Make a large selection of pictures and add almost all of them to the book's rough template (I use Blurb's Booksmart because I'm used to it). Then start moving them around to make the double pages 'work' and to make the whole thing flow. While doing this pictures get culled. Often a picture which is a good one has to go because it simply doesn't work with anything else or it doesn't add anything to the overall feel of the book.
The next step is to get ruthless and cull some more. Occasionally a culled picture finds its way back in. I'm about a third of the way done - I think. But it's best not to rush things, and then to sit on it for a while and take another look.
When I'm reasonably happy I get one copy printed at the cheapest price I can (paperback, thin paper) and see how the book looks in my hand and to see if any pictures need weeding out for any reason. Then I make final adjustments and corrections to the text, upload the final version and order a hardback copy. Still a long way off that yet! When making books I see the exercise more as one of design in which my 'rules' are different to photography, so I am willing to crop pictures. Yet the same pictures, if I were to print them for display, would be uncropped. Just the way my mind works.
One way to make a book of photographs is to put one picture on each page, or each right hand page, or a combination of such. Another is to vary the layouts, but just as it is usually best to restrict the number of typefaces used in a book (to three or four) the same applies to page layouts. Use too many and things start to look a mess. Nothing is settled as yet, but these are some ideas I'm playing with at the moment.
Once more there has been little opportunity for actually taking photographs this week. An afternoon's aimless driving around saw me end up at the sandplant yesterday. Nothing much had changed apart from a pile of earth had been partially removed. I think the place might be being used as a storage yard.
Across the road there were almost as many people pointing lenses at birds as there were birds within range of said lenses. I always find it slightly amusing to see people dressed in camouflage gear to look through a viewing screen. The symmetry of the couple below was irresistible though. A shame about the tartan flat cap.
Continuing my travels I found yet another 'new' egg sale beside a road I've driven down many, many times. I might have enough of these to make them into a book of their own now!
This afternoon I went looking for dragonflies, which I found but didn't photograph as I have pretty much all the dragonfly pictures I want. However, I still find fungi irresistible and ended up with wet knees making a ham fisted attempt at photographing one small 'shroom. At full size the focus isn't quite where it ought to be. But as a 'web pic' it's OK.
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