What's The Ideal Orientation For Your Book?

Books  Comment
0 Likes

books_orientation
Horizontal, vertical, or square? It can be challenging to decide what orientation is ideal for your photo book.
In cases where all images share the same orientation, choose the same orientation for your book; a horizontal book for horizontal images, a vertical book for vertical images, a square book for square images. (If you’re concerned about how a book fits on shelves at book stores, use square formats cautiously and choose size accordingly.)
If the orientation of the images in a book is mixed, consider two approaches.
If a majority of the images in a book share a common orientation, choose that orientation.
Or, if you want to give all images equal opportunity for size and surrounding space, choose square for the most orientation neutral format.
When in doubt, remember that vertical books generally fit in people’s hands more easily.
Find more Bookmaking resources here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.
Catch my Making Your Own Photo Book seminar today at 12 at Photoshop World Las Vegas.

Photo Books – How Many Images Is Enough?

Books, Books - Blurb  Comment
1 Like

books_numberofimages
How many images is optimum for a photo book? Of course, the answer depends on the kind of book being produced and its purpose. There’s no set number; extreme lengths for books vary between as few as 12 to more than 300 images.
There are number of things to keep in mind when making a photo book.
Most photo books contain between 50 and 100 images.
Shorter books can work well if the images they contain are very concentrated, being both graphically strong and thematically related. Short books can leave and audience feeling hungry for more, which is a good thing – but if they don’t create strong presence rapidly they’ll lack both impact and staying power.
Longer books work well if a subject is complex and/or portrays a substantial duration of time. Long books may tire an audience and if not carefully edited and sequenced can seem unfocussed and rambling.
Be careful. It’s tempting to show all of your work. Instead, show only your best work. Avoid including weaker images to make a book seem larger and more important; they just dilute the average quality. And, include only images that relate to one another. Avoid including more images simply because they’re graphically strong; instead, select images that are related to each other. The form of a book will imply and create relationships between the separate items included in it. Make sure a viewer’s attempts to find and understand those relationships don’t go unrewarded. The more interesting and rewarding you can make this search, the stronger your book will be.
One way to find out if a book is too short or too long is to create a prototype and then observe how people interact with it. Do they put a short book down quickly without giving it a second or third look? Do they suddenly increase their viewing speed in a long book or not finish at all? After someone looks at a book, ask them if the book seems too short or too long.
Find more Bookmaking resources here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.

Condensation – How Looking Inward Illuminates The Outside

Images - Statements  Comment
0 Likes
Enjoy the text from my book Condensation.
.
Condensation
.
Light
.

All photographs are about light. The great majority of photographs record light as a way of describing objects in space. A few photographs are more about spaces they represent than the objects within those spaces. Still fewer photographs are about light itself.
Time, space, light. All the things this work is about are ultimately missing from the final product – the print. Put it in a dark room and there will still be no light. Touch it and you’ll find it’s flat. Consider it for an extended time; you’ll change but it won’t. Curiously, these conspicuous absences within the print make what’s missing more intensely felt. How does absence make something more clearly experienced? Perhaps it’s that the gap between representation and reality gives us pause and begs us to more carefully reconsider the world around us and the experiences we have in it, at first as a way of verification but later as a way of celebration. Read More

Correspondence – How Feeling Connected Makes Better Images

Images - Statements  Comment
0 Likes

Enjoy the text from my book Correspondence.
.

Correspondence
The first thing I do when I walk outside is look up. The next thing I do is scan the horizon. Hopefully, there’s water nearby; no matter how active or still it is, I’m mesmerized by it. I’m always looking at the sky, the horizon, and water for information and inspiration. Sometimes I stare for hours. More often than not, just for seconds or minutes. I consider myself luckier the longer I look. I have no idea how much time I’ve spent gazing at these things, but I’m always rewarded – if not with an image, then with a new state of mind. That’s how these images were made, through the accumulation of a lot of looking. These images are meditations. They’re an invitation to look closely at looking. They’re an invitation to see more fully, more deeply, and in many ways. Read More

Reflection – What Still Inspires Me After 10 Years

Images - Statements  Comment
0 Likes

Enjoy the text from my book Reflection.
.
Reflection
.
Cloudwatching

What child hasn’t spent scattered minutes, accumulated into hours or even days, watching slowly unfolding clouds and the changing sky? Wondering what they were, are, and will be. Imagining bodies (either whole or in pieces, especially faces), animals (whether commonplace, exotic, or mythical), plants, landscapes, and even mechanical devices. Who doesn’t pause at the sight of the blazing colors of the morning and evening sky? How few pause long enough to see the stars begin to appear? How strange to think that the same sky is blue by day and black by night, studded with twinkling stars. Are we like this too? Why do so many adults cease to probe these mysteries as consistently and frequently and with as much curiosity as a child does? What do we lose when we lose the search? Read More

New Book – Condensation

Books, Books - Blurb  Comment
0 Likes


“Condensation reveals a mysterious series of images, hovering on the brink of abstraction, stripped of everything nonessential, leaving little more than pure essence. These photographs are not only about the light-filled spaces they represent, but also the inner state of illumination passing through them brings. With extraordinary simplicity and directness, they lead us down a path of perception encouraging us to turn inward and take a mystical journey through ever increasing stages of awareness; thinking, associating, self-reflecting, centering, meditating, praying, and contemplating.”
45 images
Inspiring text
Find more books here.

New Book – Correspondence

Books, Books - Blurb  Comment
0 Likes

“Correspondence collects a moving series of images in which atmospheric and terrestrial phenomenon are brought into poetic alignment with one another, creating a felt connection both within and without. An exchange of reception and projection unlocks our powers of intuition. A communion of sorts takes place and is reenacted with each viewing. The act of bringing the inside into alignment with the outside is a magical act. This call and echo establishes a vital correspondence. These images are an invitation to look more carefully, to see more clearly and more deeply and in many more ways.”
.
40 images
Inspiring text

New Book – Reflection

Books, Books - Blurb  Comment
0 Likes


“Reflection presents selections drawn from a powerful series of works, remarkable for their tranquility, clarity, and depth. Images of bodies of water and the skies reflected in them become metaphors for changing states of mind. Together, they chart a progression of consciousness moving from calming, to clearing, and finally to illumination. Throughout this progression a growing intensity builds as the gaze is focused more directly and deeply into the source of illumination. The images become mirrors for continued reflection, invitations to look, and look again, and to look at looking.”
45 images
Inspiring text

You're Invited ! – Annual Open Studio Exhibit – 7/31-8/1

Event - Exhibit  Comment
0 Likes

cae2010
You’re invited! Come visit my annual open studio event July 31 – August 1 from 10-5. Gallery talks are at 2.
It’s been one of my most prolific years to date. Producing more than one hundred new images, four bodies of work, in progress for ten years, have been brought to completion. The results are surprising, even for me.
Three new books featuring this work have been released – Reflection, Condensation, and Correspondence – which you can preview and purchase online.
Also on hand will be my playful iPhone photo sketches, some of which are featured in my column on the Huffington Post. I’ll even take, process, and transmit some during my daily artist’s talks at 2 pm.
Come enjoy prints, books, web galleries, performances and conversations during this very special event.
Click here for more information including directions, previews, reviews, statements, audio, video, and press kit.