Mid-November Update: as Thanksgiving and the Holidays beyond loom, it seemed an appropriate time to update this post.

In September I began a partnership with Frank Saladis, a renowned project management trainer who lectures and presents classes around the world, has authored/co-authored several books, and happens to be one of my wife's brothers-in-law. This partnership has the promise of being long and rewarding with many different projects potentially possible. Most immediately, we collaborated on a 10" x 8" book that pairs project management aphorisms with appropriate photographs I have taken. Called Project Leadership With a View, for me this book was a nice synthesis between my experience as an IT project manager working on international implementations and my skills and proclivities as a landscape and travel photographer. I also performed the design and pre-press lay-out of the book. This book is available at the Clayhaus Blurb store. As well, Frank will be marketing this book directly to the vast pool of project management experts and colleagues that he works with on a daily basis.

An ancillary and timely project we have further collaborated on is a companion calendar to the above book. Also called Project Leadership With a View - 2010 Calendar, this 11" x 17" calendar is an ideal and relatively inexpensive Holiday Season gift that can be ordered directly from Lulu.com.

Calendars are a usual design and production staple of Clayhaus.net's Holiday Season. In the past, I have produced the various calendars I create using my own printers. Last year -- due to demand -- I found myself spending vast amounts of time dealing with printing and printer issues: Epson printers are great for creating photographs and small card runs, but are not designed for heavy production! As a consequence, this year I began looking for online production sources. I also wanted the ability for people to order directly from a web storefront. I began looking at two different publishers and consequently have created shops on both sites, with different products being featured. Ideally, of course, it might be wise to just settle on one vendor but for now I want to test the capabilities of both. So, currently, you will find 12 Months of Slovenia on OneTank of Petrol calendar on my CafePress Shop while on the Clayhaus.net storefront on Lulu.com you will find the aforementioned Project Leadership With a View Calendar, a super-large (13" x 19") wall calendar featuring color landscape photographs of southern Utah deserts (including Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef national Parks), and a smaller (11" x 17") version of this calendar printed on less-expensive paper.

Other projects in progress that will also be featured in one of the online publishing sites include a possible infrared (converted to B&W) photography of Utah's West Desert calendar which would work as a companion piece to my previously published book, In a Different Light, and a notebook that would function as a working adjunct to the Project Leadership With a View book.

Keeping busy, staying creative!

Beginning in January I had five-week solo exhibit at the Foothill-Anderson branch of the SLC library system. This exhibit -- called In a Different Light -- featured 34 framed infrared images of Utah's West Desert converted to black & white. This show was kicked off my a very nice and extremely well-attended artist's reception. I was also fortunate enough to have much of my family in town for the Sundance Film Festival. As a companion piece to my In a Different Light series of framed photos, in February I self-published a large-format, coffee-table book.

In March, Saan's Downtown Gallery invited me and 19 other photographer's to participate in a Local's First show. There was an incredible diversity of subject matter on display. Everything from abstracts to landscapes, stirring documentary pieces, evocative B&Ws and splashy color. I was in the latter category this time with two images from an October-2008 trip to Arches and Canyonlands.

For the month of May I hung an assortment of B&W images from my In a Different Light series as well as the two color shots from the Local's First show at a local coffee shop, Diva's. We had a nice, well-attended reception at the end of the month.

June is the start of Salt Lake City's Farmer's Market. There is also an Artist and Craft venue associated with the market and as part of that I will periodically set up my booth to sell photo-cards and matted / framed prints. Follow my on Twitter on my Facebook page to learn when I will be there.

June was also the month that I entered my first juried competition: Earthscape 2009. This was again sponsored by Saan's Gallery. I submitted five matted 16 x 20 images for consideration. All five were accepted. The evening of the reception I learned that I had won Juror's Choice (1st) for my Sprial Jetty image.

On July 4th I set up my booth at the annual Sugar House Arts Festival. A long 12-hour day!

Upcoming: August I am scheduled to hang many images at the Rio Grande Cafe. September through October the same images will be at Canyon Coffee and Cafe and in December I will have an assortment at the Sugarhouse Gallery. Busy indeed!