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Tag Archives: Charlton Champion

Making, selling, delivering: Charlton Champion postcards

08 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Neil Clasper in Diversions

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Charlton Champion, Postcards

A few weeks I woke up with a bright idea: why not turn some of my local photos into a postcard and sell them to support The Charlton Champion, the community website that I help to run. We’ve been on a fundraising drive recently, setting up Patreon and Ko-fi accounts in order to generate some money to help pay the site’s running costs and – hopefully – to pay some contributors. The amounts we’re getting are not (yet) life-changing, but getting something in has provided a good boost and incentive to keep the site going.

It struck me that postcards might prove popular, and would also help raise awareness of the site as people sent them out, passed to friends, and so on.

I spent some time choosing pictures from my (not brilliantly ordered) archive and found four that showed different sides to Charlton. My InDesign skills won’t get me employed in a proper artworking department, but I managed to create a retro-tinged template, added the photos, then sent them off to print.

The first opportunity to sell them came at a pop-up shop that runs monthly in an old shop near my home. I’ve got to know the makers who sell from the shop over the last few months, and it was good to get their positive feedback on the postcards.

Next I put them up on the Charlton Champion’s social accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) and waited for the orders to come in. And, for a few hours, nothing happened – then a flurry of orders that saw the first print run sold out later that day. I sent another batch off to print and set off round the neighbourhood on my bike making deliveries. At the time of writing we’ve sold nearly 250.

I’m not sure what comes next (tea towels? stress balls?), and at postcard margins this enterprise is unlikely to make me rich, but it’s been an enormously gratifying project, that’s led to some nice conversations and connections.

Anyway, you can order them here. £1 each, discounts for buying in bulk….

And if you’ve ever accidentally become a local postcard entrepreneur then get in touch and let’s compare notes…

Saturday diversions; October 21st 2017

22 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by Neil Clasper in Diversions

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Blackheath, Charlton Champion, flowers, fuji, Fuji XT10, Fujifilm, photography, Ronnie RIpple and the Ripchords, skatepark

Flowers outside the florists in Blackheath village, autumn 2017

Across to Blackheath Village first thing Saturday for a haircut. Nice autumn light shining on the display outside the florists by the station.

Over to Charlton Park next on Charlton Champion duties to photograph the official opening of the new skatepark, built by Greenwich Council and funded by developers taking over the old skatepark site in Woolwich (amid much inevitable controversy).


Full set of skatepark pics at The Charlton Champion.

I’ll definitely be back there soon to take more photos; the light wasn’t ideal (sudden brightness between downpours as Storm Brian passed over), and a longer lens would be better  – I had assumed that my 14mm would be ideal for capturing the whole skate bowl scene but, as always seems to happen when I use a wide angle lens, it was quickly abandoned for the 35mm. Next time I’ll take the 60mm for more portraits.

The evening was spent playing guitar with Ronnie Ripple & The RipChords at Genesis cinema in Mile End; a fun gig performing after a screening of Back to the Future. I really should have used it as an excuse to face down my 30 year fear of playing the intro and solo for Johnny B Goode, though. Hopefully there’ll be another chance there soon.


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