I like calendars. Photographic calendars are always, especially one filled with my personal photos, a great way to remind me of places I have been.
Each page with its accompanying photograph gives me the option to enjoy a picture for a whole month and then replace it with a new image when I get bored with the current month’s photograph.
Before moving to British Columbia and eventually Pritchard, I lived in a rented house with two bedrooms and a walled-off dining room. I would collect calendars and post cards - remember post cards? I would hang them up all over the dining room and I would continually be changing the pictures depending on my mood. Oh, and the spare bedroom’s walls were covered with maps of the Southern California desert.
My bedroom and the front room had pictures I had made thumb-tacked everywhere. When I moved from there I was fortunate to pass the rental on to some friends, because I am sure I would have had to repaint the place after plastering over the thousands of thumbtack holes on every wall.
I’ll mention that house was located in Culver city, a twenty minute walk from Culver City Movie Studios and only a block away from MGM studios (now changed to Sony Studios) So it wasn’t all that uncommon to see movie celebrities on the street and in nearby shops. So I thought of that house and neighbourhood as a picture mecca.
I still have many pictures hanging or tacked on the walls, and I always have more than one calendar.
For years my wife and I would make our own calendar. Each month we take turns hanging our own photograph with the days of the month under them.
Then came digital and the many companies that offer inexpensive printed calendars from our photographs and I am an avid customer.
This past summer my friend Jo, her husband Shaun, their children and Shaun’s parents joined me on my regular trip to the coastal town of Anacortes, Washington. After returning I wrote in my article, “Photos at The Anacortes Shipwreck Festival.” My goal for the trip was to create photos that Jo and I can put in a memory book for her husband’s parents. I also will have photographs for calendars that I can give everyone for Christmas. Well, it’s time and I have started to look through the many photos I took of their family.
Personal calendars are a neat way for photographers to showcase their art. Making a calendar isn’t hard anymore and not expensive. In the past I have used Vista Print and Costco and was happy with how well both produced my photographs on the calendars I ordered. However, there are other local places like, Office Depot, Walmart and Staples. And I just made a quick online look and there are pages of companies offering calendars.
As I am going through the selection process I am remembering how much fun I had photographing everything. I wrote that the mornings were clear and cool with seagulls calling from the sky. That there was the taste of salty sea air and my imagination had me running from picture to picture. Now I will share those memories with my friends.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
