Well, my photography has been in demand lately. Friends, family, and people that I take pictures of are requesting I make my photos available to them. With challenges such as physical separation, shipping, and image selection, I have found a need to use some different ideas to make my images available. There are several websites available out there where you can post your photos and make them available for purchase. Companies such as “Smugmug” and “Photoreflect.com” are providing very useful services that remove this burden from the photographer. They also provide the valuable service of accepting credit cards for purchase - eliminating the need for people to “pay me back” or send me a check for the cost of the items.

My investigation of my provider has been completed and I have settled on Photoreflect.com. Smugmug has a very attractive offer as well, combining both order processing and order fulfillment in one package. While the order fulfillment aspect would be nice, I didn’t think their prices were competitive enough to allow me to provide an acceptable “friends and family” discount with the cost of prints, the service, and the order processing fees. Broken out, I would have to charge “F&F” upwards of $1.00 for a 4×6 print to cover the costs. Photoreflect, on the other hand, leaves order fulfillment to me, doesn’t charge annual fees and charges an 18% order processing & e-commerce charge for each purchase. This model of business is more suits me as an advanced amateur and also allows me to control the final product to the utmost degree. As I’m responsible for my final product - I have the choice of printer, available sizes, and crops that are used when resizing images. I really liked the idea of remaining in control of this aspect of my offerings.

So, in the near future you will see a new website from me that will describe my services and bring you to the location where you can search for and order my photos. Stay tuned!!!