Celebrating the commissioning of the first Federal Lighthouse…
It was on the Seventh Day of August in 1789 that Congress approved an Act for the establishment and support of lighthouse, beacons, buoys and public piers. In Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the signing of the Act and the commissioning of the first Federal lighthouse, in 1989 Congress passed a resolution which designated August 7 as National Lighthouse Day.
Collection of Lighthouse Photographs by Bill Swartwout Photography
The Lighthouse Act of 1789 was approved by Congress, ensuring the upkeep and repair of Lighthouses, Beacons, Buoys, and Public Piers “shall be defrayed out of the treasury of the United States.”
National Lighthouse Day was first celebrated 200 years later when President Ronald Reagan signed Senate Judiciary Resolution 306 of the 100th Congress into law.
I have several lighthouse photographs available on a variety of substrates (Prints, Canvas, Metal, Acrylic, Matted & Framed) in my Gallery at Pictorem. These are all available with Free Ground Shipping throughout the United States and Canada.
Certificates of Authenticity show collectors/buyers that the work purchased is authentic and valuable.
A valid certificate, created for each product produced, will assure you this is an authorized and quality piece produced by a bonified production partner of Bill Swartwout Photography/US Pictures. This will give you reassurance that the piece you receive is not from some bogus Internet “scraper” or copyright-theft website.
Certificate of Authenticity for Photographs by Bill Swartwout Photography.
Each certificate of authenticity is completed by hand & identified by a unique traceable number with an hologram. The COA will be inserted at the back of your artwork or within your package if you order a paper print.
These are currently offered only through my Gallery Store at Pictorem. My Fine Art America Gallery Store is, of course, also authorized to produce my photographs on their wall art and decor products but they do not offer a Certificate of authenticity.
Nearly everyone loves sunflowers, the most popular flowers of summer.
The sunflower stands tall to meet the rays of the midday sun – it stands tall and reaches high into the sky. Golden hues of sunshine are reflected in the petals, making this wonderful yellow bloom among the most popular flowers of summer.
A field of bright yellow sunflowers is one of summer’s most popular sights and with good reason. These cheerful, cheerful flowers are easy to grow, requiring only a sunny spot to thrive. Sunflowers are also easy to customize for any occasion: add stakes or wire for height, use in bouquets, or leave them out as the centerpiece on your kitchen table. Did you know the the flower petals within a sunflower’s cluster are usually in a a spiral pattern?
Even the bees love sunflowers – for their sweet nectar.
Sunflowers are usually yellow or orange. They can also be red or white, but yellow is the most common color for sunflowers. The petals on each flower all face one direction, making the sunflower look like a bright disc when it faces the sun. Sunflowers are native to North America and were first cultivated by Native Americans.
What’s not to love about sunflowers? They’re bright and cheerful, they grow in fields and on farms, and they are the most popular flowers of summer.
In fact, sunflowers have been grown for thousands of years—and they weren’t even originally intended to be flowers! They were actually used as a food source by Native Americans. The seeds were ground into flour or roasted like popcorn. Every 100 pounds of sunflower seeds yields about 40 pounds of oil, 35 pounds of high-protein meal and 20 to 25 pounds of other by-products.
Sunflowers are native to North America, but now grow all over the world. They have become an important part of many cultures around the globe, including China, Africa and South America. When Europeans got their hands on the plant it quickly became one of their favorite things to grow in their gardens.
Heliotropism – a plant’s propensity to face, and follow, the sun…
A young sunflower has a supple stem that responds to the sun. The flower will follow the sun from its rising in the east to setting in the west. Over night the stem will tend to grow more on the west side – from the “afternoon sun” and will make the head swivel back toward the east. This repeats every day for a part of the plant’s growth cycle. But as the plant matures and the head becomes laden with seeds and quite heavy, it can no longer swivel during the day. Therefore the older, larger and mature sunflowers tend to face east – toward the rising sun – and stay that way until the harvest.
Use the links below to browse or shop more of Bill’s photographs of Sunflowers and other Flora .
After many years with Fine Art America here are the overall favorites at Bill’s USPictures Gallery.
I first joined Fine Art America/Pixels in late 2013 and with over 500 sales to date, here are some of the most popular photographs based on a mixture of sales, number of views, number of comments and people who have “favorited” and/or “liked” what they saw. Sales, however, are among the most prominent criteria. Each of the images below have been purchased more than twice, with some of them having been purchased more than a dozen times each. Link to: Bill Swartwout Photography’s Gallery.
Montage of Bill Swartwout Photography’s Most Popular Images.
Is that my own arrangement of “popular” pieces? No, it is not. Fine Art America, one of my two main production companies, changed the selection algorithm, based on company criteria, for the image display order. It used to be solely up to the artist to determine the initial order and I formerly let the display order default to my most recent uploads. It remains that way in most of my separate collections. However, the change in general display order has had a positive impact on people viewing my gallery – they tend to browse longer and look at more photographs. I am also seeing an uptick in sales, which, of course, is a good thing.
I bill myself (yes, pun intended) as a landscape/seascape photographer, but it is easy to see that my seascapes win out over the landscape category. While I have sold something from each of the many collections in my FAA/Pixels private gallery, my most popular collections are of the Indian River Inlet Bridge, Ocean City Maryland and Delmarva Peninsula Beauty. I am fortunate in that I live in coastal Delmarva (exactly two miles from the Atlantic Ocean) and in close proximity to both Ocean City, Maryland and The Indian River Inlet Bridge just north of Bethany Beach, Delaware.
