Joe's Pics on the Pier

03/02/2026

A Photo of joes last day.

02/24/2026

While going through special moments today in the office and organizing photos in our digital stockroom. we recalled a day we used a camouflaged tarp to wait for birds to land on our DIY bird stands. The time was around October 2022, We are huddled up in the staffs front yard all camouflaged like a rolling shrub with camera ready and focused. We had already seen several song birds while getting prepped for the shoot so we were aware of their presence.

so we wait ,,,,,,,and wait..... minutes go by and the then it happens a mail truck comes and drops off mail

"Joe should we jump out and scare the mail person?"
Joe starts to Giggle

then the mail person left. we continue quietly joking about that, then it was quiet for a bit. not long after that the neighbor across the road came home and got out of his truck and then stood staring at us the shrub in the yard where no shrub was before.

Not knowing if we were a fall décor or something more strange he stood there across the road perplexed

meanwhile Joe and myself were trying to be as still and quiet as we could trying to control our laughing (Joe has infectious laughter)

turns out after reviling the neighbor was relived. we really did freak him out. The three of us got a good laugh after that
He was impressed with some of the photos Joe had on his camera and curious on how joe operated his camera so we showed how the set up worked. and that concludes our TALE OF THE GIGGLING SHRUB.

HERE is a few photos from that day.

02/24/2026

So here is a fun little story

When I started working with my current staff Back in 2021, it was late spring early summer. we went to Fort Gratiot Park for a photo outing. while at the park wandering around we went on out into one of the pavilion areas just so happened to be the gravel one. ( can you see where this is going lol) Between The soft ground and loose gravel found myself stuck in a sea of tiny pebbles. Through laughter and a bit of anxiety we managed to make a trail of sticks and woodland debris to bridge our way out we cheered and laughed at our victory for the day. this was only the first of many little happenings we still laugh about today.

02/23/2026

Finishing up some things in the shop. Last week we made a table top mount for the button machine and added our tassel tool to the corner of the mount ( we did this because the work shop table in the office was lent to us from community enterprise )
We even gave it a pond theme due to joes love of Frogs.
This set up should take him many miles for button making. He is almost completely independent once its all set up just needs reminders once in a while.

02/23/2026

GREETINGS FRIENDS OF THE PIER,
In other news this will be our LAST week together in MI. We are both moving on to new adventures, Starting with Joe's big move in March. It has come rather quick. We both are excited and nervous. We have been working since 2021 with ups and downs and some bumps along the way. We have also shared so much laughter and made so many new friends as well. This change has been lingering out on a limb for the past two years with talks but nothing officially set until last November, neither one of us here expected it so soon.


Yes Joe will be headed to warm Texas weather and lovely family adventures. Joe also plans to continue his business once everything gets settled in. We will continue to keep you posted and share more pics and memories over this week.

Joes pics will also be in talks with Change Your Life Rock Shop in LAKEPORT MI to continue to host items for Joe after the move so he can continue to stay local.

We appreciate all the support, love and kindness you all shown us over the past five years. and would love to see continued support.

With much gratitude and love from JOE'S PICS THE PIER

02/10/2026

GREETINGS FRIENDS OF THE PIER

We at the pier have had a long couple of weeks and had a cancelled show already this year, But we are Happy to inform everyone again that this weekend FEB 14th we will be at the Wriggly Center vendor show.

HOPE TO SEE ALL OUR FRIENDS THIS WEEKEND

Send a message to learn more

01/27/2026

THE ETSY SHOP IS CLOSED

Fine Art America is our primary shop now look forward to expanding on the platform. FINE ART AMERICA is more cost efficient going forward.

01/22/2026

Greeting Friends Of The Pier
We are informing you today that due to the lack of traffic vs cost per year to stay open we are officially closing the esty shop later today. Good news is by saving money from that closure we will be able to expand the Fine Art America Line at a fraction of the yearly cost. The shop Now Button already has been switched in the last half of last year. yes the prices are a bit more but the quality is very good. We have liked our experience with Fine Art America and love the amount of different items they have to offer. A lot of them we would never be able to produce in house.

So head on over and take a gander

01/19/2026

HELLO FRIENDS OF THE PIER , (LOOKING FOR FEEDBACK)
Here at the pier our online shops have been struggling. Starting in 2021 we had very few items listed on Esty. We expanded item Variety and then decided to try switching to digital downloads to expiate and try to self automate. the plan was to shorten wait time for the consumer due to a 3 day work week. The traffic went sky high after we got to 120 items ,,,,,,but continued to have low sales
we discovered people were stealing the images so we watermarked each item. Then the traffic plummeted because people could not just take the images for free. We even lowered our prices across the board to $10.00 thinking that it would be a more reasonable price.

Within the last year we opened FINE ART AMERICA which opens the doors to a lot of variety products that have been asked about at different shows that have done the past 2 years ( mugs t shirts, totes and much more)
because of our three day work week , limited space and costs, we cannot make all those item in house.

Etsy has fees to post items which costs us monthly

So the pier decided to go with that site to offer more options to the consumer . The down side is that Fine Art America has a baseline pricing that they charge and we here at the pier have to mark up that price to see any profit. FINE ART AMERICA is not charging a monthly fee to post a certain amount of items.

So yes the prices for items is a bit higher than we would like on certain items but pier is still only getting a small percentage of the sale. This is due to us not having to make the items ourselves. and honestly there would be no way we could offer the sheer amount of items available on the site.

The whole goal of going online and making these choices was to add some automated income in a more passive way. while we focus on shows , new creative photography and upgrading some equipment to make taking better photos and better accessibility for Joe. working to increase his independence in developing his vision in get better quality photos.

We appreciate every one of the fans of The Pier.

We are heavily considering closing down the Esty shop due to the costs of having it open and such low sales. It also isn't helping that Facebook only allows one shop now button. We have switched from Etsy to Fine Art Art America to advertise all the new products featuring Joe's Photos. but sales and traffic are slow with this site as well.

DO YOU PREFER?
ETSY OR FINE ART AMERICA

Send a message to learn more

01/19/2026

On this cold Day we are sharing some warm images to remind you that every snowy day that passes brings us closer to Spring.

STAY WARM THIS WEEK FRIENDS.

01/13/2026

IF you Have not voted For Joe's Jones, We need all the help we can get lets get those numbers up. 200+ fallowers and we would love everyone to cast a vote for Joe's Pics On The Pier.