Lulu is shipping "The Book"

[tamerlin]

Yes. Apparently anything involving Candian and American postal systems in combination ends up being
staggeringly unreliable... I'm still waiting for a package shipped from Toronto to DC -- it went out on February
18th!

My copy of the Rangefinder book arrived this weekend, however... and it is gorgeous! The only thing I'd put
in the #2/#3 category is that I agree about the whitespace facing each page; I would point out the Lenswork
format, where each artist's blurb precedes his/her entire portfolio... but that doesn't change the fact that the
RFF book is well-produced, and the photos are clear and are positioned so that nothing is lost in the binding
fold. So you can see them in their entirety without breaking the binding. For a newbie like me it's good
inspiration 🙂

 

[peter_n]

Aaargh!! All these posts about how good it looks!! Mine didn't arrive today... 🙁 🙁 🙁

 

[GeneW]

Nor mine ... sigh...

Gene

 

[nwcanonman]

Hooray!!!
Mine copies arrived today! I'm "Over the Top" about the quality of the book itself. It's as beautiful as any of the famous photographer's books that I've got on my shelves. Great binding, covers and the print size is Perfect for me.
As my lovely wife pointed out, the last photo being a headstone with "What is, is." on it was the perfect ending to the book also. Not that it was my photo or anything - LOL.
Doing the Happy Dance ~ ; - )

 

[nwcanonman]

Peter/Gene,
It's worth the wait, I'm STOKED!

 

[tamerlin]

Look at the bright side... I have an M7 + 50mm Summicron stuck in a UPS facility where I
can't get to it because I got there too late to pick it up tonight 🙁

 

[RML]

AAARGH! When will my copies arrive?! I want to see the result and, with Gene's write-up on the process and the choices he made, want to get down to do my own book. I might have things ready before the summer holiday tourist season starts in Mongolia and get some sales. 🙂

 

[nwcanonman]

RML,
Have no qualms, the books quality is Top Notch, I guarantee it! As good as any I've seen from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, etc.
You'll be very pleased.
😀

 

[RML]

If it's really that good I hope Gene can write down his experiences one of these days.

No pressure, Gene, but can you hurry up? 😛

 

[Bubba]

I got my copy last night and concur with the rest of the crowd; it looks great. I am truly humbled and honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of this nice little project. Thanks Gene, Ralph, and Todd for making this book such a lovely thing. I especially want to thank Rich for getting this thing going. I really wish we could have had a couple of his shots in the book as well. I hope he is well and knows that this book has made a lot of people smile. Man, that cover shot by Graksi makes this book look like a million bucks. I bet if it were sitting on the shelf at Barnes and Noble, people would be drawn to the book by the cover and then they would definitely not be disappointed by the contents.

Now, I have to go and buy a bunch more copies for my friends and family.

Bubba

 

[GeneW]

If it's really that good I hope Gene can write down his experiences one of these days.

No pressure, Gene, but can you hurry up? 😛

Remy, here's a start: http://northernjourney.blogspot.com/

Laying out the book was pretty straightforward. I used PageMaker 7a which lets you compose facing pages. Images were placed in the publication with links to the full-size images so they were included when the PDF was created.

I created a master style with page numbers etc and used the ruler guides extensively for lining up photos consistently. Allowed for a binding margin so the pages would be offset slightly. Checked to make sure all the quotes were typographical (curly) and inserted proper em-dash wherever there was a dash, and en-dash to separate numbers (e.g. page numbers in the bio).

Most of the decisions were decisions we made together when we looked at various layouts and chose the one we wanted. We hadn't discussed how to handle the bio's so I double columned them to tighten the look and save a couple of pages.

The text in the book was not extensive so I chose New Century Schoolbook -- an easy-to-read font that expands the look of the text a bit -- so the text wouldn't look orphaned. If there had been more text I'd have chosen something akin to Times. The section headers were all Helvetica.

PageMaker allowed me to export the book as a PDF, which is what Lulu wanted. Internal photos needed to be 300dpi JPG. The covers needed to be 600dpi PNG for best results. This is detailed in the lulu help pages.

Any other questions, just ask -- or pop me an email at cdnphoto AT gmail DOT com.

Gene

 

[RML]

Sweet, Gene! As soon as I have time I'm gonna give things a try. My wife has been dabbling in PM7 recently, so I have some help in that department (would MS Publisher do?).

This weekend I'm gonna select photos for my Tsagaan Sar commemorative book and perhaps also select photos for my first book the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar. I'll need to write text for that book but that'll take some time and some effort (I'm not a really good writer, ya know).

 

[vladhed]

Remy, here's a start: http://northernjourney.blogspot.com/

Laying out the book was pretty straightforward....Any other questions, just ask -- or pop me an email at cdnphoto AT gmail DOT com.

Thanks for the offer, Gene. When I get my copy I'm going to propose that the photo club here at work do something similar. I don't think we'd sell nearly as many copies - at least because we are far fewer members, but I don't think volume is really a problem with lulu.

 

[rover]

From an organizational stand point, I would say to keep it simple. Give the participants a clear idea of what is needed from them, and keep to strict guidelines and time frames. I think one opportunity may be to not be so strict with the number of participants or number of photos. The book could easily be shorter or longer by a few photos if it works in the layout. Maybe mix and match the photos so that one of my photo for example would be between on of Joe's and one of Peter's, and the other somewhere else. I like the layout of book one, and think that could be a good starting point for subsequent books. That would allow for the development of a series. Keep the title Rangefinder Photography, but change the subtitle, maybe keeping with the theme or word Passion. I would not limit the creativity of the participants, let everyone submit what they want to, but the editor perhaps could group the photos into themes inside of the book (children, streets, dead pelican). Just some thoughts from the top of my head.

I think the most important part is to have a team of organizers who can see the project to a completion. I would volunteer in the future to help with the communication and tracking of what needs to be done. That part is easy. I think more importantly is that you need a couple folks working on the actual lay out of the book to make that as easy a process as possible. That is a lot of work, many more hours that I am sure we are all aware of, so having a couple talented dedicated people to share those responsibilities is important.

 

[GeneW]

Sweet, Gene! As soon as I have time I'm gonna give things a try. My wife has been dabbling in PM7 recently, so I have some help in that department (would MS Publisher do?).

This weekend I'm gonna select photos for my Tsagaan Sar commemorative book and perhaps also select photos for my first book the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar. I'll need to write text for that book but that'll take some time and some effort (I'm not a really good writer, ya know).

Good luck with the project, Remy! I've not used MS Publisher but I think it's fine as long as you don't need an index in the back of your book. As far as I know, it doesn't do indexing. I'm sure it would have worked for the RFF book.

Gene

 

[GeneW]

I think more importantly is that you need a couple folks working on the actual lay out of the book to make that as easy a process as possible. That is a lot of work, many more hours that I am sure we are all aware of, so having a couple talented dedicated people to share those responsibilities is important.

I agree with what you said except for this part. I don't think two people can do the actual layout -- it's one file and needs to be totally consistent. I think one person could do the internal layout and another the covers (which is what we originally proposed). It would be good to have a backup person for layout though who gets updated copies of the file in case the layout person wins the lottery and buys a Lear jet ...

Gene

 

[GeneW]

Thanks for the offer, Gene. When I get my copy I'm going to propose that the photo club here at work do something similar. I don't think we'd sell nearly as many copies - at least because we are far fewer members, but I don't think volume is really a problem with lulu.

Vladhed, I think lulu would be great for any kind of club or group project. Volume is not an issue and there are no startup costs (other on-demand publishers require a setup cost often running close to $1000)

I'm thinking individual projects too. I have a lifetime of photos -- I'd like to choose some of the best and do up a book for friends and relatives. A momento ...

Gene

 

[peter_n]

Mine arrived today at 5:54pm!! Beautifully printed and a real quality product. But, and I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this or is it just my sample, the black & white pictures have the very, very slightest hint of a pinkish tint... They are not "desaturated" B&W. I'm wondering if the inclusion of color photos is the cause. The acid test is graksi's cover picture and the same shot on page 15; they are different.

 

[RML]

Ohoh! Are there cracks appearing in the walls? Peter, you just had to ruin my day, right? 😛

 

[RayPA]

...I would point out the Lenswork
format, where each artist's blurb precedes his/her entire portfolio...

I agree this would not be an objectionable format, either. Although, this seems more appropriate for a portfolio of work, rather than the format used in the RfF book, a collection of a few of photographs by twenty-five photographers. With the current format, I find it very easy to locate individual photos, but again the Lenswork format would work too.