A Hidden Fortune in Photo Calendars?

When it comes to photo calendars, there's an abundance of eye candy out there.

Hundreds (and probably more like thousands) of photo based calendars are published every year - sometimes every month, offering all sorts of amazing photo themes to drool over.

From vacation calendars (think holidays on gorgeous tropical islands) to celebrity calendars, there's really no end to what funky calendar subjects can turn up at your local bookstore.

Many people think that creating a photography inspired calendar is a huge project to undertake. But, it can be a lot simpler than that.

Creating a photography calendar is actually no more difficult than finding a good quality online calendar printer and uploading your prized photos. (Holiday snaps are OK too!)

Cranking Out Photo Calendars

Snap easy!

You see, now that we have embraced the Internet's high speed, full-color digital technology, uploading high resolution images is really just a walk in the park.

And now that we are snapping away with Blueberries, iPhones, iMacs - and whatever other image-capturing tool you can get your hands on, it's become common-place to upload images online and get them printed online too.

This is wonderful because getting your images out there is a great way to express yourself while reaching people in an emotionally charged and aesthetically engaging way.

Not to mention giving viewers a whole new perspective on the world in which we live!

But who makes all these cool photo calendars?

Well, my guess is that most of the professional photographic calendars you see in book stores are published by well known photographers or companies that have been in the publishing trade a long time.

The First Photo Baby Steps

Adventure opportunities

Having said that, creating calendars is also very popular among hobbyists and amateur shutterbugs. After all, if it's so easy to do, why wouldn't you do it?

To be certain, many wildly popular photo calendars get heaps of attention purely because their pictures are top notch. And often stunningly beautiful. (But that's not always the case!)

And many of the photographers commissioned to take these photos are truly experts at what they do. (Usually with an impressive professional portfolio hanging around somewhere.

But there's still room for you though!

There's been examples where certain picture calendars with exceptional stylish images have become popular even though they are published by charities or home-town photographers who just love to shoot!

Creating Your Own Custom Photo Calendar

So what we're seeing is calendars that embrace the whole spectrum of creativity - from the work of highly skilled artisans to playful collections of curiosities - show that creating calendars is a truly diverse artform.

The fact that photo based calendars are so easy to create enables people at all skill levels to become a part of the global conversation about the nature of photography today.

Sunsets make for great calendars

Whether you're an artist keen to make photo scrapbook calendars - a hobbyist who wants to create a calendar, a small business that wants to build a brand using images, or whether you just enjoy learning how to do stuff...

Spending some time eyeing the popular photo based calendars (whether online websites or your local department store) can be a very rewarding endeavor.

Simply by seeing pictures of another land, location or remote place, allows you to travel somewhere else (at least in your imagination!)

Not to mention it's incredibly inspiring too!

To get started making your own calendar (whether it's a calendar wallpaper, wall or desktop calendars) see the calendar resources guide box above for specific calendar-making directions.

Here's my own mini calendars skyscapes using cloud and storm photography as another example of creating your own calendar.

A lot of film stills end up making excellent calendars!