My Images, right?

So this evening I was skimming my stats, and I noticed a lot of web referrals coming from a certain myspace page. Being the curious person I am, of course I followed the link to the page, where I was surprised to be greeted by one of my own photos! It was the background of the page, and actually looked rather neat. Since I was getting a lot of traffic from the site, I looked around on it to find where the link to my site was located, and after a while of not finding it realized that the image itself was coming from my site - ie, everyone who looked at this myspace page was using up bandwidth on my website.

Now, I am not one to go berzerk about my photos - I realize full well that by posting things on the internet I am letting them out into the world. Additionally, I am hardly in a position to be concerned about overloading my website's traffic limits. Still, when I saw my photo there and concluded what was happening, I felt somewhat miffed. And so I went and renamed the image.

And then I was immediately racked with guilt that I had ruined this girl's myspace page. So Gina from Altoona, if you care enough to find this again, please feel free to use this image:



Maybe just give me credit though. And realize that in the future, if you ask someone, they often will be flattered you liked their work. But taking images without asking is, technically - even online - stealing, and against the copyright rules.

Hillarity!

If you enjoy laughing, I highly recommend you hurry to the nearest movie theatre and take in the new Michel Gondry film: Be Kind Rewind." Pure happiness, I'm telling you.

Ewetopia!

I designed this logo for my darling friend Kathryn who has opened her very own fiber shop in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Ewetopia Fiber Shop looks just gorgeous from the pictures - I have not had a chance to visit in person yet. I have, however, been the beneficiary of some bags of wool and a set of needle-felting needles and I am now spending my evenings stabbing and forming wool into the most wonderful little dolls. Its a bit addictive, I tell you.

Kathryn is all about shipping supplies to far off people, and has actually discovered that her prices are a lot lower than elsewhere. So I highly suggest you have a look at her website, and get some ideas, and then call her up and tell her what projects you have in mind. She is a fabulous artist herself and will help you figure out just what you need!

One word of advice - if you do take up needlefelting, I recommend not doing it anywhere in public. The stabbing may not feel ferocious, but to the uninitiated it looks very much like voodoo. And stay away from children, they might not understand why you are poking the poor doll in the eyes.

How NOT to sell...

I am brainstorming and conniving on how to put my artwork to good use, which at this point mainly translates into financial use. Personal evolvement uses, and connecting with others uses, and keeping in touch with myself uses are all very well and good, but I like to eat and I appreciate being warm in the winter and having cool drinks in the summer and I really like to travel. All those combined make the financial uses sort of float to the top of the uses pile of most things I do, although I have to say, in my favor (?), that they don't usually manage to block out any of the other uses, for which reason I am avoiding all bills (:

With these thoughts in mind, I came across this article, which I find incredibly enlightening...

The Darkroom Advice Column

Maybe I'll just rename this blog the "Darkroom Advice Column," as that seems to be about all I am coming up with lately. This little nugget is for everyone, not just those who may someday find themselves in a photo lab (you never know when it may happen!).

Life Advice from the Darkroom, #3:

Everything looks better under a red lamp.