Non Profit Organization Fundraising with Mindscapes

While you are browsing through images here on the Mindscapes Blog or at the Mindscapes online Gallery you may come across an image, or a series of images that would make a perfect fundraising tool for your organization. All you need to do is let us know and we'll help you set up a special fundraising program using the image.

Here's how the program works:
You choose the image or images, we approve the partnership and set up a special page where your supporters can order cards, mounted or framed prints, images mounted on canvas or posters. We'll even create a calendar or a special coffee table book if we have a series that fits your need. You then alert your members/supporters and friends and provide them with a link to your page. Let us know if you would like our help in setting up this link. We have provided samples of each image below.

Each item is priced at exactly double the cost of production, we then split the NET proceeds with your organization. You can always calculate what your net proceeds will be by taking the price shown on the page and dividing it by 4 - but we've provided samples of each product below.

We will send you a check each month for your portion of sales made.

We can provide this service for whatever time-frame fits your fundraising schedule.

Don't delay. More than ever, in this climate of dwindling contributions, non-profit organizations need fundraising tools to sustain their mission. Look through our extensive gallery of images and select the image or images that reflect your organization's mission. Email us to get your fundraising program started.

New! Add Text to an image.
Perhaps you came upon an image that would be the perfect fundraising image if only it had your organization's name or motto etc. We'll add the text you want and you can send the image out to your friends and supporters and sit back as they place their orders.
















Cards



Net to your organization: $1.25 per card
Go to the Gallery.

Matted Image


Matted Photos (Matt choices Black, White and Off-white)
Print size: 12.8" x 8.6"
Net to your organization:$8.90
Go to the Gallery.


Laminated Print

Laminated Image with Title (Color choices Black, White)
Print sizes and net proceeds:

• 8x12 Laminated print:$5.34
• 12x18 Laminated print: $8.90
• 16x24 Laminated Print: $17.11

Foam Core Mounted Images


Print images sizes and net proceeds:

• 8x12 Foam Mounted: $14.25
• 12x18 Foam Mounted: $19.59
• 16x24 Foam mounted: $26.72

Go to the Gallery.

Canvas Mounted Images

Print images sizes and net proceeds:

• 8x12 Canvas Mounted: $21.37
• 12x18 Canvas Mounted: $28.50
• 16x24 Canvas Mounted: $39.18

Go to the Gallery.


Framed Images

Matt Colors: Black, White, Off-white
Frame choices:
Go to the Gallery.


Print sizes and net proceeds:

• 8x12 Framed Print: $28.50
• 12x18 Framed Print: $35.62
• 16x24 Framed Print: $48.09

Posters


Poster sizes and net proceeds

• 15.5 X23.3 Poster: $7.12
• 23.4 x 31.25 Poster: $12.50

Go to the Gallery.

Calendars


Net proceeds: $7.00 per calendar
Go to the Gallery.
Contact us by email here

The Daisy

Shot during the final days of a single daisy this image captures a very serene scene. Handpainting allows the background to be altered to produce a warm and emotive effect. The image is then scanned for final output.

Order cards or prints of "The Daisy"

The Blue Sheet

A blue sheet on the washline is made all the more emotive by the early morning light.


Order "Blue Sheet" as a card or print

De-emphasizing a Busy Background

Sometimes an images background is just so distracting that it makes the image unusable. Of course there are the more extreme solutions to this such as cutting out the background altogether but in the case of this bittersweet pictured right, removing the background is for practical purposes impossible because the berries are so numerous that they can't be selected out.

Well here's one way to make the background less busy in order to emphasize the central focus of the image. Using almost any good image software you remove the color entirely and then using a history brush return only the central colors to the image - or create multiple layers of saturation that achieve similar results.

Since I often prefer a more "tonal" background, I will often take an extra step and add in a single tone to make a duotone background.

Below you will see two images representing the end result of this process. The first with no color added back into the background and the second with a very muted level of color added back in. I prefer the second, but you may find the first more appealing. In either case, you are likely to agree that it makes the image more enjoyable to view.

Bittersweet Vertical 1



Bittersweet Vertical 2


Order Bittersweet Vertical #2 cards or prints

The Woodworker's Hands

This image focuses its attention on the hands of the woodworker and uses the direct light from the window to cast the woodworker himself essentially as a silhouette.

Order the "Woodworker's Hands" as a signed print or card.

The Yellow Cap

Order card or signed print of "The Yellow Cap"

Two Worlds Reach Out

There are some species of animals with which we human animals seem to share an unusual affinity. Dolphins, Chimps, Gorillas, Dogs and cats of course. Among them surely is the Beluga. Like dolphins one can't help but feel that we can see common expressions on their faces. This image captures not only the expression of the Beluga but the affinity between the Beluga and a young boy. Further to the point, the Beluga's fin appears to reach out to the boy as well.



Order Card or Print of "Two Worlds Reach Out"

Deep Woods Trove

On a recent visit to the Beech Hill Farm in Hopkinton, NH, I took the time to follow their nature walk. The walk itself, through the beautiful woods adjacent to the farm was quite peaceful, although those who might have been looking for self help signage would have been disappointed. I noticed a splash of color within the litter off the trail and left the trail to find this exquisite grouping of mushrooms.

The simple image itself was quite extraordinary but I am even more fond of it when certain aspects of the image are emphasized or de-emphasized. Interestingly, while this image has been manipulated to create a Mindscape. The color of the mushrooms themselves has not been altered in any way.

Order "Deep Woods Trove" as a card or signed print

Hidden Color in Muted Seasons

Order Birch Tangle Cards or Print

Color is where you find it - or where you create it. Even in the more muted seasons on the shoulder of fall/winter or winter/spring it can be found in some pretty unexpected places and the results can be much more than you would expect at first blush.

The two images shown here, "Birch Tangle" and "Dogwood Dance" barely show the trees t

hemselves and focus instead on the tangle of branches and the few remaining leaves. The blue of the sky and the soft focus whites of other birches in the background give this image the effect of a painting whose power is derived not from the subject but from the interplay of color and form within the final composition. 

While both are "straight" photographs, with no manipulation at all, each, nevertheless, has a feel of something more than a photo to it. 

Order Dogwood Dance Cards or Print

Maple Ablaze Mindscape

This image is created from three different images taken in the same general area and lending themselves to an interesting blending.
Order this image on cards or prints

Last Light on Rattlesnake

As daylight fades a few spots on Rattlesnake, one of the Northeast's finest climbing areas, yield themselves to some very interesting shadows and angles in juxtaposition with the climbers on the rock.

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Tokyo Rain

The original image for this Mindscape was captured on a rainy day in Tokyo. It was printed through textured glass and hand painted to arrive at the final product.

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Children of the Pow Wow

Anyone who tells you that children these days have no sense of place in the world or their community has never seen the look in the eyes of the young men and women of Native American tribes at a Pow Wow.

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Goose Rocks Mindscape

Don't trust anything your eyes see in this image of a rock formation along the seacoast of NH and Maine.

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The Cornice

This image is taken high in the Rockies near the continental divide where we were snowboarding in the back country. The original image was treated with a watercolor filter in addition to changes in the brightness, contrast and saturation.

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Hand Coloring or Painting Images for Impact

Sometimes an image strikes you in an emotional place but looking at it in a more objective fashion you know that it just doesn't work as a piece of art from the perspective of another viewer. For me, this means that I need to bring my own emotional reaction to the image by stripping it to its bare essentials - the black and white image - and then adding the color back by hand to capture the emotion.

This is not an easy process and you can go about it in a lot of different ways. Some folks employ the "old" standby Marshall Oils which are specially made for painting on photographic surfaces. But you can also employ many other devices from a highlighter to colored pencils and watercolor paints. 

Because I do not often create a hand-painted piece where the colors are the central focus of the image (although one might argue that they become the central focus as a result of the painting or coloring process), I most often will print to a watercolor paper that allows me maximum flexibility in the coloring process. 

One caveat I would quickly add is that if the sharpness of the image is important to the final product, this is NOT the approach you will want to take. Watercolor paper, by virtue of the uneven nature of the paper will not yield a crisp reproduction. If you want that you will need a paper more specifically produced for photographic purposes. Watercolor paper yields a more ethereal image. 

The image to the right, above, entitled "Buffalo Road Horses #82" is the original image with which I started. The image went through several iterations on my desktop before I printed the black and white image from which the final Mindscape was created. In the case of this image, I used watercolors to achieve the final product - sometimes I will also combine colored pencils where very fine coloration is required but that was not the case in this image.

The final image "Buffalo Horses Mindscape" is a far more ethereal view of the scene from which it came.

Order this image

Amethyst Fire

Several images over the past few weeks have found their start at Gemstar Gemstones in Enfield NH. This is not only one of the best gem and bead stores I've ever seen, it is also an adventure from an aesthetics point of view - with all kinds of interesting elements from shelves filled with Amethyst geodes to wind chimes made of colored agate and the colorful birdhouses.

Amethyst Fire was born of a simple image of two large amethyst geodes amid a field of smaller colored agate bookends. The original image itself was colorful and fun but lacked that certain something that made it a conversation piece.

This piece was created using a smudging process in the areas surrounding the large geodes. In many ways this process is similar to the process once done using a polaroid image that was manually altered during the process of its 60 second development. In those days of course the outcome was a final print of standard polaroid size - which for most folks meant about 3" x 3".

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A Rascal of Boys

The tradition of using collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals is at least 300 years old. More formally known as "terms of venery" these collective nouns were actually taught to the children of nobles and the ruling class as a means of distinguishing themselves from the commoners.

Sometimes the term used will apply to a group only in a certain context. A group of geese on the ground are referred to as a "gaggle" while, in flight, it is a "skein". Ironically, a group of Baboons is referred to as a "congress".

Some examples:

A mimsy of birds
A rascal of boys
A kaleidoscope of butterflies
A stumble of drunks

The coining of such terms is also a popular "parlor" or car game. So we're announcing a contest
today to come up with one or more terms for the following across three different websites. The prize for each is a signed Mindscape image from our Mindscape photo blog, valued at $295.

Please suggest a term for each or any of the following:

1. A gathering of [name of any public figure]____________ supporters.
2. A friendly gathering of "talking heads" on "Hardball with Chris Matthews"
3. A screaming, blathering group of disagreeing "talking heads" on "Hardball with Chris Matthews"
4. A group of expatriot Obama supporters
5. A gathering of Sarah Palin supporters
6. A group of Florida voters
7. A group of Minnesota voters
8. A group of Bill O'Reilly viewers forced to watch Keith Olbermann
9. A group of Keith Olbermann viewers forced to watch Bill O'Reilly
10. Add your own group!

Submissions may be by email or as a comment added to this or any related post. Winners will be announced February 14, 2008.

Repairing the Nets

Photographed in Cape Coast Ghana this image shows a common daily activity. Repairing the nets from the hundreds of boats in the Cape Coast fishing fleet.

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Birdhouse Beachfront

While visiting one of the best bead shops in America, Gemstar Gemstones in Enfield NH, I had the opportunity to photograph this group of birdhouses that resembled a bunch of colorful houses on a beachfront. Thus was born Birdhouse Beachfront!

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Sugar Hill Meetinghouse

Photographed in Sugar Hill, NH

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The Conversation

This image was photographed at the Sandwich Fair in Sandwich NH. Originally shot in color I first converted the image to black and white because I felt that the simple subject was most important and that color in the image added no value. 

After making the conversion, it was clear that I also needed to de-emphasize everything in the image except the two farmers and the ox. In this way it appears that there is a conversation taking place between the three.

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Knee Deep in Zebras

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The Mask #1

Image captured at the Lekki Market in Lagos Nigeria
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Wash Day in Accra

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At The Water's Edge

Photographed in Lagos Nigeria just before Terry Cromwell and I hired the owner of the boat to take us for a boat ride.


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Senegal Sunbrella #1

Photographed in Kayar, Senegal.


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Images from the Smithsonian National Pow Wow

Being of Iroquois stock, Alice and I felt strongly that we wanted our son Zach to participate in the National Pow Wow celebrating the opening the the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. We spent three glorious days in Washington DC and these images sprung from that experience.

Our Time Comes

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Native Pride

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American Icons

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Sandstone Against the Sky

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