Book submission in review

I just received notification that my formal Insomnia: Hotel Noir book submission is being reviewed this next week in Santa Fe by a wonderful photobook publisher. I had planned on converting my Blurb “book dummy” from public to private next week with the conclusion of Blurb’s Photography.Book.Now book competition, but until I find out the results from this photobook publisher, I will keep the Blurb book active.

I still might need to use it in conjunction with another inquiry letter….

Best regards, Douglas

Received Production Proof

This afternoon I received my “production proof” from Blurb, which is to say, I bought my first copy of this book to figure out if I screwed anything up.

In the past, when I receive my first copy/proof,  I would then  find some dump errors and think  ”just what was I thinking?”

Well not this time, as the book looks just like I intended. Including the full bleed photographs with Blrub’s page trim, which was probably my biggest concern. Very nice!

So everything is okay at this time with my submission to Blurb’s Photography.Book.Now and it is all in the judges hands. I hope that they are kind;- )

Best regards, Douglas

Photolucida Critical Mass

I just received notification today that Photolucida’s 2009 Critical Mass is now open for submissions. I had been thinking that my Insomnia project would be this year’s submission, but I was so focused on completing the book, I had not realized that Critical Mass was about to happen. Thank goodness for signing up for automatic notifications, eh?

Last year for Critical Mass, I had submitted my triptychs based on my photographic project from China. Now I will re-focus on Insomnia. I need to distill the 36 photographs from the book down to 10, and yet I want to maintain the feeling of the Novella aspect of the book. So I made one edit tonight and I think that I have 10 images that placed in sequence for the book, should hold up for the evaluation. But they need to withstand a quick read to make it past the first sort by the judges. So I need to consider the trade off between continuity and impact. sigh.

For better or worse, I need to be true to myself.  So I will be going with continuity of the project, with impact being the tie-breaker for any border line decisions.  I will come back to my final 10 photographs again in a few days and see how they feel after I let my decision ”rest” for a short duration. Then I will start preparing my Critical Mass submission and you may see these photographs again as I fret over them.

Best regards, Douglas

Insomnia: Hotel Noir – book published

Insomnia: Hotel Noir copyright 2009 Douglas Stockdale

After setting aside the final layout of my book Insomnia: Hotel Noir, I did a final edit last night to ensure that the pairing and sequencing of the photographs was still what I wanted.

I did find one pair of images that I felt needed to be reversed, which I subsequently changed. The difference to most in reading the facing spread may seem insignificant, but it made a subtle difference for me and was a necessary change.

So last night I uploaded the book to Blurb, ordered a production proof for myself and set it up on their public domain. I also selected the hardcover ImageWrap with the premium paper for book sales and personal preferences.

I do not know if I will recieve the production proof before Blurb’s Photography.Book.Now book competition, but I hope so. If not, I will still make my book  submission. It would just be nicer to see my book before they do ;- )

Now I have some more virtual housekeeping to implement with linking the Insomnia book site up to my web site and other blogs.

Best regards, Douglas

Book contents developed

Restless Night photography copyright of Douglas Stockdale

Late last night, I finished the PhotoShop work on the last photograph (above) that I think will complete my Insomnia project. I have just loaded the image into the Booksmart template and the page that I had reserved for this photograph.

Concurrently, I have been printing a hardcopy print of each photography and developing a draft book (dummy). The book dummy provides a different way of pre-visualization of this project. I have used the dummy to test which images to include, what pairing to make on each spread and finally the sequence of the images to establish the flow of my story.

Right now, this book is looking good. I went into the Booksmart preview mode (simulates the final look) and started reviewing the pages, spreads and photographs, starting from the back of the book. I find that if I start a review at the front of the book, I have  a tendency to “see” what it is I want to see, verus what is exactly on the page. So this latest review enabled me to catch three or four more errors that I could have sworn were not there. But they were!

Now I will let this book “rest” for a couple of more days, continuing to perform the review process a few more times, before I up-load the template to Blurb at the end of this week. nice.

Best regards, Douglas

Book nearing completion

SideDoorphotograph copyright of Douglas Stockdale

The next couple of weeks will be interesting. I am not sure of the last day for the photobook submission to Blurb’s Photography.Book.Now if it is July 15 or 16th, but I should not be waiting till then to upload my book.

Right now I have all but one photograph loaded into the BookSmart template, and I hope to have that uploaded later today. Then I need to start the final layout evaluation for pairing on the page spread and the flow of photographs in the sequencing.

I am very close, and this is getting more exciting. Like a long marathon race and I can see the finish line.

Best regards, Douglas

Recent small delays

I did have a head of steam a couple of weeks ago and was well on my way to finish this book. Then a combination of small vacation & business in Colorado and ran out of Cyan ink for the 4800 printer. So now we are back and I hope to purchase the ink cartridge in the next day or so. I am one of those who needs to see the printed page, as the monitor is really good, but not the real deal.

And Blurb, who I am considering for self-publishing this book project, has just announced an upgrade on their BookSmart software to version 2.0, so I need to get that downloaded and check it out. fun!

Best regards, Douglas

Insomnia – Nine images to go

I am getting closer to having my Blurb BookSmart template completed for this project.  With the photograph above tweaked and loaded into the template, I am now into single digits for the remaining photographs to complete.

A couple of days ago on Singular Images, I posted the potential book cover photograph. After loading this into the BookSmart template, I then had to tweak the placement of the title’s text on this full bleed image. I needed to figure out a place the title was readable, and I decided to apply a bold blue as the fonts color, same color as the books back binding. So far it looks good.

So still well on my way to meet the Blurb juried book deadline in July. nice.

Best regards, Douglas

Week of April 21 2009

Entrance copyright of Douglas Stockdale

This last week, I continued to tweak some of the images for Insomnia. Most of which I had posted on Singular Images, along with the one above, here, here, here and here. The images were used to accompany another post or thoughts about this project.

At the moment, I am working on the image pairings inconjunction with the image sequencing for the book. As I figure out the image pairings, then I make tonal adjustments to ensure that they support each other. When I figure out which pairing, I transfer the images to the Blurb Booksmart software to determine how they should appear, which is on the left side of the spread, which on the right side, with margins, partical bleeds or full bleeds off all the edges of the page. Then I determine which additional adjustments to make to the images.

Interesting process, but slow and time consuming.

Best regards, Douglas

Insomnia – publishing intent

As I have stated earlier, I intend to have my Insomnia project published in a book, which is what I have pre-visualized, to borrow that photographic term.

Likewise, I have been sitting on the fence as to self-publish or make submissions to the established publishers. There are some pros and cons for each alternative. But the biggest draw back to self publishing is the ability to distribution of the book after all of the investments have been made. One of the key aspects for the established publishers is the artistic validation that is provided, and the ensuing opportunities that could result.

Now self-publishing has two big alternatives, one is relatively inexpensive investment but results in an expensive book, which is using the Print on Demand (POD) publishers. The second alternative is an expensive investment, but a relatively low cost book which is necessary for the traditional booksellers and book distributors.

So I am thinking about about developing a straw man, or a high quality dummy book, through Blurb, a POD publisher that I am using. If I can finish the Insomnia project and develop the Blurb book dummy by the end of June, I can submit it to Blurb’s photography.book.now juried book contest. If it does well, then potentially keep in the Blurb distribution channel. If not, remove it from the public sector, but then print copies as book dummies for submissions to the book publishers.

One aspect of the traditional book publishers is that they may or may not include the photographer (me) in the book’s design, layout, editing, image pairing and sequencing. Since my project has a cinematic story line, the basic flow of the images should be evident. There is always room for the exact pairing and some of the sequencing decisions, but that is also an interesting part of the collaborative effort with the publisher and book designer. So ideally if I provide a very sophisticated book dummy, this will hopefully influence those design decisions.

So that is what I am thinking at the moment,

Best regards, Douglas