The Blurbomat Etsy Shop is Now Open
June 4th, 2008I have finally heeded the advice of many of you and started using Etsy. My shop address is http://blurb.etsy.com. I’ve added a couple of shots to the store as well as kept the other two I had for sale. I’ll be adding several others over the next few weeks, but wanted to share my little minimal shop. Thanks to all of you who have purchased prints already! You are making my year. I mean it.
Note: If you see an image on this site or in my flickr stream you want to buy, let me know by sending a message to photos [at] blurbomat [dot] com.
I’ve avoided talking about process and printers because I’d rather keep the conversation around photos you like. I’ve wanted to do a few screencasts of how I work and some pointers, but I’m not sure how many of you would be interested in a Lightroom or Aperture screencast. Let me know in the comments if this is something of interest and I’ll do it.
If you really want to print your own photos, I’ll repeat my advice about choosing a camera: go to a really good store and bring in some files to print. Try to test the printers using the app(s) you’ll most likely be using and demo a range of printers and papers. The shop is going to make a good portion of revenue off of paper and ink, so you might as well do a thorough test drive.
Printers I looked at:
Canon Pixma Pro9000
Canon Pixma Pro9500
I looked at the Canon line first because I had such a bad experience fighting my Epson Stylus Pro 2200 back at the day job. These are nice printers.
I asked around and spoke to a lot of people and they really liked their higher end Epsons. I’d look at the following:
Epson R2400, (now replaced with the R2880)
Epson Stylus Pro 4880
Epson Stylus Pro 3800
I’m sure you’ll find a great printer in there somewhere. It’s too subjective to recommend one over the other. There are far too many considerations and I’m not getting paid enough to endorse a printer. Hear that printer makers? I thought so. o
Tags: for sale, photos for sale, whoring
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June 4th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
i would be fascinated to hear screencasts re: aperture and lightroom.
congrats on the store! i love your photos.
June 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I’d also like to hear about Lightroom. I’m playing with LR2 Beta and having only ever used Photoshop before I’d love to learn some new stuff about LR.
June 4th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Congrats, Jon. I know that sounds trite, but sitting on this end of the internets, I’m just wondering what took you so long! Your photos are stunning and the time you put into the craft and working with digital images is inspiring. I’m just starting to get the hang of PSE, never mind Lightroom, but maybe one of these days when I don’t have so many ankle biters underfoot.
June 4th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Sweet. I’m so glad you are doing this. You are crazy talented.
I too would love to hear about Lightroom. Also.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Jon,
Yes on the screencasts please!
John
June 4th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Jon, I’m curious about something (totally unrelated to this post, I know). I hope this isn’t too personal. Are you an introvert?
BTW, congrats on setting up shop. I love your work!
June 4th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Yes to the screencasts! I love to learn and find myself overwhelmed with that particular topic sometimes.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Get over the whoring thing. Doesn’t apply. You’ve got a product that people want to buy. It doesn’t involve selling your body.
It’s OKAY.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
We have the Canon Pixma Pro 9000 and we love it. As long as it has ink it’s a great thing to have. That and ink. Did I mention ink?
June 4th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I can has screencasts plz?
June 4th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
another aperture user here that would love to see some screencasts!
June 4th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Hi Jon,
Another enthusiastic YES for a Lightroom screencast please!
Also include a bit of the story of the shot you show so we get some background on what you were thinking or seeing at that moment.
Thanks!
June 5th, 2008 at 6:33 am
I’d love to see a screen cast, but I’ve seen some people - like Scott at PVP - try to do ‘em live, and I hate it. If it were me, and I had some talent worth sharing, I’d record it and post it to one of the video sites instead of trying to stream it live.
Thanks
June 5th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Great news about Etsy. Thanks for your thoughts on choosing a printer. And last but not least: a definite YES on the screencast or even just a post about your thoughts on workflow.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:12 am
quick aside: approx 1:40-2:00 on the Doves YouTube video on Dooce’s site
Is that Billy Ray Cyrus moonlighting as a left-handed bassist?
* comments were closed on Dooce’s site
June 5th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I’m real curious about your Etsy experience as I really want to use prints and/or stock work to justify a lot of my photo/lens expenses. When one pro lens costs me more than, well, hell, my first CAR, any extra income is good.
I’m also curious about pricing. Pricing seems tough. Too low, and you don’t properly valuate your stuff. Too high and nobody can afford it.
I haven’t tried to print my own stuff. Seems more trouble than it’s worth with so many online printers out there, but I’m curious if you will save enough over time to justify the cost of the printer/paper/toner. Seems that until it’s a volume business, using a service is the better way to go. That and all the prints I had originally made at home, even on the best paper, have faded into crap now. And then again, volume may not be a problem for you guys!
Shit. I need a cheaper hobbies. I should take up surfing.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Yay for Etsy. And yes on screencasts.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Glad to see you’re on Etsy!
Have you ever been to Chicago? I think you and Heather would
love it, and you could take some wonderful photos. We have
some pretty amazing architecture. Think about it!
June 5th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I meant to add, as a former Utahn, I would be very interested in some
UT nature photography. Don’t know if that’s your thing or not, but
I’d love to see it.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Gratz on the Etsy Shop!
I experimented with doing a hand-rolled paypal shop for my own prints and finally gave it up and went with Etsy.
Paypal works great, but there seems to be bigger value in having something set up and working for you - plus you get to take advantage of the traffic incoming organically from Etsy itself. Good stuff.
I just wish that they would include some kind of stats so you could measure traffic coming to your store. You buy a feature spot in one of the showcases, and there’s no way to measure any success of it.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d be really interested in hearing about your experiences w/printing. I purchased a wide format epson R1800 and have overall been really happy with it, but I struggle — I mean REALLY struggle — with color management. Obviously outputting art prints and photos are two entirely different ball games, but I’d still be curious how it goes for you.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Congratulations on the shop! I am sure you will do well with it. I do the same with my readers (get them to email me and then listing), and it works really well.
As for Lightroom, I will take any and all information that you want to share. It’s a huge program and I feel like I have only scratched the surface.
(As an aside, I have been meaning to comment on your (you and Heather’s) photos of Granville Island. I used to work and live in Kits, and miss being able to wander down to the market. I loved the photos.)
June 5th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Thanks for posting your printer research. Much appreciated. Would love to hear about your workflow process.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Another vote for an Aperture screencast. Thanks for the printer info.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I’m so glad to see you are selling your pictures! I agree with the above statements that you are, indeed, crazy talented. I happen to really love all the post processing and colors you choose to highlight. Just my two cents.
Also, just wanted to let you know that your and Heather’s blogs have added so much joy to my days. You guys deserve every kind word and positive review.
Much love.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I started using Aperture and then decided it was too clunky. I much prefer the PS3 raw editor — I feel Adobe came a long way this time around and I absolutely love it. I haven’t even touched Lightroom, but I’d be interested to see your creative process once your images have hit the hard drive.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I’m always keen to see other photographers’ workflow, so a screencast of Lightroom would definitely be of interest. I was resistant to LR for a long time, but have firmly jumped on the bandwagon. Always eager to learn new things or to see alternate ways of handling tasks.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Yes to Lightroom screencasts!
June 6th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Another vote for the screencasts.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Pretty please! on the Lightroom screen captures! As a budding hobbyist photographer, I also enjoy seeing Exif data for photos that catch my eye, which yours always do.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Congrats!
I love etsy, -all my favorite jewelry is from there.
Just remember to add photos often, or renew items often, as they may get pushed pretty far back in the que.
I would tell you to promote yourself on many many avenues (maybe a mini etsy on this blog here) but I have an idea you are starting out with a bigger fan base than most beginner etsians.
Good luck in your photographic endeavors!