Photographer Then Baker

Can I just say the wind is so vicious out there today that I half expect a tree to fall or lose power. Hopefully neither will happen. In the meantime I will preoccupy my mind with this blog.

First I would like to establish that I am a photographer first and a cookie baker second. I have been told on many occasions that maybe I should put more emphasis on cookie baking, because it is doing so well, but I refuse, because though I love baking cookies, photography is my first true love, my passion. The cookie business is supporting the photography until the photography can run by itself. That is my plan and I am sticking to it.

To give you a little history about my cookies. I have been baking for the holidays for the past 15 years or so for family and friends. After lots of feedback to start a cookie business I finally did this year. I attended 2 farmers markets to sell my cookies which turned out quite well. One of the markets did far better than the other. Both markets allowed me to sell some photography as well. Which was a bonus. The markets lasted from May to October. In December I had 3 cookies orders, which I didn't expect. So yes cookies did far better than photography. I plan on doing 2 farmers markets next year as well which will keep me plenty busy with cookies. One of the markets I'm sure of the other not sure yet, but if I do get into it, it will be a good one. I will let you know what the markets are later in the winter.


So to summarize this year. Because of finances I was only able to do 7 art shows. Only 2 of those shows had better sales from the previous year. Which is why I am doing 9 new shows all in Southern Maine, in Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire. This year I also created a new website about a month ago which has more features than the old one. I have also invested more time in social networking which I have been recently working on. It is slowly working and I am learning alot of new things.

I am also in search of my niche. I will be doing alot of experimenting this winter with hand coloring, using my new Canon S95, landscapes and more. For the most part I love B&W and I really hope I can get the hang of hand coloring. I used to hand color using the traditional darkroom printing techniques then hand colored using oil pencils. But because of where I live (Maine) and the expense of disposing of chemicals I had to give up the traditional methods. But thanks to Dianne Poinski I have a renewed faith to start hand coloring again.

This year I will see how both businesses do and compare at the end of the year.

My 4 p's will get me through the year

Perseverance--Persistence--Patience & Passion