photography

:::EDIT:::
Holy crow! Thank you all so much for supporting me in this little venture! I confess, when I came up with this idea I wasn’t sure if anyone would want a set of cards featuring my images…to say the least, you blew my socks off yesterday!

If you claimed a set of postcards, or two, or four, thank you so much! We have them all packaged up and as soon as RW comes home from hunting this afternoon, we’re going to start printing shipping for them all. We’ll be sending them out with extra sparkles and zing, so be prepared.

Also, I meant to tell you before but it slipped my mind, each pack includes a bonus card of my choosing! YAY! That’s just a little treat for my little birds.

Thank you, so much, for making all my dreams come true. And thank you all for the sweet messages you attached to your orders and for the notes you emailed me — I take those things to heart and currently, my heart is very full.

Sending you love, blue grouse feathers and Idaho sunbeams,
Jillian

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It’s finally happened! I’ve gone postal!

I’ve had many of you request, over the past year, that I make prints of my images. Recently, I sat down, carefully selected a batch of photos I’ve taken over the past year and I had those shots made into postcards.

This is an effort to:

1. Offer you extremely affordable pieces of my work.

2. Encourage you to support the world wide postal system! Here in the USA, the postal service seems to be especially floundering and every $0.44 stamp you purchase helps to support an incredible system. Don’t let snail mail die! Help your local mail carrier keep his or her job!

3. Help keep the art of letter writing alive! Writing letters and sending mail is one of my love languages. I’ve always ALWAYS loved the post. Nothing puts a smile on my face like a received snippet of love from another part of the world. Constructing a hand written, cleanly composed letter is a work of art. Hone your skills with these posties.

4. Help me help myself! I’m becoming more and more serious about photography. I carry my camera with me nearly everywhere I go. It’s always whirring and clicking. I buy pieces of clothing that I think will look nice when photographed against fall colors. I wake up early to catch the morning light with my camera. I wait, on the edge of my seat, for the golden hour in the evening. I drive long distances to capture the sunlight on the mountain peaks. I carry my camera on long backcountry hikes just to record the perfect light in the perfect places. I’m a woman obsessed. And I want to share the best of that obsession with you. Do you mind?

Of course, you don’t actually have to put these post cards through the mail system. You may also pin them to your inspiration board above your office nook at home (if you find them inspiring), take them to work and use them to brighten up your cubicle, or give them as gifts to a friend who needs a little pick-me-up. Do what you like with them, and know that you have my blessing whether you put them in the post or not!

The postcard pack I am putting in the Etsy shop today contains these four images:

[I am Willa Cather]

[Putting the Spring in Spring]

[Blue]

[From the Ground Up]

All images that depict a piece of me or all of me are self portraits captured without the help of a remote or tripod (I actually don’t own either of these tools).
They are professionally printed, feature a smooth matte finish on the front and back and measure the standard postcard size of 4×6 inches.

I hope you love them!

And I hope they carry your messages well.

Plume

Some of you, the Europeans for certain, speak a handful of languages. I know you’ll agree with me when I say the following: You know you’re getting a good grip on a language when you start thinking in that language.

The first time I travelled to France (I’ve been thrice) I was on an exchange and I stayed with a lovely family in the Tours region. My French was mauvais, compared to some, but by the end of my stay I found that I was starting to think in the language thanks to the effect of language immersion on my mind and tongue.

In the same way, I’ve noticed lately that I’m starting to see the world in frames. I’m starting to think in camera! Can you believe it? My brief history with photography began in high school where I took 8 semesters, back to back, of graphic arts — including photography theory, as well as film and image developing. I loved it. It’s like the scent of developing chemicals was a perfume and I was drawn in like a luna month heady with the effect of pheromones. I continued taking photos up until this very day but it’s not until recently that I have starting seeing the world as a jumble of chopped up images waiting to be captured like butterflies in a net. It’s quite a thrill.

Anyway, it got me to pondering about other languages we can speak besides French or Camera. What’s your language (besides the one you speak) and how is it affecting your life?

What do you speak and how does it affect the view of your environments?

I’ll tell you how speaking Camera is further affecting my life, I’ve got a sore shoulder all the time from carrying my rig all over the place…it must weigh four pounds….(???) Things are getting crazy. I rarely leave home without my gun and usually take a minimum of 100 photos a day. That’s a bit obsessive, but I know I’ll regret it if I miss even one opportunity to make an image.

In other news,

Winona says, “What’s up?”

It’s Friday here. I can feel it in the air. Everyone is charging up for the weekend. The sky seems thick with storms. Last night, while at a barbecue, a glorious thunder bumper rolled into the valley and the air was crackling with green light and rainbows and when golden hour struck, I nearly fell right out of my cowboy boots. I thought I’d go blind from the pool of beauty I was sitting in but I’m still seeing the world frame by frame today. Thank goodness.

I was going to try to do a shop update this afternoon but I’m feeling too hurried so I’m postponing it until Monday, August 9.

In the meanwhile, please try to behave yourselves.

Wherein The Plume Goes Postal

Speaking Camera Like You’d Speak French