RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – Whenever Diane Spiegel looks at the colorful photo she took in Santorini, she is magically transported back to the Greek island. And that's exactly what she hopes happens to people when they view her images from other destinations, which she has begun marketing on handmade note cards. "I try to take photographs that when people see them, they see something more than a monument or a building," says Spiegel, manager of conferences for the California Credit Union League. "I want my photographs to take people places and make them want to go to those same places themselves. I just want to get a point across, a feeling, an emotion." Spiegel has created a small business marketing the cards to hotels and other outlets, including the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. She also sells them online at her Web site www.travelswithdiane.com. The 5-by-7 inch note cards come with an attached 3 1/2-by-5 inch color photo. More than 50 images are currently available. "I love to travel," Spiegel says. "I love to take photographs when I travel because it becomes an important part of my trip." Until recently, most of those photos wound up in albums in her home. But last Christmas, after giving some of her photographs as gifts to friends and relatives, she began getting requests to purchase the images and the business was born. Spiegel, who has taken pictures since she was a child, admits she has had no formal photographic training. "To me, it's all about vision," she says. "I just look through the viewfinder and I either see something or I don't." Her photos have been taken with a 35mm SLR camera as well as with point-and-shoot camera. Her most recent acquisition is a digital camera, which she plans to use for her new travel photos. Her next sojourn is scheduled this spring when she plans to spend two weeks visiting London and Paris. Spiegel says that her fledgling business isn't all that unusual. "A lot of people do what I do. I don't think it's a unique idea. I just think my photography is unique," she says. -

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