Hello!

Here I am showing up in your Inbox again - yeah! It’s been about a month since the last newsletter, and I’m determined that I’ll get this out in a timely fashion.

I’m thinking once a month is good.

I sign up for a lot of newsletters myself, and I get annoyed when my email address is then used to FLOOD my inbox with several emails a day - several a day!

I won't do that to you.

I'll send you a monthly newsletter, an occasional website content update, and some coupons for my site now and then.

If you'd like, you can sign up for blog updates here.

I want to thank all those who responded to the first newsletter. I received some wonderful feedback. What an uplift. It’s so nice to know that people are cheering me on. I appreciate you!

I Hope Your Month has Been Great!

I've been working steadily on my business, and as I mentioned in my recent blog post, I cant believe how quickly the time is passing. It can be daunting, because of course I want instant success - doesn’t everybody?

I remind myself every morning: "Put in the time, do the work, success will come.” And that's what I do.

And I've had some fun too!

Print Winner!

I caught up with the print winner, Jules. She was in the middle of moving, so it took us a bit to connect. Jules was excited to have won the print Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and when I gave her the print, she gave me a bottle of wine!

I was so touched. How did she know? I love a little wine now and then (and even an occasional whine now and then!). She was super sweet, and it was nice to meet her and give her the print.

Hope your move went well, Jules!

Destin, Florida

If you read my blog, you already know that I went to Destin, Florida when a gracious and generous friend offered a place to stay for a week. If you want to read more about that, you can find my blog posts here.

I know it sounds like all play and fun and no work. But, no - it is work. A lot of work.

Some days I been un petit discouraged by the sheer volume of photo sorting, marketing, and website upkeep as well as the myriad other things I need to do to make this business work. (OMG - I have to collect taxes and file monthly with the State! Yikes - not my cup of tea, but I’m learning).

As my son says: “How do you eat an elephant, Mom? One bite at a time.” Yep. One step, one photo, one product on the website, one SEO session, one photo gig, one client, one blog post, one newsletter at a time…I will make this work.

Sunrise Symphony in Sand 

Hey! This is a photography newsletter - Let's talk photography! I wanted to say a few words about the above photo, "Sunrise Symphony in Sand."

This was my second trip to Destin, and I was once again taken with the sand. It’s so different from the sand on the beaches in Southern California where I grew up.

The sand on the Emerald Coast is like sugar.

It squeaks when you walk through it!

It’s soft and light and doesn’t blister the bottoms of my feet the way the sand in San Diego does. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a San Diego beach any day. But, there is something special about the beach in Destin.

On one of the many mornings that I was up early to photograph the sunrise, I kept hearing the epic opening of Carmina Burana - O Fortuna - playing in my head as the sun hit the sand. Thus, the name of the photo - "Sunrise Symphony in Sand."

The sun was reflecting colors off the sand, and I couldn’t get my camera on it fast enough.

I’m not crazy - really. I hear music in my head a lot - come on, you do too, right?

Okay - maybe not Carmina Burana, but my mom played that a lot when I was a kid, and I love it. It’s an appropriate soundtrack for a lot of things, and I guarantee you, if you do an internet search and listen, you will know the music.

If I remember correctly (really, don’t quote me here on this), the opera was based on some 12th-Century Latin poems written by monks, but the lyrics aren’t exactly uplifting if you read them - mostly irreverent and depressing!

And, dear Ignatius J. Reilly in "A Confederacy of Dunces" refers to O Fortuna many times throughout his side-splitting, hilarious tale of woe. If you’ve never read it, you’re in for a treat.

But, I Digress…

I got down close to the sand and did my best to capture the warm hues of orange and yellow and the steely cold blues that I saw everywhere. It was amazing. I was hoping for something recognizable and abstract at the same time.

What do you think?

One More Thing

Something cool happened.

The folks at Women in Photography got my contact information from my LinkedIn and apparently liked my IG gallery. I was asked to submit a picture for their Street Photography IG gallery. I went ahead and submitted something, and I just got notified that my photo was posted!

The hard work pays off.

I hope you have an awesome month!

All the best,

AND

See you between the raindrops!

Susan

If you’d like to look at more of my Florida pictures, you can find them here .