Christopher Hiscocks - Captures

[ped]

Hi guys

I have designed a photobook which contains some of my favourite photographs from the last couple of years. I have been fortunate enough to travel to some nice places and have some great days out in the UK.

Please have a look and let me know what you think. The pictures are mainly taken with an Epson R-D1 but there are also some with my Braun Paxette, Leica M4P, Polaroid SX70 and 195.

I hope you enjoy

Cheers
Chris

P.S I tried to make my title (and the book in general) as pretentious as possible 😉

http://preview.tinyurl.com/np88r3q

 

[charjohncarter]

Great mix of photos, I liked your book. Good luck with it. Congratulations on your work.

 

[icebear]

Great mix of photos, I liked your book. Good luck with it. Congratulations on your work.

+1, what more can I say ...

 

[Lumix]

Full page photos worked best for me - I found two photos to a page at times distracting. I don't think that arrangemenr did justice to your photos - not for the 'casual' viewer anyway. And some of the pictures really appealed!
As an alternative photo 'store' and reminder I think this is as good a concept as any. To be able to look at your pictures anytime, to be able to say to a friend 'this is what I do', I don't think the book medium can be beaten.
What will next year's book look like?

 

[kbg32]

I also found the 2 image per page spreads a bit too crowded. These images needed to breathe.

 

[Don Parsons]

I also echo their comments about more space needed between photo's.

I really liked the photo's, just had trouble telling when one ended and the next began.

You have some great shots there!

 

[ped]

Thanks very much for the feedback. I'll try another layout later with single images per page. My initial reasons for two per page are that it halves the price of the book and as the book is A4 sized they are larger than 6x4, but I agree that some space between would work well. Unfortunately the templates on offer don't allow this unless the pictures themselves are much smaller and then there's too much empty space!

Thanks for the general photo feedback, I appreciate there are lots of pictures to look at so if you managed the whole book, well done 🙂

Cheers
Chris

 

[ped]

....To be able to look at your pictures anytime, to be able to say to a friend 'this is what I do', I don't think the book medium can be beaten.
What will next year's book look like?

Exactly this - It'll be nice to show people almost as a portfolio of sorts.

Next years book will probably be in the same format of this one, so I want to get it right!!

Cheers

 

[rwintle]

Wow. What an incredible mix of photos, so many strong images. I remember a few of these from posts here on RFF (the one of the girl in the window, for example).

Agree that the two-per-page layout is a bit busy, but there are places it really works well:

pp. 6-7: the two cars (what are those, Kubelwagens?) and the two scenes facing that page

The 2+1 arrangement works really well in a bunch of places, like pp.. 14-15 and 16-17, but there are a few cases where it seems like there could be more of a "theme" connecting the three photos (e.g. pp. 40-41; but as a contrast, pp. 42-43 hang together beautifully for me).

The guy with the dog on his shoulder on p. 19 is priceless! 😀 And the tower on page 49 looks... epic, to use a word my 11-year-old daughter over-uses. 🙂

Also, it seems you visited a few nice racetracks along the way.... *jealous noises*

Love the portraits of your cameras too... that one of the Polaroid is great.

Overall, a feast for the eyes, thanks for sharing. 🙂

 

[ped]

Question - if I have a double page spread with a single landscape picture on each, rotated to fit - which way should they face?

I'm inclined to make each face outwards, so the top of each picture is at the spine of the book?

 

[ped]

Wow. What an incredible mix of photos, so many strong images. I remember a few of these from posts here on RFF (the one of the girl in the window, for example).

Agree that the two-per-page layout is a bit busy, but there are places it really works well:

pp. 6-7: the two cars (what are those, Kubelwagens?) and the two scenes facing that page

The 2+1 arrangement works really well in a bunch of places, like pp.. 14-15 and 16-17, but there are a few cases where it seems like there could be more of a "theme" connecting the three photos (e.g. pp. 40-41; but as a contrast, pp. 42-43 hang together beautifully for me).

The guy with the dog on his shoulder on p. 19 is priceless! 😀 And the tower on page 49 looks... epic, to use a word my 11-year-old daughter over-uses. 🙂

Also, it seems you visited a few nice racetracks along the way.... *jealous noises*

Love the portraits of your cameras too... that one of the Polaroid is great.

Overall, a feast for the eyes, thanks for sharing. 🙂

Thanks very much for the detailed feedback. Yes I think I'll have a play with some of the arrangements to see if some can be swapped around. I suppose in my mind there are links among some of the shots from my perspective which may not be so obvious to the casual viewer.

The cars are Citroen Meharis, I love Citroens in general, and the Mehari, with the 2CV, seem to be found in only the 'coolest' kind of cities.

Cheers
Chris

 

[gb hill]

Congratulations on the book. You indeed have been to some wonderful places. I don't mind at all how you have the photos laid out on each page. I found the book both easy & enjoyable to look through.

 

[ped]

Thanks a lot for the kind comment, I'm glad you've enjoyed my book. Most of these places I went to with my school (used to lead a Geography department, so field trips were a cheap way to travel!)

Obviously the places were somewhat spoilt by having 30+ kids in tow!!

I've played around with the layout of the pics in line with the comments by rwintle above (check out P40-41 now) so see what you think!!

http://preview.tinyurl.com/np88r3q

 

[ped]

Congratulations on the book

This is a book I'm making and paying for myself, and they get quite expensive!! It'll be about £90 for 60 odd pages, but the quality is amazing. The matte hardback looks and feels lovely....

Cheers

 

[Gid]

Nice work with some very strong images. I agree with some of the other posters that some pages have too many images. I think this is less of a problem where there is a strong theme - P40/41 for example (cameras) (BTW that case of chrome cameras and lenses look interesting). However, p44/45 doesn't work for me - the two bicycle shots are very good and could stand alone - I find the landscape distracting. P46/47 I have the same problem with the fence at odds with the other strong architectural content. You've probably got enough images for two or three more strongly themed books. Good stuff though and congratulations on getting it done.

 

[ped]

Hi Gid, thanks a lot for the feedback. More ideas for me to try and work around. I'm sure I can change the pics around some more.

I agree I could make a few books instead, but I really like the idea of 'one' book to sum up what I do, for better or for worse!

Cheers
Chris

 

[leica M2 fan]

I'm really pleased with your shots, there a quite a few very excellent entries.
I'm pretty sure, also, that if you manipulate the presentation you'll come up with something outstanding. The pictures are so well done.

 

[ped]

Hi Tony

Thats very nice of you to say. Thanks!

Chris

 

[Lumix]

Producing a book is not easy!
In the days to come you might wish that you had provided a frontispiece and an appropriate title page with facing photo. Similarly a blank page at the back is the 'norm' for a hardback.
A4 is also a large format - 9½" x 8" is a typical size (used by Blurb anyhow).
Looking at Blemkinsop's 'The Four Cameramen', opening the book and rotating by 90 degrees shows photos on both pages the 'right way round' - you twist the book once to view both photos, and this is consistent through the book. Hope I have been clear in my explanation!
I'm trying to produce my 6th book of photos - brief is a bit different to yours though.
pm me if you think I might be able to help more!

 

[ped]

Hi Lumix

Thanks, that's really helpful.

Can you explain what you mean about the 'frontispiece' - I can play around with the blank first page (which just says the title of the book) and get rid of the small square picture on the back page which I agree would probably look neater.

Cheers
Chris