Blurb book previews (the ones visitors can see when they visit Blurb) are Google searchable! That’s right, the text in your Blurb book preview will be picked up by Google’s search engines. Wow!
Find out more about Blurb here.
Now you can use your own graphics layout software to design books and print them on Blurb. Or, you can have someone do this for you. The point is you don’t have to use Blurb’s BookSmart software to make Blurb books anymore. Of course, your designs need to fit standard Blurb book sizes. But after that … the sky is the limit.
Find out more here.
Blurb’s easy to use book design software (free online) has been updated.
It’s faster, easier, and more customizable.
Find out more and download the free BookSmart 2.0 here.
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
The members have produced a Group Blurb book to accompany the exhibit. The book includes images and statements from all 24 artists currently featured in the Group Exhibit.
You can preview and purchase the book here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Find out more about my workshops here.
Find individual member’s websites and Blurb books by clicking More.
Read More
John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Karen Daspit has been a member for over 5 years. Here’s one important thing she learned and her work.
Alumni Insights
The most important thing I learned from my participation in John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group is that a group can create a synergy that produces artistic progression and excellence. Next Step has done that for me, personally. Somehow, watching other artists work improve and establishing a close connection with them via the internet creates a platform for improvement. Our group leader, John Paul Caponigro has set the standards high for critique, and quality of work submitted to the group. This has helped fuel the improvement I have experienced. It is almost a magical experience!
Artist’s Statement
The tropical environment I find in Hawaii inspires my images. The fauna here never ceases to amaze and provoke my creative spirit. I enjoy working with an earthen palate and taking what I see around me and re-composing it to my liking.
I have always been blessed with a creative ability that allows me to “see” a finished image in my mind’s eye.This ability, combined with my experience in the computer industry has served me well in this metamorphic journey.
My work has matured over the last 12 years. While conquering some of the technicalities of a camera, my work was basic and somewhat geometric and design oriented. It has progressed through various themes of flowers and leaves, to what is now a much more intricate and creative product.
I enjoy this task so much. I have met amazing people who have encouraged and mentored me. Living in Hawaii is a blessing to my work.
I strive to charm the observer, as I have been charmed.
See more of Karen Daspit’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Stay tuned for individual and group Next Step Blurb books.
Find out more about my workshops here.
Read More
John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Shayne Lynn has been a member for over 5 years. Here’s one important thing he learned and his work.
Alumni Insights
I signed up for my first John Paul Caponigro photography workshop looking to become a more technically efficient Photoshop user. The workshop impressed me by going beyond Photoshop and illuminating how to see differently, to be witness to your own work and also use this new knowledge to be more creative – both before and after taking the picture.
I have been part of the Next Step Group for four years. Having an active dialogue with this community of diverse visual artists facilitated by John Paul has broadened my own interpretation of photography and the express power that lies within it. The group helps one clarify meaning and purpose in their own work, and has given me support to pursue my own projects.
Artist’s Statement
These images visualize internal spaces in nature, mirrored in myself – the depth of which I seek to explore and comprehend. They represent the small, simple, meditations of nature and moments I became comfortably lost in. By becoming still (sometimes disturbingly so), I released the pressure to “be creative”, and was able to witness my breath, to sense an image and compose it. The camera frame holds together the pieces of the world for me, defining the horizon, creating a center from which to focus on. I sought to capture a sense of energy moving in containment – a channel of “becoming in an unplanned way – flow”.
See more of Shayne’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Stay tuned for individual and group Next Step Blurb books.
Find out more about my workshops here.
Read More
John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni Group
For over 10 years I’ve been mentoring a select group of individuals. Their progress has been thrilling to watch. It’s been a true privilege to be a part of their growth. July 7 their first Group Exhibit will be unveiled at the Maine Media Workshops. (link)
Jim Graham has been a member for over 6 years. Here’s one important thing he learned and his work.
Alumni Insight
I first came to John Paul 8 years ago. And from that workshop and my subsequent inclusion in the Next Step Group I have been able to develop a voice that speaks through my work. John might say that I always had one and that he only helped untie the strings that has bound it. But, I’d argue differently.
My inclusion in this group helped in my ability to articulate a visual language. An Artistic language. For I do believe that when we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change, to hear and to see; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait.
And it was not only John Paul who taught, but each member of that group as teacher. Each offering their own individual gift to the other. Each part having their own unique attributes that bound us all together. Not just a whole community but a visual chorus.
I’ve also been fortunate that others have valued my input about their work and that curiosity has given me the courage to begin to teach on my own.
Artist’s Statement
The work I choose to show in a gallery is typically made while traveling. I usually just photograph whatever interests me. Documenting where I am or what my surrounding environs are. The resulting imagery inevitably ends up integrating my experience with the natural world. I seem to have an inner agenda, which is always seeking a harmony between the two, as well as a need to reconcile the inner, psychological world with the outer world of my everyday experiences. Each of my images has it’s own story. I may not have known the story when I released the shutter. But, the journey home and the time taken to suss out the images I have created, each stories unfolds. They are perhaps an afterthought – a way to make sense of a fleeting moment or a memory.
In the naming of my images I try to give a bit of meaning to the moment I’ve tired to render. I try to find a way to finish the image as a final piece and to bind the group as a whole. Each image has it’s own place and it’s own narrative. While I have my own story for each, I hope that the viewer find his own stories within them.
See more of Jim Graham’s work here.
See the Next Step Exhibit at the Maine Media Workshops July 7 – 30.
Stay tuned for individual and group Next Step Blurb books.
Find out more about my workshops here.
Read More
Blurb put on a great seminar on new bookmaking possibilities at the Palm Springs Photo Festival.
Blurb makes possible small run, limited edition books, a majority of which wouldn’t be published in the mainstream publishing world. In comparison to high end traditional offset printing Blurb’s final product is a limited run, lo-fi approach. The cost per item is greater than traditional offset printing, but you can produce as few books as you like. You assume the financial risk, not the publisher, but you can limit or even eliminate your risk. There are only six sizes (harcover or softcover, with three different binding process. You have a limited choice of paper stocks – standard and premium. The color management is good but not excellent.
Blurb books look similar to traditional books, but they’re different. Really different. How? Create your own online private or public bookstore. Quickly and easily design your own book yourself with Blurb’s online software. (Some have done it in as few as 20 minutes.) Blurb will then produce as many or as few copies as you like and send them where you want them within a week. You can make them available for purchase by others. Blurb can fulfill orders for you. And if you make a profit, they’ll send you a check. You can update your book at any time; within hours or for the second copy ordered. And last, but certainly not least, everything in the text in your Blurb book is searchable; a Google search will find text in the captions for images! That’s amazing!
Blurb is a powerful new addition to the creation of book. They printed over 400,000 titles in 2008. This is a huge paradigm shift for the way we make books and share our work with others.
Check out Blurb here.
Check out my Blurb book Antarctica here (and stay tuned for the updated version coming soon).
Blurb, the most popular print on demand book maker, just announced their new Premium Paper option.
“Premium Paper is the crème-de-la-crème of our paper offerings. This 100-pound text silk-finish paper is 35% heavier than our standard paper, featuring improved opacity and stellar image quality to make your best work shine.
For our pro users, Premium Paper is another way to present your best work to your clients on 100-pound paper. If you’re already using the B3 Custom Workflow process, adding Premium Paper to the mix will simply blow you – and your clients – away.
You can order books with Premium Paper starting on October 23, for all our book sizes and types, up to 160 pages. All your existing Blurb books can be ordered with Premium Paper too (if they’re 160 pages or less).
Adding Premium Paper to your next book is as easy as a single click – just choose “purchase with Premium Paper” at check-out to order your best-looking Blurb book yet.”
Selecting the new Premium Paper option adds a few dollars ($3-5) to the cost of each book.
Check out my Blurb Premium Paper here.
Check out my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Congratulations to the winners of Blurb’s Photography.Book.Now contest.
The winning photographers and their books are …
– Grand Prize: Beth Dow, In The Garden
– Category Winner, Themed: Jonathan Smith, The Bridge Project
– Category Winner, General: Talia Chetrit, Reading
– First Runner-up, Themed: Cara Phillips, Singular Beauty
– First Runner-up, General: John Lehr, Something is Happening
– Second Runner-up, Themed: Panar, Johnstown / Lowy, Iraq Perspectives (tie)
– Second Runner-up, General: Michael Corridore, Roadworks
Which Blurb books you enjoy most? Comment here!
Find out about the contest here.
Check out all the winners and the honorable mention and preview their books online.
Check out my Blurb book Antarctica here.