For those of you who are regular readers of my updates, hold on to your hats as I’m branching into something entirely different.  I’m about to launch a small but super high quality line of art cards, greeting cards, note cards, or whatever you want to call them.  they will open to a blank inside for personal notes to friends, family, clients, or associates.  Regardless, they should be very nice and as you might expect, Central Oregon landscapes will be the theme.  My first series of 8 cards is just about to be ordered and should be available in a couple of weeks.  I hope to market them everywhere that sells attractive cards.  I’ve received countless requests for less expensive products from people who genuinely seem to love my photography but don’t have $1,650 available for a framed 30×50 inch print.  I get it!  Especially in these difficult economic times.  Thus my new business idea.  I’ve always focused on the best quality that I could possibly achieve from the beginning of my process to the end.  It all starts with great slow speed 4×5 transparency film in a balanced, accurately focusing large format camera with excellent quality multi-coated lenses on top of an exceptional carbon fiber tripod.  This is just the film capture part of the process.  Next comes the processing part of the image capture process.  I can have a beautifully exposed capture of a once in a lifetime scene but if the processing is botched then everything but the memory is lost.  That’s why I utilize the best processing outfit anywhere.  Next comes the printing.  Many people have asked if I do my own printing.  I don’t for several reasons.  The first of which is that it takes a long time to become a great printer and I’m simply too busy to perfect the art.  The second is that I don’t have quite enough through put to justify having the requisite chemicals around in my already cramped basement.  Also, maintaining a top quality color processing set-up is also time consuming and frankly, professional outfits can do it better than me and therefore I choose to have them do it.  I consider my printers to be the best in the world.  This opinion is shared by many of the best professional photographers in the world.  Because all of this adds, y fine art quality photographs are not cheap.  Because I’ve had lots of requests for my images at a lower price, I came to the conclusion that high end but fairly priced Greeting Cards featuring Central Oregon Cascade Mountains would be a good place to start.  As always, quality was my first objective.  The printing options are endless.  Decisions regarding paper, print,and font  had to be made.  Then of course, I had to select only 8 of my thousands of images for usage.  This was brutal!  There are so many photographs that I’d like to make into art cards but I had to start somewhere.  With endless help from my sweet wife, Debbie, and our great friends, Jason and Christine, we have finally reached the printing stage.  I’ll offer a photographer’s insight into how each of my new greeting card images were captured over the next couple of weeks, until the Greeting Cards are actually available.  I’ll also leak out more information about specifics of the cards, price, etc.  To start off the grand introduction of my soon to be released art cards, I give you the following image of Sparks Lake print, with the distant South Sister as seen from near the Cascade Lakes Highway.

Sparks Lake Greeting Card

I felt this was an appropriate card image to start with because it is such a recognizable location for many Central Oregon outdoor enthusiasts and because it was one of the first images that I captured that I was truly excited about.  I had been to Sparks Lake for many previous sunsets but none have been the equal of this Sparks Lake photo.  The scene was stunning that I got goose bumps.  To capture that much color, with a perfect reflection of South Sister from such a scenic Oregon location was a gift.  I always have a desire to do justice to a given location.  Many of you have probably been to a scenic location and took some photos and when you returned home you were disappointed with your results because the photos didn’t do justice to the beauty of a given scene.  Well, my goal is to never let this happen.  Don’t get me wrong, it happens, but if the scene is beautiful, I keep going back until I get it right and I eventually do justice to the scene.  this photo is very rewarding because I did justice to a famous and beautiful scene.  The setting could not have been better.  I was with My wife and our daughter, Emma, who was catching toads along Sparks Lake’s shore while I photographed the scene.  The clouds were amazing, and the water could not have been more still.  Knowing that this scenic location was a favorite of Oregon’s photographer laureate,  Ray Atkeson is also immensely rewarding.  Of all the time I’ve spent photographing Sparks Lake, that evening is still my favorite.  I hope you all enjoy the greeting card version of this shot and please contact me if you would like to make a purchase.  I’ll soon have a special Art Card/Greeting Card page on my website where it will be possible to register with PayPal and buy my cards directly from the web and I’ll send them directly to you.  If anyone has any suggestions regarding locations that you’d like to see as part of my next series of cards, please leave a comment at the end of this blog entry.  Until my next Greeting card entry, Take Care.

All the Best,

Mike Putnam