More Doll House Photos

Chriscrawfordphoto

Chriscrawfordphoto

Real Men Shoot Film.
Local time
5:26 PM
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
11,728
Location
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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I'm up to 44 images now, and more on the way. Here's some new ones!

dolls39.jpg


dolls40.jpg


dolls41.jpg


dolls42.jpg


dolls43.jpg


dolls44.jpg


Click here to see the whole series from the beginning.
 
Chris:

I am really enjoying this series. A meaningful series of photos that build on each other so the total is greater than the sum of the individual photos is much appreciated.

It is also a delight that the result is actual meritorious photos rather than having any reference to whatever camera, lens, or film was used.

How wonderfully unique that this is about images and not cameras.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Chris:

I am really enjoying this series. A meaningful series of photos that build on each other so the total is greater than the sum of the individual photos is much appreciated.

It is also a delight that the result is actual meritorious photos rather than having any reference to whatever camera, lens, or film was used.

How wonderfully unique that this is about images and not cameras.
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Thanks Bob. I have been having a lot of fun with this place, hopefully it'll be around a while longer. Gear wasn't too relevant to them, aside from the fact that I used handheld 35mm cameras because the floor in most of the house is so covered in trash, broken furniture, and debris from the smashed up walls that there was nowhere to put a tripod....so couldn't use medium format.

Almost everything I do, not just in this project but in all of my work, is done with a standard lens or something close to that. To me using really exotic lenses like the 15mm or 600mm makes the picture about the effect the lens gives, rather than the subject. My work is very subject centered, which is why I use simple straight photography techniques that don't call attention to themselves. Its not that exotic gear hasn't got its place for some things; if I shot wildlife or sports I'd want a 600mm lens and I'd use it all the time. I don't though, I am interested in the human experience so I shoot the touchable, the approachable.
 
DanOnRoute66 said:
...And maybe you can get an exhibit? Seriously, anyone who can put together 44 photos of any one subject and have them this compelling deserves a show. Great work!
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I can't afford to do any of that stuff. Last time I had a large exhibit was in 2002 when the Public Library here in Ft. Wayne (which has a NICE gallery) gave me a one man show with 50 images hung. The printing/frames/mat board cost me a fortune. About $1500 if I remember right. Thats almost 2 months income for me now 🙁 Oh and I didn't sell a single photo.

I've basically stopped exhibiting, its a waste of money when you can barely afford to live. Let me put it like this: In the last 12 months I have sold more photos for more money from my website than I did in 15 years of exhibiting!

Exhibiting costs a lot of money and never even breaks even for me. My website costs me $200 a year to host. Actually it costs nothing, I host a site I designed for a paying customer and he pays for the server. Even if I did have to pay for the hosting, I'd still profit nicely from my website. I got to where I just couldn't live on 'fame', I needed income....I started running my business (making art) like a business. Several of the doll photos have sold from my site.

I'd love to do a book, but that involves high costs too if you want to do it right. I know a well known photographer here in Indiana who had a book of his fine art photos published by Indiana University Press. They made him pay the full cost of production up front because they said that no one will buy art books, or at least not enough to recoup the costs of editing, layout, printing, and distribution. I think he said it costs him something like $20,000!!! The quality of the book is magnificent! But he'll never see that money back. This is how it works unless you're ultra famous, then they publish it free and pay you royalties.
 
I have seen some very nice blurb books but I need to look further into that; I want to be sure they do not claim ANY rights to the finished book or the images in it or I won't even consider them. Haven't had a chance to dig through their site yet, school is keeping me real busy now.
 
chris, I think the only thing blurb retains rights to is the software, technology and user interface from which you build your book, plus, of course, their trade/service marks and logo. I think you own the content and layout. you should definitely look into this deeper and report back whether I got my story straight or not. metaphorically, I think they own the canvas and you own whatever you put on the canvas.

Obviously, Blurb's business model won't give you much chance to make any money, but you can have some nice books in any quantity you want, even one-sies and two-sies.

their proprietary layout software is cumbersome and not too accurate. put simply: it sucks. if you have experience (and I'll bet you do for sure) with other layout platforms, you'll do better using those and importing your work. I had trouble with the two books I put together very quickly as gifts to family getting the image registration right. One of these was a wedding album that to make up for a photographer who shot the wedding but never delivered the results. I was shooting for fun and stepped in long after the fact as favor.

As I'm an idiot when it comes to layout, I struggled. With your background, you can probably come up with something real nice.
 
robklurfield said:
chris, I think the only thing blurb retains rights to is the software, technology and user interface from which you build your book, plus, of course, their trade/service marks and logo. I think you own the content and layout. you should definitely look into this deeper and report back whether I got my story straight or not. metaphorically, I think they own the canvas and you own whatever you put on the canvas.

Obviously, Blurb's business model won't give you much chance to make any money, but you can have some nice books in any quantity you want, even one-sies and two-sies.

their proprietary layout software is cumbersome and not too accurate. put simply: it sucks. if you have experience (and I'll bet you do for sure) with other layout platforms, you'll do better using those and importing your work. I had trouble with the two books I put together very quickly as gifts to family getting the image registration right. One of these was a wedding album that to make up for a photographer who shot the wedding but never delivered the results. I was shooting for fun and stepped in long after the fact as favor.

As I'm an idiot when it comes to layout, I struggled. With your background, you can probably come up with something real nice.
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If it'll let me do layouts in InDesign I can do it myself and make it look nice, I use InDesign all the time to do layouts...awesome software. Very deep and powerful like Photoshop and intimidating looking but simple once you learn the basics.
 
Chris, I thought i left you a Blurb on a Children's Author :
Dare Wright (can't remember where i posted it)
(Side Note: the Book about her Life is "The Tragic Life of a Lonely Doll')
anyway She mixed writing with shots from her rolleiflex...
made it quite Big but then had a Fall
because one of her pixs depicted mama bear spanking Edith
(spanking became Taboo in the 70's)

Perhaps You can go her route
but with more of a Noir edge ...Young Adult
Just a Thought !
 
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Chris, Blurb doesn't do a bad job. The print quality is reasonably good, the software is a little clunky but you soon get used to it after a couple of false starts and they do offer a couple of other layout and upload options which might suit you. But I wouldn't go so far as to say "it sucks".
They include clear statements printed at the start of each book that the contribution - i.e. the images and text - provided by the author is solely the author's copyright and they also say the graphics, layouts etc are Blurb's copyright. I could give you the exact wording but you'll see it once you download the software and start to assemble a layout. They're quite clear in their statements about who owns the content copyright - you do.
I made two books that way last year. I selected their largest size 12x12 and with premium paper. One had approx 60 images and the other just over 100. I didn't leave the book up on their site for display and sale but you can do that - and you can go and have a look at many of the books that people have put there after printing their initial copy so that others could buy them. You can also see the price structure.
If you want to look, the images are in my Mobile Me gallery <http://gallery.me.com/lmyoudale> but they don't show what the book looks like, of course. Look at "Glimpses of Paris" and "Shades of Grey" to see the content.
 
helenhill said:
Chris, I thought i left you a Blurb on a Children's Author :
Dare Wright (can't remember where i posted it)
(Side Note: the Book about her Life is "The Tragic Life of a Lonely Doll')
anyway She mixed writing with shots from her rolleiflex...
made it quite Big but then had a Fall
because one of her pixs depicted mama bear spanking Edith
(spanking became Taboo in the 70's)

Perhaps You can go her route
but with more of a Noir edge ...Young Adult
Just a Thought !
Click to expand...

I googled the book but unfortunately no one had any of the pictures online. Google books had them censored out as copyrighted images 🙁 Will have to go to the library this weekend and look at the book in person.
 
Leigh,

I've seen those types of previews on blurb. I'll do my own layout if I do a book. I'm a graphic designer as well as a photographer; if I used a template for layout it would make me look bad to those who have paid me to layout ads and brochures and such for them.
 
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