It's that time of year again when I am able to publish a book of my favorite images of the previous year.
2016 was a productive year for me and I'm happy with the diversity of my output as well as the quality of the imagery I created during the year. A general rule of thumb is that if I can come away from a year with 3 or more images that I feel are outstanding, then it was a very successful year. This year, I feel that I have 5 images that fall in to this category. Fantastic success by my standards!!!
As I go through the year and process images from each shoot, I create a copy of the image and put it in a folder for my year end book. This year, that folder contained a ton of images that I have processed and posted. As I sit down to start the process to create my book, the first task is culling the images in this folder....not all of my images make it in to the book! Self editing can be a difficult process as we all have images that we "like" maybe more for the experience of being there, being with friends, fond memories, etc....all of which won't translate in to a book viewed by someone who wasn't there. So, the editing process requires that I put aside memories and look at the images solely based upon technical and compositional merit. I reduced my 198 images down to just over 100 for inclusion in the book. Even this amount is a bit much, but I couldn't edit any further and still represent the photographic year I had.
Once I had the images selected, then came the relatively easy task of creating a book. There are many great on-demand book publishers out there. I've used Blurb for many years because I enjoy their interface and ultimately the quality of the printed book that I receive. The biggest challenge is laying out the images in a way that flows well and is pleasing to the eye. Color palettes, image orientation, etc all have to be considered as you lay out your book. And, those special images that I want to highlight to the reader, those need to be larger and highlighted in the layout.
All in all I'm very happy with the finished output and proud of what I've accomplished in 2016. You can preview the book HERE
2016 was a productive year for me and I'm happy with the diversity of my output as well as the quality of the imagery I created during the year. A general rule of thumb is that if I can come away from a year with 3 or more images that I feel are outstanding, then it was a very successful year. This year, I feel that I have 5 images that fall in to this category. Fantastic success by my standards!!!
As I go through the year and process images from each shoot, I create a copy of the image and put it in a folder for my year end book. This year, that folder contained a ton of images that I have processed and posted. As I sit down to start the process to create my book, the first task is culling the images in this folder....not all of my images make it in to the book! Self editing can be a difficult process as we all have images that we "like" maybe more for the experience of being there, being with friends, fond memories, etc....all of which won't translate in to a book viewed by someone who wasn't there. So, the editing process requires that I put aside memories and look at the images solely based upon technical and compositional merit. I reduced my 198 images down to just over 100 for inclusion in the book. Even this amount is a bit much, but I couldn't edit any further and still represent the photographic year I had.
Once I had the images selected, then came the relatively easy task of creating a book. There are many great on-demand book publishers out there. I've used Blurb for many years because I enjoy their interface and ultimately the quality of the printed book that I receive. The biggest challenge is laying out the images in a way that flows well and is pleasing to the eye. Color palettes, image orientation, etc all have to be considered as you lay out your book. And, those special images that I want to highlight to the reader, those need to be larger and highlighted in the layout.
All in all I'm very happy with the finished output and proud of what I've accomplished in 2016. You can preview the book HERE
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