2019 New England Reflections Calendar

Benefiting the Monadnock Conservancy

With the fall foliage season fading away, the time is overdue to get people thinking of there 2019 calendar(s).  Actually, October is late to be pushing out my New England Reflections Calendar, but there are two important factors that make this year’s calendar especially desirable.

The Calendar

First and as is always true, my 2019 calendar is the best I have ever offered!  It is difficult to choose the pictures for the calendar, but I am excited about the image selection and, once again, how beautifully they have been printed by Silver Direct. 

As always, my images focus on the Monadnock Region and southern Vermont.  Pictures include lots of flowing water (four pictures), ice coated Harrisville during the crippling 2008 December storm, spring flowers, and intense autumn colors along a road in Chesterfield.  I always include at least one animal picture, and for the 2019 calendar, it is of new-born lambs at Harrisville’s Mayfair Farm.  This year’s seacoast picture captures sunrise at the icon Portland Head Lighthouse. In November 2017 we saw a spectacular “Super” moon and I managed to capture the moonrise over Mount Monadnock. 

You can see some of these pictures here, but for the full collection, check out the 2019 New England Reflections Gallery on my web site.

The Cause

For the first time, this year, all the proceeds from my calendar benefit the great work of the Monadnock Conservancy. The Conservancy is a nonprofit land trust for southwestern New Hampshire.  Since its founding in 1989 the Conservancy has protected nearly 20,000 acres, including farmland and open spaces.  This is a wonderful group of hard-working conservationists who have been strongly supportive of the New England Reflections Calendar.  

Monadnock Conservancy Staff

It is refreshing to partner with folks who have enthusiastically taken on the work of distributing and promoting the calendar.   Even if you don’t like the calendar, please consider supporting this excellent organization to any extent you can but remember the New England Reflections Calendar make a great gift for family and friends, anytime, but especially during the holiday season. What better gift than to promote the protection of the natural beauty of our amazing corner of New England.

Where are the Calendars?

The calendars are widely available.  We are still working on expanding their distribution, but here is a partial list of the quality local establishments who have agree to carry the calendar.  You can also get one or more from me, or from the Monadnock Conservancy.

• Creative Encounters Keene
• Flowers on Main- Keene  
• Hannah Grimes- Keene
• May Fair Farm- Harrisville
• Monadnock Imaging- Keene
• Sharon Arts Center Peterborough
• Toadstool Keene
• Toadstool Peterborough
• Jingle Christmas Store, Westmoreland
• Westmoreland General Store, Westmoreland   

Monadnock Conservancy
15 Eagle Court, po box 337
Keene, NH 03431
603-357-0600

Jeff Newcomer

www.partridgebrookreflections.org
603-363-8338

2017 New England Reflections Calendar in the Stores

It is time for my annual episode of shameless begging.  The 2017 New England Reflections Calendar is now available and, now that I have finish my fall classes, I can devote more attention to distributing them throughout the region. 

Two things are always true about my new calendars.  First, once again, it is unquestionably the best calendar I have ever produced, and secondly, all the proceeds still go to support a wonderful cause, the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at Cheshire Medical Center / Dartmouth Hitchcock Keene.  Last year I increased the size of the calendar in response to those who wanted more writing room.  It makes the calendar more functional and, importantly, provides more space for my pictures.  

As always the calendar images focus on the unique beauty of New England and especially my home territory of the Monadnock Region and southern Vermont.  We don’t have the highest mountains or a restless seacoast, but we do boast beautiful lakes and rivers and, of course, our region has “The Mountain that Stands Alone”, Mount Monadnock.  It is not a region of many superlatives.  Our beauty comes from the peaceful rolling hills, miles of meandering dirt roads and classic small villages and farms.  That is what I try to capture in my photography and in the images which fill my calendars.  

Of course, I love the ocean and, as always, included one image from the seacoast, this year the Portsmouth Harbor Light House at dawn.  There is also a picture from my first visit to the Cheshire Fair and I shot (nonviolently) a deer who was gorging on the apples from my orchard.   The cover image is always most important and the view of the Jaffrey Meeting House with Mount Monadnock in the background seemed appropriate.  Recent tree removal has opened the view to the mountain making this an especially iconic vista.

You can check out all of this year’s images in my :

Calendar 2017 Gallery

Even today, with everyone’s head buried in the calendars on their devices, I think a wall calendar provides essential benefits.  Its reminders are always there and don’t require you to remember to turn on anything.  The new bigger calendar covers a major portion of that unsightly refrigerator door and the pictures are a constant reminder of how lucky we are to live in rural New England.  Many of my calendars get sent around the world, to show friends and family why we choose to live in this special corner of the world. 

So, get out and buy a bunch of calendars.  They make great gifts for the holidays or, really, anytime.  It is a way to support an important cause and, instead of a coffee mug or a tote bag, you will come away with a useful tool that also has pretty pictures.  I am still in the process of distributing the calendars to all the wonderful regional store that have agreed to dedicate a portion of their precious counter space to this cause.  Don’t forget to thanks them for helping out. 

Here is a list to date, but I will be adding more as I continue my rounds: 

• Toadstool Bookstores, Keene and Peterborough New Hampshire
• Hannah Grimes, Keene New Hampshire
• The Cheshire Medical Center Gift Shop, Keene New Hampshire
• Historical Society of Cheshire County, Keene, New Hampshire
• J & J Discount, Chesterfield, New Hampshire
• Hancock Inn, Hancock New Hampshire
• Jingles Christmas and Country Shop, Westmoreland New Hampshire
• Gilsum Village Store, Gilsum New Hampshire
• Walpole Grocery Store, Walpole New Hampshire
  
• Apryl's Orchard, Walpole, New Hampshire
• Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough New Hampshire
• Vermont Artisans Design, Brattleboro, Vermont
  
• Harlows Sugar House, Putney Vermont
• Putney General Store, Putney Vermont
• Green Mountain Orchard, Putney Vermont

The calendar can also be purchased on-line at the CheshireMedical Center web site (With free shipping!) :

And of course, I always have a bunch in the back seat of my car and, if we meet on the street, be prepared to either buy calendars our sprint desperately away.

Earlier Blog about the calendar process

Jeff Newcomer
partridgebrookreflections.com
603-363-8338

Calendar Crunch

Cover & October : Giant Guilford Sugar Maple

Catsbane Falls, West Chesterfield, NH

This is my annual calendar crunch, the time when I rush to get my New England Reflections Calendar ready to send to the printer. Each year the goal is to get the calendar out by late summer, and into local stores before the Keene State students arrive for the fall semester. We depend on all those sad parents to snatch up a remembrance of where they have callously abandoned their precious children. It's as good plan.

My deadline for the draft design and all the finished pictures is this Friday, or, by the time this article comes out, last Friday. Given the time demands, this week's article must be dedicated to the calendar. I want to share some of my selected images and a few examples of the anxious decisions that are part of each year's calendar creation.


The Selections
 

September : Peecham Sunrise

Every year I share the pain associated with my struggle to select twelve main images for the calendar. Tradition states that the images must roughly match the seasons, they must be in landscape orientation and they must have enough interest to allow me to find something say about them. As I reviewed my initial selections, I was reminded of another requirement. My collection had only one picture from

May : Creamery Covered Bridge, Brattleboro, Vt

Vermont. The Great Guilford Sugar Maple is a wonderful image and it will be featured on the cover, but I always try to have a balance of pictures from New Hampshire and Vermont, my two primary markets. There was no problem finding great Vermont images and in the final version I have four, including the classic Vermont Country Store for December.




With more than ten years of calendars behind me, it is also important to check my archives to make sure that I am not reusing images from previous editions.

The Format
 

July : Barn Light, Jaffrey, NH

My calendars have always been printed in landscape format with pages at 8.5 x 11". This year I thought it might be interesting to experiment with a different size. I was hoping to publish a bigger calendar, and in portrait format. I have so many great pictures with this vertical orientation that I have been longing to use, but I ended up going with a larger, 10.5x13", size but still in landscape mode. It will be interesting to see if the bigger calendar is popular, but the increased size does place more pressure on the image quality. 

November : Forest Deep, Chesterfield, NH

Resolution
 

Red Tail Hawk

One of my first steps in calendar design is to throw low resolution versions of candidate images into my rough draft. These are usually small web images that can look great in the draft, but may fall apart when the originals are brought to full size, and the increased format size made this issue more significant. I wanted to use a great picture of a Red Tail hawk taking flight for my March image. Sadly, when I opened the original, I discovered that the combination of extreme cropping and high ISO made the image too grainy to work at 10.5x13. Everyone loved that picture, but the good news is that I was able to replace the Hawk with a cute picture of two draft horses peaking through the trees at the Stonewall Farm's Sap Gathering Contest. No image is indispensable.

March : Peaking Pair, Keene, NH

A Dedication
 I always dedicate the inside back page of my calendars to a thumbnail of the next year's calendar and a list of that year's holidays. The page is also the one place for a portrait oriented image. This year I hope I will be excused for using that spot to remember my wonderful photography companion Nellie. Over the last 13 years Nellie sat patiently at my side as I captured many of my best images, including most in this year's calendar. I know I will be sensing her presence for years to come as I explore the trails and roads of New England.

I have to get back to work. Only a few more days to go.



Again I hope to see you at the Ewing Arts Awards on the 23rd at Keene State College's Redfen Arts Center. It should be a fun time.


Check out all of the selected images in the 2016 New England Reflections Calendar Gallery


Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com

Calendar Time

Buy, Buy, Buy!

Lost In the Toadstool Calendar Rack

It seems like everyone is publishing a calendar these days. There are some beautiful ones out there including a few from my friends in the New England Photography Guild. A visit to any bookstore will reveal hundreds of choices with themes ranging from local and global natural wonders to the artistically posed, but profoundly disturbing naked forms of members of the local Rotary Club. Please don't expect to see the "Men of the Chesterfield Conservation Commission" any time soon.

Of course this article is an unapologetic attempt to get you to support my "New England Reflections Calendar." With all the competition it can be a struggle to command the attention of the calendar buying public. I have no magic formula, but I can relate what has seemed to work for me over the last ten years.

Find a Cause
First and foremost, I feel that it has been the cause, to which all of the profits have been dedicated, that accounts for the popularity of my calendar.  For a number of years I struggled with the thought of producing a calendar. I felt uncomfortable with the idea of profiting by trying to market my work to all my unfortunate friends and family. Then a patient who is also a friend suggested that I sell the calendar to benefit a local charity. I knew exactly where I wanted the money to go, and over the last 10 years I've managed to send over $40k to support the work of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at the Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, New Hampshire. The money has been used to help patients who would not have been able to afford the program and has made possible special events that have added to the experience for many needy participants. Getting no financial benefit from the sales has also made me much more comfortable when I shamelessly and obnoxiously hawk the calendar throughout the community. Of course, with the money going to such a worthy local cause, it has been easier to get a long list of wonderful stores to sell the calendar.

Quality Counts
All tricks aside, the quality of the images is most important for the long term popularity of the calendar. I've talked about the struggle

November

of selecting each year's images. Throughout the year I am looking for the perfect scenes, but in the end it is impossible to predict what will capture the eye of my audience. I really like this year's November image, but I was afraid that many would not enjoy a picture of frozen ground liter.  Happily the image has been one of the most popular in the 2015 calendar.  The large monthly pictures are important, but I think it is often the little additions, the thumbnail images, the banners, the choices of holidays, and the descriptions of the images, that make the calendar more attractive and complete. And of course the cover image is always a critical marketing choice.


 


2015 Gallery

 
Image Information and Links

 














Keep it Local
Of course the content of the calendar is very important. I know my customers and, as the "New England Reflections" title implies, I

Westmoreland, NH

have images that focus on my home region, trying to reflect a mix of landscapes from the Monadnock Region and Southern Vermont. I always like to add one Seacoast image and at least one of local wildlife. It is remarkable how many calendars get sent out of the region to those who have moved away or to explain to distant friends why we choose to live in this uniquely special corner of the world. I am told that there are folks in Germany, China and throughout the world for whom my calendar has become a holiday tradition, so it is important to select images that reflect the special character and feel of our region.

Get it Out
I have mentioned before the importance of getting the calendar out early. This has always been a problem for me, but in the last couple of years I have been able to start distribution in the late summer. The key is to get to people before they make their yearly calendar purchases and before the flood of free calendars start flowing in.

The real purpose of this blog is to remind everyone that it is calendar time. I, and the patients with chronic lung diseases in our community, would appreciate you considering buying one ( or ten ) New England Reflections Calendars. You can find the calendar at the Cheshire a Medical Center Gift Shop off of the main lobby or on-line at the hospital web site, and we will pay for the shipping.

Calendars are also available in many fine stores including:

Toadstool Bookstore in Keene and Peterborough, NH
Hanna Grimes, Keene, NH
Sharon Arts Center, Peterborough, NH
Harrisville General Store, Harrisville, NH
Monadnock Imaging, Keene, NH
Ingenuity Country Store, Keene, NH
Monadnock Food Co-op, Keene, NH
Heidis/Tildens Hallmark Store, Keene, NH
Nicole & Bonnie's Salon, Keene, NH
Leon's Auto Center, Keene, NH
Alyson's Orchard, Walpole, NH
J & J Discount Store, Chesterfield, NH
Westmoreland General Store, Westmoreland, NH
Gilsum General Store, Gilsum, NH
Walpole Grocery, Walpole, NH
Jingles Christmas Store, Westmoreland, NH
Harlow's Sugar House, Putney, Vt
Newfane Market, Newfane, Vt
Vermont Artisans Design, Brattleboro, Vt
South Woodstock Country Store, South Woodstock, Vt


 
This week's snow is a potent reminder that January is right around the corner, so get out there and buy calendars!

 

We thank you all for your wonderful support.


Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com

Photography Calendars

2015 Cover

Assembling the Right Stuff
I will ask forgiveness in advance for devoting this weeks blog to my experience designing my yearly New England Reflections Calendar. With the deadline for the 2015 calendar coming up next week, I have little time to think of much else. I have been publishing my calendar of New England photography to benefit the Cheshire Medical Center Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program for more than a decade and I hope my experiences will be of some interest to those who publish their own calendars or those who are considering taking on the challenge. 

Last year, and for the first time, I actually got my calendar out on a reasonable date. Our goal has been to have the thing in stores by

The Cover is Critical

the time the students return to Keene State College for the fall semester. This year it means that I need to get the files and my rough layout to the designer by July 25th. In the early years, I had to design the calendar in Microsoft Publisher and then work with the lovely people in the hospital print shop to try to get the images to look something like I had seen on the screen. The results were remarkably good considering that they were coming off of a laser printer that was intended to produce large volumes of hospital forms and not fine art images. The calendars sold well, but they were not of professional quality. 


Beginning in 2010 we made the jump to a professional printer and the differences have been amazing. Not only are the images sharper and more brilliant, but the process for me has been much easier. I now do

May, Peacham, Vt

the initial selection of images and set the rough design in Publisher, but from that point I hand off the images and layout to a designer who prepares the final files in InDesign.  The calendars come back in a couple of weeks all bound and shrink wrapped with a piece of cardboard in the middle to avoid curling. It is wonderful that I don't have to collate, punch and bind hundred of calendars. The calendars are more expensive to produce, but we get a reasonable deal from Silver Direct, Inc, a local printer who does a nice job and is a pleasure to work with. The bottom line is that we get a lovely calendar and most importantly we can still make money for the Rehab Program.

While the process is all painfully fresh in my mind, I thought it might be helpful for those considering putting together a calendar of their own work, to provide a short list of the resources I need to assemble for my yearly project and it all starts with the painful chore of selecting the images.

The Big Pictures
My first step is to assemble a collection of potential images for the large monthly calendars and , of course, for the all important cover

October, Green River, Vt

shot. The first basic criterion is that all the images must be in landscape orientation. Someday I will put together a calendar using portrait oriented images and that year I will have a ton of pictures available that I have been desperate to use.  Although what I do is called "landscape" photography, I love images which feature a wide depth of field and that, more often than not, means shooting in portrait orientation.  Knowing that the

April, Winchester, NH

calendar is coming every year reminds me of an important photographic axiom; "The best time to take a landscape oriented picture is right after you have taken the portrait oriented image". After shooting a portrait image, I always try to remember to flip my camera and look for a composition that will work in landscape mode. This not only works for the calendar but also gives me important options for future clients who may need the landscape view.




Location, Location

March, Rye Beach, NH

My calendar is titled "New England" Reflection, so I can't use any of my spectacular pictures of Prague or the amazing wildlife of the Galapagos Islands, and, to satisfy my audience, I try to include a selection of images from both New Hampshire and Vermont. Traditionally I try to add one sea coast picture and, to provide a break from the endless trees and mountains, I look for at least one wildlife image. This year I knew what my wildlife picture would be even before I clicked the shutter on this year's remarkable Snowy Owls. 




The Seasons
Of course it is tradition that the images should match the season,

January, Spofford, NH - Why Not in July?

but it has always been a source of wonder to me that, in the middle of the nose numbing cold of winter, people would rebel at seeing anything other than a winter scene on the January calendar. I swear that someday my calendar will switch the seasons. Why not a warm summer pasture in February and a refreshingly cold snow covered village to offset the steamy heat of August. I swear, I'm going to do it! I'm retired now and I can do anything I want, I think. Anyway, I digress, you can check out my selections for this year in the Calendar Gallery on my partridgebrookreflections.com web site.



The Little Stuff
After the agony, of picking my twelve images from all those I would like to include, I move on to the other graphics in the calendar. I have to switch my vision to look for complementary banners and thumbnails.




Banners
Finding banner images that will complement the main pictures both visually and contextually is often a more difficult task than picking the primary images themselves. I have to scan looking for a slice that will work, understanding that even my least favorite image may contain a sliver that will work perfectly. I move candidates into photoshop and, after setting my crop ratio to the needed 11.25" x 8", I move the crop window up and down to see if something clicks. 






 
Thumbnails

August, Port Clyde, Me

Finally I get to pick images for thumbnail, those little pictures that fill some of the open blocks in the calendar. This is where I get to honor some of the images I would have liked to have included as main monthly pictures. Some of these occasionally show up as big pictures in future calendars.

Thumbs

Once I have selected all my images I have to go back to the original full resolution files and adjust the size, color and sharpness to fit into the calendar. I keep my monitor calibrated and I haven't found a need to apply a separate printer profile to get reasonable color balance. 



The Text
I have always tried to include helpful information in my calendars. 

After the images are ready, I start by writing short informational blurbs" for each image. I try to write a short story which describes something about the location or the process that went into capturing the image. Some picture come with great stories to share, but for others this can be a challenge,  when the only thing I can come up with is "Red Barn".  I do my best, but sometimes I will sacrifice a great image just because I can't find an interesting story to tell.  This year, where appropriate, I've decided to supplement my "Blurbs" with links to complementary articles in my Blog archive. Next, I update the information for the back of the calendar that describes the work and honors all the great things that Pulmonary Rehab does to help our patients who struggle with the challenges of living with chronic lung disease. Finally I have to decide on which holidays to include

My One Portrait for 2015

in the calendar. Federal Holidays are obvious, but which Christian, Jewish or Moslem holidays, AND how exactly do you spell
"(C)Hanukah".  I throw in Groundhog Day, Fathers, Mothers Day and Valentines day (to help out Hallmark), and, sadly for our Native American readers, Columbus Day. Google "holidays" sometime and you will see that it is impossible to include everything and I am bound to piss off lots of very earnest celebrants of National Explosive Ordnance Disposal Day (May 3rd). I do my best. All that is left to add are the phases of the moon and I'm done.






 



Letting Go
I package all the files onto one or two disks and drop them off at Silver Direct. It usually only takes a week or two to get the PDF

July, Winchester, NH

proof back for review. I have learned to get as many people as possible to proof read the calendar.  I do this to catch the inevitable mistakes and to involve as many critics as possible in the blame for the one or two gaffs that always slip through. One year the printer actually left out a day, just skipped it!, and no one caught the mistake until the calendars were distributed to stores throughout the region. I had to chase down every calendar and insert a sticker strip to correct the offending week. The flawed calendars that I missed are still out there and are undoubtedly valuable collectors items.

So that's my process. If you want to produce your own calendar, I hope this description will be helpful, and not horrifying. I would only add that the best decision I ever made was to donate the profits from my calendar to a worthy cause. It makes the marketing much easier and benefits some very lovely and needy people.  So if you get a chance, buy one (or 10) of my calendars, they make great gifts for a GREAT cause.  I could say more, but I am only half way through my banner images and that deadline is freight training its way to my door. 


Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com