2 week edition

2 week Christmas edition, the next edition will be out on 2nd January

This is the 52nd edition, we started just over a year ago producing this weekly, initially as the Camera Images newsletter then expanded into Photographers Resource. We have had a couple of double weeks as we are doing this week. If this had been a regular printed magazine there would be quite a pile to go through now every time that you wanted to find something, luckily with an electronic magazine we have been able to index everything by topic, location and alphabetical. With a printed magazine we would not have been able to run the large listings under many sections.

This week our main topic is producing your own photo books. So if over the Christmas and New Year period you have the odd day where you want to do something different, then why not consider producing a book or two of your photographs.

Printed books are available economically now from a single copy, and in the article 'making your own photography book' we look at the process and generally at this approach. Often people will look at printing just a small number, perhaps for close friends or relatives, but it can also be used to produce small volume book runs. Photography book suppliers is a listing of the producers of the photography books, with links to their websites.

You can alternatively print a book yourself using double sided paper that will go through your printer and a system that allows it to be bound into a book. These kits are available as A4 and A3, producing attractive books, with a higher quality finish and higher cost than the photography books above. While you could produce multiple copies this would be very costly and time consuming compared to the printed route. To get the best results colour management and profiling the printer is important. The listing suppliers of print your own books, tells you what kits are available and links you to more information on these.

We are also taking a look this week at portfolios, what they are, how to produce them and what you may want to put in them.  We consider, if you want a single portfolio or specific portfolios for particular uses. In this article we look at different forms of  portfolio including using the methods above and also specialist portfolio cases. We have not included online or electronic portfolios, and will look at these in the future.  Click here to read the article on portfolios.

We have included two articles that are more relevant if you are publishing books for sale than producing a few photo books for friends, but where one stops and the other begins is always a difficult line to draw. So perhaps you may produce a book, a coffee table book based on a holiday or expedition, or perhaps an interest that you have, and while at first it may seem like a personal book, you may find others find it interesting and would like a copy, and unless you want to give them away, then you need to consider if perhaps it should become a published book, even if produced in relatively small numbers. A lot of other situations may come up where you decide to produce a photo book that may be published in small to medium quantities, perhaps printing just a few at a time, which is now economic in a number of ways. We want to come back later to look at publishing your own books in a larger way, including promotion, print on demand and order fulfilment, However this week we have two articles that apply to both this and the small quantity publishing that you may become involved in while producing photo books.

ISBN numbers - this is the number you see inside books and on the barcode on the back that is used through the book trade, as well as major libraries. In the article we explain what they are, how to get them, the costs, how to get the barcode image to go with your number and more besides.

Copyright libraries - has nothing to do with copyright, but a way that a number of large libraries get copies of all books published for free. One you have to give a copy to, and you have to give a copy to the others only if they ask and they will if you register an ISBN number for your book. This only applies where books are made available for sale, not if you just produce books in some small way, but don't put them on sale to the pubic. Books for members of a club or society for example are not for general sale to the public. The article explains it in far greater detail. As a photographer/author/publisher you get no advantage from this, but should be aware of it. Generally if you don't want to make your book available for sale and have to provide these copies then don't allocate an ISBN to it.

Guest Articles

We also have a guest article this week, by one of our readers, in which he looks at credit cards, and what happens if you run into difficulties and are unable to support them. He explains that they are low priority in the scheme of things if you run into problems and looks at both what you can do to limit your risk and avoid problems created, but also explains in detail the process that happens when people don't pay their credit card bills. He nearly makes the process of paying the credit card companies appear optional. We decided to run this article unedited and not checked out by us in any way, so perhaps its the basis or your own research, or thought rather than a plan of action, and you also need to be careful, in what you do, that you don't cross the line between sensible pre planning and action that might be construed as illegal in some way. I don't know where this line is, and it like many parts of our legal system may be a shifting line in the sand. Having said this a lot of problems for people at the moment are being created by the banks and credit card companies and perhaps this may give you an insight into balancing the effects, or at least realizing that its not necessarily as big a problem for people affected as it first appears, if they take steps to reduce it. 

If you would like to write an article either under your own name or anonymously, then we would like to see it, generally as you will know we are interested in photography, things you can photograph and anything connected, but areas outside this we do occasionally cover.

2009 Coverage

You might think that being the 52nd edition we would be running short of topics to cover, while the opposite is the case, the list of topics to cover and articles that we want to write just keeps getting longer, so over the next year we have a lot of new areas, plus we will be strengthening and adding more generally to many areas we have covered so far. A few of the articles also need updating as technology moves on and we will be taking another look at these.

Photo Courses Update

Photo Skills - free courses.  These as you may remember have been affected by the economy and put on hold for a short while. They are free because they were to be supported by advertising and were right at the point of the first editions coming out prior to selling the advertising when everything in the economy went wrong. No date has yet been set to restart this, but the project is still very much alive, with some work continuing on the course developments, so keep a watch here for progress reports.

Camera Images and Photography Skills Masterclasses - are available, the economic mess is affecting everyone and booking volumes are down, and they have stopped advertising for a while. They are using the extra time available to organise some new courses, and move forward on some other projects. It does mean however that at the moment you get a lot of choice of dates when you take these top courses and can even get them at short notice.

Other new courses - at the moment both Camera Images and Photography Skills have the time to develop new courses. So if you want something that is not available this is the ideal time to suggest it. In many cases they can put something together just for you in any event, but where new areas are involved and more development work necessary, its an ideal time at the moment to suggest this.

New 6 day, 10 day and 13 day courses in Ghana West Africa. We had hoped to have been able to give you the details on these this week, but final pricing has not yet been confirmed, but we should be able to tell you all about these in the next issue, which will also feature photographs and a detailed report on Camera Images' research trip to Ghana a few weeks ago. These courses are going to be really special, a chance to learn photography, and to put it into practice covering coastal, historic, wildlife, waterfalls, culture and more. This involves staying in many hotels throughout the country having a chauffeur driven 4 wheel drive vehicle, a driver/top guide, local specialist guides, entry, meals and even gratuities and of course a photo tutor on a 1 to 1 basis throughout. The delay has been in getting a fully inclusive price that will include everything except the airfare.

Camera Images is also working on developing a similar UK course that will take people on a 1 to 1 basis around the country, allowing them to gain a wide range of experience here. Weather in the UK is more unpredictable and the course in the UK will have to change according to the seasons. Costs generally are far higher here. It may be that this will appeal to people from outside the UK not knowing what is available and perhaps having the confidence to drive themselves here, while UK clients may find the Ghana courses more economic and of greater benefit to them.

3D photography - We have a set of sample photographs produced by a new camera system from Canada that produces 3D photos that can be viewed without glasses. The results are very impressive and everyone we have showed them to have found them exciting. There is no way to show this effect to you online or in a printed magazine, you need to see the photos yourself to see the effect.  This system is not all that portable and aimed principally at professional photographers, and the main markets will be portraits and pet photography, although it could be used far wider. With 3D televisions starting to become available in some countries, this could also be applied to event photography and a range of other areas. At the moment there is an opportunity to get into this market first, and while perhaps you need to be brave or perhaps foolhardy to start a new business at this time, it maybe worth exploring now with a view to becoming involved  later. Camera Images can provide a days general training on 3D, using one and two cameras with images viewed with glasses, they don't have this new system, but can show you the results and explain how it is achieved, as well as putting you in touch with the Canadian producer. The proprietor of the Canadian company is hoping to visit Camera Images within the next couple of months, and it may be that while he is in the UK those who have looked at 3D with Camera Images could be invited along, and if there is sufficient interest it may be possible to get a demonstration of the system here.

And Finally - may we wish you a pleasant Christmas and prosperous year ahead.

Making your own Photography Book

Printing Photo Books Yourself

Portfolios

ISBN numbers - the numbers and barcodes you see on books for sale.

Copyright Libraries - an obligation to give 6 copies to various libraries if you are offering books to the public.

Credit Cards

Suppliers of print your own Photography books

Photography book suppliers