The hardly objective at all book review

It arrived! A couple days quicker than expected, and no extra shipping charges. I speak, of course, of my second book. This one.

And the fancy presentation box it came in.

I was giddy to see the UPS truck driving up, and didn't waste any time at all opening the box. The book is an oversize lay flat, 13 x 11 inches, with 69 photos over 42 pages of premium lustre paper.  

A professional layout artist might scorn what I've done here, with the images mostly centred near the spine of the book, usually 2 to a page, and a few taking up the full page. There are 4 panorama images taking up the full width of the double page, plus the one for the front and back cover. Some text is toward the outside page margins because I wanted the focus on the images, then have the eyes go outward to the text. 

I'm thrilled at how the photos have transitioned from screen to page. I took my normal screen edit from 2019, tweaked a couple of them given some of the new Lightroom tools and skills, and exported them to a working folder, and from there to a Bookwright folder. 

When you select a photo, there is a button down at the bottom called "auto image adjust". This tweaks the photo to prepare it for print. I don't know everything that it does, but it appears to brighten and sharpen the image. For almost all the photos this was a no-brainer. A few of them I went back and forth on, and left it adjusted. 

Overall, I'm really pleased at the colour and print quality! On only one image of the 69 am I not 100% happy, but then it's a tough image, and the screen edit would probably look worse. If I cold have done half the adjustment, I think it would be right. If I were to do a 2nd edition, I'd probably take another run at editing that image specifically for print myself, and not do the auto adjust. 

But then, a second edition would imply someone else wanted to buy the book. I'd be enormously flattered, and would happily do a personalized autographed copy if you wanted, though that means opening the shrink wrap. Hmmm, although I could put an image of my signature on the first page. Would that count?

However, this is an expensive book. Unless I catch a deal from Blurb, I'd have to charge you $225 plus shipping. Yes, I saw you wince. But like I said, printing any of the panorama photos would cost that much at least, and one would be at least twice that. Or think of it this way, only $3.25 a photo, and even if I do say so myself, these are gorgeous photos.

Still, if you must have one for your book shelf let me know. An edition of 10 gets a volume discount from Blurb and I'd pass that along.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

The serendipity images seem to come in waves. I haven't had one for a while, and then this blog gets two, with one of them being a double. So for the same image number you also get an ant exploring the edge of it's world, and another distressed wood and leaves composition. Some of you probably see the sperm whale with mouth agape in that one.

Driftwood (BC)

Peony

Flower

Yukon

The aurora from near Dawson City. We were right under it, which makes the view a bit less dramatic than it would be further south.

And a serendipity of Curtis! I thought I'd blogged all the edited photos of him. Or maybe I did blog it and forgot to tag it. In any case, I don't think I'm going to hear any objections. 

Film (new)

The central library during my Canada Day walk with the small film camera. This is one of the few images rescued from it seizing up.

Film (old)