My Book Project : Herding Cats
By Jerry Carpenter
7 Nov 2009
Like many JPG contributors, I have longed to see my best work in the pages of the magazine, and like most of us, I am still waiting for that to happen. A couple of months ago, on a fellow JPGer's pages, I saw another way to experience my work in print; by self publishing my own book.
I downloaded free "BookSmart" software to create my own portfolio from http://www.blurb.com. I don't intend this article to be a sales pitch for Blurb's software. I will just say that I found it to be very user friendly, with lots of options for creating a book in many formats.
Having found a means to creating a portfolio in book format, I spent days sifting through my hard drives for the work I wanted to present. I decided my first book project would focus on the portraits I have made over the last five years of the family cats, Sam and Frodo. I work from home and the boys are always about and willing to cooperate, more or less, when I have the urge to pick up a camera. Consequently, there were hundreds of photographs to evaluate. I wanted the book to have a uniform look, so I finally decided on just the black and white portraits.
I usually try to achieve a slightly warm tone for my black and white work for viewing on a monitor. I have found these look a bit muddy when printed. So I converted all the photographs for the book to a more desaturated black and white. Once the photographs were ready, I used the blurb software to create the book's layout. I titled my book Herding Cats.
Once assembled, I uploaded the book to the Blurb website and ordered a copy. The book arrived about a week later. I have to say that I am extremely happy with it's quality.
It's pretty cool to have a book on the coffee table of my own photographs. And the photos are in a format that will, no doubt, outlive me, Sam and Frodo.
The photographs presented here are a few of my favorites included in the book. If you would like to see more, you can preview the book from cover to cover at http://www.blurb.com/books/888088.
5 responses
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Regenia Brabham gave props (7 Nov 2009):
I will most certainly have to check this site out. Great shots and story. Has my vote.
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Lynda Jeffers gave props (7 Nov 2009):
What a great idea and your photos are fantastic, I share my house with five cats and they are such wonderful pets. You have captured your two perfectly, wonderful...you have my vote!!
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Michaela Krumrey gave props (7 Nov 2009):
my vote !!!
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Cesar Robles gave props (7 Nov 2009):
you got my vote!!
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Spectre Photo gave props (9 Nov 2009):
Ahh!!! This is wonderful! I'm def going to check it out! :)
