Nov
30
Like I mentioned a few posts ago, I put together a hard cover book of my black & white photos taken during 2000-2007 in various cities around the US.
The main reason for putting out yet another photo book out there (hence the title of this book: “Just another photo book”), well, actually there were two reasons:
1) To try and see what a hard cover book is like.
2) To collect my photos into one nice form of presentation.
It’s true that the final price of the hardback is a bit on the high side ($42) but I must admit that holding a hard cover book in my hands feels completely different and more like a real and an actual book.
Get this book here
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And to everybody who’s waiting (and I do thank you for your patience not to mention your interest;) my recent book about photo-art techniques is getting close to be done and ready to be published. Possibly another week or so. I will keep you posted.
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Posted in Photo Books, Thoughts about photography, black and white photography
Nov
26
Whenever I enter a bookstore I’m naturally always drawn to the photography section.
I know I’ve mentioned (or should I say complained about) it before but what is it about photography that makes people keep writing the same stuff over and over?
Excluding books about specialized printing processes, most photography books out there offer the same tedious advice on how to make great pictures that sell.
Yeah, yeah yeah, we already heard everything about composition, light, camera settings, angles, lines, textures, colors blah blah.
It almost seems they all find their information and inspiration at the same source…
Not too creative I’m afraid.
All the rest of the books out there, including a couple of toy camera books I found, for the most part fall under the category of collecting and displaying of photos.
So if you know of any CREATIVE photo making books, with something new to offer, I would love to hear about it.
Meanwhile I will keep my eyes open 
The Presedio, San Francisco. Inkjet transfer.
Posted in Image transfer, Photo Books, Thoughts about photography, inkjet transfer inkjet print printing transfer
Nov
23
As some of my experiments are done with inkjet prints, the issue of preserving these photos was naturally an obvious concern.
So this is what you can do in order to protect and improve the longevity of the photos:
1) Coat your work with UV moisture resistant clear finish. It will protect and double the life of your image.
2) Like with any other photo you should keep your photo in a dark moisture-free place and keeping it in a protective sleeve will help too.
3) Using archival ink and permanent papers will ensure longevity.
4) Its always a good idea to have a high res digital copy.
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The above photo, taken in Richmond Virginia, was printed on watercolor paper,
soaked and sun dried.
Posted in Experimental, inkjet transfer, techniques inkjet prints protect
Nov
19
For a while I thought I was interested in mixed media collages as another method for photo presentation. And while struggling to find out my style I’ve (disappointedly so) noted that most mixed media artists are in fact women and (therefore) most of their work features flowers, kids with wings, old family pictures, more old pictures, trees, a couple of birds and all kind of other feminine touches. Yuck!
Another matter I’ve noticed is that while for me mixed media is another way of presenting my photos for most mixed media artists the final piece IS the presentation.
So I somehow graduated into journaling where I happily carry out and combine self expression and photography just the way it should be done; unrestrictedly and with disregard to the final presentation of the “art piece”.
Don’t let your imagination limit you.
Original picture taken with a Kodak 35RF classic camera on an Ilford Delta 3200 ASA
Posted in Photographic art, Thoughts about photography
Nov
14
One of the things I’m recently interested in is “saving” (or like my friend David calls it “recycling”) my old photos. I kinda feel they are lost and forgotten somewhere there deep in the drawer. So recently I like to excavate through my old photo boxes and dig out these old prints to breath new life into them.
These old photos are the perfect candidates for distressed/altered prints.
Posted in Experimental, Photographic art
Nov
10
In the past I used Microsoft Word in order to put my books together.
Not only I could never really get the pages looking exactly like I wanted them to but also I have wasted precious time fighting Word which is famously the most inflexible program out there. Sometimes it seemed like it had its own agenda and ideas and no matter what I said it did not make Word cooperate and listen to me.
Recently I found out about Adobe InDesign and all my troubles were gone. (and I do apologize if this sounds anything like a cheap advertisement, I do mean well, you know )
It’s a very friendly program, and by friendly I mean it didn’t take me much time to figure it out.
And it actually lets ME layout the pages any way I want to!
So pretty much if you’re designing a photography book and would like to have last word this is the best program for this purpose.
Posted in Photo Books, techniques
Nov
06
These days I’m taking a break from working on the “art” book to quickly put together a book with a collection of black & white street photos I’ve been taking in the last 5-6 years.
When it’s ready, probably in a day or two, I’m going to publish it in a hard cover with Lulu.com. This will be my first hard cover book. I’m very curious to see the quality and what it will look and feel like.
Right now the book has no title yet (do you have any suggestions?) and I find the task of choosing the photos that will go in the book to be really an elimination of the ones that won’t make it
Posted in News & other stuff, black and white photography
Nov
05
And talking about toy cameras…
My two readers here know that producing sharp images is not my strongest side.
Most of the cameras I’m using, being classic or toy cameras, generate at best, soft photographs. To be honest I prefer soft images; not only they have a classic old time feel but there’s also an air of mystery and magic about them.
So I pretty much became accustomed and accepting of these images. That is until I shot slide film in my Lubitel camera. And mind you, the Lubitel ($8 in a thrift store) is a plastic camera, often categorized as a toy camera.
I think what contributed to the unexpected sharpness is the fact I actually paid attention to the camera’s settings this time around. And just the fact this camera has real working settings, such as ISO, Fstop, shutter speed and distance, should lift it up, above and beyond our average typical toy cameras.
OK, it DOES however have a plastic body.
Posted in Film photography, Thoughts about photography, toy cameras
Nov
01
As I’m making my birthday wish-list (I’ve learned awhile ago this is something I must do or otherwise I’d never get what I want and be amazed of how little people really know me.)
So I came across the lomography.com site.
One of the cameras I would really love to tryout one day is the LOMO LC-A but it turns out that when a camera becomes popular even a cheap plastic one can cost an outrageous sum of money. Smart people; I can only imagine their profit margin. It cannot be all that bad. Well, why not? if you have all these people who are willing to pay the price…
Am I the only one out there who thinks photography should not be such an expensive trade/hobby? I always look for the most inexpensive solutions. I buy my beloved cameras at garage sales or second hand stores, I look for expired or close-dated film (half priced!), I buy Polaroid film on sale only, etc.
But I guess there are lots of people out there who are gadgets freaks and will pay any sum of money to own the most cool/popular and therefore expensive equipment out there. Which by the way, someone should tell them already, doesn’t necessary make them any better photographers…
the above picture was taken with yet another plastic camera, the Diana, which is still reasonably priced on eBay.
Posted in Film photography, Thoughts about photography, texture layer, toy cameras
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