I think the blog is coming back online — seems to be. I got a lot of messages saying this photo disappeared off of my website last night, so I’m re-posting it. Hackers went after Mannix Marketing yesterday, designers and hosts of bedlamfarm.com and the site was up and down a bit. Many people have asked if this photo is for sale, but I think I am getting out of the selling photos business. It costs a lot of money to print photos, few people want or can afford to buy them, and with Iphones and Androids and point-and-shoots, there just doesn’t seem to be a significant market for the purchase of photographs. I’ve never been all that comfortable selling them  – I’d rather see them zip around the world for free. I don’t watermark my photos, and people should feel free to print them, use them as screensavers, put them into their phones as backdrops. I think of them as cherubs and angels sailing out into the world.

The new contributions button has clarified all of this for me. If people wish to compensate me for the costs of the blog, the time I spent writing on and the photographs that appear, contributions are the best way to do it. People can see the blog for free, if they choose, can contribute whatever they are comfortable with. The contributions have ranged from $3 to $200 and they are all appreciated. And they have made a difference. I’ve already been able to take down the Google Ads which never really worked for this site. Using that money I am also adding “share” buttons to the bottom of each blog post, as well as a thank you for contributions. I am hoping to save some of that money for a new camera down the road – that will take awhile. I’ll set aside a part of each contribution.

The contributions are important.  Thank you for them. They ensure the growth and stability of the blog, keep it free, and permit me to devote time to it. A good idea and thanks to many of you who prodded me to do it. I am slow sometimes, but I get there. Anyway, I am happy to re-post the photos that disappeared yesterday and happier that the blog us up and running. I feel a part of me is missing when it is down.