ANiemanPhotography

Changes on ANiemanPhotography

Over the past two days I have made a lot of changes to ANiemanPhotography.

Among these changes are:
* Mega bytes added to all digital image listings
* Prices changes on all images
* Links to my policy page for further info and pricing.

I had to make these changes prior to adding anymore images to the shop. I have tons of images to add from both myself and my father.

Please stay tune for my new additions!

Fourth of July on Etsy

A "Real" Artist not a "Cheap" Artist

I've been think about the pricing in my photography shop and wondering if I am selling myself short. Someone told me that I was in my crochet shop and that I should not settle for less that what the quality of my items demand. I don't want to be thought of as a "cheap" shop. I put a lot of hard work and effort into my items. So a little while ago I raised some of my prices so that my shop would not look "cheap."

I think of it this way. I want my shop (ANiemanCrochet) to look like a Sleek Contemporary Crochet Shop, as my tag line states. Look at it a month ago it did not resemble anything like what my tag line suggests. Over the past month I have put a lot of effort into cleaning up shop and I think it is coming together nicely.

The economy is difficult right now but I do not want to cheat myself. I could have a profitable, successful business if I make the right moves. Making cheap items and pricing them cheap is one thing. Making quality items and pricing them accordingly is another. I have a great deal of pride in my products.

In the beginning I was afraid of overpricing but after two years on Etsy I think I have seen what people list at and what people are willing to pay for things. My lack of business, I can safely say is not due to my pricing. It has everything to do with my marketing. This is a huge revelation and I am glad I have finally come to it.


This leads me to my other shop. Looking around at the other photographers on Etsy, I would have to say that my images are cheap. I believe that I am a great artist, although still learning a lot about photography and my skills. I am cheating myself of what my art is really worth. So therefore I no longer will be selling my at a such a cheap rate. My prices will increase by the end of this month.

So why and I announcing this? Why not just do it and hope no one notices? This is why:
I want people who do notice to understand why I am doing so. I also dislike companies that keep things from consumers. I also want people who do pay attention to my blog or shop to be able to have a last chance to purchase my art at the lower pricing. It is only fair to give you a chance to buy my art at a lower price and hopefully you will come back when they are at higher prices because you think that my art and customer service is worth it.

Thank you for your time!
Have a Great Day!
ali

The Stan Hywet House

This weekend my parents came up to Akron. We had dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant called Pad Thai in Montrose( west of Akron). It was really good. The appetizers were excellent and everyone enjoyed their entree' but me, but that was my own fault. I'm not a fan of coconut but I went ahead and order a dish that is made with coconut. It was a curry dish and I thought that the curry might out power the coconut but I was wrong. Silly me. The stir fir my mom and boyfriend got was amazing! One was with basil and the other garlic. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

In the morning we went to the Stan Hywet House. It was built by the founder of Goodyear between 1912 and 1915. It is a massive estate with gardens surrounding the home. The day was quite hot reach 90 degrees but there was a great breeze. We first toured the gardens immediately surrounding the house while we waited for the house to open. My favorite of all the gardens was the English Garden that reminded me of the Secret Garden.


The rooms in the house were amazingly beautiful and in wonderful condition. I wish i could have taken pictures of the inside. My love of historical design was excited by all the antique pieces. The main period of design was Elizabethan, Jacobean Tudor. It is one of my favorite periods. The house was built ion the 1900's so it had full electricity and full house vacuum.

After we toured the house we walked through the rose gardens which were so fragrant. My father and I took tons of pictures. His camera is better so his pictures are definitely going to be better than mine. I probably won't have his images for a couple of weeks. In the mean time I will be editing mine and posting those on my shop.

This is a picture of my father taking some pictures of the grounds.

There is also a butterfly house that has some breath taking butterflies and moths. Please check back for more pictures to be added to my shop:

http://aniemanphotography.etsy.com

Thanks
and
Have a nice Day!

A Great FREE Photo Editor

I've been having a dilemma ever since I graduated from college and could no longer use my school's Adobe Photoshop to edit my work. I absolutely loovvve Photoshop but boy is it expensive and on my hourly wage I cannot afford it. So I started looking for a new way to edit my photos.

For a while I had been using Google's Picasa2, which is great for basic editing and resizing, etc, but it lacks the advanced tools I used with Photoshop. My main goal was to find a program with which I could add my copyright to my photos that I sell on ANiemanPhotography. Since I sell my photo's as image files I did not want anyone to be able to copy paste my images onto their computer. Adding the copyright limits the use of these photos. I also resize the images to prevent theft as well.

The first thing I did was search the internet using one of my favorite sites Downloads.com This is a site that you can use to download programs for free, either free programs of free trails of programs. After some searching and reading of user ratings I found PhotoSccape.

Photoscrape is great to use for resizing, brightening, adjusting color and adding text. There are also some cool affects you can use to blurr unwanted company names. Like I did for my coffee cozy photo's, where I used a Leading coffee chain's coffee cup and blurred out any promotional type.

Another one of my favorite tools is the screen capture. This tool allows you to take a "picture" or screen shot of your computer. This can contain the either the full screen, the window or just a region of the page. I used it in my last post to put a picture of my hearts. I just updated it and they added some new tools such as splitter and layering. I have yet to play around with them but will soon.

I think this program would be great for Etsians who don't want to pay a ton for a photo editing program yet be able to edit their photos so they look wonderful in their shop.

Selling my Photography as Supplies

Recently I asked for some critiques through the forums of my A. Nieman Photography shop. Someone brought up the fact that some of my statements in my shop policies were unclear. They also poised the question, what if an etsy seller would like to use my art work in theirs.

Here's the answer: I would love to have some use my photographs in their own art work etc. The only thing I ask is that there is full disclosure on where they purchased the photograph. By this I mean that I am given credit within the listing, stating that the artwork used in the item was taken by myself.

I don't think that that is too much to ask. A link to my shop would be appreciated. I would also love to work with the seller and promote them here on my blog. I feel that if they would like to use my photos that it is not only a way for them to promote my shop but for me to promote them. It would be a thank you for their purchase and honesty.

I'm going to start adding the tag of supply to my digital photos for this reason. I think it should give me more exposure and maybe help spark sellers imaginations for the use of my art. My aim is to become a great resource for crafters!

Here are some of my latest additions:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11840912



http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11758830



http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11531360

Thank you and Have a Nice Day!!!

Lost of new stuff!

The past couple of days I have been vigorously adding my craft shop items to my etsy shop. I am up to 33 items in my shop and have quite a few more to add. It is a slow process because I only have a couple of hours a day after I get home from work.

Today though, I was off and was able to post more. Here are their links:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11833516
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11832354
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11831593
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11822877
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11759877

I would love to get some feedback. I took some more up-close shots and put some of my items on a grey background.

Have a Nice Day!!!

ANiemanPhtotgraphy

I'd like to take a post and promote my other Etsy shop. ANiemanPhotography

Here I sell my photographs as image files. They are priced by file size. ( 1 mb = $1). I also sell prints in various sizes.

I have not had any sales in this shop so I wanted to post a blog and share the thumbnails I use to hopefully increase business.

I am selling the files to be used as either desktop wallpapers, screen savers, or stock photos. They can be used in the ever popular digital photo-frames. All I ask is that you are ethical with their use. You can even get have the images printed yourself.

The file that you buy will not have my copyright on it and it will be much larger in size. This means that it will have better quality for large screens or printing.

I am not very greedy with my photography. I love it and wish to do more of it one day. I think art should be affordable and easily obtained by all.

Please enjoy and have a nice day!

Some new Stuff on Etsy

This past week I took a bunch of items out of my booth at the gift shop to make room for some new items. These items I think were either too big for the shop or I priced them too high to begin with. They now have new prices and great pictures, that I think will help them sell.

I have posted four so far in my shop, a red and green throw, a trivet, a set of coasters, and a green and white afghan. They are all pictured in this post.

I am planning on removing items from my booth at the end of each season. I will lower the prices and post them on Etsy. This will hopefully decrease my inventory as well as promote online sales.

I am also going to take some business classes. The University of Akron offers some continuing education classes. There are a bunch I would love to take but I think I am going to start with How to Start Your Own Business. I think It will help me with my crocheting and Photography as well as my Interior Design.

I posted a new item

I just posted this pillow sham that I made like a year ago but never ended up using. I have a couple more that I will be posting over the next couple of weeks.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10145027


I also posted a bunch of new photo's in my other shop.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10119490
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10115011
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9854569


Please let me know what you think!

ANiemanPhotography

If you haven't had a chance to look towards the bottom of my blog, I have started to sell my photography on Etsy. I am slowly adding more and more photos.

Please take a look at my shop:
www.aniemanphotography.etsy.com

They are priced by mb. When you purchase the photo in my shop I will send you the original file. Once you have the file you can print it, use it as a wallpaper or use it in a digital photo frame, that have become extrememly popular.

If you would like prints just contact me and I will be more than happy to print them for you. I have yet to put together a pricing chart but hopefully will have one soon. I will post it both here and in my shop.