MorseBlog

I spent the summer in Sandpoint Idaho with my Fuji GFX 50s ii medium format digital camera. My digital philosophy has been to retain and integrate the aspects of film that I enjoy so much. I tend to work with mostly manual lenses and not use a lot of the camera features and menus aside from shutter speed aperture and a new one for me, ISO. I made a series of earlier posts on some of my work which I list below. Old Glass  Lake Vibes Lake Morning June 5 2022 Trestle Creek August First Lake Pend Oreille I have travelled to this area over the years to visit my father and have always found the lake to be a challenge to photograph. It is predominantly blue in tone in the summer owing to many days of bright blue skies. The lake itself sits in a bowl of mountains that makes golden hour somewhat muted. This was an attempt to channel some of the mood of the lake and reflect that in my photographs. I found th...

As I mentioned in a previous post I had found some inspiration for a photography project that morphed into a small photobook. To recap the book will be hardcover in A5 (210mm x148mm) in landscape orientation. I am publishing this at Mixam my favorite photo-book publisher .  I received my softcover proof copies the other day and they came out nicely. I substituted one photo that I decided didn't look so nice. Since they were black and white images, I opted to print a monochrome book. The images came out nicely. I updated my minor changes and reformatted it for hardcover. This involves changing the number of pages and reshuffling a little to make sure the pages I wanted to land across from each still do. I use softcover to save a little money on the proofs before committing to the more expensive hardcover run. I have found with these softcover books with 32 sides (internal pages) 8 copies cost as much as one. So I order a batch of proof as they usually turn out well enough to give to...

It is interesting to ponder the cycle of creative drive. In the past these lulls in my photography used to concern me as I would wonder if I had come to the end of the road for this activity. However, over time I find that there is a natural cycle, and these low points are part of it. I suppose some part fatigue which is probably a protective mechanism to not get obsessed with something. I haven’t done much serious picture taking since February but really going back to January if you don’t count ‘finishing off a roll’ as real work. In the meantime, I have been printing some back catalog images using lith printing, so it is not like I have not been engaged, merely differently. I also realize that I have made some great lith images (by my own judgement). This is turn fueled or rekindled some work I did this morning.  My First Rekindling On another front I have the pleasure of taking Mollie out for her early morning walks. She gets me up early between 5:...

I continue my hunt for the best self-published book maker and I think I have found the best for me. I have some earlier posts here and here about my odyssey of publishing  Three Wood Lands  my book on three Cambridgeshire woodlands. I started out with Blurb, the most obvious. They have a very nice 13x11 inch landscape hardcover. Other publisher like Lulu and Mixam seem to stop at A4 (8.3x11.7 inches) so if a large coffee table book is what you are after look to Blurb or Saar Digital. Still A4 is a great format. Blurb is basically pretty good quality and very high priced.  Recently in Reddit I noticed someone in in the UK had recommended Mixam for a zine (magazine) publisher. Not having heard of them before I looked them up. They do a lot of different printing tasks including hard and soft cover books, zines, posters, flyers, cards, almost everything. They have a great way of quoting work with a series of drop down menus to select the size, number of pages, paper options,...

In my introduction post on the culmination of a local woodlands photo project I gave an overview of the process and linked to a video review of the Blurb Publishing version of the book. Now I have my Lulu version so I can compare the two results. First a summary of the major differences.  Attribute                  Blurb                                                            Lulu Size                              13"x11" (330 x 280 mm)                    8.3" × 11.7" (210 × 297 mm) Cover                        Imagewrap Hardcover      ...

I made my first photobook back in 2008. It was a memorial to my brother's photographs and was sent to a number of friends and relatives. I made it with Blurb and subsequently did a few more. Now it seems to be all the rage on YouTube and elsewhere. It is trendy to print photos as well as everyone is tired of consuming images on screens and they want to hold something real. Now photobooks seem to be an extension of this. I agree! I think there is something special about holding a physical image. Photobook Cover Spread Here is a video overview of the book with it's content and my commentary on how I put it together and what I thought about the results.  Three Wood Lands Genesis This past year I have been engaged in a project of woodland photography focused primarily on three local woodlands. I have written up my efforts here on this blog and most of the photos hav...