Open All Hours – After Much Encouragement

In a house in Canford Heath, Poole, Dorset there is a large photograph of an Abruzzo scene hanging proudly on the wall. I know this because A, a Scot who lives about as far south as you can in the UK, went to the trouble of looking through my collection of Abruzzo photos and asked for a copy.

That was the first photograph of Abruzzo I’d ever sold. “Sold” might be too strong a word as it was really a form of barter, but I certainly did gain by giving him the print. Months later, visiting A in Poole, I saw the photograph in all its 30” x 20” glory, framed beautifully, quietly beckoning the onlooker to drop everything and take a flight to Pescara.

It was a proud moment.

But that wasn’t the first piece of encouragement I’d received. P has always encouraged me to sell prints of my photographs. We’d wander around a photographer’s studio and she’d say that some of my photographs were at least as good if not better than what was on display.

But I did nothing.

I made excuses to myself trying to justify why I hadn’t started the ball rolling. I was too busy in work, I had other projects I had to finish, I hadn’t found a suitable way of displaying my creations – the list goes on. P kept encouraging and I kept finding excuses.

Fast forward…

I met Nora (and John) of Enchanting Italy in Dublin earlier this week. Nora is a regular reader and commenter on this blog and when I realised we were both based in Dublin, I got in touch and we met and had some damn fine cappuccinos. As we chatted Nora mentioned that she loved her copy of the Abruzzo Charity calendar and particularly loved seeing “The Dancing Olive Trees” every day during February. She also asked if I’d considered selling my photos.

Sometimes you just have to take the hint!

So over the last couple of days I looked at various ways I could open my About Abruzzo photography shop and I’ve chosen a company called Photobox to help me out. I also did some jiggery-pokery (very technical stuff) to this website and now, as a sub-menu under THE SHOP, you have PHOTOGRAPHS ON PHOTOBOX which will take you to my current selection of photos.

Over time I’ll add more and try to pull them into themed collections, but for now I’m feeling pretty good about the images I’ve chosen.

The collection Abruzzo – Out and About includes the “The Dancing Olive Trees” and also “La Campagna”, the photograph that made its way from Abruzzo to Dorset. In Abruzzo – Dogs and Tomatoes you have a pair of very relaxed dogs and a handful of very tasty tomatoes!

If you like what you see and want to buy a print, Photobox will guide you through the process. You can chose matt or gloss (don’t know why but I’ve always preferred matt) and select from sizes that are in keeping with the original width to height ratio of the image. Look out for the Print Options button as you order as it allows you to check if any part of the image will be lost due to the size selected.

By the way, if you are looking though posts or the full photo album of all the photos I’ve posted since this blog started and see a photo that you like but that isn’t currently for sale, let me know and I do my best to make it available. Usually the only reason I might not make it available is if the resolution of the original photo is too low to support enlargement.

That’s it – browse away, we’re open for business!

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