Ok - so, you've got the blog partially right - new entries at the top. Anyone who gives a damn can scroll down and see what I wrote a few weeks or days ago - or even if i did.

But I am, sooner or later going to have to scroll down about two miles if i keep this up - so - how about this - for the writer - since I've written everything here and really don't care what i wrote a week ago - the new entry is at the top along with my last writing as it is now.

And how about - as in real blogs there is spell check and all the rest because I'm writing without a great deal of thought and less hesitation and there has to be a spelling mistake somewhere a long the line and the reader will think I'm careless, but what he/she doesn't know is that i have forgotten how to spell. Why? Because I don't have to know how to spell any more because I can F7 or whatever the program wants and it points out all my litlle misces which are mostly typos becuase i pond away at the keys with two and sopemthimes 3 fingers - not oftern, but, a times.

Well, that's enough of thast because what i want to talk about tonight is waiting. Becuase it is the basis of our lives and it is the basis of our photography, our art, our breath, our happiness. We're always waiting for something and since you can't argue with me, I can say it and feel as if I am absolutely right - so the next time you go out or in remember you are waiting for something and it is that - well, for wnat of a better word, anticipation - that moment when the sun breaks through or the light sprays across the clouds like blood or the iris opens or the bird lands and looks right at you - it's that moment of anticipation when you hold your breath and relaize what is ahppening anc click and it's done and you are there.

You never know when it's going tohappen, and like an orgasm that is just about to arrive, you wait and the wind quiets and the water turns to a missor and click and you've found heaven. Wait for me, I'll be there in a moment.

Goodnight

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I think photography has been accepted as artwork - but then, what is art anyway. The tools are different but the knowledge to shoot well and the eye to express is different than mere recroding.

Billions of people move around with cameras of any size and shape but there are very few who can create an image that sticks in the mind.

Much of any art is persistence and it takes a lot of it to become a great photographer and I don't mean learning how to use a camera, learning light, learning compostion. Those things become transparent to the photographer just as the brush and paint become transparent to the painter. They both choose by intinct, by being able to see through the reality in front of them to the hear to what they want to express.

For me, it is getting up before light and standing or walkjing alone through familiar places until what i came for was there. I may not have know what i came for - but when I see it, I know.

It could be spending 12 hours with a bunch of flowers and reflectors and water until my arm and head ache and then, something happens - and at that moment, I see something I may never see again. It's a moment or a a look or a light or a color or a flow or a surprise that i won't be able to define for days or even months and may be years.

Art isn't about anyone else except the artist. If we are lucky enough to have others enjoy and be taken away by it, that's great and if we are fortunate to sell something, even nicer. Bust art is the experience of the artist and I happen to be a photographer and can't trace my hands with a pencil and draw wierd looking stick horses and people. I've see sunrises and sunsets that made me cry and those are moments that touched me and have touched others - at least they said so.

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I don't have much time tonight - I am bone tired - from what, I don't know but I am just the same. I just watch Californication with the girls. I grew up with The Honey Mooners - so what is this world copming too and will the letters after Cal be blacked out like the nipples from nudes. It's on TV for the love of God for anyone to see. Of course, you do have to subscribe to show time and watching TV is distracting which diminishes the time for photography or thinking about so, I can their poit. It's for my own good and I know it don't you?

We need to have our lives reviewed and edited for our own good. It won't make for good reading, but who has time to ready any more?

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My question about security AND accountability has been answered in part. I had an order through Artwanted which I printed and shipped myself. They subtracted another $10 from my payment for shipping their system did not do - their system is clearly not intelligent - I have to question the rest.

I may refuse to accept payment through Artwanted unless this is rectified immaediately and direct people to conact me directly which makes ecommerce through artwanted somewhat questionable. Makes me wonder about who technically secure the rest of the system is - this was pretty simple stuff. EVERY order I have sent through ARTWanted has been messed up in some way.

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It turns out there is more to this than the management software - there's also the server cost. The ability to take credit cards and having a powerful site comes with more than I thought. Had i know and had time to think about it, I might not have done this, but often blind decisions turn out for the best.

The secure server will cost about $100 a month and maybe $150 and I can't say I understand why it can't be on a site like www.powweb.com where my current site is. My friend explained it is about security and all the information I will have CC#s and addresses and security coodes so the site has to be totally secure and we'll use https instead of http.

I still have not decided on the design.

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I have a friend who sets up sites for a living and one day last week, he offered to do all the work as a gift. I suspect his time and work is worth about $25,000 and it just blew me away. I had to buy some software for the cart which was quite expensive but it is a small cost considering all he is doing. I want a very efficient site which will aloow me to easily update my work. The site will also include a blog and a mailing list and visitors can opt to be automatically notified when I add to my blog or add or change a photo.

What is missing from most sites - even the pros is ease of buying. Paypal requires too many steps and I have heard some horro stories bout it so I am going with what moist people have in their wallets - master card, visa, and through Costco, it is very reasonable.

It's really the design i want help with - so if you know some sites that are really well done, and eye catching, that's what i want. The technical work is being done. I will give him a house full of prints in return but basically it is a gift from a very gifted man.

What i am looking for is a design that will stop people in their tracks - which - hopefully, my work will do, but it will be so easy for them to buy, that once they get the urge, it will be click and done.

I will only put up images that are already to print from my printer in Boulder CO. They have an FTP transfer set up for photographers and can print up to - well as large as i want. but 24X36 is good for the 35mm slide scans and I'll experiment with the 10mp digital.

I will also raise my prices and the design will allow me to do it universally instead of image by image or I can select a group of images.

It will have a slide show and video capabilities. I'll do short talks on everything from technique to what i see or feel - I will also make it possible for others to show their videos and to offer video classes as I plan to do.

I don't know if this will work but for $1,00 investment, one sale will pay for it all.

Based on the success I've had with a poorly designed site and what people have been willing to go through to buy my work, I think I'll be able to repay the investment and be able to give my friend as many prints as he wishes for the wrok he is doing.

Most people (including me)until recently don't understand just how much money goes in to really well designed and technically competent websites - $1 million and over and even for a modest sites $25,000 to $100,000.

The sites that offer templates and ecommerce may be inexpensive but what I do know is the people makeing money offer things other sites don't and that's what i intend to do.

I also need a new name since I am not in Colorado any more but I will still use coloradophoto.com because it is a natural. I've been told I could seel it but I think it might be worth more to keep it.

So any opinions, suggestions for designs and names are more than welcome.

I've sold as much as $8400 in one order but that was once. I've sold a few around $1,000 and this was with people having to call me on the phone or email me abd there were so many images on the site that I hadn't scanned or had and found blurred once enlargened. I have access to one of the best framers in Colorado so I can have the prints framed and shipped directly, He has a site that allows people to design their own frames and mattes. His work is true art. He framed one of my images and the result made my image look so good, I couldn't believe it.

I sent my last client to him and she thanked me for such a find.

I know there are cheaper sites out there but John Botkin at photocraft in Boulder is incredible. Look them up www.pcraft.com. I think it's the best lab in the coutry. They work with and Katz and a slew of other nationally known photographers. They are one of the few labs that is surviving the digital revoltuion by doing thins that most labs won't. They are knowledgeable and incredibly helpful.

John Botkin is skilled and he loves to think of himself as surly but he is caring and he has 35 years experience. He took my mistakes, worked with my client and made it all come together. The owner, Roy McCutchen has been my friend and mentor for many years. He understands the struggle he is in but he offers quality service the way he always has.

I am a luck photographer to have the help of all these wonderful people.

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The problem with blogs is you can't edit or correct spelling or gramtical errors - sort of like life. once you say something it is out in space for everyone to misunderstand it - including the speaker which in this case is me. I often wonder what the hell I meant by something. I never find out either.

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A blog is like talking to myself. This is probably a good thing since I may be the only one interested in what I have to say. In the long run, it seems I am the only one who remembers what i say. In the short run, it's a different story.

What i said a moment ago or an hour ago or a day or a month ago become completely memorable and important because it might just prove a point. Then, a little time slips by, the need to be right has passed, the need to be a victim slips away and everything is forgoteen.

Did you eer notice it's extremely hard to remember what fight are about after a long time passes and we end up making up reasons for them or suddenly we remember why we felt like crap and get nasueous all over again and then we realize that we are repeating the same tthings over and over again.

How does this relate to photography. Wel,, it probably doesn't unless I think about and I can see a link however unimportant it might be to anyone but me. Photography, like most conversations in life has it's meanings int he silent places that only I or you understand and no matter how much I try to explain what I meant by this or that word or photo you may or may not get it and even if you do or don't, I'l never know.

I shoot a sunset and I think the sky is cool but what you remember is the day you met so and so wno's middle name you hardly remember and you try to explain it to me.

You might be wondering if this has just recently happened to me. Nope. It did not I am sure it has or will but it didn't happen today.

All these words squeezed on to the paper like ketchup on eggs.

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The first line should say MONDAY but by now all the humor has probably slipped away.

Tuesday and it feels like Tuesday - now I was going to say MONDAY

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