Squidoo Articles 4/8/2011

This is a complete list of our articles on squidoo as of 4/8/2011

Click on the title to view the full post.

1. Our Zazzle Journey News!

We are Stock photographers, and were looking for other ways to expand and grow our small little company, when we found a merchandising site called Zazzle. So Robert decided to give it a try. But I was so bogged down with stock and sales that I didn't have time to really look into it. He put up a ...
Internet - Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:03:47

2. Flower Power Love News!

Flowers are nature's way of smiling at the world. From their colorful blooms to their fragrant odors they have inspired the imagination of artists to paint, sculpt, photograph and write about them the world over. Few things have motivated the creative soul as often as these natural wonders. Growi...
Internet - Fri, 08 Apr 2011 10:36:38

3. Abstract Art Prints, Cards and Postcards News!

Balanced on the edge between order and insanity, free as a bird or restrained like a prisoner. The vision and expression of an artist's soul displayed for the world to view. What manner of torture or spark of genius must be at the core of the creative mind? Restricted by mortal limitations yet fr...
Internet - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:09:01

4. Fractal Art Posters and Prints News!

Fractals have become very popular in recent years as a form of artistic expression. While these geometric shapes and repeating patterns are common in nature, it is the computer generated creations which are most commonly thought of. It may be true that fractals are composed of complicated mathema...
Internet - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:04:44

5. It Takes More than Words

How often do people talk about the things they want out of life, but do very little in regards to fulfilling them? Wishes and dreams are wondrous things. The Human mind can create worlds of fantasy, take us on trips to locations we have never been, or develop the next greatest time-saving device....
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:41:46

6. RGebbiePhotos Zazzle Gallery News!

Zazzle is a print on demand store front online where artists and designers can promote their creations as images on fun and exciting consumer products. Zazzle enables individuals, professional artists, and major brands to create and offer billions of unique items for customers worldwide. Owned a...
Internet - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:06:01

7. How will you Leave Your Mark? News!

We spend our lives with too much self involvement, getting mired in the small details without ever viewing the larger great works being created right in front of us. When a person drops the veils and misconceptions that have been presented as a reality, and allow themselves to accept the things t...
Education - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:00:49

8. Age of Confusion News!

It seems pretty obvious to me that this world, our world, is in serious trouble. What I remember of history, being of deep personal interest to me, I don't believe there has ever been a time in our human existence when the entire planet has been in such a stage of fear, conflict and confusion. Re...
Culture & Society - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:48:45

9. Epiphany and Self-Evolution News!

Many people have experienced a moment of epiphany in their lifetime, an instant when they have an understanding or realization that seems so profound, it takes their breath away. In those few moments a person can feel like they just touched the edge of everything that is known. Maybe they took a ...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:13:27

10. Photographing the Essence of Woman News!

Through my years in the business, I have had the pleasure of photographing thousands of people, and most of them have been women. And there is one truth, which is universal amongst them. Women want to look beautiful in their photos. Whether it's for Corporate Identity, Fashion, Family Portrait, o...
Arts & Design - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:36:27

11. Spreading the Love, Celebrating the Heart

Hearts are the universal symbol of love. From sketching hearts on our note books in school, to giving a big box of chocolates to a loved one on Valentine's Day, this representation of the soul will always be the number one way to express affection. So let us celebrate this iconic form in all its ...
Internet - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:21:49

12. Bridges to be Crossed

Most people dream of a life filled with happiness and success, but the reality is few truly end up having the life they want to lead. Even when someone finds fulfillment in one aspect of their world, they will often find disappointment in many others. The journey from birth to death is often a st...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:29:45

13. How to Photograph Women Close Up

Photography can convey a message, thought or emotion, and leave a long lasting impression on the viewer. A close up or tightly cropped scene is one way in which a photographer can create a mood and relay a concept. This is especially true when photographing women, and the artist wishes to use a ...
Arts & Design - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:25:38

14. Self Perpetuating Evolution

Evolution is commonly described as a process of continuous change from a lower to a higher state. In human evolution it is often the genetic stages of change that are commonly thought of, such as the physical development from primitive to modern man. Perhaps our spiritual and intellectual evoluti...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:45:10

15. Taking the First Steps News!

Often the first few steps in personal progress can be the hardest. It is never easy to step from the safety you know into a rush of unknown possibilities. The security and comfort that keep our inner selves safe can also be the one thing holding us back from greater potential just beyond the next...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:52:27

16. The Best Camera I Ever Owned News!

When I was three my parents gave me a Vintage, Fisher Price Toy, Picture Story Camera, No. 784 for Christmas. It had a big plastic rotating cube on the top and a fogged up clear plastic view screen. With a large orange shutter button that made a clicking sound when you pressed it. That was the be...
Arts & Design - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:51:19

17. Fremont Street Experiences News!

Robert and I were asked to help out a friend with her business. She runs a "spotter" company, watching a parking lot and having vehicles towed that park there without permits. It was an interesting experience, sitting in that cold parking lot throughout the night, watching the neon burn until mor...
Culture & Society - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:58:33

18. The One Thing

There is one thing every person in the world can do to enrich their lives. Young or old, rich or poor, large and small, from every country, view or ethnic background; we can all work on who we are as individuals. Every person can benefit from taking time to improve upon who they are.
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:46:45

19. A Road Less Traveled News!

There are times when the road less traveled can be the quickest path to reaching your goals. In our personal and professional lives the common path can often appear the safe and steady route to our desires. While the process may be tried and true the road is mired with overwhelming numbers where ...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:14:06

20. Another Night on Fremont Street News!

The night scene here on Fremont is becoming strangely familiar. The people change, but the situations remain pretty consistent. Across the street, in the darkened doorway of an abandoned storefront, a couple has an argument. He stands there, almost bored, with his hands in his pockets as she ple...
Culture & Society - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:54:31

21. How to Persevere Obstacles

Personally and professionally, most people encounter obstacles in their paths to growth and success. There are times when the size and number of roadblocks can overshadow your vision, making goals and projects seem insurmountable. Writing down the steps you need to take to reach your goal will gi...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:09:27

22. The Greatest Treasure

The greatest treasure mankind has to offer cannot be purchased with silver or gold, but must be earned through the experiences in life's journey. More valuable than the world's most prized piece of art is the knowledge and wisdom humanity has gained in our short existence on this planet. With a f...
Healthy Living - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:48:04

23. How to Make Your Vision a Reality News!

There has always been a lot to be said for the power of positive thinking. When we believe in ourselves and have passion for the things we do, visions can become accomplishments. Making your dreams come true can be as simple as following the inspiration in your heart. With strong drive and persev...
Education - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:24:02

24. Focus on Your Future News!

Every process, including life, has three stages; a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Relative to the journey of life, these steps might represent our past, present and future. Yesterday is behind us, today is here, but tomorrow presents endless possibilities. These possibilities are laid out be...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:39:31

25. I Creator; The Great Expression News!

The world is filled with pictures and images, visual media as advertisements, art and dialog saturate every aspect of our lives. From expressing an emotion to reminding us to turn off the lights when we leave the room, photographs, designs, graphics and text can be found on almost everything in o...
Arts & Design - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:35:52

26. How To Stay Strong in the Face of Failure News!

Many people have had moments when they feel as if life, the world, and almost everything around them move forward, while they themselves, hard as they may try, stand still. More than once I have seen a project stalled, delayed or abandoned because the effort given did not justify the results. Har...
Healthy Living - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:57:32

27. Evaluation and Adaptation News!

Species or society, business or individual, the same principal stands true; you must evolve if you want to continue to exist. Change in a comfortable and familiar routine can be very difficult, and considerably more so when those changes are in a person's inner self. The drive to learn, to evolve...
Healthy Living - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:59:37

28. On Growing up News!

As an observer of human nature, I have noticed how often people look for reasons beyond themselves for the troubles in their lives. They make excuses and cast blame at others when things go wrong. Even the people we once looked to as examples in the professional and political environment appear t...
Healthy Living - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:45:15

29. Brush and Canvas to Drag and Drop

Once upon a time, before the age of Photoshop and Illustrator, photographs were taken on film and developed in a darkroom, designs drawn on a sketch pad and the whole mess came together taped to some editors art board. There is and always will be a conflict between tradition and innovation. I can...
Arts & Design - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:55:33

30. Controlling Your Future

We are the result of our experiences both good and bad. There are numerous factors that create the people we become in life. Some of these events we have direct influence on or control over, while others are a matter of timing and fate. Everyone, each person in this world, has an individual persp...
Healthy Living - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:09:53

31. Slaying the Dragons Within

Everyone has battles they fight in their everyday life, family and job stresses just to start, but what of the wars that rage within one's own self. The ever weighing scale between the things we know are right and the deeds we have done that are wrong. Even a young child knows when they act in a ...
Healthy Living - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:55:32

32. Climbing Your Inner Walls News!

Most people have experiences that cause them to create barriers between their inner self and the outside. Some of these walls are necessary they protect us from the world and ourselves, other walls stall or even stop us in our own personal growth. I have built and dismantled more than a few of t...
Healthy Living - Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:51:48

33. The Creation of Man: How to Legally Shoot your Husband News!

We needed more models. We had our friends in front of the camera, and they were good for commercial images, but we needed something more. We had a sense that we were headed into something special, but we weren't quite sure what it was going to be. I decided to put Robert in front of the camera. ...
Arts & Design - Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:31:57

34. The Greatest Adventure News!
When every day you live becomes your greatest adventure life is an experience you are anxious to greet. While the concept is simple, the task can be overwhelming to accomplish. Maintaining hope and optimism from one day to the next can be a daunting chore in itself. It is always easier to have fa...
Healthy Living - Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:11:58

Zentangle Color, Doodle Art

Zentangle Color, Doodle Art We've pulled out our colors for this one! New in our store, Zentangle images! What are Zentangles? Some view them as abstract doodles, free flowing and creative. Others find a kind of symetry in the designs and find a bit of peace in them. Follow the lines in these abstract images and find the flavor you need. We offer these in various shades, depending on your preference.

Zentangle art captures the meditative spirit. What do YOU see in them?

Zentangle Greeting Cards:

ZenHearts by RGebbiePhoto

GreenZen by RGebbiePhoto

RedZen by RGebbiePhoto

Coffee Cups:

GreenZen 2 by RGebbiePhoto

Zen 1 by RGebbiePhoto

Purple Zen by RGebbiePhoto

Mousepads:

Zen Blues by RGebbiePhoto

ZenHearts by RGebbiePhoto

LoveTangle by RGebbiePhoto

Coasters:

Zen 1 Colors by RGebbiePhoto

Red Zen by RGebbiePhoto

Green Zen by RGebbiePhoto

Stickers:

GreenZen by RGebbiePhoto

Zen 1 Colored by RGebbiePhoto

Red Zen by RGebbiePhoto

A Road Less Traveled

There are times when the road less traveled can be the quickest path to reaching your goals. In our personal and professional lives the common path can often appear the safe and steady route to our desires. While the process may be tried and true the road is mired with overwhelming numbers where few emerge or find a clear, open journey to achieving their dreams. Getting noticed and standing out can be challenging when a person travels the same path as a multitude of others seeking similar rewards.

Forging your own way in life is rarely an easy task, to venture into unfamiliar territory or brave untested trails; it is often an adventure that can lead to experiences and destinations that would not have been encountered otherwise. Individuals that step out from the masses to define themselves may face the possibility of failure but also have the chance for great discovery. When a person has passion, drive and desire, the road less traveled may present the opportunity to explore and grow in their experiences and knowledge.

View each day as a new beginning; be open to both the challenges and rewards that come from pursuing the things you desire in life. Make the most of good and bad experiences alike, learn, grow and thrive as an individual, become the person you aspire to be.

Fremont Street Experiences

by Lori Gebbie

Robert and I were asked to help out a friend with her business. She runs a “spotter” company, watching a parking lot and having vehicles towed that park there without permits. It was an interesting experience, sitting in that cold parking lot throughout the night, watching the neon burn until morning. I was glad we were able to do it together; it allowed us to sleep in shifts and still capture a slice of life that one normally would not see.


Tourists park on this lot, for a fee, and walk across to the hub attraction area of Fremont, the Experience. They see the fancy lights, hear the barkers calling for them to enter their casinos for a “sure win” or a “safe bet”, the street vendors and the street performers with hats in front, collecting donations for their performances, the old neon signs from old Las Vegas, revamped with a new life here in this small museum area. But if you ask me, they are missing the real experience, the true to life experience, of the broken, the scared, the hungry, the homeless. This is where the real story is at. This is the true hustle and grind of the city, where the “real” people are at, the “bad” side of town. And for all that we are warned to keep away from here, to not be around the vagrancy, the crime, the poor and pitiful, we see a huge slice of humanity, as the homeless stop and offer a good word to each other, often sharing their meager possessions with those who are more in need than they are. A clean tissue, a sip of water, a smile. Once in a while, one will be fortunate enough to afford a cup of steaming hot coffee, and they eagerly approach their friends and everyone gets a sip. A shred of warmth, of kindness, reminding themselves that they are still human and have dignity. This is the part that is hardest for us to watch, as we put ourselves in their place, and wonder where our life would be if we were forced into such circumstances. How would we be faring, in a cold city, living on the streets, under a pile of newspapers we were fortunate enough to find? Where would we find the strength to continue going, to keep moving for warmth, to hope that, one day, we would once again be able to live like “real people” again?


I can only wonder at how they got here, got to this dismal place in their lives, where they lost their way in “normal” society and had to take to the streets. What drove them from leading productive lives into the madness of street wandering and scrounging for a slice of the sanity they once knew? In this city, it is easy to imagine a few of them took a chance in the casinos and gambled away their lives, pushing themselves into an unrecoverable amount of debt, fourth and fifth mortgages on their homes, pushing their families and loved ones aside as they risked it all in hopes of hitting the jackpot, pawning and selling pieces of their lives to finance their next parlay, their next hand at the table, that last quarter into the machine. And one day, they look around them and realize they’ve lost their jobs, their families, and all they have left are the clothes on their backs as they are left to wander the streets aimlessly. But some were put here for other reasons. Some are returned veterans, so disturbed by the combat and stresses they endured while fighting for our Country, that they can no longer fit into a normal society, having seen too much and lived too hard. Night terrors, horrid flashes of the realities they faced while in the service, disconnected from the façade that most of us live our lives in. Misunderstood, they have snapped and found solace in their own little worlds, where they can create their own boundaries, yet still chained to the nightmares they endured. Some have also been hit by hard economic times, the rising levels of layoffs and spiraling interest rates. Credit cards offered like candy with huge ballooning interest rates, forcing a level of debt upon them that could never be caught up to.


We live in a very twisted society right now. There are so many people who feel they are owed things, and so they live that way, always taking but never returning. They run up their credit cards to the maximum limits, then apply for another to feel like they have money again, never worrying about the consequences they are forcing themselves into, always imagining they deserve to have the latest and greatest out on the market.


I wonder where people are going to land in the next few years, as our Nation continues to struggle and grow under the recession we are in. But, this is part of living, our experiences giving us hope and direction, if we keep focused. For most, these are just stories to be read and acknowledged, but for others, there is no way to go but up. We wish everyone well in their own personal journey, and hope we all come out of it on top.

Zazzled!

Our Zazzle Journey

Introduction
We are Stock photographers, and were looking for other ways to expand and grow our small little company, when we found a merchandising site called Zazzle. So Robert decided to give it a try. But I was so bogged down with stock and sales that I didn’t have time to really look into it. He put up a few images and just let them roll on the site, and we didn’t get much response on it, so we kind of forgot it for a while. Then, in October, I was reading forums and looking around for a new project. I found the store again, and looked deeper into it. This was just what I was looking for! We created the images, and sold them online, but it was always just a piece of an end product, never the finished item. Here, I could use our images to make fun things, and actually put words to our art! I had some favorite images; I always thought they would look good on greeting cards or even on tee-shirts. So, with that in mind, I let myself wander through our catalogue and chose some pictures to work with.


Man
Some of our landscapes were quite pretty, and we have several images that I always imagined hanging in our home. So, of course, I had to make some posters of our art. One of my favorite series is The Man series. I’m not sure if it’s because they are fine art nudes, photos of my husband, or if it’s because of the emotions we felt as we were shooting them. They are classic poses, images that are rarely seen anymore in current art. We wanted to show an emotional side, the fragile side that all men hide deep down. I think we did a pretty good job of it. They are available in most of our current product line.


Make personalized gifts at Zazzle.



Roar!
Our youngest model, Lauranne, is such a lively spark! She was just a tiny baby when she first hit our stock sites as a model, and we shot her every few months for her first 2 years. Then, a few months before her 3rd birthday, she was diagnosed with AML Leukemia. It’s been a very rough road, watching her progress through her disease, but she’s on her very last round of chemo right now, and is just about cancer free!! Her story has been documented by her mom at her caring bridge page, and with Kae’s permission, we set up a line of products for those who want to donate and spread the hope that little Lauranne has given to us all! Team Lauranne products are available at our store.


Make a personalized gift at Zazzle.



Love in 3D
Robert also started working more with his 3D modeling, and of course, we had to do hearts, since Valentine’s Day is fast approaching! So he made up some 3D heart images and off I went!! I have a few lines; one is playful and flirty, like the little conversation hearts you find all around. One line is a bit more… subtle. I call it my “Collared” line. I also have a “Hearts and Paws” line for our animal lovers. From funny to serious, we’ve got a bit of a selection to choose from.

Red heart with words of love, affection, and friendship. See more of our Words of the Heart line below!


Shop for a personalized gift at Zazzle.


Fun lifestyle products. Bring a small smile to your face every time you see these! Show your collared with subtlety. See our other "Collared" products here!


Design personalized gifts at Zazzle.



Other Heart and Paw Items:


Create a personalized gift at Zazzle.



These are just a few of the things that I love the most. I hope you find the time to take a look and see what we have to offer. From iPad/iPod cases to keychains, we’ve tried our best to cover it all. Easy to personalize or change around as you wish, these are high end products from Hanes, Keds and other quality lines. Of course, if you can’t find what you need, send us a message. We’d be happy to get it created just for you!