New Traditional Photography Magazine

vickersdc

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Hello everyone,

Apologies - this is a duplicate post, I've just found this particular forum after posting elsewhere within RFF.

I'm trying to get started a new magazine for traditional photographers - i.e. non-digital. The idea's only a few days old, but there's been so much support and help that it looks as if it's going live in mid-January.

The idea is to have a community magazine, written by photographers, for photographers - you get to set the direction of the magazine and ultimately how successful it is!

There will be freely available articles over at http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com and we're hoping to publish a paper version via lulu.com once a quarter.

This really is a magazine / e-zine for the photographic community and many people have already volunteered to write articles, supply images and so on. Currently the site is active and letting everyone know what's going on in the build-up to the 'launch-date'.

This project is a two-way street - you get to contribute, you get to say what happens and I hope you'll enjoy the buzz from it.

Please, if you get a moment head on over to http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com and maybe subscribe to the RSS newfeed so that articles can be sent directly to you.

Many thanks,
 
Hi all,

Thanks, your support for this idea has been fabulous and I'm just hoping that I can provide you with the sort of framework you'd like to see in a community magazine, and it seems several of you have popped over to look at the site ( http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com ) from here. We're also gaining members over on Flickr too and everyone is waiting to see what happens on the 15th January when the first real article goes live.

If you want to contact Creative Image Maker you can - I've set up an email address for the magazine and you can send your comments, articles, images, requests or whatever to creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk (obviously replace the "at" with the usual "@" symbol).

Thanks to all of you - the future's black and white ;-)
David Vickers
 
Hi all,

I'd be really grateful if you all would pop over to the site and leave your comments about the decisions facing us with the paper version of the magazine.

You can leave comments at Creative Image Maker or you can email creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk and leave your thoughts there.

Many thanks,

David.
 
Hey, this is an interesting venture...

Love the concept. One thing that could be considered would be to have photographers sign up as associates (for an annual fee) to allow them to be published.

I know of one upstart magazine that was going to do such a thing but they were not traditionally-based. Not sure if they are still around.

Good luck !
 
Over the decades, I've been involved in a number of hobbies, & it's always the same..... American magazines focus on equipment & contests, offering very little practical help other than a couple of short, grudgingly offered partial-page , often ill-conceived dissertations on subjects covered too many times before, while UK magazines focus on practical advice, solutions, & how-to articles. Their magazines are for hobbyists, ours are for consumers. They get it. I'll be following your endeavor with great interest.
 
I like the format of jpg magazine. I hope this is something similar. I will click onto the other site to have a look.
 
@maiko9: it's an interesting problem to have - deciding what goes in to the magazine. I'd like this to be full of interesting articles that cover a wide range of areas, that inevitably means that you probably won't see every article as being relevant to your needs. But someone will - I need to try and get the balance between beginners articles and more experienced, specialist articles.

@dave lackey: interesting idea - but not for this project I feel. I so want this to be a community-led project; in essence, I'm trying to provide a framework for you chaps (and chapesses) to put forward articles and images that you feel would be useful to others in the community. This never was about making a pot of money and nearly a week later, it still isn't ;-) Having said that, the paper version needs to be self-financing!

Thanks for your comments, keep 'em coming!

David Vickers.

http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com
 
sounds like a great thing..I'll be waiting for the first issue.
Would be cool for someone to do a regular feature on building a home darkroom.
 
Just a quick post to let you know that things continue on apace - I've hopefully managed to secure www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk with a view to a future dedicated website that we can call our own and I've also applied for an ISSN (basically an ISBN for magazines).

Remember, until the first article on the 15th January, you can keep up-to-date with all the goings on and be involved in the decisions over at http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com.

Thanks,
David.
 
One week on...

One week on...

What an amazing week it's been! I figured you might be interested in an update on what we have achieved in one week. The site itself has been visited over 750 times with over 1,200 page impressions. I'm sure they're not all my wife, so someone out there has been looking. Thanks to both of you ;-)

Last Friday it all kicked off and this site was started with a grand plan to start a magazine catering for the traditionalist photographic community. The first posts started and people started to get interested; the RSS newsfeed was set up and people have been subscribing to that.

Since then, we have had several offers of articles - thanks to Scott, John, Cheryl, Drew and others. Thanks too, to Rodrigo for his offer of help.

You can currently contact me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk, but that's due to change now that the www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk web address has been secured. This means that I can now setup a dedicated web site and thanks to 'Mark', who through his generous donation has allowed me to get the web hosting we need to see this through. That's Xmas taken care of ;-)

This does mean however, that the first article, due to go online on the 15th January may well appear on the 'proper' site, and I'll be working hard to realise that goal. It would be nice to get it right from the start, rather than have to move everything over later on.

As noted on a previous post, we've also got an ISSN for the magazine, which we can use for the PDF and paper copy, and I'm still looking to distribute through Lulu.com to ensure the widest possible coverage. In fact, I've already started to piece together the magazine, working on styles, fonts, layout and so on.

That just leaves me to say a final 'thank you' to everyone, whether you've just popped along to the site to see what it's about, or you're making a contribution. Remember, this is all about providing the community with a means to see what's going on, who's doing what and hopefully teach each other various techniques along the way.

David Vickers.
http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com
 
David,

Just seen this for the first time. I love the idea and, as it happens, I've recently written to Photography Monthly (to which I currently subscribe) bemoaning the fact that they might as well call themselves Digital Photography Monthly as there's bugger-all reference to film made in the magazine anymore - well what there is can be described, at best, as tokenism.

Anyway, I'll definitely be interested in following developments (excuse the pun) but as I use both digital and film, I'd hate to see it be film exclusively. Why do we have to choose? We don't...! Why can't it just be about photography?

Don't get me wrong, I now have an M6 kit and I love it. But I also love my D200 / S3 Pro and the various Nikkor lenses I have. I get off on making photos and it makes not one iota of difference how I do it as far as I'm concerned.

I think it's fantastic that you're breathing some life into film. Truly fantastic. However, can we please avoid 'photographic fundamentalism' as I call it as it can get a bit claustrophobic and limiting to be continually there only one true faith..!.

Cheers, Paul.
 
Hi Paul,

What am I to do?! I get emails saying the same thing as you, and then I get emails saying how great it is to have a traditionalist-only approach!

At the end of the day I see myself as a facilitator for whatever the photographic community wants. I hope that it remains about the tradiitonal side of photography, but I also want to focus on the image. There are so many magazines now catering for the digital side of photography that I do feel that the traditionalists are losing out (at least as far as magazines go - one only has to visit forums such as this one, APUG or the large format photography forum to realise how popular the medium still is).

These are still very early days and many ideas are still forming in my mind (and others it has to be said!), so we'll see what the future brings. But for now, I hope that this project gives an outlet to amateur photographers, whether they be experienced specialists, or beginnners, to get together, read about each others experiences, learn from each other and enjoy the pictures. I hope you do too.

Personally speaking, I don't hate digital at all - in fact, I use it quite a bit and this project wouldn't be running if it wasn't for digital; but for my personal stuff I love using film, the cameras, the processing and seeing the resultant image on the negative.

Cheers,
David.
 
Help Needed...

Help Needed...

So, the dates have been set - the first article will appear on the 15th January and the website will go live a couple of days before, on the 13th.

Before that however, it might be a good idea to get a couple of people to test the site. Would any of you be interested? This testing won't need to be done until around the end of the first week in January, and it'd be useful to check the site out, make sure various links work and that the layout works with your internet browser.

I'm thinking that if we can get 4-5 people running PC's, Mac's with assorted browsers then it'll give me some chance of ironing out any problems before the 13th.

Hope you help - either send me a PM via this site, or email me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk

Cheers,
David.
 
Just thought you might be interested in a new competition that will start when the website goes live on January 13th 2008.

It's been inspired by a comment made by a contributor (Christopher Walrath) who has written a couple of articles for the magazine, and it's one of those articles that brought about the idea for a competition.

You'll have to wait until the new website hits the 'net for more details, but although there's no actual prize (other than the self satisfaction of being pronounced the winner - you will have your winning entry included in the paper version of the magazine in April)!

So, for more details look to www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk on the 13th January.

Cheers,
David Vickers.
 
So, in this new venture's view I find that I am not "creative" if I make my photographs with my Epson R-D 1.

Then again, if I make the same photos with my Canon VI-T and get prints back from Walgreen's, suddenly I have been anointed with "creativity."

In other words, here we go again (sigh)...

I realize that it's necessary for any magazine to have a "niche," but tying "creative image making" exclusively to processes involving dead cow hooves seems likely to be a tediously self-absorbed, sanctimonious little niche...
 
maiko9 said:
Over the decades, I've been involved in a number of hobbies, & it's always the same..... American magazines focus on equipment & contests, offering very little practical help other than a couple of short, grudgingly offered partial-page , often ill-conceived dissertations on subjects covered too many times before, while UK magazines focus on practical advice, solutions, & how-to articles.

Start reading the Brit magazines more closely, paying attention not only to the article content but the ad mix, and you'll realize that they tend to be in bed with their advertisers much more than would be considered acceptable in US journalism.

Readers of US mags constantly kvetch that the editorial content is too considerate of the advertisers -- but sometimes in Brit mags that content is out-and-out sponsored by an advertiser, often without very clear notice.

It's the same in Brit classic-car magazines, another segment I read regularly. Yes, it's great to see a multi-page, lushly photographed feature on the major historical significance and fabulous driving qualities of the 1954 Prosciutto Mille Miglia GTS. But some of the luster comes off when you turn the page and find a full-page ad from an auction house noting that, by amazing coincidence, the very same 1954 Prosciutto Mille Miglia GTS just lauded in the feature will be coming up on their auction next month. It tends to make me suspect that even if the Prosciutto were an insignificant, worthless sh*tbox, the content of the article would have read exactly the same...
 
This is awesome - great idea, and one that I think will at least take an edge off the streams of prophanity that fly out of me at the news stand "photography" section!:)
I just finished reading everything so far on line, and when I get home I will have to see if there is any way I can contribute!

Keep up the wonderful effort - hope this gathers momentum!

Peter.
 
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