on the drive to breakfast ~ all photos (embiggenable)
new blurb book
DROVE 7 MILES UP THE ROAD FOR BREAKFAST late yesterday morning. Had a good breakfast and a very pleasant drive, but, moving on to the topic at hand….
….I have always thought the thing that separates the men from the boys, re: Photography Division, is addressing the criteria of those who make prints and those who don’t. FYI, what I mean by making prints is the act of turning what the picture making device records on a light sensitive surface into a actual tangible object (in whatever form). Ya know, like say, a thing that can be held in a hand, put on a wall, or, if you like, put on a coffee cup.
ASIDE to prevent anyone from slipping into a conniptive state of mind, let me emphasis that, if it lights your lamp to perform the act of recording something on a light sensitive surface without making the result into an actual object, there ain’t nothing wrong with that. It’s just that that doesn’t work for me inasmuch as it seems a bit like having a nice car and all you do is fire it up, then just sit in the driveway and go nowhere END ASIDE
Re: put on a wall - I have, on the walls of my house, 65 framed pieces which display 102 individual photographs (some framed pieces display multiple photographs). While there are few places I could cram a couple more pieces, I have found it more practical to make photo books and have them spread around the house rather than to put more prints on the wall.
In any event, a couple weeks ago I was overcome with desire to make a photo book. No particular reason, it’s simply that I just like seeing my pictures in print, and, I also like sharing my pictures with others. I find that photo books, especially dimensionally small versions, are an easily portable way to share / show my work to others.
That written, inasmuch as the book I wanted to make was not meant to be “serious statement” book, instead of turning to my go-to photo book maker, I chose to make the book using blurb. blurb offers a niffy 7x7 inch, softcover, 20 page (more can be added) book for $17USD. Having made several of these books, I can testify to their quality; excellent reproduction-true to my originals and very good quality paper. Consequently, while this photo book is not a statement piece-hardbound, premium paper, 6-color printing-I would not hesitate to show it to a gallery director as a very good example of my work.
I write this entry for a couple of reasons; to encourage the making of prints, especially books and to encourage my readers to visit blurb’s online bookstore….blurb’s bookstore is chock full of customer made books. The books are divided into categories, the most applicable ones for photo people are Photography or Portfolio.
Now here’s the reason for the bookstore recommendation; there is some damn good photography to be seen in those 2 categories, especially so in the Portfolio category. However, be forewarned, that category currently contains 141,753 books. My suggestion for wading through it is that you can kinda judge a book by its cover, which is how the books are displayed. Clicking on a book takes one to a page where the book is described and, in most cases, offers a multi-page preview of the book.
In the Portfolio section, I would recommend clicking on AAP Magazine (it comes up early) and in the Photography section look for DOCU (also comes up early). Both are very interesting and have a large number of editions and can be had for peanuts.
The reason for mentioning blurb’s book making capabilities is that maybe, just maybe, a few readers might make a book or two-tip: 30% off until Nov 9-and send a copy or a pdf to see. And maybe, just maybe, I could feature it on this blog.