Back to Ironbridge and beyond

So today I have been at the Ironbridge Craft fair. It has moved from its original home to the Tontine Hotel (Ironbridge) situated at one end of the famous Ironbridge. So this is a time for reflection about today. when I got there I chose a table in the corner which did not help my cause.. The number of visitors to the fair was up with around 200 adults coming in. This compares with the 50 - 75 visitors that was the regular number at the School Rooms. It is with this in mind that I still did not sell very much. However most of my items are relatively expensive costing more than £5, with the best/ largest images going for £20 and over. I did however talk to some interesting and interested people. They have my details. I need to update the site, possible add more pics but definitely make it easier to add comments and make contact. also to explain more in detail how to buy things and how pictures can be presented in a number of different ways, eg size mounted framed etc. Not sure how to do that yet. time to stop now

Next steps: guest books and redundancy

So the site has been up a couple of weeks now (vertrouge.co.uk) and I am on the whole quite happy with it. I does what I wanted it to do. The pictures are easy to access, though it is interesting that most people are happy to be able to slide across rather than down, a few of the people who I have shown the site were unsure how to do this. I think I need to have a look at the get back to pictures link. at the moment it is just a piece of text as a link.

The area I am not happy with is the Say hello section. The mailto link is not very helpful and if people want to comment via the blog they have to sign up to do this. So I will be reworking this page (s) next. I am investigating putting in a guest book so visitors can leave comments. I have now worked out how to access my email address drop me a line on paul@vertrouge.co.uk

I now have more time on my hands as I am due to be made redundant in the next week or so and am currently looking after the garden. I am on the look out for a new role, I would like to have my cake and eat it as it were with something that paid well enough to allow me to work part time and devote much more time to Vertrouge.

Once I have upgraded the contacts page my next area to look at is adding in a shopping cart and for interactive functions. In the long run allow visitors to identify particular pieces and buy them online. I will in the next week or so set myself up with a paypal account. I will get back to this later

Vertrouge

So today is the day. I have finally got vertrouge.co.uk up and running. I do feel a great sense of achievement. Now the trick is to keep this going and make sure I don't lose interest. I showed the site to my daughters and the youngest was impressed by my blog the sheer amount of writing impressed her enormously. I will take any praise where I can get it. Having got yo this point I am trying to work out what to do next. I will continue writing this blog. I need to find a way for people to effectively communicate. There will be a blog tied into the site next I think and I can start looking at using the email address associated with the domain name. Currently I am just using a mailto link which I think is OK but I do need to work on some better forms and feedback. The aim is to be able to sell my photos online. In the next version I will probably work out a price list and post it up as part of the "Say Hello" section. By the way I got the Amadou and Mariam CD Welcome to Mali ) for my birthday and (I have it playing in the background) , it took a little while to get into but it is rather wonderful. OK next time I will carry on, Have a look at Vertrouge. a bientot

Two in one day !!!

So I have come back and started again today. I want to go back and explain / describe the path I have taken. Although I liked Cameras and pictures, I had a Polaroid for my 10^th birthday, but I never really was able to develop my interest any further. Mainly I think because I had no real interest in developing and processing. The film for the Polaroid was hard to get and expensive for a 10 yr olds pocket money. So the interest waned. It was not until I reached my mid 30’s, the millennium was approaching and I had an income to support the habit as it were.

So I was able to buy myself a “proper” Camera. I also got a couple of lenses and various bits and pieces. It was a Canon and if I could remember the rest of the info I would tell you but I would have to go and find it and may be I will add it in later. Anyway I was given various books including The Art of Bird Photography by Art Morris. Although he spent a lot of time going into technical detail, I looked at his pictures and was inspired. I read a lot of “photography books” and “how to guides” I am not sure how much I gleaned from them.

Working with a “film camera” I would take a picture and then have to wait for it to be developed to see the results. It must be great to be a professional, or even someone who develops their own film. There was, throughout this time a large time gap between taking the picture and seeing the results. Also I suppose because I had 36 pictures to play with for each film I was less inclined to experiment.

It was this time that helped define how I like to take photos. I try to take what I see. I don’t feel comfortable arranging people, getting them into poses. Rather I like natural looks / poses. I suppose it is catching people unawares, but then increasingly the environment and landscapes. I quickly discovered that that things that stay still are infinitely easier to photograph. Originally my best work came with my family especially my children, small babies ( don't move especially when asleep, and look very cute) and then as they grew up. ( I have decided not to put up any pics of my children just yet.)

During this time digital had arrived and was building its reputation.I was lucky enough to be able to buy in 2004 a Canon 300D and this has been my Camera of choice ever since. More on this later I am off to bed

one week on

So I have managed to get some stuff up on to vertrouge.co.uk. With the help of Richard at BT. I am now waiting to see if it works. This will be version one on the site with a basic easy navigable structure. OK so I put it together it had better be easy. I am saying it is up but I did have a look one and it obviously had not registered in the 20 secs I allowed. I will have another look later.

Back again

I always find it difficult to start writing anything like this. Almost as if there is a small opening through which the stream of consciousness flows and a very large dammed up reservoir behind it all trying to get out at once. So this is probably the 24th attempt to start something. I was previously describing how I started to put together my website. It took me a couple of weeks of messing around, but I finally got to the point where I had a site to put up. So where is it? I need to get someone to host it for me so after some extensive research I discovered that BT was offering web hosting for £3.00 GBP. So I tried to sign up almost immediately. That was a week ago and I have been promised a welcome pack. I hope that by the time you read this these issues will have been resolved, but I have ended up feeling frustrated. However if you have come to this via the web site Vertrouge.co.uk has started and you found me.

My plan was and still is to put together a site that I could build up and develop. I have started with the basics: a home page, a contacts page and access to some of my pictures. I have included links to an email address and also to this blog. I have also explained how to come and “say hello” at the Craft fair I do 3 times a month. (Sundays)

I hope the picture does justice to my stall.


I am starting back at the end of Sunday September 27th