Several discussions coming together

The other day my friend Janice commented here that she was thinking of putting her favourite photos in books. My friend Sean has done so several times. I've explored the Lightroom to Blurb route a couple times, but haven't done it yet.

Linda and I have talked of getting some more prints done, and while we have some wall space now, there is a limited supply. Even getting superb quality prints isn't particularly expensive. It's the framing and display and preservation. Remember those big metal stands you could leaf through posters with? (Does anyone buy posters any more?) I've even thought of that. I tried running all the photos sequentially on the cube. That worked ok for a while, then stopped. I'm not sure why. That was during the really hot days so maybe the poor thing overheated. I'll try that again soon.

The other thing we thought about doing was putting up a big TV over the stairs and cycling the photos through that. Same idea as the cube but bigger. I'd hate to spend the money on such a set up and find out it doesn't work any better than on the cube. When the advertising tells you this will work, they don't talk about the limits. The USB I'd plug into it has nearly 15 thousand photos on it. A couple years and it will be 20 thousand.

Then yesterday while doing a photoshoot at the community cleanup I got talking to someone about photography. They were boggled at the numbers and wondered why photographers kept the ones they didn't edit/print/sell. We don't keep all of them, of course. I just deleted 3 thousand, and could probably be a bit more aggressive about deleting more. 

But sometimes things look different on a second look. Or a third. I've seen images and wondered why I hadn't done anything with them. Or there was something wrong that I couldn't fix then, but can now. Or go a different route entirely by starting with a 'flawed' image. Or learning from your mistakes, and I've made at least my share. Planning future trips, thinking about what I'd do different next time. Deletion is permanent.

I was exploring the idea of breaking up the photos in Lightroom into current, the active storage of edited image, and the more archival storage of not-edited images. There doesn't seem to be an easy way of doing that.

The hard drive enclosure failure has me thinking about photos again, and going back to the book idea. But then there's no way I'm going to print 15,000 photos. But even I think about just the images I've given 5 stars to over the years, I'm looking at 181. That would be a big expensive book. Perhaps a favourites by year? Or a book for New Zealand and another for Yukon? Two trips each, lots to choose from. A book of just cat photos? How about just Fish Creek, or even, just bridge 2 in all seasons? Our garden? I could fill a book with just images of the white peony, but who would look at it, let alone buy one? When I think about the agonies I go through to pick image of the month, or image of the year, I can just imagine what I'd go through trying to boil it down to a book.

Size and style, and a few other decisions drives the cost of such books. It's expensive compared to buying a paperback, but not out of line with buying any other expensive photo book. Getting just one is expensive, but the price drops as you print more. However, it seems pretty vain to print a book of my photos and give them to someone as a gift, even if they've said they like my images. Doing a family photoshoot, and delivering the results as books is a thing, though most people just want digital copies now, and some want small prints. I have thought about doing a topical calendar, would anyone buy one of those?

So some stuff to think about. I'd like to hear from other photographers on this topic. Have you done books, prints, or digital display?

And now, what photos should I show you today? If you wanted, you could look at the images from the community clean up yesterday. Look for the LINK. Some of them are not what you'd think, and a couple will tug at your heart strings.

Let's start with some dragonflies taken September 4. This was shortly after Bebo Grove opened up again, and I was re-exploring. 

Some reflection photos from near the same place, taken a few days earlier.

And a little before that, this guy was right in my face as I strolled through the creek. At one point he was so close I had to zoom out, and was wondering if the lens would focus.

Which gives several serendipity shots.

This is actually part of a time lapse sequence and is not edited to single shot perfection.

This one is actually a future serendipity, given it's from late March this year. I'd have blogged it eventually.

Not sure if this is a clematis or a scarlet runner bean reaching for the sky.

Of the Day

Curtis and Celina are being elusive.

Flower. Linda's potted annuals are still doing well. All the drugs she feeds them, and the care and attention, they darn well should be doing well. Still, winter is coming, and we'll have a cycle of tidying up the garden and putting things to bed for the winter. Linda is always sad to see blooming plants cut off by frost.

White Peony

Driftwood

This is part of the treasure trove Linda found on Kuri Bush, near Taieri Mouth.