ETSY STORE CLOSING

 

 

I've decided to close my Etsy store at the end of this year and just do this for fun.  Tax laws are getting more burdensome as I just received a notice from Etsy about some tax hoops I was going to have to jump through.  And rather than do all that, I decided to just shut it down. It's been a fun journey.  Hope you enjoyed it too. 

From now till the end of the year, you can get 30% off ALL your favorite AHP photos before the store closes. Just click the sign above or this link to go to my store before it closes.    

Blessings to you all! 

Kent

CYBER WEEK 2021 SALE

 

It's that time of year again. And if there has ever been a time when we've needed something to be cheerful about, it's now!  So I'm having my biggest CYBER WEEK SALE ever this year.  Pick out 2 or more of your favorite AHP photos and get 50% off your total order.  Yes, you read that correctly - 50% off!!!  This offer will not be repeated anytime soon so why not pick out a few of your favorites to print and give as gifts this year.  While you're at it, pick out your favorites for your own wall decor and include those as well.  You'll never have a better time than right now to shop! But hurry, this sale only lasts till Monday, November 29th. Go to my Etsy Store and start feeling the holiday cheer.  

If you haven't subscribed to my blog/newsletter update yet, now's the time!  Click SUBSCRIBE and you'll never miss another blog post or important sale announcement. You can opt out any time you choose.  If you've already subscribed, thank you!!  Why not pass this on to one of your friends you think would appreciate the photos at AHP?  

Enjoy!

 

4th of July Sale

 

Happy July 4th Weekend!  Let's celebrate with a sale at the AHP Etsy Store.   All your favorite AHP photos are on sale 20% off through July 5th.  If you have any questions, just let me know. 

If you haven't subscribed to my blog/newsletter update yet, now's the time!  Click SUBSCRIBE and you'll never miss another blog post or important sale announcement. You can opt out any time you choose.  If you've already subscribed, thank you!!  Why not pass this on to one of your friends you think would appreciate the photos at AHP?  

Enjoy!

Father's Day Sale

 

Now through Father's Day, you can get your favorite AHP photos for 15% off! What a great time to get that perfect gift for your dad. Imagine a cluster of his favorite birds or a canvas print of a Michigan Lighthouse.  The possibilities are endless.  Just visit my Etsy Store between now and Father's Day and get a great deal on your favorite photos.  

If you haven't subscribed to my blog/newsletter update yet, now's the time!  Click SUBSCRIBE and you'll never miss another blog post or important sale announcement. You can opt out any time you choose.  If you've already subscribed, thank you!!  Why not pass this on to one of your friends you think would appreciate the photos at AHP?  

Enjoy!

Male Cardinal Revisited

 

I just finished a training course on Wildlife Editing by a photographer I have followed for several years.  His name is Matt Klowskowski.  He was one of the original Photoshop guys with Scott Kelby years ago.  He has since moved on and runs his own photographic education business online. I have take several of his classes and he is an excellent teacher if you have any interest in learning more about photography.  (If you click on his name above, it will take you to his website.) 

After completing this Wildlife Editing course, I went back through some of my older bird photos to see which one(s) I might try out some of the things I learned.  I chose this photo of male Northern Cardinal that I took a little over 4 years ago. Here is the original photo.

 

You can see the original photo was under-exposed and there were a couple branches I thought were distracting.  So I corrected the exposure in Lightroom.  Then I took the photo over to Photoshop where I removed the distracting branches and added a bit of a focused vignette on the cardinal itself to draw your eye directly to the bird.  

This is an example of how digital technology can clearly rescue a photo that was not well shot in the camera in the first place.  My bad on that one. But, with programs like Lightroom and Photoshop, I can still end up with a nice photo.  You can see this photo and all my birds in this gallery on my website.  

If you haven't subscribed to my blog/newsletter update yet, now's the time!  Click SUBSCRIBE and you'll never miss another blog post or important sale announcement. You can opt out any time you choose.  If you've already subscribed, thank you!!  Why not pass this on to one of your friends you think would appreciate the photos at AHP?  

Enjoy!

 

New Photo Added: Multnomah Falls, Oregon

 

I am pleased to announce a latest photo added to my website and my Etsy Store.  This is Multnomah Falls which is just east of Portland, Oregon along I-84. There are multiple viewing areas including the bridge you see in the middle of this photo.  For any fans of the movie, The Shack, this is location where they filmed the scene of the father telling his kids the story of the Indian Princess.  It is a beautiful location where you can look away from the falls out over the Columbia River Gorge. If you love waterfalls, as we do, this has to be on your bucket list.  

If you haven't subscribed to my blog/newsletter update yet, now's the time!  Click SUBSCRIBE and you'll never miss another blog post or important sale announcement. You can opt out any time you choose.  If you've already subscribed, thank you!!  Why not pass this on to one of your friends you think would appreciate the photos at AHP?   

Thanks for all your support!

 

Valentine's Day Sale!

 

Well it's almost Valentine's Day. Why not get a copy of your favorite photos from Ada Highlander Photography for your special someone and save some green at the same time?  Now through Valentine's Day, you can save 20% on all your favorite photos. Just visit my Etsy Store and shop to your Valentine's Day heart content.  

If you haven't subscribed to my blog/newsletter update yet, now's the time!  Click SUBSCRIBE and you'll never miss another blog post or important sale announcement. You can opt out any time you choose.  If you've already subscribed, thank you!!  Why not pass this on to one of your friends you think would appreciate the photos at AHP?   

Thanks for all your support! 

 

Price Reduction for 2021!

 

I am announcing a price reduction for all digital prints for this coming year from Ada Highlander Photography.  With all the economic hardship many experienced last year, I wanted to give back in some way and I thought a significant price reduction in my Etsy store might be a good start.  

Effective immediately, all my galleries, except for Flowers, have been reduced from $25 to $20 per photo.  My Flowers gallery is now only $15 per photo. 

Thanks for all the support in 2020. It was a year not soon to be forgotten even though most of us will try pretty hard!  I pray 2021 will be a better, healthier year for us all. 

Enjoy! 

Christmas 2020 Sale!

 

This has been a hard year for so many. This holiday season will be like no other in most of our life times.  I hope you can all still find joy. To that end, I'm announcing a flat 30% off all my digital prints sale starting today through Christmas Eve in my Etsy store.  No minimum purchase required.  Get your own personal favorite and save 30%. While you're at it, pick up the set of birds or flowers you favorited and save 30% on the entire set!  It's a great deal. Hope it helps brighten your day.

Thanks for your support of AHP this year and may next year be much brighter, prosperous, and healthier for us all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Split Canvas Print

 

Hi everyone!  Hope your Thanksgiving was blessed and safe. I thought I'd share an idea with you on a creative use of your favorite AHP landscape photo.  We just finished having our living room repainted and decided we needed some new art for this particular wall.  I used one of my personal favorites, a shot from Sleeping Bear Dunes which you can find here on my website.  Then I went to canvas print site which did split prints, and had this 4-part canvas print done.  It's overall dimensions are approximately 64" wide by 32" high. It's a nice change from a simple rectangular print.  What do you think?  

Remember, my Cyber weekend sale is in full swing through Wednesday, December 2.  Buy 2 photos and get 15% off.  Buy 3 or more and get 30% off!  Plus, many canvas print sites, e.g. easycanvasprints.com, canvaschamp.com, etc., have sales on now too.  What a great time to update your own wall art.  

Enjoy!! 

Cyber Weekend Sale Extended - Both Ways!

 

 

Everyone seems to be starting their Cyber Weekend Sales early this year and running them longer. So, I thought - why not? Starting Tuesday, November 17 and running through Wednesday, December 2, I'm running a tiered sale.  The more you buy, the more you save! Buy 2 photos and get 15% off from my Etsy Store.  Buy 3 or more and save 30%!   

2020 has been a challenging year for us all so I'm hoping this helps make your holiday gift giving a little easier. This applies to all my galleries. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.  

 Merry Christmas and here's to a much happier and healthier new year!! 

 

Flowers with Textured Backgrounds

 

I'm getting ready for the holidays on my Etsy Store.  I've added textured backgrounds for all my macro flower photos.  Now you'll get both the black background and the textured background version of the photos for the same price.  These square format flowers make great cluster combinations. 

There are 12 different flower photos to choose from. Mix and match any way you like.  Be sure to share a photo of your collage on my Facebook page.

I'm also getting a great Black Friday sale ready.  Stay tuned for an announcement soon! 

Enjoy!
 

New Additions to Birds Gallery on Etsy

 

 

Just in time for the holidays, all my listings in my Birds Gallery in my Etsy store now include two new downloadable images along with the original image.  So here's what you now get with all my Birds photos: 

1. The original natural background as shot in the camera 
2. A 2nd version that has the background replaced with a beautiful textured background
3. A 3rd textured background image that has been cropped to a square format.  

Let's look at an example.  Here is the original Indigo Bunting photo: 

 

 

The textured background version looks like this: 

The textured square crop looks like this: 

You can download all 3 and use any or all of them.  The square crop can make a nice grouping of your favorite bird photos like this: 

 

Lots of value for your money.  Enjoy!! 

 

 

Get Notified When a New Photo Comes to AHP

 

I have been asked how you can be notified when a new photo is published to AHP.  Here's how you can do it using a method that has been around the Internet for a long time. It's called RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication. It's going to look a little techie but most of that can be ignored. 

You need an RSS aggregator.  I use a site/app called Feedly. You can use this from your favorite browser or download the app for IOS or Android and use it from your phone or tablet. 

The other thing you need is the RSS URL you paste into your aggregator of choice and this tells the aggregator to highlight for you when new photos get added to a gallery you're interested in. 

Let's take a specific example which will help make this more clear.  The first thing to do is go to the AHP homepage.  Then you would choose a topic from the menu on the left side of the page. Let's say you wanted to know when a new photo was added to the Butterflies gallery. You would click on Birds & Butterflies and then click on the Butterflies gallery thumbnail. In the footer for the gallery, you'll see a small icon that looks like a dot with 2 arcs pointing to the upper right. (See the orange icon at the top of this article. It would look similar to this but probably without the orange background.) 

You could click on this icon and select RSS, it will open a page that looks very scary with all kinds of XML code on it.  Not to worry. You only need to click in the URL window and copy the URL address. 

 

Once you copy the URL, you can go to your aggregator and click on the button to add a new news feed and paste in this URL.  Then you check to see if a new photo has been added by opening your aggregator and looking at this feed.  If a new photo was added, you'll see it there and be able to click on it and go directly to the AHP website to view.  

As I said, this is a little techie but I hope you'll give it try.  Leave me a comment if you have a question on how to do it.  

 

Crisp Point Adventure

 

 

 

We were in the U.P. again this month. The weather was great. The cabin where we stayed again was awesome.  Even Lake Superior was warm enough to just walk in and not have your feet hurt! Truly a nice break from all the day-to-day stuff going on around home.

 

The last day we were there, we decided we needed to make the trip out to the Crisp Point Lighthouse. We knew the last leg of the road was a dirt road sometimes describes as "2-track".  But we'd heard that they had improved the road over the last few years. For those wondering where Crisp Point Lighthouse is, it is west of Whitefish Point, almost due north of Tahquamenon Falls.  You go past Tahquamenon Falls on MI 123 though until you come to the gravel road that takes you out to the lake and Crisp Point Lighthouse.  It's only about 20 miles. The first 15 miles weren't too bad. You could go about 30mph for the most part. There were many large mud puddles as it rained the night before. The last 5 miles were the real adventure. We could only go about 5-10mph because of the ruts, large puddles, pot holes, etc.  The 20 mile trek took almost an hour to complete but was well worth the effort.  I was glad we were in my truck though! 

 

As you can see from the photo above, it was a beautifully clear day.  There was just a slight breeze.  The black flies were there too but not terrible. Here's a couple other shots I took.  I've seen this one from other photographers and sort of felt like I had to get my version. 

 

 

Here's one more from the shoreline to the east of the lighthouse. 

 

 

After doing some rock hunting and enjoying the scene, we finally decided we needed to make the trek back out to civilization.  So we climbed into the F-150 and headed back out. 55 minutes after we left Crisp Point, we made it back to the paved road and headed back to our cabin.  It was a great 12 days in the U.P.  We might go back in late September for some fall color.  If you're ever up that way, I would recommend making the trip to Crisp Point Lighthouse.  A truck makes it easier but there were people in cars making the trip too.  

Peace to you all!

4th of July Sale

It has been a while since I've written in this blog.  Time seems to get away from me.  With all the pandemic issues dominating our lives for the last few months, I think it's important to step back and remember how blessed we are to live in a country like the United States. We need to show some respect for the country and the leaders that have been elected regardless of which side of the aisle you lean towards.  If you're not happy with your elected leaders, you'll have another chance in a few short months to make your preferences known by voting in a free election.

In the meantime, I thought I'd help you celebrate a little by running a 4th of July sale at Ada Highlander Photography. Now through Monday, July 6th, you can take 20% off your favorite AHP photo on my Etsy store. 

Happy 4th of July everyone!

The Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast Trip

As many of you who follow AHP know, we took a trip to Oregon this past October with the primary agenda being to travel along  and see as much of the Oregon Coast as we could. This cover photo about was taken in the northern part of state near Ecola State Park. We had an amazing two week journey. The weather was amazing good for the first 3/4 of the trip.  And we were told that for Oregon in October, we were very blessed with the weather.  

Three New Additions Added to Oregon Gallery

I wanted to tell you all about three photos from our trip that I have added to my Oregon Gallery on my website and to my Etsy Store.  I just printed all three as 14x20 canvas prints and they look amazing!  

Photo #1: Crater Lake

I know Crater Lake is not on the coast but I had to share this one. When we were making plans for our trip, my wife came and asked me one day, "We're going to Crater Lake, aren't we?" I had to confess I didn't know a thing about Crater Lake. When I looked it up on the map and saw it was a little off our planned route to get to the coast, I said I didn't think we'd be going there.  She encouraged me to look up some pictures of it which I did and I immediately said, "Yup, we're going to Crater Lake!" We had a beautifully clear, cold day there.  It had snowed several inches a few days before.  In fact, we came into the National Park from the north entrance which would end up being closed for the winter just a couple weeks later. 

They describe the color of the water as cobalt blue. I can't think of a better name for it.  This view shows off the blue water and Wizard Island out in the lake.  Crater Lake is the deepest lake in North America. It could easily be one of the wonders of the world to me.  

Photo #2: Heceta Head Lighthouse

This view of the Heceta Head Lighthouse from a coast highway turnout is so picturesque. You can walk up the lighthouse from the parking area which is just off to the right (not shown) in this photo. Then, if you were ambitious, you could walk up a dirt path and get above the lighthouse looking out over the Pacific Ocean which we did. See below.

 

 

 Photo #3: Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach

No trip to the Oregon Coast would be complete without a stop at Cannon Beach where the iconic Haystack Rock sits along the shoreline. I took this photo just before sunset and it was really dumb luck I happened to catch this lovely couple in silhouette along with the giant rock.  

 

Website

As I mentioned above, the 3 photos have been added to my Oregon Gallery on my website.  All my photos are available to purchase as downloadable digital files that you can use to print on the medium of your choice.  My canvas prints turned out amazing! Metal would be another great medium for these photos. Simply go to the Oregon Gallery and from there, you can follow a link to my Etsy Store to purchase your copy of your favorite. 

Newsletter

Thanks for your support of Ada Highlander Photography. I would love it if you would share this with someone you think would love these photos as much as you do and tell them they can subscribe to receive these blog posts directly in their email by clicking the "Subscribe" menu at the top of this post.  You can always unsubscribe whenever you wish. 

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.  Feel free to leave a comment below or contact me through the "About Me" menu above.  

AHP Rises Again!

Ada Highlander Photography Lives On!

Deciding to shut down my website that I spent so much time on over the last couple years was not an easy decision but I knew I could not sustain it going forward.  It simply took more effort than I wanted to put into it this year and it turned out to not be an affordable solution for me.  At the risk of putting those who don't care much about the technical sides of things asleep, I decided to move 2 years ago from a photo hosting site called SmugMug to a pure web hosting solution and Wordpress.  I would guess that even though you may not know it, more than half of the websites you visit are developed on Wordpress.  There is nothing you cannot do in it either through a theme or with an add-on plugin or some embedded coding. I moved because I was a little frustrated with some of the limitations I was experiencing on SmugMug.  The first year on Wordpress was fun and exciting because it was new.  It was also very affordable because most of the web hosting companies lure you in with very cheap first year prices.  After that, the honeymoon is over and you're back to full price.  I will say this about Siteground, which is the hosting company I used, there technical support was outstanding and always incredibly responsive. But I also had to add a theme and several plugins to get the features I wanted on my site.  Some plugins were free but some were not.  In the end, the total hosting costs drove me to shut it down. 

On a whim...

I decided to go back to my old friend SmugMug and see what was new.  When I was a SmugMug customer a couple years ago, I had a business level account which was almost as expensive as the Wordpress environment I just shut down. But since I no longer sell prints either directly or through the SmugMug service, I could scale way back to a Power account which gives me unlimited hosting capabilities for my photos.  And I still have my Etsy store where you can buy digital downloadable prints. 

SmugMug Website Up & Running in Short Order

After looking at the updated features of SmugMug and the less expensive package option, I signed up again and literally in a few short hours, I had about 80% of the functionality of my Wordpress site recreated on SmugMug.  I was very pleased with how quickly this went and how nice it looks (to me anyway!). 

Streamlining

I am in the process of streamlining some of the photos I have on the new site based on viewing statistics from my Etsy store, Facebook, and Instagram. My backyard Birds are by far my most popular photos and I plan to continue to add to those.  So if you like a photo and it seems to disappear from my site, you can always contact me and I'll see about putting it back online. 

Blogging

The biggest drawback to SmugMug is it doesn't have a native blogging capability.  Wordpress excels at blogging features. So I've gone back to Google Blogger and integrated this blog as best I can with my SmugMug website.  I have never really gotten a lot of comments/feedback through blog posts so I don't think it will bother anyone much.  This way, for those who are signed up for AHP News, you should still receive updates from me as I write articles for this blog.  Please feel free to share this with your friends and family so they can get signed up too.  The biggest advantage to being a member of AHP News is this is where I will publicize new photos and announce sales for my Etsy store. You can always remove yourself from the list if you no longer find these posts useful. 

Happy New Year!

I know many of you have had a challenging 2019.  That is certainly true of my family. I am looking forward to a new year and a new decade trusting in Him who is my joy.  Happy New Year!