04-04-2026 06:32 PM
I'm working on compiling some photos of Lake Michigan lighthouses for a client. If you are not from around here, you may not know that Michigan has 129 lighthouses, which is more than any other state. I don't have photos of all of them (yet) but I have photographed over half of them.
Anyway, thought I would share four of them here. Five photos because there are two favorites of mine of one lighthouse. These were taken with the Canon 80D, RP, and R6 Mk ll.
04-15-2026 10:22 AM
Well for the stuff I sell to businesses (95% of my work the past few decades), that's typically word of mouth, contact through other pros I am friends with (only if my niche is different than theirs), existing clients giving my name to potential clients, and a fair amount through social media. But I'm not sharing client info here, which I know you understand.
But for print sales to the general public, I have been using Unit Prints. They are owned by Color Inc, which is a pretty large print house that is just a couple miles from where I live. It's nice because I can drive over and check on prints before they are shipped out. However that being said, I am thinking of moving over to Fine Art America, which has been recommended to me by quite a few photographers that I know. Nice quality, for $30 per year membership you can upload hundreds of photos and use your own domain name (not theirs), and they not only sell all types of prints, but also print on coffee cups, phone cases, blankets, quite a few other things. It's not what I ever thought I would do with any of my photography since it sounds kind of like a big step down from my regular work, but I've been told it's good passive income for general purpose shots, which I seem to have an abundance of. They do have a free version that you can test the waters with, which is limited to uploading 25 photos.
So I'll continue to go for the real money with my business clients, but why not make a few dollars here and there from the general public on the generic photos like these?
04-15-2026 10:58 AM
Shall we all sing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"?
04-15-2026 02:11 PM
"Shall we all sing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"?"
Please... No! 😂
04-15-2026 03:51 PM
That made my day. Thank you.
04-15-2026 09:40 PM - edited 04-15-2026 09:43 PM
Gary,
Beautiful shots!
They remind me of some shots of the lighthouse on the shore in Grand Haven, MI I took a long time ago. I recall that I photographed it in winter (and year later in summer). The lighthouse in winter was "decorated" with ice and snow.
Your photos make me want to dig through my boxes and find the photo album containing those shots.
Thanks for posting!
04-15-2026 11:56 PM
Truly beautiful work. It's very inspiring.
04-16-2026 07:57 AM
Thank you! So you recognized that second shot of the inner light at GH. I've got quite a few of the pier and lighthouses there covered in ice and snow. It's a little more difficult these days since they close the pier when the weather gets like this. Probably for good reason. While most of the people that go out on the pier in icy condition use extreme caution, there are always a few who think it's no big deal to wander out on the ice just off to the side of the pier. Darwin at work.
So dig through and find those photos!
04-16-2026 11:54 AM
Very nice Gary!
04-16-2026 05:23 PM
Thank you!
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