Mark VanDonge Photography

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10.24.2007:

Brief Fall Update

Autumn is at its peak and I've been doing my best to capture the light and color that you only find this time of year. Photos coming soon.

07.14.2007:

Back Home/Europe 2007

Hello!  I just wanted to quickly say that I'm back from a truly wonderful six week travel adventure through Western Europe.  Of course I have literally thousands of photos now to go through, so stay tuned and be patient because EUROPE 2007 will be COMING SOON!  For now enjoy Carcassonne above!

By the way, I was pleased to have a piece accepted while I was gone at this year's regional juried art show at Carnegie Art Center.  I think that the exhibition is coming down soon, but go take a look if you can.  Also, there was a nice little article in the Union-Bulletin on my photography that ran towards the end of May.  It looks like they've already taken down the online version so maybe I'll scan it and put a link up on this site.  I thought it was a nice article.

04.14.2007:

Finally Updated Again!

After nearly two months without an update I've finally taken the time to sit down and put up some new photos.  Also in this update is the long overdue Shows & Exhibitions page where you can see current and upcoming events featuring my photography.  I was very pleased to participate recently in the "100 For 100" show benefiting the Carnegie Art Center and I'm really looking forward to two shows coming up in May.

Just because I haven't been putting new pictures online does not mean that I haven't been out taking them.  I think you'll find some nice new additions, especially now that the Spring colors are starting to come alive again in the valley.  I'm hoping to continue with a few additional updates in the near future.  Enjoy the new additions for now!

01.17.2007:

Best of Walla Walla & New Photos

Seeing as how this is my first post in January let me start by wishing you a happy new year!  With this update I've added five new photos to the Walla Walla Landscapes gallery and created a brand new Best of Walla Walla gallery, which I think will be a very popular way to browse all of your favorite Walla Walla photos in one convenient location. 

I'm very pleased with the growing collection of fantastically different and dramatic photos of the blue mountains under various lighting and cloud conditions available on this site.  The mountains and surrounding hills are my favorite subject to photograph and my goal is to assemble THE collection of photography showcasing the blues. 

I think 2007 is going to be a great year for this site.  I already have a few local shows on my schedule and am working with a few websites to increase my online exposure.  Look for an actual "Current Galleries & Stores" page to be up soon, as well as an updated links page and a personal video page.  Speaking of personal videos, and this really will only interest you if you know my brother, but the smash hit "SexyBen" has now accumulated more than 500 (!) views on this site and YouTube.  If you don't know what I'm talking about then you can check out the video here on YouTube or view the full size 48MB version here.  Incredible. 

Also, I've heard from a number of people that the videos on this site are not viewable on Macs so from now on I will include links to YouTube versions of all the videos on this site.  The quality will suffer some, but it's better than nothing at all.  If you have any other feedback please send it my way!

12.01.2006:

USA Travel Music Video

Check out the brand new USA Travel Music Video!  It features "Upside Down" by Jack Johnson from the Curious George soundtrack- great song.  Wow- I've now almost got a video for each gallery.  Visit the music videos page to see them all.

11.30.2006:

Quality Control, Large Prints and More

A few photos from my trip to the East coast are now posted in the USA Travel gallery.  I'm also in the middle of doing some quality control which involves removing a few photos from the site.  Before photos are completely removed they will move to the Last Chance gallery where they will available at half price.  Take a look before they're gone!

Part of the quality control includes an overall review of the site and what areas I can improve.  I combined the Pacific Northwest gallery with the USA Travel gallery.  Newer photos are now available in the 20x30 size for $120 and I'm in the process of updating the site to reflect that. 

In other news, greeting card prices have been finalized and they are starting to become more widely available around town.  Cards currently can be purchased in the Greeting Cards section of this site, at Fenton-Stahl Gallery, from Bob VanDonge at Edison or Berney Elementary, or from myself at Windermere Real Estate.  I've contacted a number of other local retailers and they will be appearing in several other locations in the coming weeks.  As that happens I will finally make a Current Galleries and Stores page that lists where my photos and cards are currently being displayed or sold.  On that note, a beautifully framed print of one of my personal favorite photos, Spectacular Evening Glow Over the Blues, has been added to the Christmas art exhibition at Whitman Cellars.  Stop by for the barrel tasting this weekend and take a look.

I'm planning to continue my site review over the weekend so look for more updates.  If you haven't seen it yet, take a look at the clip of me on the Late Show with David Letterman.

11.27.2006:

Quick Update

Quick update:  I'm back from Boston/NYC and had a great time.  To see a clip of me on the Late Show with David Letterman click here.  Greeting card prices have been simplified and reduced.  Look for more site updates this week! 

10.31.2006:

Greeting Cards Now Available!

Greeting cards are now available!  These high quality, glossy cards feature only the very best photos and aim to capture the natural beauty and local charm of the Walla Walla Valley.  The first run of cards will be available both online and in a select number of local retailers.  Look for the current galleries and stores page to finally make an appearance in the next few weeks as the cards are distributed throughout town. 

If these cards are well received the number of cards available will likely increase and a set of cards featuring photos from the Europe gallery will probably be printed.  You might notice that there has been a slight change in the shipping options- prints and greeting cards are now available for pick up at my office at Windermere Real Estate.  I don't have a stock of photos or cards at the office (I'm not turning it into my personal gallery) so this option is only for orders that have already been paid and that I have okayed for pick up. 

Time permitting there will be a few more updates to the site this week.  I'm planning on doing some house cleaning and removing a few photos from the site.  There may be some sort of "last chance" gallery where photos appear before making their final exit.  I'd also like to make a few more music videos.

10.31.2006:

Travel Plans

I will be traveling to Boston and New York City for about 10 days on November 10, so there will be no site updates and no orders processed during that time.  All print orders submitted by November 3 and all greeting card orders submitted by November 7 will be filled before I leave.

This will be my first visit to both cities and I'm very excited!  If you have any recommendations please feel free to share.

10.24.2006:

Fall in Walla Walla

Fall is upon us here in Walla Walla and the first photos of the season are now appearing in the City of Walla Walla gallery (or New Additions).  We have been blessed recently with some wonderful weather- I know I certainly enjoyed it this past weekend while walking around with my camera through the Whitman campus and downtown.  What great timing for parents weekend at Whitman. 

I'm hoping to make several important updates on the web site this week.  The greeting card design has been finalized and I'm checking the printed proofs later today.  Assuming everything looks good the cards will be available as soon as I create a new Greeting Cards page that routes orders through PayPal.  The plan is to have all of the greeting card sets available online and then a few of the sets available at various local businesses. 

By the way, if you've enjoyed the music videos keep checking back every so often.  I added a new video a few days ago and will most likely make another one or two some time this week.

Finally, a Christmas/Holiday Season promotion is in the works.  I'm planning on beginning that the first of November- stay tuned for details...

10.11.2006:

Google and "Walla Walla Photography"

Yes!  One simple change and markseye.com is now a first page result when searching Google for Walla Walla Photography.  Right now we're showing up as the third result, so help me out and continue to search and click and soon we'll move up to number one!  By the way, if you haven't looked at the music videos yet you really should.  I enjoy them quite a bit.

10.10.2006:

Music Videos

I'm proud to announce a new feature- music videos!  Sit back, relax and enjoy a journey through your favorite markseye.com photos.  The plan is to eventually have a video for each gallery, but I'll wait until the gallery has enough photos to work with before making its video.  I'm really excited about this new feature (almost as excited as I am for the new "Friends Game" on Facebook), so let me know if you like it too.

10.08.2006:

New Header Image

Wow- three news posts in one day.  With this post I'm soliciting comments on the new image you're seeing up top.  Does anyone miss the sunflower?  I think it would be fun to switch things up every once in a while, but I do like that sunflower.  Alright- comments are always appreciated.  If you miss the sunflower you can still find it here. 

10.08.2006:

City of Walla Walla, Travel & Greeting Cards

The City of Walla Walla gallery is finally online!  Selections are a bit limited at this point but I'm really pleased with the photos that are up right now.  For some reason I don't have any older photos from around town that are site-worthy so everything in this gallery dates back to just a few weeks ago at the very latest.  I'll be working to continue to build this gallery over the next couple weeks, especially as Fall sets in and the colors in the trees start to change. 

I'm considering a trip to Boston in the next month or two, so if that pans out there may be some East coast additions to the USA Travel gallery.  A Christmas Disneyland visit is also planned, but I don't know if that will produce any photos for the site. 

In other news, I've put together a printed binder of some of the highlights from this site to take around with me to local galleries and businesses.  In the next couple weeks I'm hoping to finally get some work up around town and finalize the greeting card design so that they will be available plenty of time before the holidays- a 10-pack for $20 would make a great gift! 

10.08.2006:

Google and "Michelangelo's Staircase"

So check this out- go to Google and search for Michelangelo's Staircase.  That's right- this stylin' photo on markseye.com is the #1 result out of 116,000 pages!  Should it be?  No.  Do I know why it is?  No.  Still, I think that's pretty cool.  I discovered this a week or two ago when looking over which search keywords are bringing people to this site.  I haven't found any other strings that pull up surprising results so I really don't know why this would happen.  Oh well- I'll just enjoy it until it gets fixed.

09.25.2006:

New Galleries

I added three new galleries in the last week- New Additions, Mark's Favorites and Mark's Personal Album.  Give them a look and keep checking back for more updates!  All new gallery photos will appear in both the New Additions gallery and in the photo's permanent gallery.  Photos will disappear from New Additions after a few weeks but will remain in the permanent galleries.  The Mark's Favorites gallery is subject to change whenever I feel like making changes (the same rules apply to Mark's Personal Album).

09.18.2006:

One Week Anniversary

In its first week of existence markseye.com was visited by more than 80 different people who browsed through more than 3000 pages.  I'd say that's a pretty good start!  Thanks to everyone who has visited (and purchased prints!) so far.  Keep checking back as there will continue to be frequent updates over the next several weeks.  I know that, at this point, there are still a lot of pages that say "coming soon."  Well, they are coming soon so just sit tight (New Additions gallery added today!).  By the way, this last weekend I found a great buy on frames which puts me one step closer to getting some photos up in a few local galleries.  Okay, please continue to tell your friends about the site and remember that I'd love to receive feedback via the contact page!

09.10.2006:

Live in 3, 2, 1...

After weeks of work the first full version of markseye.com is ready to go!  Browse the galleries, check out some of the other pages and maybe even purchase a print if you find something you really like.  There is still a lot to update and get in place but I think this is a good start.  Please email me if you find any broken links or anything else that isn't working as it should.  I'd really love to hear your feedback so use the contact page!

08.22.2006:

markseye.com Online!

markseye.com is online! Well, sort of. I secured my domain name today and uploaded a temporary "coming soon" page.  It makes for a good teaser.  After logging into my host account I still feel like there is so much that I don't know about building a website, but I have figured out enough to get the job done so far.  I'm not sure at what point I'll launch the regular site.  I know I want the ordering system in place before it goes online and I want a number of galleries to be fully loaded.  "Other Products" and some of the other pages probably aren't necessary to have up to start with. 

08.21.2006:

Back to Work

I'm trying to get back to work on the site after not doing very much last week. I have, however, made two new pages in the last two days and I applied for my business license today.

08.15.2006:

Website Update

Work is going well on the website.  I've got the general site format in place and am now figuring out the business details.

08.06.2006:

Work on Website Begins!

After months of promises I've finally started work on my own photography website!