sofobomo

PDF portfolios

Juha Haataja (noreply@blogger.com) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:16:00 -0800

Reflections, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Socks, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Paul Butzi has generated an interesting set of PDF portfolios. I liked especially the Pacific Coast portfolios, for example Patterns.

I have started to think that perhaps it would be good to do something similar, to learn more about photography. So I went today through about 3/4 of my landscape photographs taken this year, selecting those which I thought could form a theme and be developed into a photography portfolio. I have half a dozen tentative themes, for example about water, show/ice etc. These selections currently contain 160 photographs which I thought were good enough.

As a sidenote: I think I have developed a bit as a photographer, as I noticed problems with some images I previously thought were good. Perhaps this has nothing to do with improving skills, instead it is an example of having a clearer judgement after some time has lapsed since taking the photographs.

I haven't yet thought about how to generate a PDF portfolio, but I think the same process I used for SoFoBoMo '09 would work here. The format would be a little different, not so much book-like, which would make this even simpler.

Here are two images from today, different subject, similar theme.

Passing of the moon

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:43:33 -0800

SoFoBoMo

Diary of Becoming - Round Three - October Roundup

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:27:00 -0800

I love doing these round-up posts. Although they tend to take quite a while, it's fantastic to take the time out each month to catch my breath, review (and celebrate) what I've gotten done, adjust and focus my course for the next month and figure out fixes for what's going wrong. I highly recommend the process. So, here goes...

Good Stuff

It only took a day to sort myself out a creative space. Yes!

I figured out that ending rather than starting the day with email & computer stuff is the way to breaking my marathon computer-all-day habit. Hello time to paint.

The 'Modern Cavepaintings' series ~~that is oh-so-close to completion~~ is finished.

All the strategy notes that have been in spreadsheets, in books, pdf's, mp3's, in notebooks and on scraps of paper have been collated!! Yes (give cookie). What a huge and worthwhile job that has been to complete.

Stats collection is set up. I now have a spreadsheet for this to track the monthly growth of my site, sales and where traffic comes from. Also, to make it super easier, I have a folder in my browser (Flock) favorites with all the pages that I need to visit to collect the stats. And I can just go 'open in tabs' and have the whole lot all open automagically. It's a breeze. FYI I am using Google Analytics, Feedburner, Google Webmaster Tools, Aweber, Technorati and this page ranking site for my tracking. And these are the items I am tracking - for the moment anyway. It is an extensive and probably too-detailed list. My rationale is that I'll track all this and further down the track decide what's worth keeping and what's not worth bothering about. I'll try and remember to keep you updated........Blog: unique visitors, daily average, top commented pages, top 5 keywords, top 5 visited pages, top 5 traffic sources, bounce rate, time on page, Page Views, Page Views / Visitor, Inbound Links, Technorati Ranking, rss subscriptions, rss clickthroughs, FB fans, FB clickthroughs, email subscribers, email clickthroughs, ff subscribers, ff clickthroughs, twitter followers, twitter clickthroughs, stumble subscribers, stumble clickthroughs, page rank, closed/open keyword search rankings......Etsy: unique visitors, bounce rate, time on page, Page Views, Page Views / Visitor, top etsy items, top 5 etsy keywords, number of sales, total $ of sales, top sales by item type, purchaser demographic

To further my knowledge of 'the art world' I signed up with the CAE (Council of Adult Education) for a lecture series entitled 'How To Start and Manage An Art Collection'. I'm quite sure the perspectives offered in this class will be enlightening.

While I was at it, I also signed up for a one day intensive Chinese ink painting class. Gotta keep learning and growing and ink is a medium that I'm fascinated by.

To increase my professional image I created myself an email signature. Very happy with it indeed.

And finally I discovered a wonderful blog, Recyclart.org, and have submitted my Found Creatures. I think they're a great match and I'm a huge fan of the site, whether they end up showing my stuff or not.

A sale!!! Yes (give another cookie!).

Not So Good Stuff

The art collector lectures have been canceled for this term. Boo hoo. At least they will be running again next year.

The drawing exercises are boring me senseless. That's not to say I'm not learning anything worthwhile. I certainly am. It's just that the exercises are rather dry. But I am slowly plodding my way through them.

Cd cover. Coming. Today in fact. Actually, it's been a little hotbed of ideas, which is great.

Paint charts. Tomorrow. I promise. All day.

And We Have Some Results...

I've been quietly making use of StumbleUpon for the last few months. That is, thumbing up pages I like, submitting and reviewing pages I like and reviewing, subscribing to and friending people I like. It takes a while but boy is it powerful. It really does drive a lot of traffic to my site. In fact, it is easily my biggest source of traffic. If you're interested, I recommend signing up to Caroline Middlebrook's Traffic Rush course to learn about how to use StumbleUpon effectively. Just do the free email part, and beware the patronising tone and the constant bombardment to 'buy the full course'. Bleh.

Technical posts. In case you haven't noticed, I've been blogging regularly on 'technical' art related subjects. I see these as part of my professional training, and simply choose a topic that's most interesting to me at the time. So far I've covered Archival Printing - A Guide For Photos, Giclee & Canvas, and, All About The Artist's Certificate of Authenticity. These posts also bring a lot of traffic to the blog. A surprising amount.

Another resource I've found useful is Chris Guillebeau's Art & Money pdf. I bought it a few weeks ago as part of my strategy compilation. Unfortunately it hasn't been as useful as I'd hoped. Clearly I've done more research on this making a living as an artist thing than I'd realised. If I were just starting down this road with little online background, it would be a boon. But that's not me. I'd recommend it for interweb newbies. The comparisons of options and the basic plan it lays out are simple and clear. The variety of artists interviewed for the mp3's gives a great breadth to the possibilities out there.

And a strategy that seems to be working well is listing items regularly in my Official Art Store on Etsy. Certainly the item views have jumped substantially since I started doing this, as opposed to listing everything in one lump. This was a tip from the Etsy Success newsletter, which is free and worth signing up for.

And The Surprise Of The Month Goes To..
Facebook.
Yes, the book of faces has been an unexpected winner. Big yay for experimentation. The story goes like this. I detest FB. It irks me no end. I find the layout unintuitive and circular and the attitude of the owners to their customers dismissive and draconian. But I am also aware that an awful lot of people are regularly on FB and there are artists out there who find it their best promotional tool. And I am set up on it already. But I don't tend to visit it. So how can I solve the problem of updating my FB fanpage without having to visit the irksome FB every time I blog etc? Um, RSS perhaps? Well I looked into the solutions and there's this nifty little application called RSS Graffiti. You give it permissions to access your data, tell it which RSS feeds you want it to monitor and poof! Your wall is automagically updated with (for example) your blog posts and Etsy store listings. Fabbo.

And it works like a (beta) charm. Amusingly, I accidently added RSS Graffiti to my personal page at first. Before I realised and also added it to the WhereFishSing fanpage, I'd made a sale to a friend. Howzat for a great mistake?!

Get Done List For November

Markets - Some time ago I was pondering on a way to experiment with lots of different styles and get feedback from people. I was (separately) pondering on arty ways to increase cashflow. Then it occurred to me that it's Spring here, and Summer will be upon us shortly. Which means market season. Having a market stall could be a great way to meet people, talk to them, get their feedback and make some cash, not to mention, making loads of pictures to be seen. So I have my list of art markets to check out and have already slowly started. But I need to get my skates on and finish checking these out, decide on appropriate ones and apply to them. So I can (hopefully) start doing stalls in December.

Pictures and prints - lots of experimenting, lots of pictures, and prints galore. For the market stalls in December. Go go go.

Art collectives - Finding like minds. It could be delicious. And fun. And result in creative explosions. So that's the task for this month, to find groups of these people and join them.

Email friends - Now that I have my Facebook fanpage all sorted, and my blog and store being regularly updated, it's time to tell people.

Creative commons - The rationale for this is a blog post in itself and something I want to investigate more thoroughly.

Modify blog header - It's come to my attention that a lot of my blog visitors don't realise they're on a blog. So I would like to make this more obvious to save people the frustration of clicking to go to the page they don't realise they're already on.

Strategy session - Now that the collation is done, let's get the plan together.

That's going to be a flat out November!

A Diary of Becoming - Round Two - Sept 09 Roundup

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:31:00 -0700

My artistic journey has begun well.

And so you want details yes? That's what this series is all about...

Good Stuff

September was quite a month. This website and blog received a complete and utter overhaul. Hooray.

Go elopement. I got married and disappeared out of mobile range on honeymoon for a week. Hooray.

I wrote to each and every one of the people I mentioned in my last diary of becoming post to say thankyou to them for being such wonderful inspirations. And was chuffed to even get a few replies. Hooray.

That application to the Iphoneography blog to be a featured artist for the SoFoBoMo 'Found Creatures' was a success. Hooray.

The planning session was grand. And extensive. And I quickly realised that pulling everything - hints, strategies, ideas - from my head, my emails, my bookmarks, various handouts, notebooks and books was going to take way more than one session. And that was and is fine. It's going great. It's wonderful to have one place to put all my ideas and notes as they come up. A few more sessions and it will be ready to move from collecting information to being a resource to decide on priorities the Action! plan). And it's such a simple system. An hour every day or so of gathering. And just a folder with dividers for different sections such as timesavers, first things first, tracking & testing, blogging, expert status, online marketing, real world marketing, improve art, and finances. So simple. So useful. Hooray.

Not So Good Stuff

Um, art making.

Once again, what is my goal in all this?
To make a living as a professional practising fine artist

And what do artists do? Well, duh, they make art. And what have I been doing? Well, um, webby stuff, emaily stuff, planning stuff, and stuff.

Hmm, I see a pattern. A lack of art-making pattern. So for October, here is my aim:

Make art.

Specifically, but not limited to:

To get my daily creating habit kickstarted, and to do some learning too, it's time to finish working my way through the exercises in 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'.
Finish the 'Modern Cavepaintings' series that is oh-so-close to completion and put it up for sale on Etsy.
Sit down (or maybe stand on my head) and DO some paint colour charts. These will be useful.
Oh, and DO that CD cover commission... now due by Nov 5.

Look familiar? Hmm. It's a learning. And it's made me realise that a large part of not being arty creative is not having a space to be creative in. The dining table doesn't work, for various reasons. So this needs a rethink. That's ok. Perhaps the barely-used guest room can be my studio. Whatever the solution ends up being, I now know that I MUST have a dedicated space to create. I am not one of those people who can sit and create anywhere. And if I don't have my space, being on the computer is very very comfortable for me. After all, it's what I've been doing for the last 7 years with 3D animation.

So I also need my own creative space and
I need to break the computer-all-day habit.

Bring on October.

How to Create a Photo Book Part3

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:37:21 -0700

I only heard about SoFoBoMo 09 a solo photo book in a month, when it was already half way through the month. So I had a bit of a rush on to get mine finished in time and that involved a very steep learning curve, but I finished on time and the challenge was worth [...]

If you enjoyed this post then you may like to read more at my blog

How to Create a Photo Book Part3

Found Creatures - SoFoBoMo Finished

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:13:00 -0700

I am really really happy with my 'Found Creatures' series. I have some ideas of how to take these further, but what I really really want is YOUR ideas and feedback.
Do you like them? Do you have a favourite? If it was for sale, what format would appeal to you (greeting card, photo print, canvas print, eco shopping bag, your own idea)? What in your opinion would enhance the Found Creatures (animal quotes, environmental/recycling quotes, something else entirely)?

Vote for your fave by leaving a comment. The 5 secs it will take you will be very much appreciated.

Without further ado, the constraints of 30 days and an iPhone, travelling and the inspiration of environmental/land art...

Happy Bird Creature	Underwater Swimming Creature
Startled Kangaroo Creature	Fish Creature
Multi-Legged Flying Creature	Damned Cross Creature
Insect Creature	Dragon Creature
Flying Snake Creature	Rhino-Like Creature
Flat Out Running Creature	Angel Bird Creature
4 Legged Critter Creature	Bunny Creature
Underwater Floating Creature	Oriental Dragon Creature
Dog Creature	Cute Fluffy Creature
Magical Pony Creature	Skeleton Bird Creature
Stork Creature	'What Deposit?' Creature
Dragon / Seahorse Creature	Multi-Legged Floating Creature
Cute Running Creature	Pelican/ Brolga Creature
Lizard Creature	Vote for your favourite Creature in the comments...

If you're interested, the full set of 37 Found Creatures is:
On SoFoBoMo
On Flickr

Creative Cauldron - SoFoBoMo and Environmental Art

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:29:00 -0700

It occurred to me that it might be a good/enjoyable/worthwhile/useful idea to do a regular post on my influences and showcase other artists or stuff that has made me stop and go 'wow'. Useful for me to have a reference. Fun to do. Enlightening for my followers.

And so to begin. The Found Creatures were influenced by both the constraints of intended travel, and these artists who all use natural found objects. I love their work. All these pieces are both beautiful and, to me, have that something extra. Soul. Spirit. Spark. I'm not sure how to define it.

Anyhoo, as pictures tell so much more than words, instead of me rabbiting on about different artists and their techniques, here are examples of works that have inspired me and stretched my mind:

Andy Goldsworthy

Heather Jansch

Edwina Bridgeman

SoFoBoMo eBook!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Dills) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:00:00 -0700

I've been playing around with online print-on-demand services in anticipation of publishing my 2010 calendar. Since I no longer have arm-twisting access to a large portion of my customer base (co-workers from whom I purchased Boy Scout popcorn and Girl Scout cookies) I want to go with a company that has the ability to do online sales. So far the front runner has to be Lulu, partly because I have experience using them from when I published my SoFoBoMo book, and mostly because their price and quality seem to be a good balance.

I was playing around with their site today and was interested in the idea of publishing eBooks. I'm currently working on updating a digital workflow presentation and am im the process of writing a tutorial on registering copyrights, both of which I would like to publish as eBooks. To see how the process works I decided to turn my SoFoBoMo book into an eBook, which I then published and am offering for sale at $10. Not a bad deal if you ask me, except for the fact that it is available for free at the SoFoBoMo website. I'd be interested in feedback from anyone who gives it a try.

Calendars will be ready for purchase (hopefully) around October 1.

Toying With Locations on the iPhone

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:54:00 -0700

So while having fun being creative and making the Found Creatures from found pieces of nature, I was having fun behind the scenes with my iPhone, CameraBag and Pano, recording and toying with the locations.

These are some of the landscapes, from Ballarat to the Flinders Ranges, that the Creatures were found within.

the most sought after solitude

noreply@blogger.com (romina) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:43:00 -0700

"I owe my solitude to other people. "
Alan Watts [british philosopher and writer. 1915 - 1973]

sol-i-tude. spelled pronunciation sol-i-tood, -tyood
noun
• the state of being or living alone; seclusion.
• remoteness from habitations, as of a place; absence of human activity.
• a lonely, unfrequented place.

origin
Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sōlitūdō, from sōlus, alone; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots.

synonyms:
1. retirement, privacy. solitude, isolation refer to a state of being or living alone. solitude emphasizes the quality of being or feeling lonely and deserted, while isolation may mean merely a detachment and separation from others. loneliness. 3. desert, wilderness.

please note that this is image is selected from the Solo Photo Book Month. you can find, watch and comment my SoFoBoMo project at http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/skinnydipping/AfterSun/

A Diary of Becoming - The Beginning - August 09 Roundup

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:54:00 -0700

I've flirted with this whole idea for a while now.

It seems as good a time as any to get going - (Good news: you're already in the right place, and the time looks good too. Thanks @chrisguillebeau).

This year has been interesting so far. My Dad died. I moved house twice (not bad, just disruptive). The 'global financial crisis' bit my 3D medical animation business hard. I have had no energy for anything other than sleep for months on end. So what. So this looked like an ideal time to reassess what I really want to do. Not sarcasm by the way. And yes, I could have kept the 3d biz going with a change in tactics, but deep down, I didn't want to. It's been fun, but the magic has faded now. Time for a change.

Time to ~~try~~ do something I've always wanted

And then I read this blog by illustrator Holli Conger about how she changed her direction http://www.livingthecreativedream.com/becoming.html

And all the months of following, researching and idea gathering 'just fell into place'. Love it when that happens, don't you?

And so I am becoming. This is step one.

And why blog about it? Holly wrote it perfectly, so I'll just repeat:

"1. To encourage others and let them know successful promotion can be done and how one person was able to do it.

2. To keep myself accountable and to follow through with my dream. Keeping a personal deadline had always been hard for me. I always put it off and let something else take precedent. With this commitment of documenting my process, I know I can keep myself accountable not only to myself, but to all the people who will follow this series."

My goal in all this? To make a living as a professional practising fine artist

So each month I'll be blogging on my progress. I'll go over what I've done, what's worked well, what's made not the slightest bit of difference, what I intend to do over the coming month and what I would like help with.

To give some background, I have been inspired by Natasha Wescoat (@natasha), Soniei (@soniei) and Val's Art Diary (@valsartdiary), artists who all use the internet to connect with their followers and collectors and sell the work they create. Each has their own personal artistic and communication style. Each has their own mix of promotional elements that works for them. None of them are sitting back on their backsides waiting to be discovered. Or relying on the 'efforts' of a gallery or agent to sell their work and make a name for them . They are getting in, going direct, making connections, being visible and personable and running a successful small online business. That happens to sell their original art. That's what I want to do, and that's the way I want to do it.

Non-arty inspirations in this journey so far have been Havi Brooks (@havi) who gives hope to all the true individuals out there and is enthusiastic about 'finding your right people'; Chris Guillebeau (@chrisguillebeau) who lives and expounds on 'the unconventional life'; Barbara Winter (@joblessmuse) of 'Making a Living Without a Job' - nuff said, and Ed Dale (@Ed_Dale) internet marketing genius who teaches all in the wonderful and free 30 Day Challenge.

Now to find my own mix, my own voice and my own right people.

So for September, here are my aims:

The website and this blog are not currently finished. I mean, there are missing pages. This must be rectified as a priority.
I feel like I would like to contact each of the people mentioned above who have been such an inspiring and positive influence and say thanks.
To get my daily creating habit kickstarted, and to do some learning too, it's time to finish working my way through the exercises in 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'.
Finish the 'Modern Cavepaintings' series that is oh-so-close to completion and put it up for sale on Etsy.
Apply to the Iphoneography blog to be a featured artist for the SoFoBoMo 'Found Creatures'.
Sit down (or maybe stand on my head) and DO some paint colour charts. These will be useful.
A nice sunlight filled and coffee fueled strategic planning session that involves offline promotion as well as online. And an Action! plan.
Oh, and DO that CD cover commission...

Your bit

What I would like but need help with:
If you're not familiar with Havi's Itty Bitty personal ads, do yourself a favour and familiarise thyself over here: http://www.fluentself.com/blog/stuff/an-itty-bitty-personal-ad/

Now that we are back on the same page (you DID read that post didn't you?), I am putting it out there for some help, or in this case, FEEDBACK.

Here’s what I want:
I am really really happy with my 'Found Creatures' series. I have some ideas of how to take these further, but what I really really want is YOUR ideas and feedback.
Do you like them? Do you have a favourite? If it was for sale, what format would appeal to you (greeting card, photo print, canvas print, eco shopping bag, your own idea)? What in your opinion would enhance the Found Creatures (animal quotes, environmental/recycling quotes, something else entirely)?

Ways this could come to me:
Comments here
Emails to me (look left)
Twitter to @wherefishsing
Blog posts about this
Links sent to me
Whatever else you can cook up!

What I would rather not have:
Destructive criticism. 'It's my blog and I'll delete if I want to'.

My commitment:
To thank people who make the effort to put forward their ideas.
To act on one idea and put the 'Found Creatures' out there for more people to enjoy, if people like them.

Now let's see how much luck I can create for myself :)

long gone summer days

noreply@blogger.com (romina) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:55:00 -0700

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
Elliott Erwitt [advertising and journalistic photographer. born in 1928 in paris]

please note that this is image is selected from the Solo Photo Book Month. you can find, watch and comment my SoFoBoMo project at http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/skinnydipping/AfterSun/

run away cottage

noreply@blogger.com (romina) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:07:00 -0700

"All good things are wild and free."
Henry David Thoreau [american essayist, poet and philosopher. 1817 - 1862]

please note that this is image is selected from the Solo Photo Book Month. you can find, watch and comment my SoFoBoMo project at http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/skinnydipping/AfterSun/

monochromatic heaven

noreply@blogger.com (romina) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:56:00 -0700

"One very important difference between color and monochromatic photography is this: in black and white you suggest; in color you state. Much can be implied by suggestion, but statement demands certainty… absolute certainty"
Paul Outerbridge [american photographer, an early pioneer and teacher of color photography]

please note that this is image is selected from the Solo Photo Book Month. you can find, watch and comment my SoFoBoMo project at http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/skinnydipping/AfterSun/

SoFoBoMo Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Scherbinski) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:27:00 -0700

Paul Butzi ruminates on possible futures for the Solo Photo Book Month projects in one of his blog posts earlier this month. The post, "Beyond SoFoBoMo" is here . A couple of really great ideas.

I have to admit, the first one, "The Brandenburg Challenge" both fascinates and scares me. Basically this would be a project where you only take one photo a day for a period of time, Brandenburg did it for 90 days. No second chances, no do overs, one photo a day, that's it. Earlier this year, I watched a film about Jim Brandenburg and the reasons and process he went through to produce that body of work. While I can understand why he did it, I'm not sure I have the discipline and time to pull it off. Plus getting out with a camera when an event comes around, especially in the summer is something I find too enjoyable to really give up for even the two month period that SoFoBoMo covers.

Some folks have suggested using two cameras and making your first shot of the day be the photo for the project. I could possibly do that, I will have to mull it over.

The second possibility, "The Long Look", is something I think I might like to do. This would be a photo taken at the same time of day, on a specific day of the week or month over a long period of time. It could be a year or ten years. For some reason this one seems more doable to me and not quite so scary. I'm not sure why, it would be a big commitment. I'm trying to come up with a subject and I may try it for a bit and see what happens.

Since Paul's post came out, I've been thinking about other things that could be done for SoFoBoMo. A themed period might be interesting, pick a theme and see what this group or a subgroup of photographers come up with. While I know the purpose of the project is to come up with a pdf book, it might be nice to do a print exchange also, but that's probably getting a bit far off the topic of the project.

I'm already looking forward to next years SoFoBoMo, even though it's 9 months or so away.

things that define us

noreply@blogger.com (romina) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:07:00 -0700

this is the second image that I selected from the Solo Photo Book Month, that is still available for everyone to see and comment at http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/skinnydipping/AfterSun/

still, this time, I've chosen another processing, because my soul is duo toned this morning. beside that, my thought for this moment sounds like this..

“We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us”
Virginia Satir [american psychologist. 1916-1988]

raw physiognomy

noreply@blogger.com (romina) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:10:00 -0700

as I said the last time, I intend to post some of my favorites photos from the Solo Photo Book Month, that is still available for everyone to see and comment at http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/skinnydipping/AfterSun/
this is the first one of the selected photos..

"A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth."
Richard Avedon [american photographer. 1923 - 2004]

Thoughts on Photography Challenges post SoFoBoMo

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:12:27 -0700

Curved Panes – Downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa In Paul Butzi’s latest post “Beyond SoFoBoMo” he pitched an idea called the “Brandenburg Challenge” where you would take a single picture a day for 3 months and make a book with those images. I find this idea fantastic and might actually do that on my own here [...]

after sun

noreply@blogger.com (romina) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:41:00 -0700

oh, dear friends, I'm back and I have a pretty good excuse for my absence. besides the well deserved holiday I have finished the Solo Photo Book Month (click here to see the book) and I have uploaded it to the SoFoBoMo site, where you can read the whole story and even download it. In the next period of time, I will post some of the pictures I've used also here. The book it's called After Sun, as you can see also from it's cover above.
I hope you will enjoy it too. Thanks for taking your time and reading my book and if you have any comments or criticism or thought regarding my book, please don’t hesitate to write to me.

Les inédits des 7 péchés

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:29:47 -0700

Quelques inédits ou nouvelles versions des photos de mon projet SoFoBoMo. En effet, faute de temps, j’ai dû parfois faire une sélection hâtive parmi les nombreuses séries de photos et j’ai aussi limité la retouche au strict minimum afin de terminer mon livre dans le temps imparti. Mais certaines photos non retenues dans la sélection finale ont [...]

My Blurb Book Arrives

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:30:00 -0700

It showed up today. I am very pleased with the image quality which was my first concern. Blurb's system did a fine job with the embedded SRGB profiles in the JPEG image files. I chose the premium paper and am very pleased with its look and feel. The dust jacket is also excellent, very high quality and substantial in fit and finish. The one area that could be somewhat better is the binding. It is fine, but not as robust as a top-flight photography book. This is to be expected with one-at-time printing at these prices.

All-in-All, the quality of the book's construction could hold its own in a bookstore. A very impressive feat indeed given the ease and low startup costs involved.

I chose the 10x8 landscape format. It is a little small for my liking. Many of the images would be better at larger sizes. The issue is unit cost and price. The blurb price for the 10x8 book is $40.00; with a small markup, I can sell the book for $49.95 and have the price be reasonable. Blurb's 13X11 landscape book cost is $74.95. The same $10.00 markup makes the per copy price $85.00. The price feels too high.

I have spoken with a couple of other commercial printers and I can produce 25 copies of the book at a 12x9 size for $42.00 each. the only problem is that I have to commit up front......It is amazing the number of options we have today that were unavailable only a few years ago....

Back in business.

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:52:00 -0700

I'm really digging this dragonfly shot I took when I wasn't jiggling the camera silly during blur-fest for SoFoBoMo, so I thought I'd post it here.

Good news! My book is now back online and working, so you can check it out here.

Sofobomo Project Now Available on Blurb

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:47:00 -0700

I took the final step for this year's sofobomo and made the book available on Blurb. You can check out the listing here:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/763277

I used Blurb's PDF to book process which involved setting up a new template in InDesign and re-assembling the book. A couple of important changes from the online sofobomo version included: The layout size was slightly smaller (I will see what impact it has when I receive the printed copy) to fit Blurb's standard landscape size. I also regenerated the JPEG files from Lightroom with different sharpening settings for print vs. screen output. Finally, I used Blurb's pre-set export options for PDF generation which expanded the output resolution to 300dpi.

According to Blurb's literature, their printing system automatically converts SRGB files into the CMYK profile for their HP Indigo printer. Because Lightroom does not handle CMYK profiles directly, I stayed with my standard workflow and exported the JPEG files in SRGB for use in InDesign. I will see how good the color and tone reproduction is with this workflow. If I am unsatisfied with the color, I may run a small test book by exporting the raw image files from from Photoshop as TIFF's using the HP Indigo CMYK output profile on Blurb's site. This may provide better image quality; it all depends how how good Blurb's SRGB to CMYK conversion is. I'll keep you posted on the image quality results.

Another variable that I want to get a handle on is InDesign vs. Booksmart. While they are vastly different layout environments, I do not know if there is an image or typeface quality difference in using them. As my current book is done with InDesign, I'll try a small test with booksmart to see if there is a meaningful difference.

How to Create a Photo Book Part2

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:23:22 -0700

As I have mentioned before I am creating a photo book for SoFoBoMo 09. This is the first photo book I have created so there has been a bit of a learning curve, and I still have a lot to learn. What I want to do in this post is explain how I put [...]

If you enjoyed this post then you may like to read more at my blog

How to Create a Photo Book Part2

Taking a break.

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:44:00 -0700

Haven't had much to say lately, with SoFoBoMo finished. But I will soon, as I will also get around to finishing looking at all (217!) the books that people finished for the project (or at least were able to post at sofobomo.org) - I've seen some fabulous efforts so far - sometime before the summer is out I will occasionally post a few here that really caught my attention.. If anyone happens by this blog and has a SoFo book they did not post at the official site, let me know about it in the comments and I'll go 'round to your link and check it out.

By the way, my book is currently inoperative - I got it in my fool head to correct a typo and resubmit, and now it just shows 42 blank pages when you download it. I have some people connected with the site pursuing a solution for me, but in the meantime if you happen to check out my book and the download isn't working, just check back again in a few days. We'll get it sorted soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the twinkly tree. Lensbabies are a lot of fun.

Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Lake Lady) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:31:00 -0700

When SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month) started, the idea intrigued me as a project. However, I really did not know exactly what I wanted to photograph. I just thought it would be a good idea and would stretch my experience and knowledge.

I assumed that I would do a book related to landscape and the outside. It was possible that it would be birds. However, my original idea did not pan out for several reasons.

My husband suggested that I photograph the Courthouses around our area. We have some lovely small town squares with the courthouses centered on them. There is a real feel for small town life on these squares. I thought I would try this.

It was a lot of fun going around and seeing the different areas. I am not from southwest Georgia, as my husband is, so this was a new experience for me to visit each city.

I have discovered that I am not a great fan of photographing architecture, regardless of how lovely it is.

More importantly though, I have found that I enjoyed the challenges associated with photographing buildings. I have learned much more than photography however. I do not do much post-processing with my images. These courthouse images with their resultant issues of wide angle leaning and curvatures challenged me to learn much more about post-processing.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. I look forward to doing it again, whether here or on my own restrictions.

I also want to say thanks to the other photographers that participated. Your books provided me with a lot of inspiration as I continue to enjoy photography.

Revised Book Posted

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:03:00 -0700

After a few days away from my project, I went through and edited yet again.

I removed several images, re-arranged some sequences, and cleaned up the text. I also was able to improve the image quality of the finished PDF while still keeping under the 15mb limit. After several tests, I found that having the maximum quality setting on JPEG export from LR and the maximum quality setting and 100dpi on the PDF generate setting in InDesign gave me the best tradeoff of tonality and resolution in the finished PDF.

The link is here for ISSUU reading:

http://issuu.com/georgecpappas/docs/route15

SoFoBoMo Book

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:23:00 -0700

OK, I’ve decided on a solution so that I can post my book. I added a page of text explaining the situation and posted the PDF as is. Hopefully I won’t get sued (apparently it’s not very likely: see “Can a Recipe Be Stolen?”), and maybe I’ll even inspire some purchases of the cookbooks that some of the recipes are drawn from.

Here is the link to the completed book on the SoFoBoMo page:

SoFoBo No Go. Yet.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:24:16 -0700

I wonder how many people make a blog post with this title? Unfortunately, I was one of the folks that was not able to complete my SoFoBoMo project within the rolling 30 days as originally planned. Countless reasons and excuses could be thrown about. Quite simply I didn’t make it the priority I should have. My project [...]

Les 7 péchés capitaux

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:34:12 -0700

(cliquez sur le livre pour l’afficher en plein-écran) Après la version en anglais, générée en priorité pour boucler mon projet SoFoBoMo à temps, voici la version française. J’en ai profité pour modifier quelque peu la mise en page et la structure du livre, et pour faire quelques retouches colorimétriques sur certaines photos. Si vous trouvez des coquilles [...]

Flies, flies and more flies

noreply@blogger.com (blueskypoint) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:44:00 -0700

I never heard about the essential oil solution again. I took that as a no, and set to work on the flies in photoshop. And ran out of time. So no completed SoFoBoMo for me this year. I might still complete it on blurb or some such platform. But in the meantime, I'm getting some prints together for a summer exhibition. The subject is stone transformations. Lots of stone. Obviously.

inner workings

Gordon (blog09.gordonm@xoxy.net) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:49:00 -0700

One of the more unusual SoFoBoMo books I've seen this year is Paulo J. B. Mendes book, Inner Workings. This is a simple concept, exploring the inner details of electrical instruments from the middle of the last century. Superficially not the most visually exciting idea, but Paulo pulls it off with a simple style. Clean, well lit images illuminate how the instruments are constructed and what's going on behind the metal and bakelite facades. As an electrical engineer I'm probably in a small minority of potential viewers who are fascinated by this sort of thing-I loved this book. I understand if you don't share my enjoyment of this book, but I think that's a big part of what SoFoBoMo is all about. You don't have to make a book that has to appeal to a mass market, but you can make a book that can let you explore what you love and still find an audience. If you are interested in how things work, then take a look at Paulo's book and see what's inside.

Up on blurb

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:38:00 -0700

Yesterday, I finished the last part of this iteration of SoFoBoMo: make my book available for sale at blurb. It took much longer than initially planned because I hadn't anticipated one complication: the price for the format I had initially chosen, large square, was upwards of 80€. I then had to downscale the whole thing to small square format, and redo the layout, since I am not yet such an InDesign master that I can have the software do it magically. In the process, I removed two of the weakest images from Peru and did all sorts of manual corrections, so I guess it was a good thing to spend some more time on it.

Click on the image below to take a look. It is for sale at 35,95€ (a small portion of which goes to me). Please don't hesitate to leave comments here or on blurb!

Bottom Up

By Alexandre Buisse

Book Preview

It is Done.

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:32:00 -0700

My first edition book is complete. The PDF is uploaded on the Sofobomo site, or you can see it on issuu at

issuu.com/georgecpappas/docs/route15

I feel great about the book. I'm sure I'll start finding things to improve once I look at it in a few days...let the revision process begin.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice yesterday with InDesign..it was very helpful down the stretch....

SoFoBoMo Test

fi@wherefishsing.com (Fi of WhereFishSing.com) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:58:00 -0700

This here pic is the first (successful) test done for the SoFoBoMo challenge. As it was done before the beginning of the challenge it's not included in the final tally of pictures, but I like it a lot so it's on the front cover.

Yes, the book is finished. No the blog didn't get updated along the way. Another hard drive failure got in the way. And I discovered that shooting & uploading via iPhone was quite time consuming enough without trying to blog via the phone as well.

Not to mention iPhone battery life. OMFG!! Apple, you have some serious work to do in that department. The grand plan of shooting while out camping in the wilderness came crashing down after day one. No mains power. No spare battery available. Solio solar charger didn't work. Nowhere to purchase an in-car charger (that's since been rectified). Oh well. The creatures got made and the pics got done... When I returned home!!

So instead of 'blogging as I go' I'm blogging after the fact. The next few posts will be all about the found creatures, their locations and inspiration.

Isn't it wonderful being able to be creative while walking the dog through the bush?

My SoFoBoMo Book is Done!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Dills) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:51:00 -0700

I participated in this year's Solo Photo Book Month project, a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time. The idea of SoFoBoMo is to make the photos, write any needed text, layout the book, and produce a PDF image of the book, all in 31 days. The book portion of my effort fell a little outside that 31 day window, but I felt it was important to do a good job while still getting it done by June 30. I made it.

The theme for my entry took a number of turns, as I was originally planning to shoot a series of photos out of my office window, using light and architectural details to make a series of interesting pictures. Since I don't have a job there any more I didn't think the building security folks would be too keen on letting me in there to take pictures, so I decided to do a series of photos using my W.T. Duck plush doll in various locations during our travels this spring. Due partly to yucky weather at the beach and a strong reluctance to the idea carrying around a stuffed animal and taking it's picture in public locations (not that it stops some people!) I didn't get the inspiration I felt I needed to do a credible job on that project. I finally decided to just make a book of favorite images from my various photo trips from mid-May to mid-June. It's what I do and what I am most passionate about, and I think the final result shows that.

The electronic version is available for free download here and there is a hard copy available for purchase from Lulu here.

Seven Sins - Finished !

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:56:01 -0700

(click on the above book to view it in fullscreen) Wow ! It’s been a long and busy day. I have shot and retouched a few last pictures and designed the book layout with inDesign. By lack of time, I had to abandon some ideas I had initially planned, but overall I’m satisfied with the finished book. In the next few [...]

A Late Night Learning InDesign

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:39:00 -0700

OK. I am not a book designer.....yet. But I am off to a decent start. I stopped working last night at around 1am and a have a first version of all of my images pasted with text and layout more or less to my liking. I feel that I have a very basic understanding of how to use InDesign - the online video tutorials and help were very good. I can't help but realize that I am a beginner in a vast, complex program - but I know enough to get the book done at the quality level I want. I am sure that it takes me 10 times longer to do something with it than an experienced user would take for the same task; that will have to be good enough for now.

I am impressed with InDesign; it has an elegant interface and seems to be extremely capable. I plan to do more publishing so will save up and buy a copy when the 30 day trial runs out. Good sales technique Adobe!

I am still struggling with a couple of issues:
- JPEG quality. I tried to shrink the JPEG's from LR before I pasted them into ID and tried a variety of settings. So far, 100 dpi at an expected image size and 50% compression seems OK. The images still do not look as good as they do in Lightroom. Natt responsed to my post last night and suggested that I paste full rez/quality JPEG's into ID and let ID do the downsampling when the PDF is exported. I'll give this a quick test tonight to see if it merits re-pasting my 50 images (I know to do this now so it will be fast).

- Picture captions. I don't yet know if there is a function to do this other than having to manually insert a text frame with caption under each image. Any ideas or suggestions here?

The best part is looking at my book in full pasteboard view and scrolling through it. I can see the story and sequence emerge - it is exciting. I will finish tonight and upload to Issuu and the SFB website. After today, I will revise the book layout using Blurb's new InDesign template and test print a physical book.

bottom up

Gordon (blog09.gordonm@xoxy.net) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:43:00 -0700

If you want a treat, check out Alexandre Buisse's SoFoBoMo book, Bottom Up. Some luscious, otherworldly landscapes. Jaw dropping mountain scenery, blue footed boobies, bright red frigate birds and a 6354m mountain climb. Great images. Makes me want to go and climb a mountain.

Jpeg Generation for InDesign Help....

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:21:00 -0700

I have completed the book organization and text sections and am now experimenting with JPEG export settings from lightroom that will give me me a file with enough quality yet reasonable size. I have tried 750 pixels, 1280 pixels and non-sized files from Lightroom at a quality setting of 75-80. I am still seeing too much pixelation in my book preview.

My book dimensions are 8.5 X11, landscape format. Can anyone share what settings and dimensions have worked for them? I am using Adobe InDesign if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for your help.

SoFoBoMo — Challenge Completed with Vegetableau series

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:29:47 -0700

Paul Butzi, the originator of the SoFoBoMo challenge, describes the challenge this way: SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month – a group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time. It’s modeled loosely on NaNoWriMo, where participating writers [...]

updated the finished

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:32:43 -0700

ok ok ok, 32 days instead of 31 ! Added some text, grey background and a missing pict. That’s all folks !

SoFoBoMo 2009 – A Walk around the Pond

npnh@rogers.com (nielsp) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:06:00 -0700

Well I finally finished my SoFoBoMo 2009 project. It always seems to take more effort near the end, as those little finishing details do seem to add up.

A Walk around the Pond

This year, due to 2 unforeseen events, I was not able to truly complete it within the 31-day timeframe but I did make it by the closing date of end of June.

Since this is not a judged competition with strict rules I hope it is still acceptable since the primary driver is a self undertaking to learn and grow in your skills and have some fun at the same time.

Thoughts on this Year’s SoFoBoMo Book

As I stated in the previous article this subject material was not my first or even second choice but an opportunity that made itself available on one day. While in Denmark I knew I still wanted to make the book, but I wasn’t sure on the subject. Several things floated around in my head as possible ideas but nothing really gelled as I was not always in control of my destinations during this stay.

One day my brother and his wife decided to take all of us to see some water with high cliffs. At least that was my translation’s abilities. I initially had vision of jagged cliffs with large breaking waves along the bottom.

My translation was not perfect and we arrived at Maglose Lake completely surrounded by land and with no large breakers at the shoreline. In fact to me this was more of a pond than a lake.
It was as we started the walk around the pond that I thought I might be able to make the book out of this adventure and then focused on getting more shots that I could use.

It is not a great photographic book but I did manage to complete it and to tell a story at the same time so I was at least successful with that part.

To produce great photography books I do believe that it requires a great investment in time and perseverance. The time it takes to capture your subject in many lights, at different times of day and even in different seasons. Not an undertaking that normally can be completed, at least the photography, within a few hours.

With my second SoFoBoMo book, I realize you do get experience in creating books, which is more than just a compilation of images. There is a need to tell a story with the images in a specific sequence as they unfold. There is also the need to write prose to support the story.

I know that there are some participants that did not finish their books and I wonder if they felt that their effort was not going to measure up against others. I think it is a big mistake to measure yourself in contrast to the other books. Do it because you love it and others will find good parts if not the whole effort great.

The technical stuff about producing this ebook

I once again used Open office to create my document and save as a pdf file. The main reason is that border can be set right to the edge of the page, which I was not able to do in MS word because of printer default limitations. There was always a residual edge and if choosing a coloured background, the whole white edge would show.

Book format is 18cm x 23cm about 7” by 9”

I chose Century Gothic at 11pts as I find the serf fonts harder to read.

The one thing I forgot from last year’s experience was to set each image to anchor on page. In paragraph anchor the image would sometimes move around when changes were made.

I also inserted my text within a frame and anchored this also to page. This gave me complete control to position text anywhere I wanted without having to think about tabs, margins and line spacing. After all, this is mainly a photo book with some text.

I made jpegs with the utility ‘Instant Jpeg from RAW’ and placed into a folder. There I used Adobe Bridge with star rating to reduce the set. Any images with no stars would be deleted (only jpegs). I would keep doing this until I had a manageable set.

I then placed these all into the document and with view set to 25% I would position the images around as I though the story would unfold. This process would also cull a few images and once I felt the set was right I would then work each image in Photoshop for desired effect and size. At the same time I would start working on the text for the images.

Will I do it again Next Year?

Most likely yes. It does take a significant amount of time and energy but in the end it is worth it. If we are serious about art and photography then it will take commitment and determination to see it through to truly learn.

I had wanted a Top-of-the Chart type book with just exceptional images. I was worried at first that my effort would not be good enough and wondered whether I should still proceed or back out. The word failure was slowly rolling around in the back of my mind.

With some reflection I came to the conclusion that this is mainly a book for me, a project for me to learn and develop as a photographer and now a little as a book writer.

If you are being artistic then in my view there is no word “failure”. There is only your vision, skills and effort. If you worry too much about success then the joy and pleasure this should bring starts to disappear and re-emerge as negative thoughts.

It was an interesting challenge to compile the images from such a short excursion and duration. Not a challenge I plan to do again. Maybe next year I may be able to undertake my original theme.

I hope that in the book you find a few enjoyable images and find the excursion interesting and maybe give you a few thoughts about how the ordinary may seem interesting depending on the view.

Niels Henriksen

Abe Williams - Dignity in Motion

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:09:00 -0700

I met Mr. Williams at the Smithsburg Volunteer Fire Department Carnival. He was manning the raffle booth where five bucks gets you a chance at a gas barbecue (I haven't received my call yet telling me I can come pick it up). Abe was the founder of the original EMS service in Smithsburg.

He is an honored leader in the community - his booth mate told me of his lengthy service to the town and its people.

We had a nice chat and he watched my cameras while I hit the striker with a big hammer for $2.00 and won a prize for my stepdaughter. I returned home with two inflatable bats for my trouble.

I am knee-deep in editing and have the organization and sequencing for the book almost complete. I will sleep on the current order and organization and review them tomorrow. My crash course in Adobe InDesign is progressing - I have watched videos, read help text, and have a default book layout with text styles and sections ready to go. I will have the book complete by July 1st.......

SoFoBoMo

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:25:07 -0700

I posted my finished “book” project for the Solo Photo Book Month (aka SoFoBoMo) a few weeks ago but with work and vacations I never got around to mentioning it on this blog. From the web site - “SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month - a group event where a bunch of photographers all [...]

A Final Day of Photography

noreply@blogger.com (George C Pappas) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:31:00 -0700

I spent 11 hours making images yesterday from Point-of-Rocks to Smithsburg. The image you see here is from the Smithsburg Volunteer Fire Department Carnival - taken at 9:30pm.

It was a very productive day; I feel very good that I will have enough quality to choose from in completing my book by Tuesday evening. I have spent most of today in the role of (hopefully) ruthless editor and sequencer in Lightroom. My book now has some organization and form. I need to complete my crash course in Adobe InDesign to finish the layout and start inserting the images and text. I have already decided that I am going to continue revising this project past Wednesday with the aim of producing and expanded version of book by the end of the summer.

This image, like several from the Carnival sequence, was made with my Canon 5D and the 24mm TSE lens. I love looking for the patterns in the light and sky. This image turned out better than I expected when I saw the preview on the back of my camera. There is something beyond the contents that I really like. More to come as I make my final editing/layout push.....

near finished, not at all finished, finished

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:39:52 -0700

Last Friday was 1 or 2 day before the dead line and the last day before to go on holidays. Then I finish the pdf source file and try to export in pdf : gasp !! impossible because of the “would be DPI to small”. The preliminary tests I did was ok!?!? I’m using “Scribus” [...]

Finished!

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:48:00 -0700

I can't really believe it yet, but I have uploaded this year's SoFoBoMo effort to the website just a few minutes ago! You can go see it on the SoFoBoMo website. It has certainly been a bit crazy in the last few days. Where Northbound, my first book, took me a good month of work, not including most of the photo processing, Bottom-Up has been done in 10 days, starting from 5000 raw files!

But of course, things are far from over, this was only the first step. I now need to feed it to blurb and complete it into my SoTraFoBoMo idea, which means writing a lot of text. The photos were only the easy part, I'm afraid...

All artsy-caftsy like...

noreply@blogger.com (Auntie Em) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:36:00 -0700

I finally finished my SoFoBoMo book. I decided to take the text of Cory Doctorow's essay Snitchtown, which, as with all of his work, is released under a creative commons license.

The SoFoBoMo website limits me to a 15MB upload, and the compression algorithm in Preview squashes the file rather brutally from 44MB to <1MB, so I'm also sharing the larger version here.

All the photos are available under an attribution, non-commercial, sharealike licence here.

For my next trick, I plan a new embroidery project. Keep in mind the fact that the last embroidery I did was my counted cross-stitch "buggy BASIC" sampler for the UCL CS panto. This time I plan to stretch myself a little.

For a long time I have been in awe of the drawings of neurons Santiago Ramón y Cajal, painter, gymnast, blower-up of shit and neuroscientist. See, for example, this observation of a Purkinje cell from a cat:

"Kitteh can has new-ron..."

The thought of trying to do this as counted cross stitch makes my toes curl, so I spent a coupla hours yesterday making myself a transfer with a hot-iron transfer pen.

I ended up with one good transfer on canvas. I also have one ok-ish spare that I'll happily give to anyone else at the intersection of the sets "textile nerds" and "neuroscience nerds"[1]. See here for details.

[1] This makes the rather bold assumption that this set is not a singleton...

Finish line.

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:30:00 -0700

My SoFoBoMo book is finished, on this, the 31st day since I began the project. Here's a bit of the intro I wrote for the book:

I've always been fascinated by what photography can show us that goes beyond the literal and expected, and been expecially appreciative of so-called "happy accidents" - images that come into being without the usual controls in place (whether by the photographer or by the camera) that regulate all the aspects of picture-taking which ensures you serve up the optimal, "successful" photo. Serendipitous images tend to display a bit of chaos, a bit of ambiguity, a bit of uncertainty. Their power lies in how they may unsettle expectation.

Some people consider such images to be technical failures, or worse, too much work to understand. But these are the images that I find I am personally most interested in looking at, and more importantly, want to look at again and again.

What one admires, ones strives to emulate. And so I took this month to concentrate on achieving my own happy accidents.

Which, as it happens, doesn't involve a whole lot of accident. You still need to consider technical details such as exposure and composition. If it were as simple as waving the camera around and firing the shutter repeatedly, I'd have a whole lot more images to show for my efforts. The month produced a lot more failures than successes.

If you are interested in learning how each image was achieved, I included an index in the last few pages that provides the particulars.

All the images included in this book were taken between May 28 and June 21, 2009. I'm very happy with the results, and I hope you enjoy them, too.

Go see my book at SoFoBoMo.org.

Window view

noreply@blogger.com (Faye White) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:23:00 -0700

I was deeply touched today by the words of a stranger, commenting on my SoFoBoMo book. I have tried to convey my emotions through photos and words, and if I have struck a chord in anyone's heart then I am glad for that.

There are no easy days, no carefree days. There are pieces of days when I manage to slip into a state-of-normal.

SoFoBoMo - Finished!

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:46:00 -0700

I finished in perfect time! I started shooting on May 24, finished the PDF on June 23 and had 22 copies of it printed and spiral bound to give to the people involved, and got most of them distributed that same day. I had participated in a two week course on the theology of food, titled "Food: Creation, Community, and Communion." That was going to be the title of my SoFoBoMo book. I took photos throughout the entire course, of us working in the garden, cooking, and of course the food itself. I've put a selection of the best of those in my Food Course Flickr group.

But I shifted my project goal as the course progressed: I decided to create a cookbook with all the recipes of the dishes we ate -- the food was amazing! I began collecting the recipes (sometimes by photographing the page in the cookbook they came from, other times typing them in directly from a friend's description, or copying from emaikl). Fortunately, I had taken enough photos of food to illustrate the cookbook with a photo for nearly every dish (ended up using a total of 42 of them -- not always my very best shots overall, but the best of the food ones I did).

Unfortunately, I can't post it on the web, because it ended up being a cookbook (with photographs of nearly all the dishes), and some of the recipes came from copyrighted sources, and I didn't track down sources in all cases. Even when I did, I'm not sure what the legality is of republishing a recipe from a published cookbook without permission. So, while I have the personal satisfaction of having finished, I don't get credit on the SoFoBoMo website for being among those who did. Oh well, at least I learned I can finish such a project, and will be better equipped to do it next year.

Here's the front cover, at least;

Final image selection

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:05:00 -0700

After quite a lot of fiddling, I finally have a selection of images and a layout for the book. I have generated a pdf to get a better idea, and it's available on Aperture First (pdf, 6.5MB). Now, what remains to be done is to post-process all these images (about 10 are ready, so 70 to go...), which will be by far the most time consuming part of the job! But I'm happy to have the end finally in sight.

Status update

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:34:00 -0700

I have now been back for about 10 days, and the official end of SoFoBoMo is barely 5 days away, so I think now is a good time for some sort of status update (probably more useful to myself than to the occasional reader).

Over the past few days, I have spent most of my time getting familiar with my pictures collection. There are more than 5000 images and simply going through them all took a few days. One deadline I had was showing a slideshow to my friends, tonight, and I managed to narrow the selection to 414 images, though the focus was more on a clear narrative than on "fine art". Another goal I have is to publish a full guide to digital mountain climbing photography. It is now about 3/4 finished (more than 4000 words already...) and I have selected 22 images to go with it. I am pretty sure all of those will go into my SoFoBoMo book.

I have decided I really wanted to get something out in time for SoFoBoMo (after all, my link would be the second in the page, and I don't often get such good self-promotion opportunities). I know I can still do it if I give up the idea of a simultaneous travel book (for the time being) and instead focus on getting images. I have played with InDesign some more and got some great looking results in a few minutes, keeping things simple but using all the experience from last year (i.e. create styles and master pages early, use a limited set of fonts, etc...), so that shouldn't be the main problem. I will also forego the panoramas, as they just take too long to generate and post process.

So I guess the exact status is:

Aiming for 50-80 pictures
Pdf generation and design part more or less figured out
10 pictures post-processed and ready
25 pictures selected and requiring little post-processing (mostly from the Peruvian part of the trip)
5 to 10 pictures that might be selected but require extensive post-processing (mostly HDR stuff)
Galapagos images have been thinned out but still need a lot more selection and post-processing
Front page, preface and all this stuff hasn't been given much though yet

My feeling is that things are really getting there, but I have a very busy weekend in front of me if I want to finish in time!

No Mo SoFoMoBo

shari@inherdarkroom.com (Shari) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:09:00 -0700

As my faithful readers know, I signed up for SoFoMoBo way back when with the full intention of completing a photo book of 30 images in just 31 days. Well, I'm just 6 days to the end of my "month" and I have 15 images that I just absolutely LOVE and 15 images that I haven't even seen, yet. So, what to do? Well, I have decided that I will not be finishing the SoFoMoBo book. It is not because I am Giving Up. It is simply because I do not want to make a book filled with images that are just "OK" to me. But, SoFoMoBo has been an incredible jumping off point for what I am going to be doing. With these 15 images that I have already (all from the P-Sharan, of course), I will be completing a book by the end of the summer. It will be the book I wanted to make for SoFoMoBo, but with the time, effort, and creativity needed for the quality book I will be proud of. So, keep watching the blog for previews of the images for "Impressions Through a Pinhole".

Primed.

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:03:00 -0700

It occurs to me, as I approach the finish line and put the various pages of my SoFoBoMo PDF together, that I happened to have only used prime lenses during the project. Hadn't planned it that way, but there it is.

About two weekends ago I started looking into what method I would use to create the PDF book. I approached it with some trepidation, but was relieved to realize that I had plenty of options at hand. I decided to create pages as image files in Photoshop and then bring them into Lightroom's slideshow module, at which point I create a PDF from that. I've got all the final photos assembled now, arranged in six groupings and sequenced - looks ok, I think - within those groups.

I just finished the index/technical specs for the back pages tonight, and have left only the intro to write - long or short, I haven't decided yet. I expect to have everything wrapped up and uploaded on the 31st day - this coming Saturday.

I'm really pleased with how things came out - can't say I'm equally enthused about every image I decided to include, but I'm satisfied enough that I didn't compromise too much. I'm especially happy about the last grouping of images - I got good results from a new technique that I employed on my last day of shooting (this past Sunday).

The idea for it just popped into my head while I was wandering around looking for something to shoot, but maybe I read about it somewhere and just don't remember the origin of the idea - I'm sure people must have tried it before. With a prime lens (only what I used, I'm sure it's not an absolute requirement), determine a point of focus you want to start with and then predetermine (using the lens markings as a guide) either a point of defocus, or one or more points of further focus (focus points deeper into the composition, beyond the first point of focus). Then, set up the shot to give you enough exposure time (ND filters come in very handy here) that you can adjust the focus to the 2nd (or 2nd and 3rd) predetermined point(s) during the exposure. Play with length of time at each point, even, to see how that changes the results. I find you get some nice glowing effect in the subtler examples, and in the several-points-of-focus examples you get a disorienting effect of several planes of focus in the same shot with blur/glow in between. As I said, I'm really pleased with the outcome, so I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks when I finally post the PDF on Saturday.

I can't believe I'm reaching the end of it, and successfully finished, to boot. I'm a little surprised at it all.

night shoot

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:02:32 -0700

Sorry, I had absolutly no free time to update the blog. 3 days remain to finish !! Last night I did a night trip from 10pm to 2am, here 2 samples. Notre Dame in background

in downtown center

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:44:21 -0700

Sofobomo PDF

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:18:11 -0700

You can download the complete PDF proof of my SoFoBoMo book here:
http://www.joedecker.net/denise/mychosenfamily.pdf
(Thanks, Joe!)

Whoops! I found my first typo :(

Sofobomo finished!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:03:22 -0700

I've uploaded my SoFoBoMo book!! You can see my SoFoBoMo page here:
http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/DeniseCicuto/My-chosen-family/

There's a reduced size version PDF of the blurb proof there.
~~(The PDF was too large to upload so I only uploaded one image from it to the SoFoBoMo page. If you'd like to see the whole PDF, let me know and I can email it to you.)~~

You can also see the first 15 pages of the final version at the blurb bookstore here:
http://www.blurb.com/books/737896
(If you want to buy a copy, click on the the "About Book" link on the upper right of that page. I'm not marking the price up. What you see is what blurb charges.)

In the end, it has 51 photos (only one of which I didn't take).
30 people (and pets) posed for me.
I'm happy it's done. It was a great learning experience.
It might not be perfect, but it's done!!

How to Create a Photo Book Part 1

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:48:32 -0700

As you may have read in a previous post I am participating in SoFoBoMo 09, which means I have to create a solo Photo Book between the beginning of May and the end of June 09. I’ve never produced a Photo Book before and I’m learning a lot, so I thought it would be helpful [...]

If you enjoyed this post then you may like to read more at my blog

How to Create a Photo Book Part 1

SoFoBoMo: doing my own book

noreply@blogger.com (luntian) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:36:00 -0700

yes i am doing it! challenge has become my name and i will do my best this time. i know that most people would think that it's a waste of time in my part then again i have heard that a million times. don't care!
i am doing an ebook for the first time. i think that laying out the book won't be a problem on my side but the choosing of the right pictures will be. i always love graphics design and i think that it can be great to add it to my books. my first book would be "window to my world" which is totally about windows of any kind. i just hope that people would want to see it.

SoFoBoMo is Finished...YIPPEE!

bchbus@me.com (Mike) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:14:00 -0700

Phew! I finished my very first online photo book in the SoFoBoMo...one that the world can see! First let me say that...yes it was fun. I had this vision that I wanted to take the opportunity of a first-time ever trip to the coast of Maine to be the subject and source of the images for the SoFoBoMo entry. Here it is: Maine

I wanted the book to be not about the tourist sights but to be about what the landscape and the culture of the portion of Maine looked like to me. In other words, it didn’t have to be pretty. The first challenge I faced was rain. So much rain in fact I thought I was going to change the title of the book to Rain in Maine because that is all I saw for more than 50% of the time I was visiting.

The rain turned out to be the challenge within the challenge and I found it to be a huge opportunity. Walking out and back on the 7/8th mile breakwater into Rockland Harbor with tripod and gear with wind propelled rain hitting us from the north was not uncomfortable as much as it enhanced the challenge. The Children's Chapel in Rockport, a little known gem, was alive and full of pure color vibrance under the cloudy, and misty skies.

What took over for me in capturing what I saw through the lens of my camera was the remarkable natural beauty of the area. Sure, I had seen many beautiful images of Acadia on Flckr and other sites that I thought prepared and set my expectations. Oh, was I ever wrong! On Mt. Desert Island where Acadia National Park is located, the simple pure physical beauty overwhelmed me. From the inherent fury of the ocean crashing upon the sheets of pink granite to the foliage full of ferns (image at the top of my blog page), to inland lakes, cliffs and overlooks and of course sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain, you are surprisingly surrounded by the natural beauty.

As you drift out of the park you can see what traditions of the lives of so many has come to be. The harbors with the working boats of the lobster fishing trade capture your attention. While walking among the docks and harbors the colors and textures of their tools of the trade offered so many great imaging opportunities as well. Touring off-the-beaten-path towns and villages further emphasized the harsh and often cruel way of life that these fisherman and women face. While there may be fabulous color and light and romanticism tied to this area, you can not leave here without being humbled by the trade and corresponding lifestyle that they have chosen.

So with my first SoFoBoMo over, there are 3 trillion things that I can improve upon and change if I ever do it again, but what I can’t and will not change is the power of the experiences and memories of my first visit to the coast of Maine. I am going back...count on it!

East or West, Bengal is the best!

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:11:35 -0700

Last year, I was invited by my friend and photographer, Anil, to be featured in a photo book, A Month, 6 Artists and a Book that he was putting together for the Solo Photo Book Project that he’d signed up for. I not only got to experience a photo shoot but also saw him work [...]

SoTraFoBoMo?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:04:00 -0700

Nevado Vallunaraju, as seen from Huaraz

And here I am, back home, after a very eventful month in South America, shared between the Galapagos and the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca, with some additional time in Quito and Lima. I also brought back about 5000 photos, with a lot of wildlife and mountain images. Definitely (way) more than enough to do a SoFoBoMo book. But along the way, my plans have changed (I had a bit too much time to think about these things while I was trekking or climbing those last few weeks), and I think that I will turn the project of a "simple" photobook into some sort of travel book, split more or less equally between text and images. I have enough anecdotes and things to say that I know I can fill the text easily (and have always dreamed about being a writer!). Plus I think that the way I did my previous book, Northbound, was a bit unbalanced, with more text than simple legends but not enough to be able to communicate much. That also solves my previous problems about how to organize the book: I can simply go chronologically without guilt. I am aiming for between 80 and 150 pages all in all, a bit more than half being photos.

The new question is of course whether I can complete such a big project in the SoFoBoMo timeframe (and whether it is still a "FoBo"). To be honest, if only because of how tired I currently am, I kind of doubt it, but I will give it a try. I'll see how far I get by June 30th, in only 10 days. I may also decide to do a quick, photo-only version just for SoFoBoMo, as I suspect I will feel bad about not finishing it two years in a row.

As always, comments and suggestions are very welcome!

Finished. :D

noreply@blogger.com (Xarra) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:13:00 -0700

I'm declaring that DONE.

I still need to double-check a few things for actual publishing, but I'm calling it DONE. :D

Yay. :D

SoFoBoMo: http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/books/Xarra/hidden-coventry/
Issuu: http://issuu.com/xarra/docs/small_sofobomo

Phew! With 2 hours to go!

Fave Pix from SoFoBoMo!

noreply@blogger.com (Hermon Joyner and Kathy Monaghan) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:29:00 -0700

These are three of my favorite images from the Old Aurora Colony Museum shoot. The first one of the white pitcher was used as the cover image. Be sure to check out the finished book at SoFoBoMo.

Sofobomo [Day 26] Sneak peek

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:16:17 -0700

I've posted some photos from my Sofobomo project on my flickr page for you to see here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nisaa/sets/72157619773406561/

Sofobomo [Day 25]

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:23:38 -0700

Today was supposed to be a day of several photo shoots, many of which were thwarted by a migraine that came back this afternoon :( I did, however, manage to take a picture of ME that I don't hate and have already inserted into the book and got in a few photos of my friend Catherine.

I've rescheduled one shoot until Thursday but with my work schedule and trip this Friday, there won't be enough time to get everyone. I will accept this. It's ok. I won't take anymore photos of anyone else over webcam because this IS a book about photographs as much as it's about the people in them.

Two things, Don’t miss either

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:13:47 -0700

First up, Do you SoFoBoMo? I won an award in a contest over at the website SoFoBoMo.org. Of course, since the only competition was myself, I had some say in the matter. SoFoBoMo is short for Solo Photo Book Month. The contest is to shoot, edit and publish a book of 35 photos in 31 days. [...]

SoFoBoMo 2009: Epilogue

noreply@blogger.com (The Mathemagician) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:46:00 -0700

The Book: Cover (MacBook iSight).

The Book: Inside (MacBook iSight).

The Book arrived today while I was at work. I ordered it from Apple ten days ago on June 6, the night I updated my PDF for SoFoBoMo. If you look closely at the first photo, in the background you'll see two photos and a painting. The photo on the right was one I took back in 1982 of the tall ships in Newport, RI. I took that with my first SLR, a Pentax K1000.

This book is done. It's been a great ride. I'll continue to follow the books as they flow into the SoFoBoMo site over the next two weeks. If you haven't looked at any of them, you should. There's some great work that folks have done.

Cheers!

Graham

Conversations and cloning

noreply@blogger.com (blueskypoint) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:20:00 -0700

I wish I could do it justice. Imagine a keen foreign photographer, yours truly, sat at his kitchen table. With a beer. And a farmer. Who also has a beer. It's a scene that has been played out often. Frequently. Weekly even. Except that this time is different. We discuss the merits or otherwise of ASM (Clermont-Ferrand's rugby team) in the recent top 14 final. It is ASM's 10th final. And their

Solo Photo Book Month Project Completed!

noreply@blogger.com (Hermon Joyner and Kathy Monaghan) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:14:00 -0700

Last night I uploaded my finished e-book for the Solo Photo Book Month event. You can find it here. I ended up with 40 images all together and I have to say I'm pleased with the final result. It looks pretty good. It also feels good to be done with it.

This really is a good project to take on because it pushes you to new extremes in photographing. To end up with 35 or more images, most people would agree that you need to shoot roughly 10 times that amount depending on the person. Over the years, that's what I've noticed in working professionals. Of course, there are those who can produce good work at a much tighter ratio, but if you count on 1 photo out of 10 as a starting point, you won't be far off. So, for 35 images you need to to shoot about 350 images.

In my case, I shot 550 images, some of them duplicates or variations of the same scene, and ended up with about 40 finals. I could probably have included more images in the final book, but I decided what I had was enough. That puts my shooting ratio at 1 in 13. I've known some pros who shoot at 1 in 36. It should be acknowledged that shooting digital encourages overshooting. When I used to shoot with a 4x5 camera, my ratio was closer to 1 in 4 or 5. With 8x10, it was more like 1 in 2. The bigger the camera, the more work it is to make an image, the smaller the shooting ratio becomes.

When you shoot 350 or more images, it takes a lot of time to edit them all down to the final images and it takes a while to prep them, sequence them, and come up with a layout, not to mention choosing typefaces. And it all has to happen within the 31 days. A project of this sort is a lot of work, but it can also be highly rewarding. While it may be too late to try it this year, keep it in mind for next year. You'll be glad you did.

Later today or tomorrow, I'll post a few of my favorite images from the project. In the meantime, check out my book at the SoFoBoMo website and check out some of the other ones as well. There's a lot of good work out there.

A Mile of Coastline

Jamie (jamie@shutterscouts.com) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:51:00 -0700

Well, the month is up and I've finally finished my SoFoBoMo project so now I can concentrate on Shutter Scouts development again!

Open publication

SoFoBoMo: Done Deal. Almost

noreply@blogger.com (Live Through the Lens) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:56:00 -0700

The Book is complete and uploaded to Blurb. Just. In. Time. For. Lunch.

Which is good since I somehow missed breakfast, not to mention a mid-morning snack. Unsurprisingly, I made a handful of adjustments at the last minute, adding more photos and rearranging pages. I created more work for myself, without a doubt, but am much happier with the book I just uploaded to BLURB then I was with the book I stared at for hours last night.

Yay for me!

Of course, there is a little glitch. I need to upload a PDF file of the book to the SoFoBoMo site. I have saved a PDF, but the maximum size is 15 MB, and mine just happens to be 36 MB. Hmmmm... that seems like a pretty big difference. Anyway, I will need to figure out how to make it small enough to upload. I mean, it's done and the book has been ordered so I know I completed the challenge. I will not wear myself out too much with the PDF detail. There are some other tasks to tackle today.

Still, the rule follower in me probably won't rest until it's all done the way it should be.

PDF glitch aside, I am so glad I took part in this. Getting out of the house in the morning with my camera and photographing in new places was a perfect way to spend a month. Not to mention the great people I met along the way. There is also a piece I didn't really foresee: I like photographing food! I have spent years claiming to be a people photographer, and yet this past year has proven to me that I can do a decent job of capturing mother nature's beauty and/or some yummy goody just begging to be eaten. This challenge has opened my eyes to the shifts happening in my work. And I think it's safe to say I like it.

My approach to this project was one that I hoped would challenge me (it did) and educate me (it definitely did) and get me to finally make a book (I did). There was also the hope that I would create a body of work to show others. I scoped out both locations ahead of time, shopping and eating and then asking to speak to the owner. I pitched my idea and came away victorious. Then there were phone calls and emails and schedules to work out. Time spent in each location was not just about capturing images and telling a story, but also about revealing some of my own story. Gluten-free is my life, as well as theirs, and each person was able to share with me different pieces of their journey. Most of that info is up in my brain and not on the pages of the book, as this was a photo challenge, not a journalistic one.

On the technical side of things I shot entirely with a Nikon D300 (2, actually, since the first one malfunctioned and was traded in for another) using available light. Images were edited in Lightroom and the book was built in Blurb' software, Booksmart. Here are some fun stats for the last month:

Camera malfunctions - 2
Computer meltdowns - 1
Miles on car - 736
Tolls paid - $24
Sandwiches enjoyed - 4
Baked goods eaten - 16 (roughly)
Hours spent making book - countless

Now to go take care of that final detail......