printclub

50ft Memberships

After nearly 10 years of operation fiftyfootshadows has seen the landscape of photography online morph and change in all kinds of ways. Communities have come and gone, trends have caught fire and flickered out. As often as things seem to change I have been right here, in my own little world on 50ft, jogging along side the shifting landscape. I love this work and I am eternally grateful for the encouragement and kindness everyone has shown through the years. Let’s start by looking back for a moment and where we have been, then move onto the new.

The Past

Did you know 2017 is the 10th year of operation for fiftyfootshadows.net? It’s been a long run! Prior to this you could find me on twistedsun.net, a project started in my senior year of high school in 2000 which I retired while moving to 50ft. It all started as a way to get my name into the online design world at a time prior to social media in the early 2000’s by sharing photos and designs as desktop wallpapers.

In those days trading links was the best way to get your name out into the world, so ad hock networks offering similar services started to pop up all over the place hidden on friendly link pages stuffed full of little gifs linking to other sites. There were even standards for the dimensions of these little badges to make link pages uniform. It was always fun to dig through these underground communities because everyone leaned on each other for support. During that time I relied on larger, well established sites with link sharing pages such as Pixelgirl Presents and the Icon Factory to get my work out into the world.

Years passed by and slowly but surely my persistence started to snowball and my readership grew. It wasn’t until the 50ft days that I really started to get my footing and find my voice not only as a photographer but as a writer as well. This project has guided my creative side for nearly a third of my life and given me opportunities and encouragement I could not have dreamed of otherwise.

Among the wealth of genuine joy it has given me to write and share on these pages through the years, the most fulfilling part of the experience has been in the connections I have made along the way with those in tune around the world. The encouragement, respect, and generosity shown by everyone following along has been my number one driving force among all else and without you I would not still be here today and for that I want to take this moment to day THANK YOU.

The Future

Now, lets look forward shall we? To do that I need to lay out what my goals have been for the site for several years now. I have always had a bigger vision for these pages but have largely kept it to myself in an effort to curb expectations. Distilled to its most basic form, I want to post at least twice a week along with less frequent additional posts. This would include a new wallpaper image and a “Now Spinning” music post in addition to 50ft Radio mixes once a month or so, regular guest wallpaper posts, and continued commentary on photography, tech, and living life.

Yet a regular posting schedule is just the shallow f/1.4 point of view. The full scene really starts to come into focus when you stop down to f/11 or so and see just how much there is that I hoped to accomplish within this space. Ideas include but don’t end with; product reviews, a podcast, a publishing company releasing books, zines, music, tangible goods with a common aesthetic along with my wife, YoungDoo, and more.

Somewhere in the middle of modest and lofty lies something I think I can accomplish with my current means and schedule and I believe it will be a perfect launching point to not only get back to regular programing here on the site but build for a better future as well. That brings us to today and the long overdue launch of a membership service here on 50ft.

The Present

I call it The 50ft Print Club. It’s an idea that started to form in my head at least five or more years ago and I think its high time to get this project off the ground. The basic idea is simple, at the beginning of each month I will send members of the club one 4×6 Print.

The prints will be chosen by me from my archives each month and printed at home on my lovely Epson R3000. If the amount of subscribers gets to be too big to handle on my own, then it will be outsourced to a trusted printer but they will always pass through my hands on their way to you. I’m a stickler for quality. Photos will be signed and mailed in simple, stamped envelopes.

Also, because I’m a bit of a romantic, I will also include a letter to go along with each print as well. You could view it as a tangible blog post, I see it as more a pen pal kind of scenario on a bigger scale (feel free to write back!), either way this is all for the sake of connecting with those who support what I do and giving back.

But wait, theres more; a second, lower level membership to 50ft that does not include a print each month. This will be called The 50ft Standard. Included with this basic membership I will offer up higher resolution versions of wallpapers for those of you with more pixel hungry devices, not all at once, but gradually I will start filling a members only archive with users old favorites and adding exclusive images into the archive over time. I will send out emails letting members know whats new in the member section.

Please, be patient with me as I add more content to the section, there are a few things in the member library to get us started but there is still plenty more to come in addition to regularly scheduled updates.

*All benefits of the 50ft Standard are included with a print club membership.

I did my best to keep costs as low as I could but still send you guys a nice looking, quality print. Cost of the print club is tied to the raw cost and time going into making this viable and realistic for me to maintain. Cost for the Print Club is $7 a month and the cost of the 50ft Standard is $3 a month*. Shipping is included (anywhere in the world).

There is also a couple of “tip jar” options in the sign up page for those who are able and perhaps willing to give more to support the site it will add a couple more dollars to whichever level of subscription you choose.

In addition to these memberships I have lowered the cost of Fine Art Prints and offer a discount on them if you are a member of either subscription. 8.5×11″ prints are now $40 for non-members and $25 for members. 11×17″ prints are now $60 for non-members and $45 for members.

Thats it! I really want to keep this simple, no tricks, long term commitments or fine print. If you are wondering, any money raised here will go back into this side of my life. Hosting, future projects, camera gear, travel, anything that would aid the further growth of the site. This is and always has been for you guys so let me say, again, you guys are the best. Thanks for encouraging me to keep going through the years. One last thing, if anyone was wondering, nothing will change for non-members, I will continue to post and share as I always have.

Click here to sign up or follow the link on the sidebar. There is also an FAQ if you have any questions not answered here. Thanks for your time, heres to new beginnings!

*I know that not everyone around the world who enjoys this site has access to the same luxuries as the rest of us so if you feel as though you can not afford to become a member but still want to be part of the print club, write me an email and maybe we can work something out, I respond well to honesty. Also, if you have any trouble with the payment system feel free to reach out and we can work out something else for you.

Comments

  1. sunhead - January 17, 2017 at 9:16 pm

    Congrats on 10 years… that flew by! Happy growth in all of the next phases – proud to be a witness to it all.

  2. Lindsay - January 18, 2017 at 3:07 am

    Can’t believe 10 years has flown by. I was a reader on twistedsun.net and it’s amazing to see how your photography and writing skills have improved over all this time.

    Thanks for being an inspiration.

    Lindsay

  3. PmdU - January 18, 2017 at 2:24 pm

    I had no idea that your page is that old and now I wished I had been a reader since the beginning, but congratulations and thank you for your great and inspiring work and thoughts.
    Your ideas for the future are nice, perhaps I will join the club.

    To next ten years, the road goes ever on and on.

  4. Kyongrok Kim - January 18, 2017 at 2:57 pm

    Congratulations on fiftyfootshadows’s 10 years.
    I joined The 50ft Print Club.

  5. John Carey - January 18, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    Thanks so much for the kind words you guys, it really means a lot.

  6. Jay Du - January 19, 2017 at 3:33 am

    Hi John,

    For years 50ft has been a personal retreat place for myself. Though I don’t go through everything, I would feel comfortable knowing 50ft is always there, like a place that I keep for myself.

    So I’m glad 50ft is starting a new phase to build more tangible connections with audience. As I remember the last physical mail I got is the copper 50ft present from you and that was a pleasant surprise. This experience made me decided to join 50ft Print Club.

    I hope you will not be overwhelmed by so many “customers”. I value the the “Calmness” of 50ft in this noisy world. May you be calm in the year of 2017 and keep up the great work!

    Happy New Year of Rooster (from Chengdu) :)

    Cheers
    Jay

  7. Logan - January 26, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    Congrats! So thankful for 50ft. Glad you’re doing the work you’re doing, friend.

  8. SoundMan - February 8, 2017 at 1:03 am

    Got our first print club picture today. Exciting! Thanks.

  9. Serge - June 12, 2017 at 10:50 pm

    Congrats on the anniversary! Are the Desktop Pictures large enough to fill a 5K display? Thanks.

Leave A Reply

To whom it may concern,

IMAGES FOUND WITHIN FIFTYFOOTSHADOWS.NET ARE ©JOHN CAREY AND MAY NOT BE USED FOR ANY COMMERCIAL USE WITHOUT PERMISSION. 

DO:

• Enjoy the images! It’s a labor of love, thanks for your support!
• Share fiftyfootshadows.net with friends.
• Send me a quick mail if you are interested in using an image for commercial or personal use other than wallpaper.

DON’T:

• Post desktops elsewhere online.
• Share links directly to images.
• Pass them around in mass.
• Make prints.
• Use images for web banners or graphics. (send a quick email to ask, I’m pretty easy going about this with permission.)
• Use them in commercial work.

If you help me out with these I will be able to keep doing what I love to do. Thanks again, really, for your support and understanding. -J

——

By downloading any content from fiftyfootshadows.net you agree to the following terms:

All of the images contained within this website, fiftyfootshadows.net, are property of, John Carey unless otherwise posted. The images are distributed as freeware but they are available for personal use only on your personal computer, tablet, or smartphone as your wallpaper image. Any use of these images for any purpose other than this is a violation of these terms and anyone found using said images will be asked to either compensate the creator for doing so or be asked to stop using them immediately.

I ask that you refrain from using any images found on fiftyfootshadows.net to create physically printed material of any kind. This includes posters, photographic prints, fliers, etc. Under no circumstances may you make a physical reproduction without written permission.

These rules also apply for any artwork or imagery submitted and shown within this site which was created by an artist aside from myself. Any images submitted and shared as wallpapers are the property of the artist who created them and in the same manner as my images, you are asked to receive permission before using them in any way aside from their intended use. Any use of these images outside of for your own personal use as a desktop wallpaper image is prohibited without permission from the author of the image. Commercial licensing is available upon request. Please write with any inquiries.

When sharing images via your personal blogs I kindly ask that you link back directly to either the post the image was taken from or the base of the website at www.fiftyfootshadows.net and give a credit to www.fiftyfootshadows.net. Do not re-post full resolution desktop images anywhere without permission. If you would like to use an image for your blog background or something of the sort simply write to ask first. Support the artwork you admire! Also, it is greatly appreciated if you do NOT link directly to the zip files. This is more or less the same as re-posting them as it circumvents the tiny bit of support I ask of you which is to simply link back to the original post for others to enjoy the site.

It’s not fair to artists if you do not credit their work and link back to the original content creator. It is theft plain and simple and blogs that attempt to somehow be mysterious by not giving credit to the creators are simply hurting the artistic community as a whole. If you love it so much then please, support it! The artistic community on the Internet is based on trust. Without trust then what do we have? are you going to be one of the responsible users out there or will you be among the bottom feeders, stealing content and passing it off as your own to make a quick buck in ad sales.

Use your best judgement and we will get along just fine.

Thank you for your understanding and support!

John Carey (curator, owner)

fiftyfootshadows.net

fiftyfootshadows@gmail.com