This weekend I dragged my ass out of bed super early (on a Saturday!) to go check out the hot air balloons at the Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic. I was tired (and no one else in my family managed to crawl out of bed that early, so I went all by myself – yes I’m looking at you, Brian and Joe!) but I’m so glad I went! I took tons of pictures, of course, and really loved wandering the park and checking out the balloons. Besides the awesomeness of the balloons, they had a flyover (some really cool planes but I don’t remember what kind they were – can you believe how informative I am?) and a pancake breakfast to support the Idaho Foodbank. There was a decent sized crowd, but I was still able to wander around right between all of the balloons as they were being inflated and then took off. I will definitely be going again when/if the Balloon Classic returns!

A few of the shots I took are below … some of these are available in my shop, too!

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for well-designed packaging.  Something pretty, elegant, or funky.  Something that gives me a preview of what’s inside.

One of the (many, many) things that I love about Apple is their luxurious packaging.  When you open your new iphone or your new macbook, you can’t help but notice the sleek, clean packaging.  Of course, the product inside is spectacular too, but the packaging gives you that little taste of what is to come.  The packaging on apple products is very reflective of the goodies within.  Clean lines, simple design … I love opening Apple products!

Another famous company that really expresses their style in packaging is Anthropologie.  You know those frequent shopper cards you can sign up for at anthro?  They come in a cute little fabric drawstring bag.  And when you sign up for one, not only do they send you a lovely birthday card, but they also send you cute little discount cards, also in sweet little fabric pouches, with little button and thread accents.  Anthropologie’s packaging is sort of vintage-y, funky, and elegant … sounds a lot like their style, hmm?

Etsy sellers are known for their fantastic creativity, and their are some truly beautiful packaging designs being shipped out every day by Etsy sellers. Small creative businesses are selling more than just a product – they are selling a bit of their personality, too – and I love it when that personality makes it all the way out to the packaging on the outside.  A lovely package with a style reflective of what’s inside … gets me every time.

With all this in mind, I have really been thinking about MY packaging lately.  What is the first impression that my sweet customers get – after they hand over their hard-earned money, and they receive their package in the mail?  My first priority is to make sure that my prints make it to their new homes safely, of course.  So, after I seal the print in plastic, and sandwich it between two pieces of cardboard, I wrap the whole thing into a little, decorated bundle.  It’s pretty simple, really – just some brown kraft paper, a little paper doily, and some bakers twine.  Simple and inexpensive, but it provides a first impression that I think matches my style and personality.

At the top of the post you can see my package all ready to be mailed off to a new home in California.

(PS – there are tons more pictures of creative Etsy packaging on flickr.  I’m telling you, those Etsy guys and gals are amazing!)

I recently joined a group of talented photographers on flickr … a lovely group of women who all sell photography on Etsy. They have been so inspiring and supportive – it’s a real treat to be included in the group.

The group has started a fun diptych project and blog that I’m thrilled to be a part of. We pair up with a different member of the group each week, and then we are assigned a theme. Each participant shoots her interpretation of that theme, and then we match them up and see what we come up with!

This week:

Yellow

Left: Jessica Torres Photography
Right: Painted With Light Photography

I missed a couple of weeks in there, but several weeks ago, I was matched up with another lovely lady:

Surreal

Left: Artful Magpie
Right: Jessica Torres

To see more creativity from a lot of other participants, visit the blog!
Also, my Yellow print from this week is available in the shop here!

1. This picture is new in my shop tonight, and I have also entered it in the greeblepix contest! Yay for spring blossom photography! I’m addicted. Until the blossoms are gone, you can count on seeing eleventy million pretty flowery pictures around here.

2. I bought the book Best Easy Day Hikes – Boise to give us some ideas of where to take the kids on excursions this spring/summer. (I know I’m a dork for buying a book about where to hike in my OWN HOMETOWN. But this way we don’t have to come up with any ideas, we just have to pick something and go! Less planning, discussing, deciding, more GOING! Anyways.) I took a little mini-walk from the book at lunch yesterday, and I am excited to take the boys out hiking and exploring this summer.

3. Speaking of walking … Rachel finally started walking this weekend! YAY! She just stood up and started, like it was no big deal at all … like we haven’t been telling her to WALK ALREADY YOU LAZY GIRL for months. And then yesterday afternoon she did a faceplant on the sidewalk and scraped her face up. 24 hours of bravery before her first injury … doesn’t seem to have slowed her down today, thank goodness. Still walking all over the place. Our scraped up baby girl (this was last night – she looks worse today.  Hopefully she heals soon!):

Happy Tuesday everyone!

This week I ordered one of my favorite photographs in a large print size. I think this is the first time I have ever ordered one of my own photos so large! It is so fun. I ordered “Dreamy Beach”. We camped right on this very beach, on the shores of beautiful Priest Lake, Idaho on our honeymoon – almost two years ago now!

I ordered this print mounted on what is called a “standout”. It is a really light-weight board (perhaps foam core?) that has black, plastic laminating along the edges. Your photograph or art is printed on the photo paper of your choice, and it then mounted to the board. It stands out from the wall about 3/4″, with the black finished edges. The back has pre-drilled holes for hanging, so nothing else needs to be done to prepare it for display.

Another little lesson that I learned in ordering my prints this large: I need to spend some time examining my digital files at 100% in photoshop before declaring them finished. I noticed a few areas of weird coloring that I didn’t notice until I had it printed, large, and sitting right in front of me. When I went back to my digital file and looked at it on the computer in full resolution, I can see those little oddities very easily – and they are easily fixed. So, note to self: do a careful 100% inspection before finishing up a photo.

I made a few little color tweaks to my digital file, and then listed this print as a 16 x 24 standout in my shop. I really am in love with how this looks!

1. That picture is new in the shop tonight! It is one of my faves … if I do say so myself.  (Taken on the scenic shores of Priest Lake during our honeymoon.)
2. My super sweet friend Kristin is hosting a giveaway of my photography on her blog this week. Be sure to take a look around while you are there. She has all sorts of great design ideas, advice, and inspiration. Thanks Kristin!
3. Yesterday I received my new Epiphanie Bag in the mail. Oh how I love it. I got “Ginger”, and it is beautiful. I am in love. I will now be carrying my camera around with me everywhere I go! (and pssst … they are having a HUGE giveaway on their blog, too! Go see!)
3. I discovered a cool new Etsy-browsing tool called PicClick (via how about orange). You can browse categories or search for key phrases-  say, for example … beach photography. The cool thing is you can then adjust the size of the thumbnails and view hundreds of results on one page. Fun! (bonus points if you see anything of particular interest in the screenshot below … )

That’s all I have for this lovely Tuesday evening …

It is a sad state of affairs when it takes me until March to get caught up from the holidays. And I’m not even caught up quite yet, but getting closer! Pathetic, I know.

But, since I’m getting caught up and I spent some time updating my shop this weekend, I thought I would share a little trick for Etsy sellers.

Let me preface this by saying this is not rocket science, and I’m sure that someone has already discovered this and posted to the etsy forums/guides/blog … I’m just slow like that. So … on with the tip.

One time my sister said to me “I went to Etsy and searched for Jessica Torres Photography but couldn’t find you – what’s up with that?”.

Well, if you are familiar with Etsy, you know that the default search is for PRODUCTS, not SELLERS. So, unless you specifically change your search type to SELLERS, you won’t find any Jessica Torreses for sale on Etsy.

We all know that shoppers have a bit of ADD. They’re in a hurry, they just want to find what they are looking for. They don’t stop to read directions. (Hi Heather! I hate reading directions too! Love ya!). So, you can make it a bit easier for people to find you by putting your name in as one of your tags on each of your listed items. I did that this weekend, and now if you go to Etsy and search for “Jessica Torres” or “Jessica Torres Photography” you actually find my shop!

This little trick will help your customers find you without having to be Etsy experts.

(The image above is new in the shop. Dramatic winter skies out here in lovely little Kuna, Idaho)