A page from my first photo book
I found the production of the book relatively easy. The time-consuming step was preparing the text and images in a Word document, ready for transfer. Using the Blurb interface it took me a morning to download and work out how to use the "Bookwright" software, upload my text and images and then send the resultant file off for printing. I made a few mistakes along the way, most obviously not filling all the space on the front cover with my chosen image, but I was reasonably satisfied with the outcome.
The book arrived after about 10 days. Some of the images had printed rather dark and I noticed one or two defects in the images that had been missed when I looked at the corresponding prints. One image, which was additional to the portfolio images (all of which were included in the book) hadn't printed at all well and was clearly unsuitable for publication. However, overall I was satisfied with the outcome.
My tutor had kindly agreed to look at the book and came up with several suggestions for improvements, mostly to do with the design of the book. He also recommended changing the front cover image. After 35 years of writing science reports my writing style lacks a certain flair and my lack of subjectivity and anecdote in the text was also noted. The visual impact of the text was described as "rather childlike".
My tutor's comments were very helpful. I have spent the last couple of days revising the photo book, replacing some images, removing others and adding a couple of new ones. I have cut down significantly on the amount of text, but I'm afraid that my objective, scientific style of writing will not change overnight - however, I hope that my passion for wildlife and the environment shines through in the text. I will upload the text and images shortly, make many of the recommended changes to the design of the book and send the resultant file off for the printing of my second (and last, for this project) photo book.
Revising the photo book and looking at potential replacement images allowed me to make a final decision regarding which images and prints to include in my final "assessment" portfolio. I had hoped to get the opportunity to photograph Cornwall's very aggressive herring gulls on a recent holiday in St Ives, but on the only day that I would have had any free time (it was a family holiday!) I was ill. Now I am out of time for practical photography and I will use the remaining weeks (when not on holiday) to prepare for assessment submission in September.
