GarthWunsch.com

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If you enter the gallery where you are able to purchase prints, it does not have a “return to home page” icon. To leave the store, please use the back arrow on your web browser. Sorry for the inconvenience… it’s a computer… what else can I say?

Thanks

Garth

Welcome to winter! I think the snow is here until spring, at least here in Northern Ontario anyway.

As promised in my last post, my very first Print of the Month offering has arrived with the winter snow, and I think it is a very appropriate print since it features three beautiful Redpolls resting on the branches of a snow-laden Pine tree. Get more details of this very special offering here.

Each year the Sudbury Food Bank sponsors an art competition to source images for their annual Christmas Card Collection. They choose ten images which are presented and sold at their Gala Dessert Fund Raiser. Each winning artist donates a framed copy of their submission which is auctioned off during the evening to assist with the work of the food bank. This event is a pretty big deal, so I am really honoured to have one of my images chosen. The artists each receive two very highly coveted and rather pricey tickets to the evening (sells out every year), being hosted this year by Sudbury Fine Cars, our local Mercedes-Benz dealer. My sincere thanks to the selection committee.

The twentieth anniversary of the Creighton Mine Reunion is this Sunday, Sept. 20th, 2009… interesting… 20th anniversary on the 20th…
Location is Anderson Farm Museum in Lively. 1:00PM dinner at Caruso Club after 4:00 PM
See you there… I will post pics ASAP next week.

It’s pretty late in the season for blueberries, but life has been such that I have been unable to get out for the last few weeks, so today I took advantage of NO RAIN and drove up to Creighton. Vale INCO has No trespassing signs all over the place… I’m not trespassing, I’m visiting old memories. Parked at the start of Snider street and made my way up there to Connaught, then NW on Alexander St., past Grey St., then south on George St. to Edward St., the place I really call “home” because that is where I spent my formative years. It was also the birthplace and home of my wife, Arlene Cretzman. She lived probably two hundred yards away, if that, but it took me a really long time to find her

Took a few pics with my iPhone of the handiwork my dad did in or about 1956. The concrete retaining wall and porch foundation he built are still there, but nature is having its way. So hard to believe there was even a house there…the lots and houses were so small, but the community’s heart was so big… and still is.[caption id="attachment_251" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Poured concrete block that dad made for our new front porch entry"][/caption] Made my way through the bush north of Alexander St. and back down Connaught and then decide to take a little side trip down memory lane to the ball field, home of the Creighton Indians and playground to generations of children who made their own entertainment doing things that would, if we were to listen to all the play psychologists and others, should have killed everyone of us off before we reached puberty.
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Long story short… the blueberries are pretty much finished. Got enough for me and my girl to have a little bedtime snack, but I picked a lot of fond memories from the recesses of my mind, not of mansions or manicured grounds, but of real people.
Don’t forget… so far as I know, the annual Creighton reunion is still a go on the third Sunday of September as it has been every year since our first biggy in 1989… interesting note… it has NEVER rained on us on that date since 89.

Friday, June 26, 2009, last day of classes at George Vanier Public School also marked the last day of the school, well at least the original school. I thought it would be useful, interesting, fun, maybe even important to photograph this passing moment of time. I never attended this school, but our daughter did… all of her public school years, and so did most of her friends. The school has been very much a part of our community, but it is not “gone”, it is just changing. I don’t know if the building is coming down or not, but a brand new “George Vanier” is being constructed right beside the old one. They say it will be a “green “school, but right now, it’s a really blue school… insulation on the insulation.

I was deeply rewarded for the small effort of getting to the school at the proper time, because just as the kids were racing out, a gentleman assisted a very elderly lady around to the back of my truck so she could witness the end of an era… the lady was former teacher Grace Murray. She taught her entire career at GVPS. I was honoured to witness her silent vigil, and I greatly respect her for it. I never met this lady, at least not that I remember, but I think her obviously substantial effort to attend the last exodus of “her students” speaks volumes of the kind of person I believe she must be. Memories can be wonderful things, and I’m thinking she has lots of them. Thanks.

The 50+ reunion was a great deal of fun… to those of you who missed it, make sure you get to the next one… no matter your age

I made a lot of photographs and have them posted on my Pictage account. You can see them at http://www.pictage.com/671292
please feel free to share the link with others. I didn’t take these pics to make a ton of cash, so I suggest that if you want any of the images, use the digital download feature and then get your own prints made. The prices are in US$ because that’s where the lab is. Couldn’t find the same thing in Canada (but I’m still looking). The site is very expensive to maintain. The 4$ US per download is about a break even point for me…
ENJOY. See you at the next reunion!

Well folks, this blog and all the related stuff is finally starting to take shape, at least in my head, because I am now starting to understand this cyber gobble-de-gook a little better (some days a little less than others). It’s hard when your hair turns white! I really owe my web designer a big vote of thanks for taking my hand when the quicksand was just about to engulf me. If you are into getting a photo oriented blog on the go with Wordpress, then go visit James at http://big-red-couch-web-design.com/ Tell him Garth sent you.

For those of you looking for my new samples and all that good stuff, please be patient. I have just signed up with a really great web and print company (Pictage). It took me a long time to find a company that does all they do, and do it so well. It is the brain child of Gary Fong, photographer and inventor of a whole bunch of stuff. They will be hosting my online galleries where you will be able to view and/or purchase images you are interested in, whether they be weddings, portraits, special events etc. You will select the images you want, add them to your cart, and then Pictage will print them and ship them off to you directly. They will come from the United States, but there is no import duty on photographs. Because they are listed in US dollars, I will be setting my web prices lower to compensate for that difference. I would dearly love to find a Canadian company that can do all they do, but so far no luck. The closest is from Silvano Imaging in Toronto, but even theirs is an American subcontractor. Oh well, at least it’s not “made in china”. I have nothing against the Chinese folks, but I sure do have a gripe against all the junk they are contracted to build and then we throw into our land fill sites in two months.

Although you are at garthwunsch.com, this is just the gathering place for several web domains of mine. www.avenuetwelvephotography.ca lives here ( www.a12p.ca for short). It is the home of my wedding and portrait business.
www.landscapes-north.com is my Fine Art site and it will eventually move in here too. For now, if you would like to browse my Fine Art images, please click on over to www.pbase.com/garth_wunsch

This weekend is the reunion for Lively High School… I think they call it something different now… longer name that I always screw up… but it’s still Lively High School Looking forward to that. Should have some pics to post next week.

Wowie… my new Stock Image Gallery is now up and running at

http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/garthwunsch

The archive content is not huge yet, but it will grow quickly as I add from my personal archives. This new service will allow folks to get economical access to images for personal use and also provide an outlet for my Fine Art pieces as well as a new source of stock images for clients needing top notch conceptual and subject specific images for commercial applications. The site is e-commerce enabled via PayPal, but you don’t need a PayPal account to access the checkout. PayPal accepts  major credit cards, and because the transaction is via PayPal, you are able to have one less area of exposure for your private credit card data.

I am also maintaining a rather large image gallery that is not e-commerce enabled, but if you wish to purchase a piece you see there, by all means, do contact me and we can make convenient arrangements. This gallery can be found at:

http://www.pbase.com/garth_wunsch

Well, that’s my news for today.

Well… it’s almost functional… this site that is. Please check back in the days ahead to discover the great (and some maybe not-so-great, but interesting anyway} things that we will be bringing your way. Do enjoy, and please do say ‘Hi” once in a while. Let me know the good, the bad and the ugly (not people of course).  Lots of photos for sure…

Garth