Swift Island Daybreak - one from my Agri-Civic Exhibit

Swift Island Daybreak - by Deb Russell
 16x24 Metallic Gallery Wrap

 Agri-Civic Center directions  Mon-Fri ~ 8am-5pm 

Stanly News & Press article 

The exhibit is in cooperation with HD Photo Lab and  Falling Rivers Gallery.
My work is also on display this month in the front window of Falling Rivers Gallery.
Many thanks to Anita Ammerman and Jackie Layman for their work on it.  

Getting my feet wet

My boss suggested the idea of blogging to me today, and I guess I've jumped right in..."jumping right in" isn't typical of me but that's where I am today.


I work in digital photography and I play in digital photography and graphics, so this blog will have lots of images, mostly my own. For example, the header of this blog is from a 2 page spread of "Swift Island"...80 Years A Beauty, a book I've recently self-published. Not meaning to sound self-important, in case you're oblivious to the self-publishing revolution, anybody can fairly easily publish a book these days. Quality, content, appeal...none of that is required...just the motivation to collect thoughts and/or images and dump them into the self-publishing website's software, and then "pay up" .


The self-publishing idea caught on with me a couple of months ago when a neighbor sent me a link from a professional photographer whose Yosemite workshop she and her husband attended this past winter. One of their instructors had published through Blurb.com and I was instantly and thoroughly sucked into site. If you're a photographer or writer, or both, you should check out some of the self-publishing sites sproutin' up all over. Even if you have no intention of getting a book together yourself, you'll probably find browsing the crazy, wide variety of books available from those who have. Blurb.com is an easy one in which it's easy to navigate and search. Although I've already mentioned "anybody" can publish, some of the self-published photography coffee table style books are gorgeous ....bookstore quality and are truly first rate in content and style.


I'm just starting to explore what's out there along this line, but I plan to comment on my new finds, bad finds, ...whatever. Well, I guess I got my feet wet, so I'll give it a rest for now.