Sierra Club notecards
by Mark ~ January 29th, 2008. Filed under: birds, business, landscape, nature photography, publication.
If you happen to be at your local REI store, or any other place that carries the individual Sierra Club notecards, take a look for these two images. I was fortunate to have these two selected to be in the Winter 2008 lineup, and finally got my complimentary photographer’s samples yesterday. I am quite happy with the reproduction quality, particularly on the Joshua Tree image because I was worried the dark tones might blend together too much. Both look good. These images are also symbolic of a few things;
- The Joshua Tree image was made with a 4.1 MP DSLR (Nikon D2H) – in the great MP race, sometimes people forget that images made with older technology still have a lot of value. I continue to sell prints made from images from this camera. I am careful on enlargement sizes with detailed landscapes, but in general, the files are more resilient than a lot of people may give them credit for.
- The images were sold based upon an editor’s review of a custom web lightbox created with Adobe Lightroom. I password protected the directory of the special web gallery, and sent the editor the link and login info. It is a time saver on both the photographer’s end (particularly in using a program like Lightroom to create it) as well as the editor as they can quickly scan through images they may be interested in. Higher resolution images were then provided based upon the picks. I see requests for submissions via lightbox on a more frequent basis – and it is certainly more efficient than zipping JPEGs together or submitting via CD. It certainly is a changing world from the days of sending sheets of slides.
- I think I would have been downgraded in a ‘judging’ setting for the sandhill crane shot because I left the adult out of focus (intentionally). Perhaps it doesn’t fit some ‘rules.’ It was more important for me to have the adult as more symbolic figure instead of in sharp detail. I was more interested in the image showing a story. I am certainly happy to see such a shot published, and the same shot has also sold for prints. Of course it is now off the market for greeting cards for awhile because of the licensing agreement with the publisher.
- It is still quite a guessing game on what may or may not be selected. This certainly wasn’t my first submission, and have had many returned in the past with no picks at all. I still watch the racks of notecards that I come across and try to submit what I think may be something different.
I would love to hear from anyone who happens to see these in their local shops. I still need to get to my local REI myself to see if they carry these two particular cards. If you are interested in either of these and don’t have a local shop to get them from, drop me an email, if I have samples, we may be able to work something out.
January 29th, 2008 at
CONGRATULATION, lunch is on you when I am back in town
January 30th, 2008 at
Hi Mark,
Congrats!
January 30th, 2008 at
Hi Mark,
this is really good for you – you probably won’t become a millionaire with these but it is excellent advertising. And who knows what might happen then…
January 30th, 2008 at
Congratulations! I’ll certainly keep an eye out.
January 30th, 2008 at
Congratulations on the cards, these are wonderful shots and if I come across them I will certainly let you know
January 31st, 2008 at
Congratulations Mark – that is awesome!
Ron
January 31st, 2008 at
Hey Mark
I gotta make a little run to REI soon enough, so I’ll look for them. Congrats on the sale man, that’s very cool.
Cheers
Carl
January 31st, 2008 at
Excellent, Mark! Those are some great images.
January 31st, 2008 at
great shots Mark, Sierra Club has good tastes.
January 31st, 2008 at
Congratulations!
Tom
February 1st, 2008 at
Nice Mark, well deserved. These are great! I hope I come across them somewhere.
February 1st, 2008 at
Wonderful photography Mark…
and such a quality site….
I love your photo of the ducks lined up …
regards Kim
ps
I have added you to new listings..
February 2nd, 2008 at
Great news – excellent images, too. I’ll keep an eye out for them at REI.
February 2nd, 2008 at
Wow, thanks everyone for the comments!
February 3rd, 2008 at
What a great honor Mark to be chosen for the Sierra Club notecards. I’ve bought their calendars before as the photography is some of the most beautiful you’ll find.
Great sandhill crane image as well. I love art and photography with what I call a storyline and I think this one has a great theme and order. If it were a painting it would be considered genius just as it is as a photo!
February 4th, 2008 at
Congrats on the picks Mark. I really love the Joshua tree image. Next time I’m at REI I’ll have to check them out.
February 18th, 2008 at
You will be happy to know that, by chance, my wife came home from REI last week with your Joshua Tree photo in her hand. She thought I would appreciate the photo, which I did. Thus is was a surprise, and a good one, when I happened on your post containing about the card. Congrats!
February 18th, 2008 at
Rob-thanks so much for letting me know. How cool is that?!