iBooks

Things are moving swiftly, and I should have my eBooks up on Apple's iBooks store soon. In the meantime, here are a few snaps showing you the eBooks on the iPad.

First Prints on their way

I've just packed up my first set of Ltd Edition prints for shipping. Both of them are on their way to different addresses in Canada. Anyway, it's all very exciting to be able to finally do this. Each print has been wrapped in black acid free tissue paper and then wrapped in bubble wrap for the journey.

They are both matted in 'snow white' with a stamp of authenticity on the back of them. Both are edition 1/45.

My office

Sorry I've not been on my blog in a while. I'm just back from Shetland where I had a great time, and I seem to have a bit of work on at the moment. I've just completed my Portraiture e-Book and it's now out for review. I expect it to be available end of July. It's a bit of a whopper this time. Anyway I thought I'd show you a little picture of my office desk.

You can see my Eizo monitor along with a Solux natural daylight lamp which produces a much more even spectrum of light (ideal for reviewing prints in the evenings). There's also a little iPad in the bottom right as I use it for testing my eBooks and some forthcoming items for it. Just behind it I have a large light table for reviewing my transparencies (it's covered by a cloth to keep the dust away).

There's also a nice set of Genelec studio monitors at either side of the monitor with a little Motu audio interface. I like good audio and I feel that when I'm working on my images, I like to be in a setting I feel comfortable in. I've also got a Herman Miller Aeron chair which I love.

So what sort of environment do you edit your images in? I feel it has to be comfortable, with no distractions and everything close at hand.

One lens or two?

I'm busy writing some chapters for the eBook I'm working on about Street Photography, and I've been diverted to reading on Photo.net today about David Alan Harvey. I've loved his photographs for some time now, and he's a very simple shooter, only taking with him a Leica, 28mm and 35mm lenses.

I've been busy writing about how I prefer prime lenses and that I prefer to go out with only one or two lenses with me. Often it's only the one lens I use. In the case of India and Nepal last year, the entire collection of images I made were shot with my Contax 645 and an 80mm lens. I didn't need anything else.

I'm a big subscriber to keeping things simple and cutting down on the amount of gear I travel with. It can be back breaking bringing too much kit with you, but it can also inflict a sense of creative constipation because you also have too many choices at hand. You think that bringing all the lenses you can think of will mean you're going to be prepared for just about any photo situation, but the truth is more often the case that we just confuse ourselves with what to use and when.

It takes time to master lenses, but that's not really the issue at hand. It's more about immediacy. If you have one lens on your camera at all times, you learn to work within the confines of that. I prefer primes because they make me roam a location and work the scene more. I also prefer primes because I don't have to think about different focal lengths. I make do with what I have. I also prefer one lens because there is no delay in choosing another one. I also start to 'see' every potential encounter in the focal length of the lens I have on me.

Using one lens makes it easier for me to 'visualise' and be proactive, rather than reactive. And it also means I'm much more free to move around.

Inspiration comes from many sources

I see that on July 11 of this year, To Kill a Mockingbird will be 50 years old. I'm not a huge book reader although I do love books. Some get a grip of me more than others, and To Kill a Mockingbird is one of those books which I've now read around five times now. It's an inspired piece of work.

I bring this book up not because of its content or subject matter, but purely from the point of view that everything around us is, or can be, a source of inspiration. I think all too easily as photographers, many of us think we get our inspiration from the landscape, or by looking at someone else's photographs.

In my own case, I know that I get my inspiration from lots of things. Films, Music, books, life experiences, something a friend said, a subject that becomes interesting to me.  Reading the BBC news page today, I was struck by a desire to go out and visit the town where Harper Lee grew up. Perhaps making a documentary set of images of the place would be a thrill, a challenge? It's just a thought and It's unlikely I'll really do it, but I just point this out because this is typically how something should inspire us.

I'm going to Lalibela in Ethiopia this September for two weeks. I was inspired by watching this video of Lalibela by Jake Warga. It really made me want to go and now I find my life directly influenced by watching that video, it makes me realise that everything around us has impact, touches our lives in some way or other and it's up to us as individuals to extract some inspiration out of what we're given.

iPad desktop?

I've been messing about tonight. A friend of mine loves this photo of Needle Rock on the isle of Skye here in Scotland, so I made him a nice desktop for his iPad. He sent me this screen grab tonight. Click on it to see it full size.

And here's a pic of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia as a desktop for the iPad too.

Shetlands here I come

I'm flying to the Shetlands this Friday from Aberdeen. I've never been before but I'm keen to see what's up there. I hope to have some good images from the trip in a weeks time (keen to get home for a friends camping weekend).

There are lots of lighthouses that can be rented out on the Shetlands, and I've been considering the idea of a 'nocturnal' workshop up there next Summer. It doesn't really get dark in the evenings because its so far north, and I think it would be cool to shoot in this kind of light. It would perhaps remind me of my time in Iceland in 2004.

ePub ?

Thanks to all of you who have bought my eBooks so far, and thanks to all of you who have been so kind to drop me a personal note saying how much you've enjoyed them so far. Tomorrow I will be buying an iPad. Not because I love the idea of the device. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that it's very expensive for such a 'slave', a device that you can't simply create things on. Everything has to be sync'd down onto it. Which seems like a crazy idea to me, but I can see the appeal. It's a sexy device.

I feel it's just the start though. I think the publishing world is on the brink of being shaken up the same way that the music business was when Napster arrived and people were moving music into the digital domain.

I'd like to get my eBooks onto Apple's iBooks store, but at the moment, it's a very closed system. I have to go through some broker to do it, and they want exclusivity of my eBooks. I don't want that. I want to be able to distribute my eBooks in any way and in any channel that I'd like to. So at the moment I'm stuck.

The other thing is that most eBook readers want your eBooks to be in the ePub format, which does not suit photography books well. ePub has no layout (as far as I can tell). It is designed for text books where there is a continuous flow.

So I guess I'm posting this - asking for some help. Does anyone know firstly of a good outlet where I can get my eBooks up on the iBooks store, and secondly, does anyone have any experience of conversion to ePub and how best to illustrate photo books in this format?

I should stress that currently, you can view my eBooks on the iPad by using one of the third-party PDF readers. They're a little flaky (c'mon, the iPad is green), so you have to take things as they are at present, but the books look good on the device.

Australia 2011

I've got some tentative plans to visit Australia June/July 2011. Australia is one of my favourite landscapes. I'm always meeting folk who think Australia is just a big red desert with nothing there, but they are so wrong. I first went to Australia in 2000 and I really had a great time, but didn't get any decent photographs.

So I'm hoping to return next year. I'm also in talks with a Photographer friend about setting up a photo workshop in Australia that would coincide with my visit. If you're interested in coming along, or interested in perhaps getting me to come and do a talk at your photographic club, I'd be really pleased to hear from you. And hey, if you're going to be near where I'll be, I'm always up for a beer.