Jigsaw Puzzles

  Just a quick update on the Jigsaw puzzles that I decided to purchase for myself to test out the quality of the products.  They arrived last night, and even though this isn't the best photo of the boxes they came in, I have to say I was very impressed with how sturdy the boxes where and how professional the actual puzzle pieces where inside.  Sometimes when you have stuff made, the quality isn't something you have any control over and would be embarrassed to even attempt to sell.  Turns out this isn't the case here and I'm really happy with how great these turned out.  


Now I can't wait to finish my current puzzle so I can get started on putting these together.  They are smaller than what I've been doing lately, only being 1000 pieces, but that seems to be the size more people prefer so I just had to see how they would turn out at that size.  

Now I'm going to find myself shooting more and more photos with the idea of creating puzzle from them.  :)

Dreaming In Pieces - Revisited

It has been just over two years now since I tracked down a puzzle that was released using an image of mine. When that image first sold, all I knew was that it was going to be used on a puzzle, but was given no other information about it.  It took close to 6 months for me to find that puzzle out there in the world, but by the time I'd finally found it, it was totally sold out in the only country I could find it being sold.  I remember being very disappointed at first because (for many reasons I wrote about in that previous blog), I really wanted a copy of that puzzle for myself.

I was telling a fellow photographer and friend all about it,  and about how disappointed I was that I couldn't seem to find it in stock anywhere, when they suddenly sent me a link to another company that still had the puzzle for sale.  Well.... in the excitement that followed I wrote that long and somewhat rambling post all about the puzzle, and my photo, and the memories and emotions it drudged up in me and many of you surprised me by rushing out and buying a copy for as well.  I think that blog post was probably one of the most personal things I've really ever shared with friends much less anything I have ever posted on the Internet for strangers to stumble across and read.  I was worried at first that maybe it was too much and I should take it down, but so many of you sent me really sweet and kind messages about that story, and about how much you enjoyed it.  So even though I felt a little silly, I do have to say think you for all the kind words. I'm not really sure if I ever did that as it was all kind of this weird blur to me at the time.

It's been almost exactly 5 years now since my dad passed, and I find myself thinking about him more than ever this time of year. Those memories always bring me back around to thinking about those times we worked on puzzles together and then I think about that post about the silly puzzle two years ago, and now for some reason, I've received at least a dozen different emails in the last month from people asking me if I have any more puzzles for sale.  I've had to tell everyone no,  as the last three submissions I made to that puzzle company weren't chosen as finalists.  Not a surprise to me since they would receive hundreds of submissions and would only purchase 5 photos each time.

I had spent a lot of time one and off, contacting puzzle manufacturers to see if I could maybe just self- publish puzzles through them and most of them told me they would love work with me and do that, but the downside each time was that they required minimum purchases before they would sing on to do the production work. For most of them, I would need to purchase at least 1000 copies of any puzzle I wanted to sell just to get the price point low enough that I think anyone would want to buy one.  But there was no way I'd ever sell 1000 puzzles on my own and I certainly don't want to fill my garage with hundreds of unsold puzzles....  I mean even with that first puzzle which turned out to be hugely popular, I think I only know about 15 people that bought one.

Then in the last week, I discovered a company that would allow me to create puzzles from my images, with no minimum orders needed, and then to sell those puzzles through their online market place, where they would then create and ship puzzles as they are ordered.  The biggest downside to it though... is that they aren't nearly as cheap as the ones that were mass-produced and sold around the world, BUT I can actually now offer up any photo of mine as a puzzle in any size someone might want, if they want one.

I started off with my two favorite photos from my trip to Vermont this fall.  Offering each as 500 or 1000 piece puzzles, and then I also picked two photos I've wanted to do myself as puzzles for a very long time and created 1000 piece puzzles out of them.  I really don't expect anyone will buy them at this companies price.... unless I get lucky and a big distributor takes a chance and buys one of them in bulk, but if you happen to be interested enough to take a look, or even purchase one, you can see them at my Online Puzzle Store.  If you would like to buy a puzzle from there, I wanted to point out that if you buy 2 or more, you do get a 20% discount which takes some of the sting out of the price.  They don't have to be 2 of the same puzzle, so you could buy two different puzzles and still get the discount.

One big advantage of a company like this though, is that if you don't like what you see there or if you happen to like another image of mine that you'd love to have as a puzzle, you can just email me and let me know what image it is, and what size you'd like the puzzle to be, and I can custom create them by requested.  If you think the 1000 piece puzzles cost too much or are bigger than you like, I can make a 500 piece version or even smaller for you if you like.  The process takes about a day for me to size the image, upload it, configure all the information they need and then have them approve everything and make it available for purchase,  and I'd be happy to do that for you.  Just shoot me an email and let me know.

If you think the prices are crazy and you wouldn't spend that much on a puzzle, or if you just don't like building puzzles, that's totally cool too. I think I only make about $2 per sale so I will never get rich off this and I'm not doing it for the money.  I just wanted to offer it up as I do get asked about puzzles from time to time now.   If you've actually read this far... thanks for sticking it out.  I know I started to ramble again. LOL

I am going to buy a couple of these for myself now just because ...  to be honest....  they are a few photos I've always wanted to see as a puzzle and wanted to put together myself.  Maybe I'm just weird.

Dreaming in Pieces

This post is going to be something a little more personal than I usually tend to share, but luckily I don't think more than a few people ever read my posts anyway so it's a good way to just put some thoughts and feelings down in writing for me.

Growing up, there were many times things were tense in our house, and many where I was afraid of my dad to the point where I spent a lot of time locked away in my room to avoid any run-ins with him.  But even with that being said, my dad wasn't always a scary guy and I have some great memories of times spent with him doing things that were fun together.  One of my best and favorite memories over the years though, were those hours we would spend together around the dining room table, putting together one of the many puzzles we worked on over the years.  We didn't always talk a lot while working on them, but I really cherished those moments where we would sit there putting something fun and challenging together.  I never lost that love of working on puzzles and daydreamed so many times about taking photos for puzzle companies, hoping that I could maybe do something one day that would help bring another kid that kind of happiness in doing something with their parent(s) and / or family.  I would look at puzzles in the store and just know that I could take photos at least as good as I saw on many of the boxes.  I even went as far as writing to a number of puzzle companies about 20 years ago, trying to find out how someone would even go about submitting photos for them.   Most companies never bothered to reply, and a few that did.....  said they already had enough photos, thank you very much.   I was severely disappointed, but every year or so, would find myself searching the internet for ways to see one of my photos on a puzzle.

It was hard to even find a company that would make a one-off puzzle that I could just have personally, for any kind of reasonable fee.  The companies that did offer something reasonable, only made puzzles of 50 or 100 pieces.  Nothing even close to what I'd hoped for.  So.... the dream kind of faded into the background but never went away.  Every time I would break out a new puzzle to work on ... I would find myself daydreaming about that again, and searching the internet again.

Then early this year (2016), I found an ad on a stock photo site, from a company looking for photos submissions for puzzles.  There was a VERY short window of time to submit photos for consideration, maybe 48-72 hours if I remember right, and I rushed home to look through my current photo collection to see what if anything I might have that fit what they were looking for.  I submitted a couple of photos but only one really sounded like it might have a shot, and then I waited.  If I'm being honest, I never expected to hear anything back, but I was happy to just have given it a shot if nothing else.  About a month later, I received an email from that company, asking me for a higher resolution of one of those photos, and a few other questions about the details of it.  That alone was exciting for me because it meant they might actually be interested in it, but I still didn't want to get my hopes up.

Then maybe two weeks after that email, I got notification that they had purchased the photo for publication.  I was so excited that they picked a photo and began to watch all the puzzle sites I could find to see if it actually made it out into the stores.  Months went by though, and I could never find it out there and after about 4 or 5 months, I started to think maybe it didn't make the cut after they ran it by whoever had the final say on what gets made into a puzzle.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.... and then about 10 days ago, just on a whim after a conversation with a good friend of mine about the status of the puzzle, I did another search.

I don't know if I can even put into words the feelings that rushed through me when suddenly, at the top of the search, there it was.  My puzzle, on the market, and real.  I think I was stunned at first, and then not sure I was seeing it right.... lol.   I pulled up the photo of the box, zoomed in, and sure enough... that was my shot!  Childhood memories, daydreams, thoughts of me dad, feelings from those nights working on puzzles with him.... all came flooding back through me.  They still do when I think about it if I'm being honest.  I know it's silly, and it's just a puzzle....  but for me it was so much more, even more than I thought it would be.

I do have to admit I got a little giddy, and posted the photo of the box on Facebook in all my excitement....  and it was amazing to see how many friends congratulated me.  I don't know how many actually understood what this puzzle meant to me....  maybe most didn't, but it was still nice that they forgave my excitement about it.  Heck, I was actually shocked how many wanted to buy one.  At that point in time, I had only found it for sale in one place in Australia, and they didn't ship to the United States.

A short while later though, another friend send me a message, excited to tell me that she'd found it for sale in England.  I ordered a few of them, some for friends asking me if I could get them one, and a couple for me. One to put together, and one to keep sealed and stored away.  

If anyone somehow actually read this, and you are still here reading... please pretend I'm not a total goof if we ever talk about this post ....   and if by chance, you actually enjoy putting puzzles together as much as I do, and you would like to do me the huge honor of putting together a puzzle that has one of my photos on it.....  you can order one from the link below.  It's cheap, and shipping is free.  In fact, I think if you order using the link here, instead of going directly to the website, you get it for a small discount.




Please click here if you would like to purchase the puzzle!