LightIntoArt Newsletter 4

New Listings

No new listings in this LIA Newsletter 4. Sorry. I’ve been sick.

OK, Fair Entries

This photo, an abandonned cabin in Sanders County’s Little Bitterroot Valley, was my entry in the “Buildings” category. It won a white ribbon (3rd place).

This photo of the ridgeline in the southern Salish Mountains was one of two photos I entered in the “Scenery” category. Much to my surprise, it won a blue ribbon (first place).

This photo of the southern Mission Mountains east of Arlee, Montana was my second entry in the “Scenery” category. It won a blue ribbon as well.

From my Flathead Lake Book

In closing

This newsletter is a new venture of mine. Just trying to keep my readers informed about what I’m up to, what sales I’ve made, and what new listings I’ve added to my online shops. If you missed last week’s newsletter, you can find it here.

What’s Happening

Welcome to the LIA Newsletter 4. This has felt like a lost week. Kevin brought a head cold home last week, and while I resisted it for almost a full week, this week it hit me hard. As a result, I haven’t felt like sitting at my computer and thus have no new listings to show. No new listings affects the algorithms that help generate sales, so almost no sales either.

I barely made it to the Sanders County Fair, which I wrote about last week, but I did get in on the evening of the last day. I had entered five photos and wanted to see how they were displayed before the show was taken down.

Yes, I’m tooting my own horn, but with five entries, I took home four blue ribbons and one white. And before you ask, I did enter as a Professional Photographer, and in the age section, I noted “Senior.” I had plenty of competition, so I’m pleased to see that other people found merit in my work.

What’s coming up?

As I’m beginning to feel better, I’ve been working on my next book project. This coffee table book will measure 9×13 inches and will have fewer than 100 photos. It’s a test project.

When I self-published my Glory of the West, a collection of photos I had taken in all fifty-six of Montana’s counties, I had to put it together as four separate volumes, fourteen counties each. No printer I could find was willing to put together a book large enough to cover the whole state. I may have found one now, but before I take the time and put in the work, I want to see some results first.

Hence this test project. I drove around Flathead Lake, stopping at every mile marker on state highway 35, state highway 82, and US 93. As I count it, that’s eighty-three miles of photos, and that should make a good test. I’ve added a couple of photos here to whet your appetite, and if you’d like your own copy of the book, let me know soon. Amazon sells such books for $20 to $30. I don’t know that I can go that low, but I do know that the price comes down with volume. SO, let me know before I order the print run. Here’s one of the photos.

Recent Sales

A customer in Las Vegas, Nevada, bought this 11 oz coffee mug on Friday, August 29th, 2025. This item has been seen 126 times, and 3 people have ordered it.

A customer in Southern California bought this stretched canvas print of a 1976 Triumph Spitfire. Sixty-five people have viewed this item and two have purchased it. I have nine Spitfire 1500 items listed, and have made eighteen other sales.

More Wins at the Fair

I had to enter a car pic, right? Because I used Photoshop’s AI to isolate the car and put in a gradient background, I entered this photo in the “Computer Assisted” category where it won a blue ribbon (first place).

This iris from my garden was my entry in the “Floral Photography” category. It, too, took first prize or a blue ribbon.