The Butterfly Chase

What a wonderful journey it has been creating the series "The Butterfly Chase"

With nearly 12 complete images all composites to depict wild animals and butterflies. It was truly a remarkable series to work on.  I may have to continue this series in the future.

 I really encourage every single one of you to find something that makes you happy and work on it. Don't give up.  There were several times during this series that  I wanted to quit but I did not. 

Here are 3 of my favorites from the series.   The others I will be keeping a secret until this winter when I release all 12 at the same time to the public. 

I had such an amazing time creating this series and so many wonderful people asked me about my process and how I created the pieces that I created a video tutorial on the Butterfly Chase: Bear in the woods.     It is shortened down compared to the original creation but it still shows you nearly every single step I took to create it. 

Below is a Speed Edit to show you what you will learn from the video, or for those who just really love watching speed editing. I know I do. 

For more information about the tutorials or videos you can find us on Facebook or in our Etsy Shop.

and that's a Wrap - Photography Resources

I get asked nearly the same question every day.

Where do you get your packaging?
Where do you get your photo boxes?
Where do you get your Usb's?

So I have finally taken the time to blog about those resources.

Please keep in mind that sometimes you may have to order from several companies to complete your overall look in packaging.

In the future I will link some additional blogs about creative packaging but for now I am going to stick to the basics.


My first resource when I started out was really simple. I used Nashville Wraps for almost all of my packaging, they had these great envelope sleeves and I would just slide all my portraits 8x10 and smaller into the 11x14 size bag.  I had smaller bags as well for wallets and would just fold the bag onto itself and seal it with a custom sticker I had made.
 Plus they are Eco Friendly.


My Next resource I stumbled onto as I grew my business (and this one is a biggy because I know very few people are familiar with this company as they start out.)
But
MarathonPress.   This company really changed the way I went about marketing, branding, creating mini session mailers, and they also offer some packaging like Boxes and such. (there are other companies that I order boxes through now though.)  But the 4x6 Post Card Mailers came in SO handy when I was putting customers orders together and would just add a few upcoming mini marathon post cards in there as well.

Now the remaining resources are in no particular order.
I do not prefer or favor one over the other so check each one out and find out which one you prefer the most.

Tiny Prints* Lots of Business Stationary and Resources.  Don't forget to check out the Custom Embossers

Paper and More *

Tyndell Photographic Packaging

Tap Packaging   Photography Packaging Here.

Rice Studio Supply 

ClearBags  

ClearEnvelopes

WildCat Wholesale LLC 

ApexEnvelopes

Kraft and Jute

Paper Presentations 

DNLPhoto Packaging


Nations Photo Lab

The Paper Source

NPD Box Company 

WNP  Waste Not Paper 

Bags and Bows by Deluxe 

 Uline  Geared more towards actually mailing the products, mail sleeves, cardboard tubes etc.

USB Memory Direct 

Lazables   All things Laser Printing 

RubberStamps .net

CustomTape Create Custom Tape for when mailing your packages out. 

FlashBay

Pro Studio Supply










 

*   Items marked with Asterisk are Affiliated sites.  Please keep in mind that any Money Earned through Affiliate Links help go towards the funds in managing and upkeep for the blog. 

Please do your research before purchasing from any of the above sites. I have not ordered from every single one of those places. I am just listing them for you. We will not be held responsible or liable for any order issues or problems from any of the listings.

Selling your art and photography

With a dozen or more Print and Product companies for your photography and art out there it can seem like an impossible journey to navigate and to find the best one.

Some people want the best quality while other people are searching for the lowest price alone. There is no right or wrong way to go about searching for a third party fulfillment company. You basically just have to find one that best fits your specific needs.

Yes I am sorry to say there is just not a magical printing fairy out there that will help you through it.

But I can help point you in the right direction.... and occasionally I have sported some fancy wings.

In No particular order below is a list of  Printing Shops or Hosting Sites that takes a lot of the work out of it for you.   These places will allow you to post your photos and artwork and it will do the printing and shipping for you.

Cafepress *  Here is a coupon to save 20% off your purchase in July. JULY20

Redbubble.com
"Unlike many other sites, Redbubble gives you total control over what you sell your art for. Current Redbubble artists actually earn an average margin of 17% of the retail price, but whether it is 10% or 30%, you get to decide" -Redbubble.

Imagekind.com *

Easy to create a membership to start loading your images and artwork to be sold.


Cafepress.com 
We are all familiar I think with Cafepress, this shop; "The Shops service provides an online shop where you can, design, manage, and sell your own branded merchandise on your website. If you already have an audience, this is the pick for you!"  - cafepress

Society6.com

Zazzle.com

Storeenvy.com

500px









Saatchiart.com

Artflakes.com
This site is similar to Art.com but anyone can join. You set your prices and decide what you want to sell. You can find out more about how to register and get your work posted to their site here.

Art.com
This site is a members only site, you can find out more about becoming a member and having your art listed here.

FineArtAmerica.com
Anyone can become a member and start selling their work right away through them. You can find out more here.





* - indicates an affiliate link

Creating Our Logo

Our Logo Design was challenging to say the least.

When we started the company we had a really bold design, with a Black Background and Rich Bright Colors. But it never really felt quite right.  It seems odd that a Design Company like our own would have so many struggles in this department but we like many of you just could not find anything that felt right.

With no time to really work on our own logo we decided to ask for help.

So I contacted Cheryl Logan with CLP Designs and we gave her a few keywords that we thought best represented the direction we wanted to go in with the Company and the Logo.

Airy, Light, Colorful, Whimsy  

This was a really difficult task for us because our Company Name just has such a BOLD Feel too it.
 But we love our Name and Motto and will not be changing that ever.  So we had to have something that represented us.


In no time at all. (It seemed like overnight actually)  Cheryl had a Design Board for us to look at.
I felt like they were perfect.

But after talking it over with her and some friends we decided to make some minor adjustments to the design and came to love this overall design below.

Keeping with the Same "Paint Splash" Theme as our Old Logo Design we felt like it helped Tie in the overall change to the new logo.

So basically we LOVE our new look and designs and what it means for our company.
With the new look we can move forward and have a coheisive feeling to the entire Shop and Site.
We hope you love the new design as much as we do.

Sweet Summers Photoshop Manipulation Tutorial

Have you ever wondered how photographers and artist create those amazing Photoshop Manipulations?

In this Tutorial I teach you everything from start to finish on creating this Beautiful Sweet Summer Manipulation.   Check out the Speed Editing Video Below for a look at the techniques you can learn.

Find out more about the Video Tutorials here.

 Sweet Summer Photoshop Manipulation by +Photographers Unleashed 

 

Photographers Unleashed FB