An old year is at an end and a new year is about to begin. Lori and I have been spending a great deal of our time recently, working on our merchandise store at http://www.zazzle.com/RGebbiePhoto and our Fine Art Gallery at www.Robert-Gebbie.artistwebsites.com, while also trying to keep up with submissions to our various Image stock portfolios. This has not allowed a whole lot of additional time to concentrate on writing for our blog or many of the other projects we pursue.
So, what is on the agenda for 2011? Right now we plan to continue working on our current venue of projects. We also expect to put a bit more time and effort into writing a self-help book and more articles on personal growth and evolution, as well as possibly seeking some speaking engagements on these subjects. If anyone would like us to speak at an event, or inquire about possibly scheduling us for an event, please feel free to contact Lori by e-mail at RGebbiePhotography@yahoo.com.
While it is never easy to predict the future we expect 2011 to be a year full of new and exciting experiences. We wish everyone peace and happiness and hope the New Year brings you the best that life has to offer.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Bridges to be crossed
By Robert Gebbie
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 struggle, the path ahead of us seems to always be filled with obstacles and impasses, and that is how it should be.
As much as even I hate to admit, if we began life with a contract and guarantee, few of us would ever make it beyond our living room couch. The things we struggle with most are usually the same things which lead us, as individuals, to our finest accomplishments and understandings. The greatest achievements of our species often come from learning to overcome that which causes us the deepest pain or dissatisfaction.
Little is ever gained without a purpose or reason for pursuing it. If our journey through life was absolute satisfaction, there would be little, if any, inspiration to carry ourselves forward, and the human race would have long ago become extinct. It is in our desire to have or become greater which give us, as individuals and a race, the purpose to move forward in all that we aspire to be. They say “a rolling stone gathers no moss”, yet by the same token a person who never moves becomes stagnant and dies. There are always bridges to be crossed. There will always be new adventures just up the road or around the next bend of life. Humans are creatures of great imagination and creativity, and our desire to achieve greater and greater heights in our existence give us the purpose we need to continue reaching forward from one day to the next.
If you did not have a goal to reach in your life or career, what purpose would you have for waking up each day? What need would you have for carrying forward? Who and where would you be if not for the lessons learned from overcoming the obstacles you have already faced?
Take a moment to pause and account for all the things you have already achieved, look back and acknowledge the progress and struggles you have overcome to get where you are today. There is a lot to learn from examining our personal failures, if we can look past our disappointment and see the true lesson. For all that we wish and desire to become there will always be a price to pay in getting there. Look to the future, remember that tomorrow presents endless opportunities to learn and grow. Have faith in yourself, find strength of will in the mountains behind you and carry forward to greater days ahead.
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 struggle, the path ahead of us seems to always be filled with obstacles and impasses, and that is how it should be.
As much as even I hate to admit, if we began life with a contract and guarantee, few of us would ever make it beyond our living room couch. The things we struggle with most are usually the same things which lead us, as individuals, to our finest accomplishments and understandings. The greatest achievements of our species often come from learning to overcome that which causes us the deepest pain or dissatisfaction.
Little is ever gained without a purpose or reason for pursuing it. If our journey through life was absolute satisfaction, there would be little, if any, inspiration to carry ourselves forward, and the human race would have long ago become extinct. It is in our desire to have or become greater which give us, as individuals and a race, the purpose to move forward in all that we aspire to be. They say “a rolling stone gathers no moss”, yet by the same token a person who never moves becomes stagnant and dies. There are always bridges to be crossed. There will always be new adventures just up the road or around the next bend of life. Humans are creatures of great imagination and creativity, and our desire to achieve greater and greater heights in our existence give us the purpose we need to continue reaching forward from one day to the next.
If you did not have a goal to reach in your life or career, what purpose would you have for waking up each day? What need would you have for carrying forward? Who and where would you be if not for the lessons learned from overcoming the obstacles you have already faced?
Take a moment to pause and account for all the things you have already achieved, look back and acknowledge the progress and struggles you have overcome to get where you are today. There is a lot to learn from examining our personal failures, if we can look past our disappointment and see the true lesson. For all that we wish and desire to become there will always be a price to pay in getting there. Look to the future, remember that tomorrow presents endless opportunities to learn and grow. Have faith in yourself, find strength of will in the mountains behind you and carry forward to greater days ahead.
Friday, November 19, 2010
A little bit of Zazzle!!
By Lori Gebbie
We’ve been shooting images for stock for the past three years, and while it was a lot of fun to take the pictures and put them up for stock, I always felt a little flat. I saw so many uses for the images, but didn’t think I’d ever become a designer myself. And then, I found zazzle!
Zazzle has opened up a new opportunity for me to show my creative side, and I’m really happy that I have so much to choose from! From mouse pads to iPad covers, there is a whole world to design and create! And now, I get to do some of it myself! All of my favorite images are now being displayed on various products, the way we intended them to be seen. Great gift ideas, especially the little knick-knack stocking stuffer ideas! And I feel pretty blessed that our artwork is getting seen by a more general public than just designers! We have quite a colorful portfolio, and I’ve done my best to keep our images bright and sharp on our products.
We have some real cute ideas, won’t you take a look and see if there’s something YOU like there?
http://www.zazzle.com/RGebbiePhoto*/
New - iPhone & iPad Cases! Free shipping on your first case order! Use Code: NEWZAZZCASES Ends Sunday Nov 21st! Hurry!
We’ve been shooting images for stock for the past three years, and while it was a lot of fun to take the pictures and put them up for stock, I always felt a little flat. I saw so many uses for the images, but didn’t think I’d ever become a designer myself. And then, I found zazzle!
Zazzle has opened up a new opportunity for me to show my creative side, and I’m really happy that I have so much to choose from! From mouse pads to iPad covers, there is a whole world to design and create! And now, I get to do some of it myself! All of my favorite images are now being displayed on various products, the way we intended them to be seen. Great gift ideas, especially the little knick-knack stocking stuffer ideas! And I feel pretty blessed that our artwork is getting seen by a more general public than just designers! We have quite a colorful portfolio, and I’ve done my best to keep our images bright and sharp on our products.
We have some real cute ideas, won’t you take a look and see if there’s something YOU like there?
http://www.zazzle.com/RGebbiePhoto*/
New - iPhone & iPad Cases! Free shipping on your first case order! Use Code: NEWZAZZCASES Ends Sunday Nov 21st! Hurry!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Still Not Taking a Break
Some of the other ways we have been able to keep busy is by finding other ways to market our product. We have several irons in that fire already, but decided, ehh, what’s a few more? We started a store on Zazzle to see what we could offer, and it’s been a lot of fun to build up and merchandise. But I find it’s also a whole lot of hard work! It’s not just about taking an image and putting it on a product, you also have to figure out what message you want that image to convey. It’s a totally different mindset (for me) than stock photography.
As a stock photographer, we take an object and think, ok, how would a client use this picture? For example: A red apple. This image has a thousand uses! It can be used in nutrition ads, school ads, by doctors or dentists, or just about anyone. So, we take the picture, isolated on a white background so it can be pulled and placed in an advertisement, and hope that our apple image is snappy enough to be seen and purchased among the hundreds of thousands of apple pictures already listed on our agency’s site.
Now, with the store, we now have to figure out HOW to use that image. Hmm… Sure, we could put it on a shirt that says An Apple a Day, or any of the other overused phrases that we hear about apples all the time. But now we’re on the marketing side. And an old worn out phrase isn’t going to attract customers to purchase our product. So now we have to come up with a new and exciting way to present that image, incorporate it into something witty and fun, and hope that it gets seen and goes “hot”, or at least draws enough interest for someone to browse our other products.
And then there is the copyright/trademark issue. We face it with stock, but we always have to remain mindful of it. Putting the phrase “Just Do It” is an infringement against Nike. “It’s the Real Thing” is an infringement against Coke. And fonts have to be watched, you can’t use a font that is used by a company, because that’s misrepresentation against that company. In other words, you can’t use the familiarity of a product to sell a “pirated” product, because they are the ones that did all the advertising work, not you. So now, you have to come up with something completely original, with your own work. You can’t see a picture and take it from the web and use it in your items. It MUST be original. And you should have a model release for any products you use. How would you feel if a photographer took a picture of you smiling, and you ended up on thousands of tee shirts and mousepads, without any sort of compensation or prior agreement??
There is so much to think about, so many different ideas that have to be shelved. Zazzle has over 35 billion items for sale. Which one is going to be the one that people see and want to buy?? So, for now, we’re brought out our Wermz, and are setting them up in Christmas hats around Christmas ornaments and the like, and hoping that people find them funny or cute enough. And we have a lot of our abstract images on different items. We’re trying to remain colorful as well as contemporary. Cross your fingers for us!
To visit our zazzle store, and see some of the ideas we’ve had, visit us at:
http://www.zazzle.com/rgebbiephoto*
As for Robert, he’s doing his best to meet the demands I’m making for new images and illustrations on the ideas that are getting spurred on by the mad merchandising frenzy I’m on! He is also working on a manuscript of his self-help writings. We’re very excited about that project, he’s taking a lot of his essays and we are weaving them together to come up with a book that we hope to release by summer. We will be releasing bits and pieces of his essays over the coming months while he’s working on that, but his focus right now is research and writing. I love his writing. He’s become such a better man since he started writing, and has made us stronger in our relationship. We have been able to get over many crippling obstacles in our lives because we remain focused and balanced. We keep our end goal in mind, and continuously strive toward that. We remain generous in nature, kind in word, gracious to those that offer assistance, and always have time for those that need a moment to talk.
We offer thanks every day to everyone for taking interest in our journey. We offer thanks for those who happen into our lives, as we feel everyone has a reason, everyone has a place, and there is always something to be learned by the various experiences we have. We find a great deal of inspiration in our life around us, and hope that you find that, as well.
Peace to you, my friends.
As a stock photographer, we take an object and think, ok, how would a client use this picture? For example: A red apple. This image has a thousand uses! It can be used in nutrition ads, school ads, by doctors or dentists, or just about anyone. So, we take the picture, isolated on a white background so it can be pulled and placed in an advertisement, and hope that our apple image is snappy enough to be seen and purchased among the hundreds of thousands of apple pictures already listed on our agency’s site.
Now, with the store, we now have to figure out HOW to use that image. Hmm… Sure, we could put it on a shirt that says An Apple a Day, or any of the other overused phrases that we hear about apples all the time. But now we’re on the marketing side. And an old worn out phrase isn’t going to attract customers to purchase our product. So now we have to come up with a new and exciting way to present that image, incorporate it into something witty and fun, and hope that it gets seen and goes “hot”, or at least draws enough interest for someone to browse our other products.
And then there is the copyright/trademark issue. We face it with stock, but we always have to remain mindful of it. Putting the phrase “Just Do It” is an infringement against Nike. “It’s the Real Thing” is an infringement against Coke. And fonts have to be watched, you can’t use a font that is used by a company, because that’s misrepresentation against that company. In other words, you can’t use the familiarity of a product to sell a “pirated” product, because they are the ones that did all the advertising work, not you. So now, you have to come up with something completely original, with your own work. You can’t see a picture and take it from the web and use it in your items. It MUST be original. And you should have a model release for any products you use. How would you feel if a photographer took a picture of you smiling, and you ended up on thousands of tee shirts and mousepads, without any sort of compensation or prior agreement??
There is so much to think about, so many different ideas that have to be shelved. Zazzle has over 35 billion items for sale. Which one is going to be the one that people see and want to buy?? So, for now, we’re brought out our Wermz, and are setting them up in Christmas hats around Christmas ornaments and the like, and hoping that people find them funny or cute enough. And we have a lot of our abstract images on different items. We’re trying to remain colorful as well as contemporary. Cross your fingers for us!
To visit our zazzle store, and see some of the ideas we’ve had, visit us at:
http://www.zazzle.com/rgebbiephoto*
As for Robert, he’s doing his best to meet the demands I’m making for new images and illustrations on the ideas that are getting spurred on by the mad merchandising frenzy I’m on! He is also working on a manuscript of his self-help writings. We’re very excited about that project, he’s taking a lot of his essays and we are weaving them together to come up with a book that we hope to release by summer. We will be releasing bits and pieces of his essays over the coming months while he’s working on that, but his focus right now is research and writing. I love his writing. He’s become such a better man since he started writing, and has made us stronger in our relationship. We have been able to get over many crippling obstacles in our lives because we remain focused and balanced. We keep our end goal in mind, and continuously strive toward that. We remain generous in nature, kind in word, gracious to those that offer assistance, and always have time for those that need a moment to talk.
We offer thanks every day to everyone for taking interest in our journey. We offer thanks for those who happen into our lives, as we feel everyone has a reason, everyone has a place, and there is always something to be learned by the various experiences we have. We find a great deal of inspiration in our life around us, and hope that you find that, as well.
Peace to you, my friends.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Not Taking a Break
While we weren’t on the road for as long as we anticipated, our journey is about Creativity. We were fortunate enough to run into some real beautiful areas as we meandered across the desert on our way to Las Vegas. We also ran into some beautiful souls along the way, and shared some of those stories already.
We took a lot of pictures during the last few months, we’ve put some of them up on our gallery site at Fine Art America. Here, we’ve put a slice of our travels, some real beautiful and thoughtful shots. We hope you find the beauty in them, like we did.
To see more of our work, visit our gallery at
http://robert-gebbie.artistwebsites.com
We are always trying hard to come up to the top of our situation, and while it isn’t always easy, we know as long as we keep focused and determined, we’ll reach our end goals.
We took a lot of pictures during the last few months, we’ve put some of them up on our gallery site at Fine Art America. Here, we’ve put a slice of our travels, some real beautiful and thoughtful shots. We hope you find the beauty in them, like we did.
To see more of our work, visit our gallery at
http://robert-gebbie.artistwebsites.com
We are always trying hard to come up to the top of our situation, and while it isn’t always easy, we know as long as we keep focused and determined, we’ll reach our end goals.
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