Welcome to Fern Valley

Here in central Alberta prime farm country,my husband Martin and I work together raising beef cattle and Appaloosa horses. Fern valley appaloosas have long been known for their quality of temperament conformation and color.I have recently rediscovered a love of writing and have published 2 collections of poetry. "Telling Tails" and Tails Trails and Campfire stories" . I look forward to a future spreading my wings as an author and as a horse woman .

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Options

So I have been thinking about a few things lately . About my book, and the photos I take . I love the calenders and the blog . But whether I am just looking to spread my wings, or all the compliments have gone to my head I am not sure , but I am doing a couple new things  in this next while . exercising  some options,so to speak.
I will be attending the Mane Event  this year, but not with the ApHCC as in previous years .I  will be at a booth I am sharing with Drayden Insurance , who are developing a farm/equine insurance parcel . My sister in law Connie and I will be there all 3 days rather than the usual part time presentation I have done i n the past . I will obviously have  my farm stuff there, but I will also have my book (and maybe even volume 2 !!) I would love to take Calenders but it is really too late in the year to offer those for sale so I may have one for display but that is it . 
One of the new things I am trying is  photo cards . I have received many compliments on my photos and so I have taken a few of my favorites and had them made into note cards  through Shutterfly

 "Are you a Pony?"
 Wild 'n free
 FV A Shocking Comet 
Power Take off 
These are the ones I have chosen to start  with .Shutterfly has done my Christmas cards the last few  years , and they do a wonderful job. The price point is amazing so I am going to try  this selection for the mane event .Also have chosen  two to do up as mouse pads  (Wild n Free , and are you a Pony?) 
One other thing I like about Shutterfly is that I can send directly form them if someone orders the cards .  Rather than have them come here and then ship out which can be pricey! 
I figure seeing as I don't seem to be spending as much time as I would like on my horses (as in riding ) Which I also hope with this new health regime to rectify, I might as well do something  with the  side benefits I get from being with my horses. 
Unlike some  of my talented blogger friends ,I don't feel  able to book portraits , or photo shoots  for other, but I still do love taking pictures so for now I will leave the  pros  to it . and just puddle along at my pace . 
Any and all suggestions will be much appreciated ! 

14 comments:

Ami said...

Well, as a proud household that's currently 50% unemployed, the postcard idea is certainly attractive from a monetary view.

I think you should take calendars with you, not just books. I would buy a calendar just for the pictures. :)
If I actually had enough money not to panic when the electric bill comes in, that is. ;)

And I still want to come visit you sometime (NOT when it's cold!!) and get to know some of those amazing horses. And bake you some cookies. Not necessarily in that order.

Shirley said...

Anything you can do as an added source of income is always good! Hope you do well with these. What is the date of the Mane Event?

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Oh this sounds perfect! I've often thought of somehow making my photos available for others, but couldn't figure out a cost effective, inexpensive option. Cards sound wonderful. Your photos are terrific and I bet you sell a lot of them. So happy for ya!

~Lisa

Life on the Smushie Ranch said...

Your photos are beautiful! You should go for it. Life is too short to have regrets.

The Smushies

Sherry Sikstrom said...

The Mane Event is April 27,28,29 this year. (Weekend of Martins and my wedding anniversary ) He is pretty good about it all, says he will come down and hang out with me , maybe take me for dinner

Reddunappy said...

I dont think its to late to take some calendars. I have yours upstairs where I look at it everyday when I am painting. I havnt bought my Lang calender to go in my calendar frame yet, so its on Dec. LOL

sally said...

Take the calendars for sure . I so enjoyed having mine up in the kitchen to look at each morning ...even nicer being opposite seasons....when I was in the middle of winter I got to gaze at your beautiful horses running in the grass and sun

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

That almost sounds like a business plan to me. Doing portraits is time consuming and difficult, so it's nice to have products on the side. My eventual goal is to put some of my better photos on stock photo sites for sale, but most of these sites require proof of government copyright, so I still need to go through the process of dumping all the photos I took last year onto a CD and sending it in with $60 to have them copyrighted. It's just one more thing on my To Do List.

That's the perfect situation to get into with photography. Have a handful of really good photographs and collect royalties as they sell over and over. Same thing with writing. You have to work really hard without any pay in the beginning, though, and then trust that some day it will pay off.

Cut-N-Jump said...

Sounds like a great idea and plan! Why not take the calendars? You never know what sells and they may just fly out the door or you could take in orders for next year. What's the harm in that?

Happy Anniversary too!

GoLightly said...

It's certainly worth a shot, why not? As long as you enjoy doing them, and people get pleasure from them, who loses? (Other than your over-runs, of course.)

I just love the Comet baby pic, and the PTO pic. Those two are my own favourites of the four above:)

It's just about impossible to predict what people will like, and what they will pay for is the more crucial matter.

kden said...

I think that's a great idea! I love places like shutterfly and snapfish. The possibilities are endless of what can be done with photos. Have fun creating.

Crystal said...

That sounds like a great idea!! I hope to be able to get up to the mane event again this year. I would like to sell some pics or something too, but am not motivated enough to do so, so will enjoy taking them till I decide I have time to do something like that.

Country Gal said...

SNAP !!! YOU HAVE BEEN ONE OF 5 CHOSEN FOR A BLOG AWARD !

VISIT OUR COUNTRY COVE LIFE BLOG TO SNAP UP YOUR AWARD !

HAVE A GOOD DAY !

Nicole said...

Oh this is so awesome! I can't wait to hear all about it!