I came out west from the upper peninsula of Michigan in 2008. I was fortunate that my job had me travel throughout the western part of the country. Many times, I would be gone from my home for months. Work and camping, exploring the mountains of the west. 

I bought my first good camera back in 1982, but like most of us, the cost of taking photos was always competing with family wants and needs. So I always had to think about what I was shooting. When I went digital in 2007, I finally had the freedom to take all the photos I wanted. 

I remember going out to my favorite lookout at sunset and putting theory to practice. I shot 720 photos over two hours. I found only five were good. The next time I took about 200 to find those five. Then it took about 50 to get the result I was looking for. How to shoot a sunset over the water in Upper Michigan on Lake Superior. There have been thousands of lessons over the years to add to my skillset. I still find that it takes about 1000 photos to find something I want to share.

There have been many times that I pulled the truck over and got out and started taking pictures. When I’ve had passengers, that has caused a bit of alarm. Sometimes the braking was a bit much! Especially when I got home, looked at the photos and couldn’t figure out what it was that made me stop in such a manner.

In 2012, I made my home in western Colorado in Grand Junction. A high desert valley along the Colorado River, held in by the Grand Mesa, The Colorado National Monument and the Book cliff formation.

It is always easier to take great pictures of great places. With today’s cameras, it is pretty hard to screw up a photo of the Grand Tetons or Yellowstone falls. What is it that makes us stop and have to capture a specific scene? I think about that every time I pick up my camera.

As technology has improved, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a digital camera. Every year there was always better equipment and better software. Technology lets us get beyond some of our limitations and fix some of our shortcomings but it still comes down to what is the scene I want to share and is it interesting enough to do so.

I couldn’t wait to scan all my old photos and get rid of photo books. Everything on a computer or the cloud reduced a great deal of clutter. As I’ve gotten older and the more photos I had taken, the less I could see.

If you ask a millennial the last time, they sent a card or photo, you may just get a laugh. My day work involves working mostly with the Baby boomer generation. A group of people, many of whom send cards and letters as they always have. Have you looked at how much the big websites or stores charge for cards? I wanted to create a place for unique photos and share them for a reasonable price.

Email is great, and texting is immediate, but there is still something to taking the time to express yourself with someone that you care about. Sending a nice card or gift is a great way to do that. I thought about my photos and the photos of other friends that are more than worth sharing, so we started this website to make it easy to share.

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