SOFOBOMO 2011

Once again for those who enjoy creative and fun challenges the Solo Foto Book Month (SOFOBOMO) is about to start for its 4rd year. The only downside being that you didn't have a stimulating time.

Well there may be a little stress but this is only self induced by thinking that this project just has to be perfect. After having participated in the last 2 years, the advice I give here is to relax a little, have fun and do enjoy the discovery of telling a story in book of photographs.

You can register and get lots of great information and even view previous years submissions at SOFOBOMO website.

As with most challenges there are some rules but these help to contain the effort to a manageable level.

Red and White Boats from SOFOBOMO 2010 “A Walk around the Pond'

The photos must be taken within the month of July.

Within 30 days of the first photographs taken and used in Book, the e-book (PDF etc.) must be completed.
There is always some planning and testing before your official launch date. Never constrain yourself if you don't have to.

There must be at least 35 images that you took during the 30 days.
For the most part, straight forward but there is some guidance I can give.

White Magnolia tree from SOFOBOMO 2008  'The Land and the River

My own approach is to plan as follows:

Pre-start is about planning your shoots. What  equipment you will use, locations and any weather constraints, time-of-day for sun angles to light objects.

1st week to get out and get the images. For many who work during the week you could assign both weekends to this.

2nd week for photo selection and editing. You need to tell a story in images.

3rd week to layout the book and write a few words if you want but not required.

This gives you an extra week at the end to overcome any problems, like needing more images or more time in the other parts that always seems to go astray.

The key item for me is that I am not trying to create a book that will sell millions or even 10s, but a book that I will enjoy and in the process learn more about what it takes to make a book.

Part of undertaking the SoFoBoMo project is to enjoy the process and learn to be flexible in your approach. There are always some things that will pop up that causes a change in the course. If you enjoy what you are doing and are not concerned with what others are achieving or how they will view your book, then adapting should be part of the excitement and not a frustration. 

Garlic bud in light tent form SOFOBOMO 2010 'Food at My Table'

Remember that any planning work and getting equipment and tools together is not part of the 31-day window. Take your time now to get it all right, because you can start anywhere within the month of July and this will help you out later on.

I find it’s best to have a back-up theme, while probably not as good as your first choice, it will allow you to complete the book should something unforeseen happen with the first idea. Completing the book is more important than how super your images are.

I have more detailed advice in the following link below

10 Great Photography Projects SOFOBOMO


This is a great project and challenge and I strongly encourage everyone to make a stab at it.
You just might end up with a good book that you could publish and hand out at Christmas or other celebrations.

Niels Henriksen

Mini Home Photography Studio

This morning is starting off as those perfect summer days. Sitting on the porch reading the paper and listening to the rain fall.  It also gives me a few moments to catch up on a few indoor activities like writing this article as this afternoon is forecast to be sunny and 28c (85F).

If you live in a climate that gets -40c (-42F) in the winter and snow, then the summer is not a time to be indoors too much, which includes computer time. Also the fact that I got a 150cc Vespa scooter a couple of months ago is keeping me constantly on the road. I did throw the camera in the back a few times and drove to sections of the city looking for interesting shots. Great view and easy parking.

Home Photography Studio
For the SoFoBoMo 2010 project this year, I decided to use a few items I already had (light box & light tent) and built a fabric holding frame out of PVC tubing for seamless backgrounds.

The PVC tubing is the regular beige-ish 1/4” plumbing tubing cut to lengths and pressed together into a frame.  I haven't glued the frame together as it makes it easier for storage when taken apart. It's reasonably strong but may come apart if handled roughly.

Image of cut tubing & joints and assembled frame

Image of individual pieces

Light Tent
The light tent is made of Corplast sheets for frames and mylar sheets. Corplast are coloured or translucent plastic sheets made with square tubing format. This makes them somewhat rigid and ideal as a light box frame because it still lets some light through.

One frame with cutout for mylar paper and laying on a cutting mat.

The assembled frame and light box is shown below. Each of the frames, four (4) for a three-sided box, is held together with the green masking tap (easy removal) for quick setup. This makes it easy to remove panels or place at strange angles.

On the right side of the light tent you will notice there is an extra whole corplast sheet used to block a little more light. Extra panels between tent and light box.

Light Box

The light box was actually made of a light table for my 4x5 or 120  film negatives but I quickly found other uses. The box consists of a;
square ceiling light box with dual U-tube florescent blub (broad spectrum),
wooden frame to encase metal box,
foil lined inside to bounce more light back and diffuse source intensity,
white (5700c) 1/2” plastic translucent sheet to cover light box surface and provide for diffusion of light direction. (This is at the bottom of light tent, as I liked the slightly reflective surface)

Light box opened showing fluorescent tubing and aluminum foil lining

In the above image, I am using the fabric PVC frame as a stand to hold the Mylar light tent panels with small clamps.

With just a few materials, which can be configured in many ways, creative lighting sources and light modifiers can be setup easily.

2005- 150 ET4 Vespa scooter (box is aftermarket purchase)

 
Niels Henriksen

SoFoBoMo 2010 Finished

Last week I managed to finish the SoFoBoMo 2010 Photo book project. This is the 3rd year I have completed the joint photography projects with many photographers from around the world.

While it is still a fair bit of work to complete this from start to finish within the 31 days, it is getting easier. The easier part is now not being stressing out over the various steps that are needed to finish the book as I better understand the effort and various steps.

The hard part is still deciding what to include in the book theme as, if you are like me, you might tend to grab too much at one time and then worrying if your photos are good enough.

The image link below allows you to download the 2.7 MB pdf file.

I had planned another elaborate theme but events this year once again caused me to change course. Its a good thing I learned early on to always have a plan 'B' and even plan 'C' in place for when events change not as planned.

One photography genre I haven't spent a lot of time with is studio settings with controlled lighting, diffusers and other light modifiers. I do a lot of cooking and one of my thoughts is to one day create a food blog where I write recipes and use my photography to highlight components of the prepared food.

With that in mind I decided to setup a table-top home studio lightning setup and to photograph food that I regularly eat. As a sub set I also decided to limit the food to those with a hard edge, which would exclude foods that are mainly leafy. Those will be left for another day or is it salad.

In the next article I will show the studio setup and light modifiers I used.

Having already finished 2 books The pressure was off this year. I was doing photography I liked and if I didn't finish in time I would be disappointed but not devastated. The journey and learning were more important than actually completing the book within the set time frame.

This year I was just as excited with producing the book as I was the first year but my grandiose dreams of where it may go in the future are toned down with some reality from the other 2 books. But I do have some ideas for some future books that will be produced in hard cover and that I hope to sell a few copies of and one of those is to work more with food.

The great benefit of working with edible food well.., is that its edible. You get to eat it after you are finished. Not a bad way to work.

For those of you who have not as yet undertaken the SoFoBoMo project I can't overstate the learning opportunities both in photography, telling a story, and then producing a real book even its an ebook, its still real. Also for many photographers the taking of pictures is normally a reaction to a scene/event unfolding and therefore a somewhat unplanned happening even if is one that you made a decision to visit. Producing the photo book is about planning ahead of time for a story in pictures and then finding the images that convey that story. A different way of thinking for me.

Do visit the SoFoBoMo 2010 site and browse the many goods books being produced. I am certain that seeing some of these books will give new ideas about where to take your photography.

Niels Henriksen

10 Great Photography Projects - SoFoBoMo 2010

Difficulty Level: Hard, not technically but in all the things that need to be done in a short period of time

SoFoBoMo 2010

This year SoFoBoMo it is set to start any time during the month of June and then to be completed within 31 days. The eBook (PDF) must include a minimum of 35 of your images that are only taken during this time period. Text is optional but for me this really anchors the story and theme all together into one unit.

SoFoBoMo Official site is:  http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/l Web site http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/
 

The picture included here are from my 2 SoFoBoMo Books

The Solo Ph(F)oto Book Month (SoFoBoMo) is, in my opinion, one of the best projects that a photographer can undertake and with the full knowledge that it will lead to stellar learning  opportunity and enrichment in having the finished book. It will make you think differently about photographs both individually and as a collection.

I have participated in this project for the first 2 years and will again for the 3rd year. The idea behind this was started by Paul Butzi ( (Musings on Photography ) but its success has been because the many photographers over the years who have not only finished their book but more importantly blogged about the their experience. What a great way to learn from so many talented photographers.

Do take the time to review Paul B articles under SoFoBoMo.

There was even a discussion group created by Hugh Allison
You can find it at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sofobomo/

A Photo Tells a Story

If a photo is worth a thousand words, then a collection of ten (10) images is a short story and 35 images must be a full novel.

That’s why this project is hard. It’s like creating a full novel and then there are only 31 days to complete it in.

The first year, which was also the launch of SoFoBoMo, was hard for me mainly as I didn’t really know what I was doing and there wasn’t a lot of experience in the online world to seek help from.

But once through a round of producing an eBook, it now became easier. Even during my second book I had to change themes part way through and I still managed to produce a reasonable photo book.

For a project to be successful, having the work planned out in advance helps you understand the full end-to-end effort and gives you that comfort-level of being able to adapt should that inevitable constant ‘Change’ show up.

Remember that any planning work and getting equipment and tools together is not part of the 31-day window. Take your time to get it all right now, as this will help you out later on.

I find it’s best to have a back-up theme, while probably not as good as your first choice, it will allow you to complete the book should something unforeseen happen with the first idea.  Completing the book is more important than how super your images are.

Once you have your theme and locations selected I find there is 4 distinct phases that breakdown nicely to 1 week each in duration during the go-live event.

Acquire images – Week 1

If a lot of planning has gone into this section it goes from being the toughest section, to if lucky, one of pure enjoyment.

Take a lot more photos than you plan or even think you will need. It just pays to have extra. Before you are finished from a specific shoot, turn-around and look for more. Unless you are good at photo books, ‘More’ is the name of the game.

Processing – Week 2

There are a lot of images to go through and this week is for cataloging and rating each image on its own quality.  Look over the better images several times but don’t try and layout the book just yet. Just focus on images that you like.

This part doesn’t actually take a week but with good planning and knowing the first section is critical we now have a few days to re-photograph some scenes because either we didn’t get them right or we want some other sets.

Selecting and arranging Week 3

The really hard part is over and we can enjoy the process of selecting the Best set of images to layout in a photo book. The original theme may change at this point, most likely not a whole lot anyway. The theme was a guidance tool to narrow down the field of images to photographs. It’s a discovery process and you are never quite sure where they lead. Therefore, staying flexible on ideas makes it easier and more enjoyable.

Tip:

If you have access to programs that can create slide show programs then create a new set every time you are thinking about the order and pairing of photos that create the storyline.  When you start out thinking about time-lining the photos start with small sets that capture the basic essence of the book, a bit like chapter headings

Too many at once can make it seem more like work. I like to start small and then add adjectives (photos) around the theme.  Make what you are doing play, not work, and be willing to accept whatever unfolds.

Depending on the length of textual information in your book, start taking notes on ideas for captions and other descriptions of sets of photos.

Publishing the Book Week 4 and Finally Done

There is a lot of Publishing Software available free or use your word-processing software.

If it doesn’t export as a PDF file, I use PrimoPDF  (free) to create PDF files.

Two Free versions of publishing software I have tried:

Open Office, which I’ve used for both books and is my preferred software as it allow 0” margins for when you wish a different coloured background and it also exports in PDF.

Tip: when inserting images anchor the image to page to keep in same location. If anchored to paragraph I found these image will move around when I make changes to the text.


Scribus, which is more professional, but I found I had to have the image sized exactly for each change, as image wasn’t adjustable. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

Then upload and take a look at all the other eBooks.

Planning tips:
Get weather forecasts for the upcoming week. Depending on whether you need sun or clouds or both, plan each day based on the anticipated weather. While we all like to complain about the weather, forecasters never get it right. It does help to understand that if you look, and with the changes over the week this remains mostly accurate. Then only slight delays or early arrival for each change in weather.

I Have read most of the entries form last year.

I hope to see some of your eBooks this year.

Niels Henriksen

SoFoBoMo 2009 – A Walk around the Pond

Well I finally finished my SoFoBoMo 2009 project. It always seems to take more effort near the end, as those little finishing details do seem to add up.

A Walk around the Pond

This year, due to 2 unforeseen events, I was not able to truly complete it within the 31-day timeframe but I did make it by the closing date of end of June.

Since this is not a judged competition with strict rules I hope it is still acceptable since the primary driver is a self undertaking to learn and grow in your skills and have some fun at the same time.



Thoughts on this Year’s SoFoBoMo Book

As I stated in the previous article this subject material was not my first or even second choice but an opportunity that made itself available on one day. While in Denmark I knew I still wanted to make the book, but I wasn’t sure on the subject. Several things floated around in my head as possible ideas but nothing really gelled as I was not always in control of my destinations during this stay.

One day my brother and his wife decided to take all of us to see some water with high cliffs. At least that was my translation’s abilities. I initially had vision of jagged cliffs with large breaking waves along the bottom.


My translation was not perfect and we arrived at Maglose Lake completely surrounded by land and with no large breakers at the shoreline. In fact to me this was more of a pond than a lake.
It was as we started the walk around the pond that I thought I might be able to make the book out of this adventure and then focused on getting more shots that I could use.

It is not a great photographic book but I did manage to complete it and to tell a story at the same time so I was at least successful with that part.


To produce great photography books I do believe that it requires a great investment in time and perseverance. The time it takes to capture your subject in many lights, at different times of day and even in different seasons. Not an undertaking that normally can be completed, at least the photography, within a few hours.

With my second SoFoBoMo book, I realize you do get experience in creating books, which is more than just a compilation of images. There is a need to tell a story with the images in a specific sequence as they unfold. There is also the need to write prose to support the story.


I know that there are some participants that did not finish their books and I wonder if they felt that their effort was not going to measure up against others. I think it is a big mistake to measure yourself in contrast to the other books. Do it because you love it and others will find good parts if not the whole effort great.


The technical stuff about producing this ebook

I once again used Open office to create my document and save as a pdf file. The main reason is that border can be set right to the edge of the page, which I was not able to do in MS word because of printer default limitations. There was always a residual edge and if choosing a coloured background, the whole white edge would show.

Book format is 18cm x 23cm about 7” by 9”

I chose Century Gothic at 11pts as I find the serf fonts harder to read.

The one thing I forgot from last year’s experience was to set each image to anchor on page. In paragraph anchor the image would sometimes move around when changes were made.

I also inserted my text within a frame and anchored this also to page. This gave me complete control to position text anywhere I wanted without having to think about tabs, margins and line spacing. After all, this is mainly a photo book with some text.


I made jpegs with the utility ‘Instant Jpeg from RAW’ and placed into a folder. There I used Adobe Bridge with star rating to reduce the set. Any images with no stars would be deleted (only jpegs). I would keep doing this until I had a manageable set.

I then placed these all into the document and with view set to 25% I would position the images around as I though the story would unfold. This process would also cull a few images and once I felt the set was right I would then work each image in Photoshop for desired effect and size. At the same time I would start working on the text for the images.



Will I do it again Next Year?

Most likely yes. It does take a significant amount of time and energy but in the end it is worth it. If we are serious about art and photography then it will take commitment and determination to see it through to truly learn.

I had wanted a Top-of-the Chart type book with just exceptional images. I was worried at first that my effort would not be good enough and wondered whether I should still proceed or back out. The word failure was slowly rolling around in the back of my mind.

With some reflection I came to the conclusion that this is mainly a book for me, a project for me to learn and develop as a photographer and now a little as a book writer.

If you are being artistic then in my view there is no word “failure”. There is only your vision, skills and effort. If you worry too much about success then the joy and pleasure this should bring starts to disappear and re-emerge as negative thoughts.

It was an interesting challenge to compile the images from such a short excursion and duration. Not a challenge I plan to do again. Maybe next year I may be able to undertake my original theme.

I hope that in the book you find a few enjoyable images and find the excursion interesting and maybe give you a few thoughts about how the ordinary may seem interesting depending on the view.

Niels Henriksen

Yousuf Karsh and SoFoBoMo 2009 update

I was very fortunate to be invited to the opening ceremonies, Thursday 11 June, for the Yousuf Karsh Image Maker exhibition which is coinciding with his 100th year birthday, were he alive today.

He is mainly recognized with his classic portrait of Sir Winston Churchill at the start of World War II. This is were Karsh had the audacity to rip the cigar out of his hands which left Churchill with the slight scowl on his expression.

The Science and Technology Museum was the first venue to open and the Portrait Gallery of Canada is opening a few days later.

The images are all taken with my iphone. My first real trail with the new phone, and while the images are not great, they’re not bad when you consider how dark it was. Though many were also blurred.



Mrs. Karsh (images above) cut the ribbon into hall and also gave a great speech on the legacy of one of the finest portrait photographers. There sure were a lot of people waiting to get into the exhibit. There is something special in gazing at the beautifully rendered Black and White images that hang through the museum. One room is all black and only large portraits are lit around this circular room. The white dots are the few ceiling lights that provide a measure of safety for movement.

Because it’s a science and technology museum, they not only display his photography but also the equipment he used in the studio.

The set of brushes were a gift from Karsh’s mentor, the Boston Portrait photographer John Caro. There was this giant, almost 9 foot enlarger in one of the rooms. And best of all, there was his 8x10 View camera There is even a positive photograph that is back-lit, of Karsh and Ansel Adams standing side by side and by their expressions, somewhat reluctantly agreeing to being photographed. There will be another exhibit at the National Archives. Mrs. Karsh indicated in her speak that they are now showing some prints from negatives that he had never made a print of before.

SoFoBoMo 2009 Update


Originally I had an idea for this years SoFoBoMo’s project, which was to do a photographic study both in distance and in time as I travelled from the Capital of Ottawa to Algonquin Park. The journey was to show how nature and people are viewed near urban centres and how their lifestyles (external) change as they live more in remote areas.

My trip to Denmark used up a lot of vacation time and I was unable to undertake this journey when I got back. While in Denmark, we went for a walk around this park with a very small lake, almost a pond. I thought at the time that if I got enough reasonable images I could do a book just on this subject. To try and show how one could capture many different perspectives and views from what may seem so ordinary at first.

Many of the images are not great to my standards and I had thought I would try and find another pond near where I live and that way I could do a 2 lake study and hopefully get a better set of images.


Part of undertaking the SoFoBoMo project is to enjoy the process and learn to be flexible in your approach. There are always some things that will pop up that causes a change in the course. If you enjoy what you are doing and are not concerned with what others are achieving or how they will view your book, then adapting should be part of the excitement and not a frustration.

After all it is only another form of a slide show with some text added and I am sure we have all created slideshows from some of our images. This image shows how small the lake is with the other side being so close.

Niels Henriksen

SoFoBoMo 2009

This year I am again entering the SoFoBoMo (2009) project and I decided to describe my experiences and tips to those of you who are going to or are still deciding to enter.

Last year was the initial launch for Solo Foto Book Month, which is an online event to create photo books as a community. At the same time, it was my first venture into producing a photography book.

These statues run along the front of the moat or second island, the 3rd being the castle of Frederiksborg. The first island contains the stables and rooms for other workers.

Never having created a book before and with the conditions that there where only 30 days to complete it did seem a bit daunting, at first. Now looking back, it seems easier than my insecurities/ anxiousness permitted.


While I can’t really help much with the selection of your topic regarding theme, there are a few suggestions that might make it easier for you and give you some flexibility with your approach.


The photo book project starts the 1st of May and you can, at your choosing, start anytime during the whole month of May.

My own approach is to plan as follows:

1st week to get out and get the images. For many who have working jobs during the week you could assign both weekends to this.

2nd week for photo selection and editing.

3rd week to layout the book and write a few words.

This gives you an extra week at the end to overcome any problems, like needing more images or more time in the other parts that always seems to go astray.

Taken on the Paris subway. I liked the expressions on the people in relationship to the poster behind them.


Be Creative and have a Backup Plan

My approach is to have several rolling projects that I could use for this year’s book. There are many themes I would like to explore and having several in the thinking about or initial planning stages gives flexibility to really select a topic I can be passionate about. It also gives me the confidence that as I set upon the quest to complete the photo book I have contingencies if the selected subject doesn’t seem to be working.

First week of May project 1 begins. The second week, project 2 could start and the same for the 3rd week project 3.

This may seem like a fair bit of work, but the main object is to have fun and if you’re busy or not excited about the second week’s theme, then skip and wait for the 3rd week. DO what you enjoy.

Some ideas I have this years are:

Along the Ottawa Valley to Algonquin Park

The emerging life in spring.

Still working on other themes.

This was my first use of the Di-GPS adapter for the Nikon camera. I was out on a friend’s property taking a few images as reference points on map he had. In this image I used the Orton effect by first duplicating the layer and then increasing size about 10%. The layer was then blurred (10.0) and set to overlay with 50% opacity. I wanted to create a glowing floor as we are heading down into a valley.


Book Publishing Software

I use Open Office writer to create the book. The main reasons I like this is first it has the ability to have 0.0 margins, which MS Word cannot. Second, and importantly, it allows you to save as PDF file.

I tried Scribus, as others are using it, and it works well but seems more complicated than I need. Also, if I remember correctly, image size was critical. I find Open office easy to use and meets the functionality I need. It you have used MS Word then most of the functionality is the same.

The problem I had with Ms Word is that I could not set the margins to 0.0. It always had a residual size with printer defaults.

I did enjoy creating the book last year but there was some self-imposed stress, as is normal, when you are undertaking some thing new.

This year I have no apprehensions about the approach or time limits. It should all be enjoyable.

I am not trying to create a book that will sell millions or even 10s, but a book that I will enjoy and in the process learn more about what it takes to make a book


Due check out Paul Butzi blog “Mussing of Photgraphy”as he has been instrumental in getting this going.

There is now a flickr discussion group where you can also post questions and share your ideas with others about the book project.

You can sign up for the SoFoBoMo project website to register your book


Niels Henriksen

SoFoBoMo – Book Finished

I have finally finished the SoFoBoMo Book project, at least in PDF form. The composite image below shows what a published book might look like if I ever get around to publishing this photography book.


The creation of a photography book was quite enjoyable project to undertake, even though it did take up a fair bit of time to complete.

I decide to use “OpenOffice.org” as my publishing tool as I found MSword not able to completely remove the margins. Learning a new tool while undertaking a project does have its pitfalls, but luckily after a few hours I was able to get the hang of it. I did find that since the file was 170MB it did become a bit slow while doing editorial changes and a few times I found the image moved around.

A large PDF version of the book found can be accessed by this link (33BM with 75% jpeg compression) as the book was designed to 11.5x8.5 inches. This choice was not based and design criteria, but I selected one of the photography books I had that I though would be a good size and used these dimensions.

A smaller version with more compression can be accessed here . (15MB with 25% jpeg compression). Either way these are large files.


The B&W continuous pano images of the Quebec shoreline, which are along the later pages in the book, are 70,000x500 pxs. This started to become am editing problem in Photoshop and I had to eventually break it into 2 files

Image from book – Muted Ferns

The journey to produce the book took on 2 round trips of 300 kms to visit very good friends at their remote property that cover the rugged area north of Gananoque, Ontario which has lakes and beaver ponds on the land.

I also took 2 photo excursions along the shoreline of the Ottawa River on both the Ontario and Quebec side within the city limits of Ottawa. We are very fortunate that the city planners have made the river access public and have left some places as wilderness areas.

I took a week off work, as holidays, to work on the files and edit the book. I am not sure that I would have gotten it all completed otherwise.

Image from book - Flooded trees along shoreline of the Ottawa River

I would undertake another such project but if you are using nature as the backdrop then the month and season is critical to the theme and availability of images. Maybe next a food project where I can shoot indoors.

As the other bookmakers have stated it is an all consuming project and now that it is over I do feel a bit tied. I wish I had another week to really work on the book design elements, but there is a deadline that I need to meet.

Also there is standing about 10 deep, the outside and other chores that I have neglected as I pursed this passion blindly and they now want their place in the sun.

If its not too big to download, please let me know what you think. As a first book there is always room, maybe too much, for improvement.


Niels Henriksen

SoFoBoMo – The Fuzzy Month and now Fuzzy Mind

2 weeks ago I mentioned that I had finally locked in on my SoFoBoMo project, this being a special place that I visit regularity, known to a small circle of friends as “The Land”. There was a concern I had that I may not have enough good photos to make the list of 35 needed and it was a good 1 ½ hr drive to go back there again.


I've talked a fair bit about creativity lately and with the concerns I was having. I wasn't about to let the strictness of my own decisions stifle my creativity (or to find a way out of my firm decision). I have therefore decided to 'augment' a fancy word for changing my mind, the theme to include the 'River' in the title to arrive at a new and hopefully better theme 'The Land' and the River. These 2 subjects are separated by more than 150km and the only physical connection is the lakes at the land eventually feed back to the Ottawa River. The spiritual part that invigorates the mind is that both places have water near by and like many others I can just sit an look at the waterscape for hours.


The book design elements is completely new to me and I am having some fun thinking about how to layout the pages, covers and exploring how book design components all come together to form a cohesive entity. The river idea got me thinking about using the far shoreline, which is the province of Quebec, and taking many overlapping images for many miles along the shore to form one giant panoramic image. I would then use this panoramic shoreline as a horizontal continuous bar along the bottom of each page. As you move along from page to page you will also be seeing the far shoreline moving from west to east. I am trying to decide if I should leave the shoreline in full colour or convert to B&W and set to a lower opacity. I am concerned that if it was in full colour it might detract from the book images. As B&W and somewhat see-through it becomes more a like colour strip and a page design element.

I have taken next week off as holidays to work on finishing the book as I just hate the stress of completing things I enjoy when there are constraints imposed such as deadline. Luckily I do have enough vacation days to carry me through the year.

The image below was taken at the Land from a bluff overlooking several connected lakes which are part of the Rideau River system connecting Kingston to Ottawa.

I liked the wildness of the snarly tree branches contrasting with the of tranquility of the distant landscape peering through the opening in the canopy.

This is one of the images I will be using in the book, I guess you get a sneak preview with this. I thought this might make a good image to tie both themes of the land and the river.

The original image from camera Raw is shown below. I found that there was not enough separation between the colours of the foliage in the foreground. The cedars had more orange and the rest of foliage had more green with some yellow and blue.

I therefore decided to accentuate the difference in the orange in the cedars and the remaining foliage. I changed the hue for yellow to more orange, increased the saturation for orange and the luminance a bit to create more separation.

The colour adjustments available with Adobe Camera Raw are simply great as I can individually adjust the hue, saturation and luminance not only for the primary colours but also the secondary. This is a tool I use quite often to play around with the image. There is no set formula as to what works. Normally, I go to the luminance setting and change each of the colours from min to max luminance to watch where the effects occurs. I find this mode provides the best clues to colour changes in the other 2 modes.

The rest of the foliage and in the the far background, which is mainly green with some blue and cyan, I wanted this darker and less saturated. For the hue I moved the cyan slider towards more blue and desaturated the blue colour a bit. I also reduced the luminance for both the cyan and blue to darkened the foliage and background.

Click on image to see sliders in more detail

The Ottawa river is at maximum water height and there are many parts of low shorelines which are flooded at this time of year from all the snow melt in the feeder rivers up north.


This is taken from the Ontario side of the Ottawa River along its flooded shoreline.

I converted to B&W, cropped a bit of the extraneous side detail and then darkened the image to create more mystery about the hole or is it a house for some large strange creature or hobbit?

Niels Henriksen

A Photographer's Adage

When Jack London had his portrait made by the noted San Francisco photographer Arnold Genthe, London began the encounter with effusive praise for the photographic art of his friend and fellow bohemian, Genthe. "you must have a wonderful camera...It must be the best camera in the world...You must show me your camera." Genthe then used his standard studio camera to make what has since become a classic picture of Jack London. When the sitting was finished, Genthe could not contain himself: "I have read your books, Jack, and I think they are important works of art. You must have a wonderful typewriter."

SoFoBoMo "The Land"

I have finally started the Solo Ph(F)otogrpahy Book Month project and in fact I probably started one or two weeks ago. This was in part due to my uncertainty with finding a suitable photographic project that within the period of one month collect 35, hopefully reasonable images and then compile these into a photography book with or without text and graphical book design elements.

This book is from a series dated 1886. The motif of Greek warriors is raised on the front cover and the background has shinny gold sheen when held at an angle to the light. This is when they made great books. The Title above seems appropriate to my own starting of a book.


This project presents 2 challenges for me, these may not apply to you, the first is the deadline, which by itself I am not a fan of, but when there are several new elements of uncertainty, then the deadline criteria becomes a lot more serious and having backup plans helps to reduce the likelihood of failure and stress and puts more fun back into the project you are doing. The second is creating a book, not just any book but a visually stunning book, at least I hope to. Luckily it can be produced in PDF format but some of the other participants will actually take the full way to printing the book also. I will wait and pass judgment after I see the results.

The project started officially on 1 April or you could start any other day in April. Once started you had 30 days to complete the book.

The one month period is a bit of a concern as it is not always easy to develop a suitable theme that will give you 35 good images which probably means you might be shooting from 100 to 200 in total to have 35 you really like.

It is only in the last week that Ottawa has had some warm weather and the green life starting to magically appear again. Less than 2 weeks ago there were still patches of snow. This is why I wanted to start later in the month as I had not completely locked in my theme and if I went outdoors. I wanted a bit of spring greenery.

Originally, I thought about the topic of “Stairs, Spirals and Ramps”.

2400x300 pxs

I noticed that I had a few images collected of stairs and I thought it might be interesting to explore this topic in great detail. During one of my noon hour walks, I went through the downtown core to scout out good candidates and what sun angles to make these locations work well. I used my camera phone Sony Ericson K790 (see pervious article) , There were a few interesting spots, with less crowds, that would provide some interesting material. Ottawa is not an industrial city and it is difficult to find good material unless you are in commercial buildings. Even with a camera phone I was finding it awkward to take photos inside and thought that with a larger camera and tripod some establishments are just not going to let you inside.


I was keeping several other ideas in the hopper. One was the Ottawa River, which at this time of year is at maximum peak and is just plain wild. There is always a large group of kayakers that play in the big rollers off Bates’ island.



Last weekend I was visiting a friend who lives in the rural parts of southeastern Ontario. I have been going to this place since the early 70s when his parents owned the property and we and his brothers would always refer to this wilderness area as going to “The Land”.

As I rounded the gate to their property I was suddenly bathed in a soft radiant glow. Their white magnolia tree was in full bloom. The tree is about 50’ tall and has a diameter of about 20’ and is all white. No green, no other colour, except yellow of the statements, just this massive, white reflector. The fragrance was soft and delicate and just a hint of sweetness. I was encouraged to stand in the center of the magnolia tree and because of the larger branches was easy to do. It was quite an experience just standing inside. Almost heavenly, this expansive and encompassing soft white and fragrant envelope.

@15mm, F4.0, 1/640s

I darkened the sky a fair amount and as well, I added darkening to the ground and background trees. I wanted the white of the magnolia tree to radiate and one method to achieve this is to darken the objects around them.

The white wisps help to integrate the sky with the magnolia tree and by darkening the sky and reducing a little of the saturation, a good visual colour contrast is established between the white and blue of the image which are in balance.

It was at this time that I thought that this place that I have visited for almost 40 years would be a natural and perfect for a theme. I wish I had all the seasons to include but a month will have to do.

I went again this weekend to try and capture the final set from which I could select those going into the book. They live 2 hours away so it’s not always easy to get there. The nights were cool (3c- 38F) so early in the mornings it was completely bugless and I went for a journey to the highest look-out which gives you a 200ft view above the lake. It was great until about 10:00 and then it got a bit warmer and the black flies started to come out. I had finished most of my shots and thought it was a good time to leave. I would grab a few moss encrusted cedar split rails on the way back to the cabin.

There was still the late afternoon to take more. Their property is expansive and rugged. One one part there is a kilometer long beaver pond with granite cliffs along most of the sides. After an half hour of carrying a loaded backpack and tripod over the terrain as we skirted the sides beaver pond I started to sweat a bit more. If you stopped or slowed down the black files were all around in nasty swarms. I decided it was best if we (meaning me) head back to the safety of a screen-in porch. I knew I should have brought my bug head net. While it obscures your vision a little, it becomes a lifesaver when you stop to take pictures and your hands are busy with the camera and you can’t swat the little buggers.

@17mm, f5.3, 1/30s
I am not sure that I have a full set of images that are good enough and not too repetitious. It’s a fair distance to go back and also very weather dependant.

So at this point while I officially started, I am not sure if I am already into week one or two. It depends how far I go back and if I need to collect more.


Niels Henriksen