Books

One of the services I offer is photobooks - a unique publication of my models in all their splendour.  There are so many different types of book products out there from the cheap and cheerful to the high-end glossy books on the best quality papers.  It can sometimes become a bewildering choice.  Recently I’ was asked to produce a 8" x 8" book of one of my long standing models Charlie (pictured below)

There are loads of different suppliers to choose from.  I've used Blurb in the past but recently I've moved to using the same lab that I pass all my photo orders through Loxley - I've not found any other supplier that matches their quality or service.

To produce a book you need the images (obviously) and then a software package that the lab provides.  This takes some getting used to as they all work with subtle differences that can be hard to find your way around.  This time I struggled with changing the size of the image on the page without distorting or losing parts of the picture - all user error I'm sure.

This particular book contains images that I took of Charlie this year at a mini studio session event where I was concentrating capturing photos on a black background using various different studio lighting equipment and modifiers.  In the past I've taken shots of Charlie on a white background, out in the fields and doing agility.  Charlie is a great all rounder - but for this book his mum just wanted the black shoot pictures, some of which are below:

And I was more than happy to work on this.  I've just pressed the button to send to my printer and now have the short wait for it to be posted back to me.  Can't wait.....and will update the blog with a picture of the finished product when it arrives.

The process reminded me of producing photobooks of my two special friends that are no longer with us - Lemmy and Poppy.

It took me about a year after they died before I could start to put the books together but once I had each book in my hands it was really comforting to know I had a keepsake of them which I often open up and look through to remind me how lucky I was to have known them.  When I did these books I went for the largest size I could - which at the time was 14" x 11".  I'll start working on Masie's book soon - but not quite yet.

I guess the message from this blog is that photobooks are a collection of memories of the good times you share with you four legged friends and it really is worth taking the time to produce them so that they are there for you rather than sitting in on your phone or hard drive out of sight.  Of course I'd be very pleased to create a book of "The World's Best Dog" for you - because whichever way you look at it everyone's dog is, and always will be, the world's best dog!