Calendars

and some news on new opportunities becoming available now and announced first here.

Don't Miss the one week special promotion below, just for our readers.

The end of the year may appear to be some way off, but if we are to produce any calendars for 2009 we are running late already. This week we take a look at the whole subject of calendars.

It may be that you would like to produce a small number for friends and relatives, perhaps to be a part of their Christmas present, or perhaps you have a good cause or charity that you would like to produce some funds for. Perhaps you have a business and can see the benefit of giving your customers or clients calendars with your name on to keep your details in front of them for the whole of next year.

To some photographers, calendars are a major source of income, and while some may produce or publish, others will supply photographs to calendar publishing companies.

We have a range of articles covering this and more, plus some templates that will make setting out calendars you want to produce far easier, and links to other places where you can get calendar grids or templates.

• Producing Calendars looks at how we go about creating a calendar.

• Producing Calendars at Home is a cost effective way of producing small quantities with a personalised touch for family and friends.

• Printing Calendars looks at the different methods you could use and how to go about finding those businesses that can do it for you.

• An Income from Calendars There are two routes to creating an income from calendars, selling photographs to an existing Calendar Publisher or Self Publishing.

• Selling Pictures to Calendar Publishers Specifically looks at what publishers might be looking for, the sorts of fees and contracts involved as well as how to go about finding and contacting them.

• Charity and Fund Raising Calendars a popular tool for charities and other organisations who need to rely on public support for their income. The most well known of these being the BBC Countryfile annual calendar that raises money for Children and Need. We also explore what you might be able to do for a local charity close to you.

• Calendar Templates We have put together a number of 2009 templates to enable you to easily produce calendars.

• Calendar Further Information Links to other resources on this website, but also many external links to calendar publishers, printers, templates and more.

Some of the calendars we have produced have been very specific, by creating a template and then changing pictures, we have been able to produce one off calendars for specific people, included in this have been our sons teachers while at school and their grandparents. A unique personal calendar of this type has always been greatly appreciated. I feel there is far more potential in this area.

Perhaps you could produce calendars profitably, with some of the above information but need to get around the world or get other opportunities, at a low cost in order to take the images, then the information on the club below may help.

Perhaps you see this as one part of several, but don't want to rely totally on it so would like a flexible but reliable income that could run alongside your photography. If so take a look at the 'working from home' opportunity detailed further down the page. It may also be that you have become fed up with working for others or commuting, and this could very well appeal.

Discovery and Experience Club is established
(announced here first)

A club for photographers, travel writers, explorers and experience seekers of all types.

This will provide a chance to join in with small sub groups of members interested in visiting particular places, or attending events put on for them. This allows you to do it with a small group rather than on your own, for events to take place specifically to suit your needs, and for this to happen at around half the cost of achieving anything similar.

Due to a number of features unique to the club, many of the events and expeditions will be far cheaper than a similar opportunity elsewhere, and many will be unique events.

When people join this club they complete a questionnaire, that the club can use to identify the current interests. This also allows them to know who may be interested in specific events.

Events are put on by individual members or groups of members, and a member organising a trip or event attends for free, the cost plus 10% is shared out amongst the other people attending. This will include both short weekend events around Europe and beyond, and larger events, plus some UK events as well. Air fares will not usually be included, and discount air fares will be able to be used. The club is run using monthly subscriptions and part of the 10% charge on activities people take part in. The 10% also covers banking charges, and buying and negotiating, being undertaken by H3 Search Ltd, so as to get prices down, and saving well over the 10%.

As a member we will be organising some of these. If we had organised these through the training businesses Camera Images or Photography Skills, they would have been far more expensive as we would have had to commit, when setting up, to higher costs, without knowing how many would attend, and would have had to incur high advertising and marketing costs. Putting on events through this club will just about halve the cost that we could have interesting events on for. Also events involving models would have been expensive as we would have had to both pay the models and their costs, but the joint venture with Talent Club International allows those interested in modelling to attend, paying at least a large part of their own costs.

Events being organised jointly with Talent Club International, a club for those interested in acting, modelling, re-enacting, and experiencing period living, will open up more opportunities with many events in the UK, and provide models for some overseas events.

Talent Club International events over the next year will include:-

• Have period events, where people will experience:-

• A ball, of the style featured in the Jane Austin novels. In the morning we will have training and practice, while in the afternoon it will be a full costume ball.

• The re-enactment of a number of sections from different novels, in full costume and photographed to produce an illustrated work.

• Costumed Victorian railway day including chartered steam train.

• A theatre experience day involving a trip backstage, workshop and watching a production.

• Visit a film set or TV filming, to see how this is undertaken.

• Attend an event where the members will do both modelling and re-enacting for a number of photographers.

• Take part in an art project, involving actors/models, with a science fiction theme.

Information on the Discovery and Experience Club, including membership forms will be available within the next few days, and you can get it sent to you by sending 2 postage stamps to Club Services, PO Box 887, Cheltenham, GL52 9WY. You can also get information on Talent Club International from this address, you just need to include your name and address and say which club you want information on. Both clubs are part of New Atlantis, a long established UK non profit company.

A chance to 'work from home'
(announced here first)

H3 Search Ltd, who are undertaking the buying operation for the above clubs, is also setting up some telephone marketing teams across the UK, and amongst the projects being promoted are the advertising for websites hosted by Atlantis Virtual World Ltd, including this website, as although it is published by a non profit organisation now, the hosting is done for us by a specialist provider in exchange for being allowed to include some advertising. They will market a range of items, and services for a number of suppliers, and this range will grow over time. H3 Search Ltd puts the deals together.

In addition to the teams there are some executive roles for people who can work on their own, but you have to be able to convince them you can produce exceptional results for this, most people will, to start, be a part of a team.

The teams of 7, each having one team leader and 3 pairs of people, all working in their own homes, and in communication (when working) over the internet to assist each other. In the longer term these teams will become companies with the founding members as its directors, but this will not be for a while. The individuals agree with the team leader the hours they each can work, so it can be fitted around other things but must include some office hours. There are two types of teams, one free to do things, within reason, their own way, the other type is highly supported with training and far more support, so perhaps more ideal for those who are new to this. To start with, teams are being set up in the Gloucestershire area, but others will be set up across the country, you can see more on this at www.atlantis-virtual-world.com/member. Particularly if you would like the idea of being the organiser and team leader, then contact them early and you could get the chance to recruit and set your own team up. If you are from outside their current start up area you will need to be able to travel to Cheltenham to discuss this and for training. In the longer term they want to have teams across the country, as some projects have a local theme or flavour that will be better undertaken by people in each area.

Eventually the idea is to have some teams also in other countries or continents, but as it involves, at the moment, travelling to Cheltenham, if you are outside the UK and interested in this then it would be wise perhaps to have a few emails back and forwards first to make sure this is likely to be for you.

There is no cost to those who participate, and rewards are far higher than most would get in regular employment, but of course there is no paid holidays, sick pay, or support for passengers on the payroll with this. They explain it as being like a franchise, and for those entering now, no fees now or later. All you need is a home to work in, a telephone and a computer.

Photography training promotion

Only to readers of this website, and for one week only. Promotion closes 31st October.

If you order 20 training vouchers (20 hours training) or more, before next Friday, from Camera Images and quote Photographers Resource Special Promotion,  they will give you at no cost either:-

• a 1.5 terabyte (1500 GB) external (USB) hard drive, ideal for backing up your photos,

  or

• a 7 inch ultra small laptop as detailed below.

Free Online courses from Photo Skills

• Producing Calendars

• Producing Calendars at Home

• Printing Calendars

• An Income from Calendars

• Selling Pictures to Calendar Publishers

• Charity and Fund Raising Calendars

• Calendar Templates

• Calendar Further Information

Dungeness, nr Lydd, Kent

Dunge Valley Hidden Gardens, High Peak, Cheshire

Dunham Massey Altrincham, Cheshire

Durdle Door Nr Lulworth, Dorset

Norton Priory Runcorn, Cheshire