At Last - a Newsletter!

It's been a long time coming but finally I have produced another newsletter; the first since July and the 3rd for 2011. Apologies if you've been holding your breath waiting for it!

It outlines next years shows, the 2012 courses (new locations of Northumberland and Glen Coe as well as the old favourites of the Peaks, Lakes and Yorkshire Dales), new pictures, a few seasonal photo tips, news of past and future photo trips, and lots of other items.

Hope it was worth the wait. One of these days I will get organised and set a routine that lets me do one a month, as I originally thought I would, but for now just consider them as limited editions!

Here is the link again.

Christmas Contemporary Crafts and Design Fair at RHS Wisley

We are doing a 5 day Contemporary Crafts and Design Fair at RHS Wisley with Craft in Focus.

It started on Thursday 24th and runs until Monday 28th November. It's open 9am to 5pm for the next 3 days. Our stand is near the entrance to the show, stand 10. Jan is doing it on her own this time to save wear and tear on my bad back. It's been a good one so far. Pictures, books and posters are all selling well. It seems to be a busy show for all too, with 130 of the highest quality exhibitors for visitors to get round.

Our stand is a similar size to the one we had in Glasgow except that 2 sides are open. This usually works best for us these days. Lots of pictures, maybe 300-odd, on display. This includes several at 1m x 0.5m. So if you have a large space that needs filling with a picture this may be the place to find something, especially as prices for pictures start at just £5 for some of the 0.5 x 0.5m prints!

Jan looks forward to seeing you there!

New Images - Frankfurt

There are 4 new images of Frankfurt on the web, all taken at night. Lots more to come but no time to sort and scan them yet. Maybe soon.

Frankfurt skyline from underneath the Holbeinsteg footbridge over the River Main

The DZ Bank Tower at night reflected in the glass of the building on the other side of the street.

The others are on the web: www.davebutcher.co.uk

Crafts for Christmas 1st Day, NEC

We are doing the Crafts for Christmas show at Birmingham NEC for the first time. Second of 4 days tomorrow, Friday. Busy day today. Included sales of 2 framed copies of St Paul's from Millennium Bridge at Night (1m x 0.5m), one here at show and one at Buxton Gallery in the Gardens. Nice coincidence! Open 9.30am to 5.30pm, Hall 19, stand B09. Hope to see you here sometime.

Crafts For Christmas Glasgow

We returned home from the Glasgow Crafts for Christmas show and unloaded by midnight last night. It was a reasonable first show in Glasgow for us. I expect we will do it again next year, all being well.

Here is a picture of the stand to give you an idea of what our 4-day gallery looked like.

We have another similar show coming up. The stand will be the same size but will look a bit different at the English version of the show, which we set up this Wednesday.

It's still called Crafts for Christmas but is held at the Birmingham NEC from Thursday to Sunday. It's bigger and was more expensive for the stand but there should be more visitors to help us compensate.

Just arranged to meet up with good friends Peter and Sally on Saturday and it coincides with a fireworks display at Kenilworth castle. Jolly exciting!

Glasgow Photographs

I now have 14 rolls (140 shots) of Glasgow photos. Included are George Square, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow Green, Peoples Palace, Merchant City, Squinty Bridge, Clyde Arc bridge, Bells Bridge, Glasgow Tower, Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow University, Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow College of Art, Italian Square area and more. It will be a few weeks until they appear on the web but keep an eye out for them if you're interested.

Crafts for Christmas in Glasgow

We are half-way through the Crafts for Christmas show at the Glasgow SECC. A bit slow so far but okay!

I had no photos of Glasgow so have spent last 2 nights and part of yesterday and today during show-time taking photographs, about 9 rolls so far.

Lots of interest in our courses, especially Lakes and Northumberland.

Just finishing meal in one of the many Wetherspoons pubs in Glasgow. No camera tonight as back is aching so took night off. Will try another pint on medicinal grounds!

With luck we may be home by midnight Sunday then it's down to Birmingham NEC on Wednesday morning to set up for similar show down there.

Sevenoaks Art & Craft Fair

Last day of the Craft in Focus art & craft fair in Sevenoaks Sunday 23rd October. http://www.craftinfocus.com/sevenoaks_october_11.html

It's been a bit quieter than we hoped. Pretty much all shows this year have been hard work to make sales but most have worked in the end. Will keep fingers crossed this one works out too in the end.

Local bakery is closed tomorrow so no bacon roll for breakfast. Jolly disappointing!

Great Peak District Fair

It's the annual Great Peak District Fair in Buxton this weekend. We will have our usual stand in the Octagon in Pavilion Gardens, along with 16 other members of the local art organisation Peak District Artisans. If you come you will be able to browse through several hundred of my photos in sizes from 25 x 20 up to 100 x 50 cm. There will be posters too at prices starting from just £10. All 3 of my books will be on sale too, plus 2012 courses.

The show is open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th October. Over 100 exhibitors from the Peak District including photography, art, craft, farmers market and beer festival. Free entry. What more could you ask for!

If you are interested I also have a permanent exhibition in Pavilion Gardens in the Gallery in the Gardens, just a few yards from the Octagon in the same building. I am also a member of High Peak Artists who run this gallery as an artists co-operative of 39 artists and craft workers.

Rain Again

It's raining again in the Peak District, some of it heavy. Reservoirs will be rapidly filling up. Fortunately it started after we ran our last photo course of 2011.

Yesterday's post did finally appear on Facebook, about 19 hours after I posted here on Blogger instead of the usual 5 or 6 - so my changes slowed it down. So I still haven't stopped my posts automatically being picked up there. I removed the final links to Facebook from this main blog page, maybe that was where it was getting my id from, can't find it anywhere else on my Google account.

The reason is the Facebook policy on use of pictures posted there. I will continue to post new pictures here but don't want them on Facebook. I don't put pictures on Twitter anyway, the 140 character limit makes it a much more immediate thing so I will just drop links in to this when I have new pictures. Much quicker.

Jan is still doing the Craft in Focus show at Richmond on Thames. Hope the weather is better down there, it usually is!