A Fresh Idea For Mother’s Day!

Send flowers.  Not so fresh you’re thinking?  Ah, but these flowers are crisp, romantic photographic images printed on luxurious, museum-quality watercolor paper using archival inks for a noticeable layer of texture and rich, long lasting color.  You can almost smell them.  Here’s a peek at a few flowers available in my shop that will last a lifetime.

Lilacs in a Ball jar.

White Dogwood in bloom.

Lilacs in the city.

White with the freshest green.

Simple beauty.  The daisy.

Green Man w/wisteria.

Pink Italian geraniums.

Fresh White with Hot Pink.

Mom’s not into flowers so much?  No problem, stop into my shop — I’ve got an unusual selection of Travel, Nature, Urban, Abstract and Nautical Photography to choose from.  Standard and custom sizes are always available.  www.ninedragons.etsy.com

Happy shopping & all the best,

Elizabeth England

Nine Dragons Photography

Lilacs. The Sense of Smell

For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that we use it so little. – Rachel Carson

Lilacs.  I would fill my home with them if I could -- all year round.  There are none to be found at the market, but my neighbor has one that has burst into full bloom, filling the street with it’s heady scent.  I make up excuses to step outside and wander over -- just to put my nose deep into the flowers and inhale.  Mmm...better than any drug and so much finer than diamonds they are to me this morning.  Their peppery sweet scent tells me that Spring has settled in for good and another Winter hibernation has ended.  I want to dance with the joy that bubbles up inside. 

Yesterday, late afternoon sun on the blooming flowers made quite a feast for the honey and bumble bees.  I watched as they lazily buzzed, warm and looking a little drunk - drinking deeply from the floral cups, moving from one to the next, positively humming with giddy contentment.

This morning, I feel just like yesterday’s drunken bees as I sip my tea and attempt to form cohesive thoughts; engulfed in a scent that fairly numbs my brain -- from a few stolen lilac sprigs sitting in a small Ball jar filled with fresh water on my bedside table.  A mourning dove has taken up a place in my brick-walled garden and croons to me through the window as I type.  This is one of those magical moments to breathe in and savor, because in this moment, I feel an expansive stillness and am fully aware of my connection to all living things.

Before the sun started to rise this morning, I tip-toed out the front door in full bed-head mode, still wearing my yellow and white check cotton pajamas, stopping long enough to wrap a scarf around my neck and slip into an old jean jacket that I keep by the front door before slinging my camera around my neck.  Have you got the visual?  Not a moment was to be wasted, so strongly was the near primal urge that drove me to be back among the lilacs.  

I’ve read that smell is the oldest sense.  A single scent can, in the blink of an eye, magically time-travel us to our fondest memories, our most embarrassing moments, our saddest times.   This morning, the city was still quiet and when I closed my eyes I could almost feel green grass under my bare feet.  In an instant, I was whisked all the way back to my grandmother’s garden on a beautiful, sunny, Kansas morning with the scent of lilac everywhere.  My twinkling grandmother has been gone for many years and sadly, so is the sturdy, Craftsman-style cottage my grandfather built with his own hands.  But I was there again this morning...dancing among the dewdrops with the fairies.

Some photographs were stolen this morning from my neighbor’s garden as well -- I’ll slip one through his mail slot later, as payment for my thievery.  I hope you enjoy them, please let me know if I can list one for you in my Etsy shop or just feel free to stop in and browse.  Spring is such a lovely time to freshen up interior spaces and Mother’s Day is just around the corner.  Photography makes a perfect, rather unexpected gift.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ninedragons

Now, close your eyes, conjure up the scent of lilac...where does it take you? Wishing you the very best this Spring,

E. England

The Heart of an Artist

The Heart of an Artist

Last week I experienced my first brutal art critic.  Certainly, in the few years since I’ve begun to call myself a photographer, I have been very lucky.   The urging of friends, following a summer trip to China, prompted me to cull, crop and agonize over a few dozen of the hundreds of photos I’d arrived home with.  Once I had a nice presentable portfolio assembled…I couldn’t imagine who might possibly want to buy them.

Thinking rejection might come more gently in the Midwest, I made my first sales attempt in Iowa during a visit to family.  I began with one of my favorite shops specializing in Asian antiques and one-of-a-kind metalwork furniture in the historic, funky, East Village of Des Moines.  Despite being kind of nervous and trying really hard not to show it, I sold five or six of my matted photographs that day which gave me the courage to continue going door-to-door with my portfolio whenever I happened to travel.  As a result, my photographs have been sold around the country in restaurants, shops, galleries and art shows. 

Late last summer I opened a shop on Etsy.  If you’re not familiar with Etsy, it’s an online international marketplace headquartered in Brooklyn, NY.  Sellers are from every corner of the world and their amazing, creative products are all handcrafted or vintage.  It’s fabulously fun and seriously addictive shopping.  You may find yourself wandering through the shops on Etsy for days if you’re not careful. 

In addition to buying and selling, another popular Etsy addiction is creating Treasuries.  Here’s how it works:  select sixteen items from sixteen different shops and arrange them artistically to create a piece of art -- a collage, or mosaic if you will, of the sixteen items.  A treasury may be random, or based on a theme, like the beach perhaps, or a color - pink is always popular - or an event, like Father’s Day.  Treasuries are very popular within the world of Etsy and creative-types may spend hours or days putting together the perfect Treasury.

This is how I learned I have the heart of an artist.  An Etsy member made a Treasury featuring one of my photographs alongside the work of fifteen other potentially tender-hearted photographers and titled it “Not Fine Art Photography”.  Through their comments, this person made it very clear that our work was not up to standard.  Several of my fellow photographers had already posted indignant, upset comments -- one declared their intent to “report” the treasury-maker for breaking the rules.

After my first moment of surprise, I experienced a little burst of fear and maybe just the tiniest hint of shame.  I had finally been found out – here was the confirmation of what I’d always feared: that I couldn’t possibly know what I’m doing.  Then, the moment passed and I chuckled as I discovered that I didn’t much care what my critic thought.  I love my photographs, which is probably the only reason I can offer them for sale.  I love the way they look and feel (I print them on very special paper) -- I love the rich, vibrant, textured color that I capture and painstakingly reproduce and I love the composition of the items in each photograph.

Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime.  Stephen King received thirty rejection letters before his book Carrie was accepted for publication.  Elvis Presley was fired by the manager of the Grand Ole Opry after just one performance.  Now I know why those artists persevered.  They were driven by a personal, unique vision to produce something wonderful and to share that creation with the world – appreciated or not. 

Ahhh, the heart of an artist.

Visit my shop on Etsy:  www.etsy.com/shop/ninedragons

Visit my treasuries:  http://www.etsy.com/people/ninedragons/treasury?sort=creation_date&order=desc