Fifteenth and Twentieth, and also Twenty-first

Another photo that will feature in next year's calendar, and a note to say that you still have a few more days to get your order in if you haven't already. The marvellous folks at Revprint are making up the proofs this week so we have a little time to still confirm the final print quantities.

And I also just realised the 2024 calendar is the fifteenth edition, and also the twentieth edition as well as the twenty-first edition of my calendar! (Explaination is below ...)

Winter sunrise showing off at Glencairn Beach

I hand made my first calendar for 1997 when I was living in the UK, as christmas gifts for my parents and grandparents: photographic enlargements from slides pasted onto card, two months per page, with lots of white space and artsy fartsy numbers in row at the bottom. The next I made was for 2004, again prints from slides on textured watercolour paper, this time with the dates in little blocks. (I still have my grandfather's copy with the appointments and birthdays he pencilled in.) The next few years I printed them on my large format colour printer, quite expensive, but a lot more affordable than photographic enlargements - especially since a few more family had specifically requested them. When it was time to make the 2009 calendar, even more family wanted them and I realised it would now be much cheaper to outsource the printing. And since the cost would be the same if I printed ten or twenty, I thought I'd see if maybe one or two of my Pic of the Week regulars might want one. To my utter astonishment I needed to print two hundred!

So, this is the fifteenth edition of the mass printed calendar, the twentieth of the this-is-now-a-regular-thing calendar. And twenty-six years since I first thought a calendar might make a nice gift.

Thanks to all of you who have joined me over the years, who have enjoyed my calendars and sharing them as gifts year after year! You're very much appreciated!

The one at top centre was the first 1997 one. 2005 has so far been the only black and white calendar I've made. For 2006 I alternated with photos by my sister Vanessa as well. 2009 was the first mass-printed edition. I would still like to offer a limited edition hand-made version with select photographic prints, possibly black and white. It's a lot of work, but I think it would be really nice. One day ...