worth out of this unit and we highly recommend it.

Terence

www.cityescapesphotography.com

Comprehensive First Aid Kit

Happy New Year,

We have always taken a basic first aid kit with us on our travels, since it can be extremely useful at times. When selecting a first aid kit, you must keep in mind both the level of injury you want to successfully address, and the overall size and weight of the kit.

For short hikes, we have used standard, pre-packaged first aid kits available from outdoor stores such as REI. We have often used these small kits to patch up minor cuts, blisters, and abrasions received from a fall or other minor accident on the trail, and they work great for those situations. For trips when we are in the field for a week or two, and have access to a car, we have extended our basic kit to allow us to deal with more serious injuries for a short period of time. For example, we have included a small splint to stabilize a broken bone until proper medical help can be sought.

As part of our preparation for Tanzania, however, we felt we needed to further extend our supplies, since we would need to be equipped to handle pretty much anything for at least 24, and more likely 48, hours (the time it would take to be airlifted to a hospital that meets first-world standards). Knowing that the potential existed for us to be far from any semblance of assistance should we need it, we also added supplies that are not strictly first aid in nature, but rather general purpose, such as a signal mirror and duct tape. Taking that approach, and knowing that size was not a primary consideration since we would always be in or near a vehicle, we developed a very comprehensive first aid kit.

Unfortunately, we were not able to find all of the information we needed to develop a good kit in a single place. To come up with the appropriate set of items, we had to pull information from multiple sources, including the Red Cross. We hope that the information we present here will help save you a little work in putting together your own kit. The resulting kit fits in a medium sized over-the-shoulder bag (roughly the size of a large purse), and should provide everything that you need to triage after even a fairly significant event such as a car accident. Of course, it also contains all of the stuff required to take care of minor injuries as well. Given its size, it is not likely the best fit for backpacking trips, but it is our new standard for any trip where size is not a prohibitive measure.

Obviously, in addition to the equipment contained in the kit, the knowledge of how to use it is critical. As such, we strongly recommend at least one person in your group take an advanced wilderness first aid class to become familiar with these tools and learn how to effectively utilize them. More than one person would be preferable, as the person who knows how to use the equipment might also be the injured, and possibly unconscious, party.

We hope you find this information useful.

Terence
www.cityescapesphotography.com