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My Home Town Favorites

Today’s post is about some of my home town favorites – special places in Melbourne, Australia that offer great opportunities for a photographer. Melbourne is a super place to live with lots of very good photography spots. It was hard to limit it to 5 places – but maybe I’ll write another post with another 5 one day. So, where are my home town favorites?

Melbourne is known for hosting great sporting events (among other things!) There is:

Melbourne Cricket Ground which hosts cricket test matches and AFL football
Etihad Stadium which hosts AFL football, and occasional soccer, rugby, rugby league games
Rod Laver Arena which hosts the Australian Open Tennis tournament every January, and
Albert Park Lake which the Australian Grand Prix races around

But none of those places have made this list of my home town favorites. So what has made the list?

Brighton Beach. Brighton is a well known suburb next to the beach in the city’s south east. It is well known for the colorful bathing boxes along the beach. They are great to photograph particularly at sunrise and sunset. They can also look great during a storm. As well as the bathing boxes, the beach provides great photo opportunities. I particularly like sunset in the summer time. Low tide can mean great silhouettes of people walking on the beach with the sun setting behind them.

Brighton Beach. Summer, sunset.

Yarra Bend Park. This large park area is just 4 kilometers from the city center. It is an extensive area which includes picnic areas, walking tracks, and a golf course. There is a road through the park area, and car parking available. At one spot, there are great views back to the city. On most evenings in the summer you will find people have stopped to see sunsets like this.

Melbourne cityscape taken from Yarra Bend Park

Yarra Bend Park. Yes, Yarra Bend Park again! It is a big park area. On one side are views of the city, and in another area is the Yarra River. Here you can see these spectacular flying foxes. There is a very large colony of them. This place featured in a previous post called Favorite Wildlife Photography Locations.

There is a large colony of grey headed flying foxes in Yarra Bend Park

City walks along the Yarra River. The Southbank area next to the Yarra River is a great place to shop, walk, and eat. There are a large range of good restaurants, coffee shops and places to relax near the river. For the photographer, there are also great views of the city buildings. Take a walk anywhere from South Wharf right through to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Both sides of the river provide great views, with several bridges to go across when you are ready.

Melbourne city from Southbank

Wedding Venues. Melbourne is blessed with some lovely wedding venues. Some of my favorites are in the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges which highlight beautiful bushland just outside the main city areas. But my (current) favorite wedding venue is an inner city venue – St Michaels Church on Collins St. I shot a wedding there in October 2013 and it offers so many options in close proximity. The church itself is a magnificent building. Within a short walking distance are inner city laneways, classic tramways, parliament building, funky coffee shops and restaurants, the Yarra River, Federation Square, and Flinders Street Station. This shot is taken just behind the church. Melbourne’s famous weather added the light rain which helped reflect the brides dress. Nice one!

Melbourne has some great inner city wedding photo locations

These are my home town favorites. Do you have home town favorites to share?

Part Time Paradigm

There are a growing number of photographers choosing to operate on a part time basis

There was a time when the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur was that a professional got paid and an amateur did not. Times have changed and the lines between the two have blurred. Professional now refers to a quality of work, not whether you get paid. There are many people who generate professional quality photography work, but have a main income from another source. When I was growing up, if you wanted to be considered a professional photographer, then photography had to be your main vocation. Again, times have changed. Today there are many photographers whose main source of income is from non-photography work but their work is of professional standard – I call this the Part Time Paradigm.

I have recently read David Du Chemin’s book – VisionMongers – which addresses the issue of ‘making a life and a living in photography’. It is an excellent book. In the early chapters it considers the issues around whether or not to make photography your primary vocation. He explains that it is not easy to make a living in photography, and gives some great examples of people who are succeeding. This week, I’ve also read a post on The Digital Photography School which considers the benefits of part time photography. Both of these have lead me to today’s post on Beyond Here.

Is the Part Time Paradigm real?

Often people consider how well a photography business is doing by whether the photographer is conducting their photography business full time, or how much work the photographer has, or how many staff the photographer has. I come across this thinking nearly every week, and only in the last year have I realized the power and the benefits of part time business. The Part Time Paradigm is real, and lots of photographers are living it. Maybe you should consider it too.

What does it look like?

The benefits of the part time paradigm are more than financial

Firstly, the photographer has another source of income, normally from a job. This provides them with a steady income and lets them operate their photography business outside of their job commitments. Secondly, there is a range of photography work they can be doing – stock, wedding, family portrait, landscape … the list goes on. Thirdly, whether they are ‘professional’ or not now has a mixed meaning. It could refer to how they conduct their business, or the quality of work they are producing. Importantly, it doesn’t refer to whether they get paid or not, or whether that is the only way they spend their working week.

Why operate like this?

The main reason for operating in the part time paradigm is often overlooked. It is possible to be passionate about photography and have an interest in something else. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Think about it for a moment, a doctor might love photography, and it doesn’t mean they hate being a doctor. Equally a bus driver can love driving buses and love photography. When I boil it down, professions used to define us. This made it hard to change. Today, your profession doesn’t have to define you. You can change. You can be a doctor today and a photographer tomorrow. Or you can be both at the same time.

Interestingly there is still a line of thinking that you can’t be taken seriously unless you are operating as a full time photographer. To me, this is a notion of the past and thousands of photographers are living the part time paradigm. Perhaps a lot more should?

What are the benefits of the part time paradigm?

The benefits of the part time paradigm include:

financial stability by having multiple sources of income.
you can invest in equipment not promotional material. For full time photographers, it is very hard to justify investing in equipment compared with investing in promotional material to generate more business. In the part time paradigm you don’t have this conflict, you can buy the gear you want.
effort can vary. A full time photographer needs work year round and generally won’t go for very long without camera in hand. The part time photographer can vary their work with the season or with their mood. They can dip in and out. Work lots this month, take next month off.
you can stay true to your creative vision. Under the part time paradigm you do not have to shoot family portraits on the weekend to keep money coming in. If landscapes at sunrise are your one true love, that’s all you have to shoot in the part time paradigm
being able to live a life of variety. It is possible and legitimate to love photography and love something else. It is possible to do both. Shoot weddings all summer, focus on your other interests all winter.

Do you believe you have to operate full time to be a successful photographer? What’s your take on the Part Time Paradigm?

Selling Prints Online

This post looks at the topic of selling prints online as a way to generate an income from your images. This comes on top of recent articles which looked at building financial success through photography. Those posts are here:

There are a range of e-business opportunities available to photographers today. I have contributed to microstock agencies since 2008 as a key way to generate income from my images. That has been productive and financially successful for me. Since mid 2013, I have also been selling prints online through Fine Art America. This post covers my experience and lessons learned. (Follow this link to see my portfolio on Fine Art America)

Selling prints online is a straightforward process. It suits photographers who prefer for someone else to find the end customer, while they get on with shooting

How does it work?

Fine Art America’s website is very easy to use. After setting up your account, you upload your images, add titles, add descriptions, and add key words. These are so that your image (or artwork) can be found by users of the site. One key element that is different from microstock is that you get to set your own prices – which effectively means you set your own margins. Nice. This is also a straightforward process and is done quickly and easily. Set your prices high to make higher margins but likely low sales volumes. And set your prices lower to make lower margins but likely higher sales volumes.

What do users do?

Rather than downloading an image for use, users of Fine Art America order a product made with your image. While I have titled this post Selling Prints Online, users can order a range of different products with your images on them – not just prints (smart phone covers are one clever use and is a large, emerging market). In short, rather than receiving your image electronically, the end user receives a physical product with your image on it.

Why does this work?

Selling prints online works well for photographers who want someone else to find customers for them. In this case Fine Art America generates traffic to the site, to buy prints of your images. This is ideal for photographers who are busy shooting or working another job. All the photographer has to do is upload the image, add details, and leave the sales process to Fine Art America.

What has my experience been?

I have 200 of my wildlife images available on Fine Art America. That’s not many, and is dwarfed by the 6000+ I have available through iStockphoto.

Sample of one of my wildlife images available on Fine Art America

While I have outlined above that the upload process is straightforward, my sales have not been very successful. It may be both the type of content I have uploaded, and also the relatively small number of images. Overall, the sales generated through selling prints online has generated very small income. Again, it is dwarfed by my microstock sales, and hence I continue to focus on microstock while online adding images to Fine Art America from time to time (generally on really cold, rainy winter days!!)

Lessons Learned

While selling prints online has not been very successful for me – I note other photographers and artists selling artwork regularly. My observations are that they either have:

very unique imagery, or
are a well known name, or both

For example, Anne Geddes sells her images on Fine Art America. She is very well known for her unique images of new born babies. If you would like to check out her work, go to Fine Art America and put her name in the search field.

Final thoughts

Selling prints online has not been very financially successful for me so far. I’d suggest using an outlet like this to generate an income from your images if you have very unique content or a very “arty” bias in your work.

Do you sell prints online? What has your experience been?

Succeed in Photography Business

Financial success means different things to different people

People get into photography driven by a love of making images, not a love of dealing with business issues. It is passion and creativity that drives us, not a desire to spend hours doing book keeping or other business tasks. I see plenty of photographers who produce brilliant work but struggle to make a living. That leads me to consider – can non business minded people succeed in photography business?

This is a big question – so where do we start? We need to start by understanding what success means to you. What is your definition of success? There are as many answers to that question as there are photographers, but the only answer that matters is your own. What is your definition of success?

Is success:

to be able to call yourself a professional photographer regardless of whether you make any money?
to make enough money to fund your gear purchases?
to make a significant supplementary income to add to another primary income source?
to make an income equivalent to the national average income?
to make three times the national average income or more?

Lets look at each of these.

Success Level 1 – Calling Yourself a Pro. If success is to be able to call yourself a professional photographer, regardless of the income generated, then yes – this can be achieved without much business knowledge. If you want to reach this level of success, focus on acquiring pro standard equipment and get a nice website. You may not have too many clients knocking down your door, but you will have some nice gear to use, time to shoot personal projects, and a nice website to display your images. You can also look into membership of your national photography body.

Business skills can be learned as your photo business grows

Success Level 2 – Fund Your Gear Purchases. If success to you is to be able to generate enough income from your images to fund your gear purchases – this too can be done with limited or no business skills. If you would like to do this, I would recommend looking into micro stock photography sites and selling prints online. In both of these models you simply upload your images to the site and they do the work to attract buyers and complete the sales transaction. Keep in mind that any sales generated are likely to be slow to start with and build over time. You will need to be patient. If your goal is to generated a few thousand dollars each year then this is a legitimate way to do it – and thousands of photographers are doing this. If you are interested in using micro stock photography to get here, you may be interested in this post.

Success Level 3 – Making a Significant Supplementary Income. By a significant supplementary income I mean greater than $10,000 per year. I expect you would need another source of income in addition to this. Perhaps you work full or part time and run your photography business outside this. If you hope to reach this level of success it will help if you start to learn some business skills. At this level you may be using micro stock photography to provide some of that income and you may be taking on some commissioned work. It could be weddings or family portraits or other client work. At this level it helps to have an understanding of business structures, so you can consider what structure suits you best, particularly if it is going to continue to grow. You would also benefit from some understanding of invoicing, book keeping, marketing, and tax.

Success Level 4 – Making the National Average Income. At this success level, if you are running your own photography business, you will need to have some business skills. In addition to the skills mentioned above you’ll need to have a good understanding of marketing your business, and that will probably include a good understanding of social media and online marketing. This will ensure you generate a pipeline of future clients which sustains your business into the future.

It is possible to achieve high income through photography but it will require business skills as well as photographic skills

Success Level 5 – Making 3x the National Average Income or More. If success to you means generating an income three times the national average or more then you will need business skills. In addition to the skills above you may need to also understanding issues related to contacting and sub contracting, employing staff, contract law, pricing, and you will definitely need a strong marketing plan. You possibly will need to invest time and effort into generating partnerships – perhaps with wedding venues, or advertising agencies. At this level it is likely your photography skills will need to be very strong as well. That’s my take on what is required to meet these levels of success. I see many photographers producing great images but not succeeding financially. If you are one of these, my recommendation is to invest in building business skills, not photography skills. It is also possible that investments in the business need to be into generating new clients, rather than further investments in equipment. That might be advertising or a new website or promotional materials.

In summary, you can achieve success levels 1 and 2 with limited or no business skills. If you want to ‘get serious’ and move to levels 3, 4 and 5 you will need business skills. If you are starting out it is absolutely legitimate to work your way up through the levels. If you believe you are not business minded – don’t worry, business skills can be learned along the way. If you are determined to succeed, the skills can be learned. Equally, if you have strong business skills you can get started at level 4 and 5. There is no tried and true formula here – you can make it your way based on your own skills and knowledge.

These are my thoughts about whether non business minded people succeed in photography business. Here comes the disclaimer – I’m not a business adviser, or financial adviser, or any type of adviser. I’m a photographer. Please keep this in mind and seek your own expert advice. Can non business minded people succeed in photography business? What do you think? What is working for you?

The Benefits of the Off Season

Right now, in Melbourne, Australia, it is the middle of winter. After a reasonably mild June we have had a cold, grey, windy July. It is a quiet time for weddings, with most weddings being held in the warmer months between September and March. I don’t shoot many weddings at this time of year, so this post covers the benefits of the off season.

I am really glad that my wedding business is seasonal and that there is a quiet time of the year. I wonder what it must be like to be a wedding photographer in Hawaii where there are lots of weddings all year round. Would you ever get a break? How would you re-charge the batteries? How would you stay fresh?

The wedding off season is a chance for photographers to recharge

I see lots of good things about having a slower time of year. Here are the key ones – the benefits of the off season.

Rest and recharge the batteries. During spring and summer it can feel like a never ending run of weddings to photograph, images to edit, deadlines to meet, and albums to deliver. It is an exciting time as you watch the brides eyes light up at her new album, and the mother of the bride burst into tears as she sees the large print of her daughter in her wedding dress for the first time. It is also a really busy and challenging time. The more successful you are, the busier you can be. The first benefit of the off season is the chance to rest up and plan for the season of weddings ahead. Life in the fast lane can be great, but life in the slow lane can be a welcome change.

Evaluate your work. Being less busy gives critical time to evaluate your work. How has it improved over this wedding season? Where does it still need to improve? What new edge can I bring for next year? The slower pace in winter gives crucial time to reflect and plan, and prepare for next seasons weddings.

Revise marketing materials. The winter wedding slowdown gives a great opportunity to assess marketing materials and to ask key questions. Does my marketing material reflect what I can bring to a bride and groom? Do they communicate how I am different to other photographers? Do they attract my target client? The off season is a great time to re-assess marketing materials and the marketing plan.

The off season is a great time to shoot personal projects

Shoot personal projects. In the middle of summer, back to back wedding work makes it very difficult to tackle any other photography work or projects. One of the great benefits of the off season is to shoot personal projects. I love wildlife photography and find the time in the great outdoors to be refreshing and invigorating. This time of year gives me the chance to shoot wildlife projects.

Try new things. The off season is the time I try new things. When I am in the middle of wedding season and I have brides and grooms relying on me, I stick to equipment and techniques I know and have practiced many times. A wedding is the time to deliver a great client experience, not to experiment. Winter gives me the chance to try new styles, new equipment, and new post processing techniques. It’s the time to learn, and learning helps keep us fresh. Photography is a lifelong process of continual improvement and winter is a great time to improve.

Evaluate the business. In Australia, the end of the tax year is in the middle of winter. This is a great opportunity to connect the creative side of a photography business with the business side. How well is the business doing? Where could it do better? What can I learn from other photographers businesses? What can I learn from other creative businesses? The slowdown in client work is a great opportunity to assess whether I am meeting business goals, not just creative goals.

Rest, relax and read in the off season

Read. I love to read and winter is the time that I read the most. Recently I have re-read two books about the business of photography which I highly recommend. They are VisionMongers by David Du Chemin, and The Fast Track Photographer Business Plan by Dane Sanders. Whether you already run a photography business or are considering it, these books are both well worth reading. Another of the benefits of the off season, is the chance to reflect and read, and to learn from others. It helps bring perspective and to open your mind to new approaches.

I love winter and the off season. It is also the time in Melbourne to get to the AFL football! So there you are – seven of the benefits of the off season. What do you like to do when client work is slow? Do you enjoy off season or would you prefer to be busy year round?

Five Lessons from Film Photography Days

I have come across several photographers and clients recently who can barely remember film and film cameras. I feel fortunate to have lived through both the film photography and the digital photography eras.Soon there will be a generation who only grew up with digital. Technology changes have brought changes to photography, and made me think about my top five lessons from film photography days.

We are getting to a time when many young photographers have never used a film camera

In the days of film, photography was different. I bought my first SLR camera in 1997. At that time, you planned how much film you could afford and could carry. The rolls came mainly as 36 exposure or 24 exposure. You were careful with how you used each exposure as you had a limited number and each one cost you money, both to buy the film and to have it processed. When you got your film processed it could be days, weeks, or months after you made the image. Wow, times have changed! Today, memory cards are cheap and have almost unlimited capacity. Images can be viewed on the back of the camera immediately. Often, images don’t ever get printed, they exist only in digital form. So, looking back on what I’ve learned, what are my top five lessons from film photography days?

(1) Consider Composition

In the film photography days, you had to carefully consider each image before you took it. With a limited amount of film, you had to make sure it lasted. With today’s cheap memory cards there is almost no limit on the quantity of images you can make. Sometimes this leads to an approach of shooting everything – summed up in that great description to “spray and pray”. Unfortunately this can lead to a large number of poor quality images. Lesson 1 – take the time to consider composition. It will improve your photography, and save you time reviewing and processing lots of poor quality images.

(2) Learn Faster

You had to wait for processing in the film era. This made it difficult to learn, as sometimes I could hardly remember actually taking the shot! Being able to review images instantly in the digital age gives us a great opportunity to learn faster. To make the most of this opporunity to learn faster, take the time after each shoot to review the images you have made and consider how you could improve them next time. Do this on your computer away from the shoot.

(3) Avoid Constantly “Chimping”

Chimping is that annoying habit of constantly reviewing your images on the back of your camera. In the film photography days, this option didn’t exist. Ironically, this helped the photographer engage with the subject and remain focused on creating great images. In effect, it kept you in the “creating zone” and didn’t allow you to drift into “reviewing mode”. If you are a photographer who checks the LCD screen after every image – think about not looking at it for a while, and staying engaged with the subject you are shooting.

(4) Get it Right In-Camera

Film and film canisters used to be in every photographers bag. Now very few carry film.

Digital technology and the post production tools we have now give us great flexibility to adjust images after they have been made. Unfortunately this also leads some people to believe that the quality of the image coming directly out of the camera is less important now as they “can fix it in photoshop”. I hope you cringed as you read that. A bad image will still be a bad image after post production. A really good image straight from the camera, can remain a good image, or be enhanced further in post production. Don’t get lazy and expect your camera and post production tools to do everything for you. Learn your craft. Get it right in-camera and use post production tools to enhance, not fix, your images.

(5) Print Your Best Work

In film photography days, there were only prints or slides. Now it is very common for images to exist only in digital form. They can be shot on a digital camera, digitally enhanced in post production, and be used only on websites. If you have ever seen good quality images in print you will know how powerful prints can be. Think of family portraits in a home, wedding images hanging on walls for generations, and landscape images in corporate boardrooms. Take the time to print your best work. It will have an impact.

These are my top five lessons from film photography days. I don’t miss those days, but I feel lucky to have used film and digital technology. Did you live through the film photography era? What lessons did it teach you? Do you miss any aspects of that era?

Capture the Icons

This week I have been in Tasmania, Australia (without the camera). Being there made me think about how important it is to me to photograph the icons in each place I spend a significant amount of time. In addition to my wedding photography, I’m a keen wildlife photographer, so that means I try to capture the icons of the local wildlife.

Close up of a Tasmanian Devil

If you are not familiar with Tasmania, it is an island state of Australia located south of the mainland. It is important to me to clarify that, because I recently posted a picture of a Tasmanian Devil on Google+ and indicated the picture was taken in Australia.

The Tasmanian Devil is a carnivore

I got one comment which said it couldn’t possibly have been taken in Australia, as they are only found in Tasmania. While I found this mildly amusing, he refused to believe that the image had been taken in Australia, or that Tasmania was part of Australia! I should have suggested he come and visit some time.

Tasmania is known for a number of things including – spectacular scenery, friendly people, fresh air, great sunrises and sunsets, fantastic farming conditions and primary produce, excellent fishing, windy weather, and for the animal which bears its name – the Tasmanian Devil.

Tasmanian Devils are not easy to photograph as they are hard to find and don’t often keep still. I have been slowly building my range of Tasmanian Devil images over the last 5 years. Some quick facts about Tasmanian Devils. They are:

characterized by a stocky, muscular build
the size of a small dog
known for the power of their jaws relative to their total size
known for their ferocity when feeding
exist in the wild only in Tasmania (that’s Tasmania, Australia!!)
since 2008 have been listed as endangered, mainly due to the impact of facial tumor disease on the population

Tasmanian Devils are known for the power of their jaws

One fact I didn’t know until today, is that very few Tasmanian Devils exist outside Australia because the population which has been exported have not been successful in breeding. Interesting. Perhaps that’s why pictures of them seem to get an extraordinary number of comments on social media? Or maybe people feel a connection to them through the Looney Tunes character “Taz”?

Visiting Tasmania is always enjoyable, even if it is a little cold at this time of year. It was also a timely reminder to me to take time to capture the icons photographically.

Do you have a favorite icon to photograph? Buildings, architecture, people, wildlife? Have you had the chance to photograph a Tassie Devil??

This Is Why

Why do I shoot family portraits? It’s not for the money, or to win awards, or for fun. It’s because it matters. It’s important. This is why I shoot family portraits.

Below is the story of my most important portraits ever. I will take technically better images, but I will never take a more important series.

I had the good fortune to take portraits of this lady over a period of 18 months. They were impromptu sessions, and I took just a few images each time. They were not in ideal lighting conditions or with any particular preparation. There was no hair and make up done in advance. I had the camera, and she was ok with having her picture taken – briefly.

At the time of this image she was in her mid 70’s and undergoing treatment for cancer. That included several rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Cancer patient. My most important portrait series ever.

She lost her hair early in the chemotherapy treatment. The hair you see is a wig. After she lost her natural hair I didn’t ever see her without a wig or a hat to cover her head.

Sadly she has passed away, after an extended battle with cancer.

This image was used on the card sent to friends and family inviting them to come together to celebrate her life. Another of my images was used on the cover of the order of service. Another, with her husband of 48 years, was on the back cover. The same image was used on thank you cards sent to friends after the funeral.

The family have great memories of this lady – and a small series of portraits to pass down the generations. It matters. It’s important. This is why I shoot family portraits.

The lady in the picture passed away on 6 June 2014, two days short of her seventy sixth birthday.

She is my mum.

It matters. It’s important. This is why.

My Take On Microstock Photography

The microstock photography industry is going through a period of change. This post is my take on microstock – and whether it is still possible to make a financial return through microstock.

I have been actively contributing to microstock photography sites since 2008. This was firstly through sites including Shutterstock and Dreamstime, and since 2010 as an exclusive contributor to istock (owned by Getty Images)

In 2008 the istock discussion forums were very active. Contributors were reporting strong growth in download numbers. It seemed that every day there were people posting they had “ditched the day job and were now full time istockers!”

Those times have changed. Today the istock forums are not as active, and there is almost no-one reporting increases in download numbers.

Challenging times for microstock contributors

So what’s changed?

istock and other microstock sites have increased prices. It is no longer “cheap” to buy good quality stock images.
there are more competitors. The number of stock photography sites has increased and continues to increase.
there are a lot more contributors
there are even more images

My average royalties per download have increased fourfold over the last 3 years. On the surface, that sounds great. But the trade-off has been a reduction in the number of downloads. Overall my total monthly royalties have remained steady, despite an increase in portfolio size.

The total market has seen a very significant increase in the supply of stock images, without the same growth in demand.

What does the future hold?

If you are a customer looking for stock images, the growing supply of images is going to give you a huge range of images to choose from. Given the very competitive nature of the market, you should be able to get these at fair prices.

For contributors, I see it being very difficult to make a full time income from microstock photography in the future. That said, microstock continues to generate a significant supplementary income for me and many others. I expect to be able to continue to build my portfolio and maintain the current level of income. It is a very worthwhile part of my photography income and I encourage others to commit to microstock.

Are you a contributor to microstock? What is your experience? What are your expectations?

Welcome to Beyond Here

Welcome to _MG_6868s Beyond Here – you are reading the very first blog post.

My name is Craig Dingle. I have set up this blog to be a resource for people who want to improve their photography, or who want to start a photography business. You can read more details about me or the background to Beyond Here.

I hope you enjoy Beyond Here! Thanks for dropping by.

I welcome your comments, and suggestions for blog posts. Please email me at [email protected]