Photography from my current, fairly ambitious plan

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All of these photographs originate from a place that is a mile from my kitchen table, at the Perry Farm Prairie in Bradley, Illinois.  The prairie is beautiful when its many shades of summer green begin to drain from the grasses, revealing their true brown, tan and golden colors.  I really like the prairie on cool days, when the Illinois sky becomes pure blue and gentle air currents pull fully pronounced clouds across the troposphere.

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For over a year, I’ve been on a major self-study course.  I’ve read native plant books and taught myself the names of the local native flowers.  Above are white asters, a flowering milkweed, Jerusalem artichoke, rough blazing star; I can also identify and name by sight the various prairie grasses and also a growing body of native invertebrates.

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I’m going print each series of four images on cards (there will be four cards to each pack).  I’m going to sell the cards in the local Bradley and Bourbonnais markets; they will be ready for the holiday season so local folks can purchase local art about local subject matter as holiday gifts for family and friends.

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Also, I’m going to sell unframed photographs of each image online, through Zenfolio.  On the back of each card will be the series title, my name, and a note that says, “To purchase card images as unframed photographs, visit: http://www.chrisshoup.com/purchase.” 

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The series above, of the denuded tree silhouette tessellations, is titled “Sundown over emergent prairie.”  I took these photographs right at the beginning of March.  I am extremely happy with the colors.

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I consider this plan fairly ambitious because I have to pull if off at a time when I’m particularly busy with teaching sixth graders, with being a father (which seems to only get harder as the daughters get older), and with being a husband.  Yet I’m continually driven to be an artist who sells work.

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