Thursday, September 11, 2008

commercial interests

It’s no secret that Ocean has donned a commercial negligee: it has added tiny notes here and there about how you can click your way to Ocean photo ownership any time you want.

Do I like selling things? Put it this way: I like making my photos available for those who want them, for whatever reason. I recently sold one to a woman who asked to use it as a wedding motif (it was of a place where her wedding would be). I felt warm and fuzzy for days after. And, perhaps more importantly, I am slowly learning that keeping Ocean afloat (can it be done?!?) does sometime require that I find ways to support it, other than by pulling out a credit card and hoping that a more generous economic stimulus package will make its way through Congress before the bill comes.

But, I refuse to engage in non-Ocean commercial activity here. No ads, no banners, nothing that is outside the bailiwick of the blog itself. So, Ocean will, in that sense, continue without commercial interruption.

Photos of the day? The bad news is that much of my time was spent at work, on campus. The good news is that I took a different bike path, since I had morning meetings in the southern corner of the university. So, rather than taking you along on the lakeshore path, I'll give you a different frame from my morning ride:


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Buy print 2019


And now let me return again to the matter of commerce. Tonight was the night to feast on meats and appetizers at Samba, a place where waiters parade with swords of "sizzling flesh," as Ed would call it.


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We were there to host, wine, and dine visitors from China, who make things happen for Ed and his awesome business partner, Greg. For a handful of years (and may it all continue for decades and then some!), the Chinese men (plus one woman, but not at all a Sara Palin type) have been overseeing the production of machines designed by our two men of Madison (actually one is of Waunakee, but let’s not be fussy). It's a story in its own right, but here you see the key players:



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It was a splendid evening. I always learn a lot about commercial interests when I hang around Ed and his partner and one thing that I learned today was that you make much more money selling computer controlled machines than you do selling photos.