editorial, lifestyle, travel, and architecture photography & fine art boutique printing
Now through Monday, December 2nd, use coupon code blackfriday13 at Light’s Edge Prints to enjoy 40% off any signed print! Additionally, all orders for custom prints–including canvas prints–of your own photos uploaded via our web site will also receive 40 per cent discount on all services! (Note that the form uploads your photos to me to print, and you are billed separately.)
I just read on DPReview this morning that new firmware is coming for the Fuji X-Pro 1 and Fuji X-E1 cameras that will enable focus peaking during manual focus! Combined with the new ability to choose the focusing point (and thus, where the 100% view of the frame will be targeted for finer manual focus via focus peaking) this should be a tremendous boost to the cameras’ functionality! Glad to see this coming out soon. Downloads for the cameras will begin next week.
In the United States its Independence Day. Among other celebrations, there’s a festival just to the west of where I live for Eno River State Park both today and Saturday. I figure what better way to announce a print sale than with an image from one of our favorite corners of the Triangle?
Today through Sunday, July 7th, 2013, enter the code “fireworks13” at checkout to enjoy 13% off all prints ordered through www.lightsedgeprints.com! If you’ve seen something on this blog that’s not available on Light’s Edge Prints, please contact me and I’ll get it up there for you! I will fill orders in about one week’s time, as I print and sign each individually. Best wishes for a safe and happy weekend!
It has been a while since I have posted here. I had the best intentions of crafting my new Web site format in a different location, perfecting it, and then replacing the Web site here overnight. Sometimes, life has other plans! I’ve been trying to give Light’s Edge Studios the space it needs to really showcase the range of skills and abilities I’ve developed over the last nineteen years, and the quality services I provide using my experience.
Photographically that includes everything from mulltimedia storytelling, book publishing, wedding and celebration photography, professional and personal portraiture, and of course my roots in natural history: landscapes and wildlife. But to make all those images, videos, and books, I had to develop other skills along the way, such as fine art inkjet printing, and what better place than here to offer to consult on photographic technique, issues, equipment maintenance as well as equipment selection. I’ve used several cameras and lenses over time. Recently, I sold my Micro Four-Thirds system and I’ve begun to work with a Fuji X-E1. I have more thoughts on that camera to share, but suffice to say that over the years, several people have asked me “what camera should I buy?” and I am more than happy to ask about their needs and wants in equipment. I then narrow a list of options for them from hundreds to choose from to a selection of two or three.
To be sure, there will be more adjustments and edits in the coming weeks, but for the most part, the web site is up and running, which means I can returned to regularly scheduled blogging!
I’d like to announce that I am offering a 25% Off and Free Shipping at Light’s Edge Prints for “Black November.” Everyone has “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” but through the rest of the month I am offering a sale on all fine art prints. Event photographs not included, sorry! Use coupon code nov2012 at checkout. Don’t see a size you want, or a particular image you’re looking for? Contact me and we’ll make it happen!
And I might also bring to your attention a gallery of my Blue Ridge Highway fall color work that has appeared on the blog: http://www.lightsedgeprints.com/fallcolor2012
On Saturday I found myself surrounded by dogs of all forms at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine campus. I had hoped to post my images from the Dog Olympics sooner but a gallery will be up by Wednesday afternoon!
We’re kicking off a big holiday weekend here in the U.S., so beginning today and extending through the Fourth of July all personally-printed and signed photographs at my store, Light’s Edge Prints, are on sale at 25% off if you use the code “fireworks” at the final checkout screen in the shopping cart. Enjoy your weekend!
Last Friday marked the beginning of reunion weekend at Grinnell College and also the arrival of 2,000 copies of A Portrait of Grinnell: The Architecture and Landscape of Grinnell College. Their arrival was somewhat unexpected: I had resigned myself to a delayed shipment that would miss reunion weekend and the 1,100+ people registered to congregate in the middle of the cornfields of Iowa. Of course Friday had to be the hottest day during that entire week, with temperatures spiking to 90 degrees, but with a little lot of help from my friends the books made it from the loading dock at the Faulconer Gallery to the shelves of the Grinnell College Bookstore (641.269.3424) and Saints Rest Coffee House (641.236.6014).
Without Lesley Wright’s generosity the books would not have had such a convenient loading dock to come home to, nor would two pallets of the books have such a nice climate-controlled home for the next year. A chance encounter with Russ Motta, Grinnell’s most gregarious security officer, gave me the opportunity to deliver books to Saints Rest Coffee House in a pickup truck with a professional hand-truck delivery man. Motta said that in a past life he worked for a beer distributor: he loaded that hand truck down and never once bumped into anything, and it was amazing.
Bekka Merrill and Emily Zdyrko rounded out the team with their loading, dragging, and unloading 40 more boxes of my books onto a large cart headed to the Grinnell College Bookstore. By the time all was said and done I think everyone was ready for a break…and a lot of water!
This morning the doorbell rang and Elizabeth greeted the driver from FedEx who was holding a box of ten of my books. The other 2,000-odd copies of A Portrait of Grinnell: The Architecture and Landscape of Grinnell College will set sail on 2 May. I was too anxious to wait another month until 30 May when they get trucked into Grinnell, Iowa to see how they turned out. I am both relieved and elated by how good they look! I simply couldn’t travel to China to oversee the printing, so it is wonderful to see that this new printing is faithful to the original and the updates, while subtle in most cases, certainly enhance a book I was already proud to call my own.
Both Saints Rest Coffee House (641.236.6014) and the Grinnell College Bookstore (641.269.3424) will begin accepting pre-orders soon. Note that these are the only two official stores for this book. I’ve seen the odd (used) copy on Amazon, but at astoundingly–and amusingly–high prices. The recommended retail price remains $29.95. I was very happy that we were able to maintain the price from 2006. In an age when the price of everything seems to be going up, it’s nice when some things stay the same!
Also, as a thank-you for purchasing the book, the first 125 copies sold at each store will contain a special promotional code for 30% off my personally-printed and signed photographs of Grinnell College ordered at my other Web site, lightsedgeprints.com!
I’ve hinted for a couple weeks that big changes are happening at our little house in Durham, North Carolina. For the past two weeks I’ve been furiously printing some of my best photographs of Grinnell College in anticipation of commencement and my five-year reunion. I’ve gone through a box of Ilford Gold Fibre Silk as well as my ever-reliable roll of Epson Luster. So lately I’ve been dusting off my skills at cutting down matte and foam board to matte 24 8×10″ prints, 12 11×14″ prints, as well as some 12×18″ and panoramic photographs. And before sending it all out, I’m trying to give them all SKU codes as I learn Quickbooks Pro‘s inventory system on-the-fly for my new business. Gotta keep it legit for the IRS…it is that time of year after all!
What’s that about a new business? Well, it’s not completely off the ground yet, but I’m becoming a limited liability company in the state of North Carolina. I’ve been a sole proprietor since 2006 and while it has been fun, it was time for a change. When it takes effect, this Web site will go through a few changes, and a new domain name will become the primary, although I have no intention to give up david-kennedy.com.
Furthermore, I contacted Regent Published Services, Ltd., the company that printed A Portrait of Grinnell: The Architecture and Landscape of Grinnell College in 2006, to get a quote for printing 2,000 copies. The book has been out of print since 2008, but will be back on the shelves by the end of May 2011. I’m frustrated because I’ll miss commencement by only two weeks, but the book will be stocked in time for reunion. I’ll have information for those interested in pre-ordering soon.
I’ve ramped up production of prints because I finally have a photo printer at my home office. Choosing a printer was a key business decision: while making prints is something I enjoy and am quite skilled at, I know many talented photographers who find the art of printing to be more than vexing. Making prints for other photographers will be part of my business model, so I needed something fairly large. Unfortunately, this meant that the futon in my office (that was a good “guest bed”) simply had to go!
In my custom print store I plan to offer a variety of gloss and matte papers that most online printers simply don’t carry, like Gold Fibre Silk and Entrada Rag. I don’t intend to be the next Mpix–I won’t make prints on the side of coffee mugs or canvas wraps. Nor will I even attempt to compete with FedEx Office and make signage or banners. Instead, I’ll cater to serious photographers who would like to have direct contact with the person making the prints either for their clients or their personal portfolios. And as of March 17, 2011, when I looked out the front door to see FedEx Freight show up in our narrow street, I’ll be able to make those prints on rolls of paper up to 44 inches wide using a Hewlett-Packard Designjet Z3200 Photo printer!
Photos after the jump! Continue reading “Big News from the Small House…”