Writing a Book

In the past I have written 'top tips' on photography on this blog and I use those as a basis for answering questions when I give 121 training. I was thinking, as I woke up this morning, that it might be a good idea to get all those top tips, thoughts, ideas and issues concerning photography all written down. If I make them all available in one place ie a book, then people who ask me photography related questions will have a resource to dip in to.

I will consider this over the next few weeks and put together an idea of how this can be achieved. I can see me making a book and needing the creative ideas from my brilliant Graphic Designer friend Redroo Creatives.  She is a whizz with typefaces and I can see that this book will be a typographical masterpiece.

One thing to consider is do I offer this as a gift when people have had training - or do I sell it at a 'covering my costs' level? All things to consider.

Will keep you informed of progress.

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Arden - in print

It's here

It's in print

Yipee

Arden - the book I produced an image for the cover - is now available in print.

I noticed that someone has already read it and given it a glowing review.

5 stars.

Even better than this I have received an email from Nick (the Author) inviting me to his book signing at Waterstones, Sutton Coldfield next Saturday. Nick will be setting up stall around lunchtime and here's hoping he gets loads of interest.

Fabulous - this is solving ALL of my Christmas and Birthday gift giving this year.

so chuffed

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Mini Book

Not surprisingly the 3 x mini books have arrived from Snapfish before the larger Book arrives. I am very pleased with these. This time I have put a picture of an eye on the front rather than my details because I think the last one was picked up and taken because the person thought it was a business card! Well that's what I choose to think anyway. I will put my details on the back page.

The Big Book

I was unable to go back to see the client last week on Thursday/Friday because the weather was just awful. Also I think I want to be able to take the first step book with me just so she knows it is coming together. It will also give me the chance to show her some of the images I have taken so far and gauge her reaction.

I showed a friend the images for this project last night - they were very impressed. I have to say that seeing them with fresh eyes after 5 days of not seeing them I am confident that I have some lovely shots. I believe my client will ultimately be pleased with the finished result.

Until I have the Book back I will not make a start on the page layouts for the finished Big Book because I want to make sure the images work well together and the ideas I had for page layouts are successful.

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Found items

There were many items found during the restoration of the building I am photographing including wallpaper, electricty bills, pieces of lino and an empty packet of cigarettes. History shows that these were only manufactured for a few months during 1939. 

I have had in the back of my mind that the book could be more than just pages that there could be something more tactile about the book.

I once bought a photo album - which I have never used - because the cover was incredibly tactile with Hessian rope and the binding consisted of a bound twig.

I want to use something that will lift the book. The trouble with using the found items is that they are very precious and unique. I have thought about adding a ribbon as a place mark to the book once it is delivered and perhaps attached a button to the ribbon. I did this with the holiday journal I recently created on a trip to Scotland.

I also have some cord with tassels that might give a luxurious feel to it.

I shall experiment when the book arrives and talk to students that are able to create interesting metal objects. These could then be attached to the ribbon and dangle outside the book. A fake found item?

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Film

The film has been picked up and first glance the images look blooming gorgeous.

They are in focus and they are nicely exposed - what more could a girl ask for. To ensure I got the correct exposure I did make use of my light metre which I have been given as a birthday present. I knew I would not be making much use of it until I got my hands on a medium format camera again. I also double checked the reading from the light metre with a reading from my digital camera (set to Auto) so that I had 2 readings from which to make a decision. The FujiChrome film was out of date but I cannot see any tint or cast on the transparencies. I know that the College shop has quite a few of these out of date films left so I might just pop along and buy a lot more as they are good and will be slightly cheaper.

I have crudely scanned them in on equipment I have at home still in their protective sleeve and without removing dust off the scanner. The resulting poor quality is because of the way I have captured them to show here rather than the quality of the transparency.

I now need to get them scanned in properly. My scanner will only scan 35mm negatives so I will need to make use of equipment at Uni as that can scan medium format negs/transparencies.

I would like to go back with the mamiya and move further back from the building. I want to replicate a found image I have been given that shows the building from the other side of the road and the railings are prominent.

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Book - deadline

Today is my self-imposed deadline for sending off the book so that it stands a chance of being delivered in time to be shown to Ed Swinden when he gives his lecture on 20th October.

My day did not go well: Firstly ... a hose on my car leaked and caused steam to billow out from under my bonnet. Fortunately it is still under warranty and the garage is based in Burton - so 4 hours later it was all fixed and sorted. Secondly ... I forgot to pick up my memory sticks containing all the images and information for the book. I would not have been able to complete the page layouts for the book had I stayed at Uni.

I was beginning to think I would have been better off staying in bed. However once I got home I achieved an awful lot. Thankfully I had access to all my photographs and was able to amend them to properly fit the page layouts in Snapfish.

I am very happy with the book and the layout. I ordered the book and delivery should be in 6-10 days - fingers crossed for 6.

Lesson learned:

What might appear to be the start of a really horrid day can actually end up being very productive and entirely satisfactory. The lesson should be - to never panic.
I also need to make sure everything is ready to go when I go to bed. I clearly do not think things through properly as I leave the house in the morning.






What a shame 
The day of Ed coming to see us has dawned and yet the book has still not arrived. Snapfish sent me an email saying it would be delivered on 19th Oct. I waited till 10.30am on 20th before going into Uni but my postie did not arrive. Grrr. What a shame. 

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Book Layouts

I have decided that the book I create for this assignment will not be the finished book I present to my client. I need to return to take more photographs (which has been planned for this Thursday) plus they have found more items and information for me that I would like to add to the book. This means that I will create the final book for the client in a different way to the way I will create the book for my assignment. I believe that I have images that capture the essence of the building.

I will be using Blurb to create my finished book but for the assignment I decided to use Snapfish as I like the way you can change the page layouts for individual pages - plus it gave me some fabulous ideas on what layouts would work and also which clearly would not. 

The was a good example of what does not work - I need to carefully choose the images and edit them so that they sit within the book creating software and show all the details within the image and not produce weird crops like these.

I created the front cover for the book to fit the proposed book that I will create on Blurb - however the snapfish software cropped my image and I therefore lost the words.

I liked the idea of grouping images together. These for example are all images that are connected with the front door of the building.

Again the software was showing my some excellent ways to group the images and also that I can add a little text if necessary.

This is over the top but I can see that grouping together the images of the ornate cornices and the iconic gasolier is a good idea.

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Book - photographs

I have been collected the found items and images from the client and making preparations to visit and take my own images. I did try to do this one Friday but the weather was appalling and I cancelled due to the monsoon like conditions. The weather was gorgeous on the Saturday afternoon and so I went to photograph the building using both my Canon 5D using 24-105mm and 50mm Macro lenses and the Mamiya RB67 with FujiChrome colour transparency film. I was very happy with the images. But got very frustrated with my tripod. I must ask Vinny about better ones.

Lessons learned:
Always have a Plan B and don't worry or be unprofessional if Plan A doesn't work. Some things (like the weather) are out of my control.
Always be on the look out for better equipment - but do the best I can with the equipment I have at all times.

DIGITAL

I have processed the digital images and here are a few of my favourites.

FILM

I have taken the film into 'Photo' in Nottingham. However the usual 1 hour turnround was hindered by the fact that the guy who processes the films was on holiday. I will be waiting a week rather than an hour.

When I have them I shall scan them, upload them and discuss them here. 

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Book Creation

28th September

Given an assignment - to create a book that needs to be ready by 20th October (when Ed Swinden will be a guest lecturer) to cover one of these themes: Object; Place; People; Narrative.

I have made 2 books over the summer - but this needs to be a new book and not be a portfolio style book but to contain a cohesive and connected set of images.

I have a commission to produce a 'coffee table book' for a client who has restored a Grade II Listed Building in the Churchgate Conversation Area of Loughborough. I have decided to make use of this assignment to help me develop and work through my ideas for my client.

I produced a tearsheet of images that have given me inspiration for the photographs I will be taking.

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Carni

Burton Statutes - a 700 year old tradition. The right to hold a fair was granted by King John and each year Burton welcomes the travelling Carnival and they in turn welcome the local revellers.

I went out with the idea to take images of the signs  as the talk we had before going out was showing how  signage is indicative of the date an image was taken.

I also had in the back of my mind to do a set of images linked together by colour. There is certainly a riot of colour at fairs.

Dress and clothing is also a good indicator of when images are taken. My initial response to thinking through the idea of photographing people was to not bother. However a couple of people approached me. I think because I had the flash gun on the top of the Canon 5D and the 24-105mm lens it made me very noticeable. People actually thought I worked for the Burton Mail.

After taking 60+ images and spending quite a bit of time chatting to some of the Carnival workers I decided to head back and download the images to see what would make a good collection. I divided them into 4 categories: People, Signs, Colour and Fortune Tellers. I considered the images in the 'people' category to be the strongest and processed 9 ready for a final choice. We were asked to present 5 images on A3 paper. I printed off 8 as I couldn't get them down to 5.

I tweaked the shadows/highlights and added a little contrast and placed them all onto an A3 sheet with a white border. On one of the images I placed a description of who I had been talking to.

I positioned people where I wanted them. I did not take a lighting kit out with me but I did borrow a flash. It was a bright but cloudy day but I wanted the colours that where available to really pop (a la Martin Parr). Where possible I asked the people to stand in front of the boarded up attractions which gave some interesting coloured backdrops.

After I had taken the photograph of the men leaning on the pink cup I was pointed in the direction of Bill Tweddle. They thought I would find him interesting and he is indeed a character. He had been to every Statute in Burton, Oxford and Lichfield every year for 70 years. He was very passionate about the history of the travelling fair and he wished he could impart that to the younger families that travel. He wants them to fully understand their heritage. He also pointed out the plaque that gives Burton the right to hold the Fair.

Feedback:

Everyone really liked the Fat Man sitting on the Waltzer - mostly because of the way the steps seem to bend down towards him. They said it was very nicely composed and the space around the subject gave it context. The vertical lines were straight and the image made you want to walk into it.

The image of the two lads standing in front of a white background, on its own, lacks context. But when seen with the other images it has context as it becomes part of the narrative. On its own it could be saying an entirely different thing - perhaps a comment on society or young people. 


The fill in flash helped boost the colour and made sure everything was sharp and removed any shadow from underneath people's eyes. It is clear from the final images that I have engaged with the subject and the images and the subject are controlled.


Here we all are looking at our work:

My thoughts:

I surprised myself by really enjoying what I was doing. I have never enjoyed asking people if I can take their photos - but I found this so easy and people so willing that it may no longer be a problem. I was even more surprised that I ended up with some canny shots. This might be a turning point for me. I think we benefited from getting out just as the workers were taking the covers off the rides and setting up for the day. I really do need to set my own agenda and go off and do it. I was pleased with my time management and conversations I had with other students in deciding which images to print and how we found the assignment.

I know that had I not spoken to the people I would have presented these images:

The reason for taking these photographs was to show us how easy it is to pull together images with a theme and to help us with our thought processes for our Book Assignment. I already have my theme - but I thoroughly enjoyed this process and the images I have produced.

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