Hi there!
It’s been almost a year since I released my last work in print form and since I’m rapidly approaching my 40s, I do feel like the pressure is on to make more of my images than storing them away nicely on the computer. In this post I want to take you on a little behind-the-scenes tour and show you how I made my latest book “These Woods Are Home: Book Two”.
In this spread, I enjoy the “explosive” shapes of the flower as well as the tree branches. The gnarled branches and raindrops add additional surface detail while the delicate petals juxtapose the immovable tree limbs.
Motivation
These last months have been turbulent to say the least, and whenever things get a little too overwhelming I like to go out into a forest or park to unwind. It was then an obvious choice for me to bring my little Canon G15 camera to take a few snapshots while I was walking… I find this to be quite meditative - the fresh air, the smells of the forest and me focusing entirely on my surroundings instead of anything else that might otherwise occupy the mind. The camera is super simple to operate, has a decent zoom range and macro capabilities and I just like the output it produces. So, for the non-nerds reading this: the camera stays out of the way and makes it easy for me to focus on the image-taking.
Photographing
This project honestly started out with mere snapshots of trees, paths and plants. The more I photographed, however, the more things, small and large, I noticed in the forest. Figures in the shapes of trees, the glistening of light on wet fern. What started out as “taking the dog to the park” soon developed into a full-blown photo project, a quest to capture my experience of deliberate observation of what was happening in these woods. Soon, I left my snapshot camera at home and instead brought my larger cameras in an effort to capture more detail, pre-visualizing some of the shots I wanted to take of particular trees, etc. Something else changed as the project developed over time: I chose to exclude all man-made alterations like paths, tree stumps, benches, etc. - so, instead of being a faithful representation of all things in that woodland-park, the project really revolves about the particular scenes and plants I choose to limit my experience to, as best as possible. Creativity is born from limitations, after all.
The cameras I used throughout this photo project: the Canon G15, Fujifilm X-T20, Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the Ricoh GRII
Culling and Editing
At some point then I felt, I knew, that I was done taking pictures, that I had collected all there was to see and notice - for now. It was time to cull and edit the photos in Lightroom (I prefer the classic version), to develop a coherent body of work. Even though I usually shoot with my camera in black and white mode, I initially flirted with the idea of turning this into color work. After multiple attempts of recreating my subjective impressions faithfully in color, however, I had to be honest to myself - these needed to be black and white photographs after all, as originally envisioned when I captured them.
As is common with the majority of my work, they are a little on the contrasty and darker side, which for me is reflecting the solitude and peace I find in the woods. Each of them is a focus on one particular scene, on one thing at a time. So after “shaving away” about 95% of the total photos I took for this project and developing the rest in my signature style, I exported them in 300 dpi print quality and moved on to the sequencing and layout stage of the book.
Some of the project’s images in Lightroom Classic, where I am trying to sort the wheat from the chaff. Some already have completed black-and-white edits, others are only switched into monochrome mode as a quick visualization aid.
Sequencing and Layout
For playing around with the sequencing, I sometimes use Freeform on the iPad Pro 12.9 inch, as it allows the easy movement of images on a large canvas, where I try and find out which photos work great side-by-side as a spread, which ones should be left alone on a spread in order to give them some breathing room and what the overall sequence of spreads and images should be.
For this particular project however, I jumped straight into Affinity Publisher 2 on the iPad, to properly see my margins and bleed settings as well as the overall spread- and page dimensions. The software is also available for the desktop, but for this task I enjoy the more “hands-on” approach - quite literally so, on the tablet.
Sequencing and layout, I find, go hand-in-hand for me, as opposed to one-after-the-other. I feel out which images go together well and in which combination. Some images best interact across different spreads (you’ll see this in the book in the photographs of the leaning tree and the “leaning” waterfall on the following spread).
A screenshot from Affinity Publisher 2 on the iPad Pro M1 12.9”. Note the blue and purple lines, marking the margins and bleed. On the right hand side the sequence of spreads can be seen. It’s important to keep in perspective not only what the viewer will see on one spread, but also how that content “transitions” into the next.
The Hardest Part
What follows after the sequencing and layout step is for me the most intimidating and difficult part. The book needs some sort of introductory writing, an explanation of what the reader is about to see. If I had wanted to be a writer, I hadn’t picked up a camera. Writing doesn’t come naturally to me and I always wonder if I overshare on personal stuff. I probably do, and I probably did here. I cringe at my own writing. I think you can tell how much I dislike it, but it might just be getting better with time and practice. Still, do me a favor and just skip the text page, will you? All you need to know is in this blog post already, I promise! ;)
This spread is certainly a play on the dichotomy of light and dark. The mostly straight, bright branches in the left image contrast the chaotic, twisted, dark ones on the right. Both of them shield a dark forest floor from a bright sky, however.
Printing
For this new project, I decided to try out (for the first time) the services of Blurb, and I must say I am amazed at how this little book came out. After exporting the book as a print-ready pdf from Publisher 2 I uploaded the file to blurb’s website for processing. Thankfully, they show you a digital mock-up of what is being printed before you get to sign off on the order. It took me at least 10 tries to correctly export the pdf from Publisher 2 and make sure to have my bleed on all spreads filled to the edge for two-page photos. I would advise you to double and triple check your work at this stage and redo and fix things if necessary. The only thing I didn’t like about the process was that blurb insisted on inserting one blank page at the end of my book. Not ideal, but I can live with it. And then it’s time to confirm the order and wait for it to arrive (in retrospect, maybe the waiting was the hardest part after all).
The Final Product
Holding your own book with your own photos in it and with a ISBN on the back, although self-published, just feels like an amazing accomplishment. This particular book came out 99% as I hoped (the only deviation from the plan being the blank page at the end) and I can’t wait to share it with my friends, family and - of course - you!
If you’re a photographer yourself, I hope this step-by-step report will help you in producing your own best work in print form. You don’t need to use the same tools and apps as I did, there are so many options available out there. And if you’re not a photographer and somehow made it to the end of this blog post (thank you!) I hope the above helps you appreciate the work that goes into self-publishing even just a small photo book as this one a little more. Maybe share this article with an artistically-inclined person in your life to encourage them and show them your support.
Thank you for your time,
Marcus