Fall is coming to an end...

...I feel as though I'm girding my loins for the challenging battle with winter to come. Rumour has it that we can expect a tough one this year.

The roof is done, at least that part that I'm doing this year. The chimney mortar still needs pointing, we're waiting for a dry spell, cement bags and tools sitting at the ready. The sump pump line needs attention: maybe we can prevent it from freezing up this year. Outdoor furniture is stored and covered, the top of the gazebo's hanging in the garage, I made space for the ATV and the car, the 4-wheeler's been tuned and ready for the snowplow to be mounted. 

Firewood is stacked and I have a bunch of kindling split and ready to go; I bought 50 pounds of birdseed and the overhanging branches have been trimmed, ready for the weight of snow to come. I'm making an appointment next week to have the snow tires installed.

It's coming...

My neighbours are running around with leaf blowers. I get a real kick out of that: seeing them wake up the next day to a whole new crop of fallen leaves! Can you say "Sisyphus"?

I have prepared this image as a desktop background picture (wallpaper).
You can download the standard width version here: www.photography.to/wallpaper/leaves4x3.jpg
and the widescreen version here:www.photography.to/wallpaper/leaves16x9.jpg.
Let me know if you want a different one. Enjoy.

I don't have any of these. My property is framed on three sides by pine trees – 37 of them at last count, all mature and sky high (I wish I'd planted some red maples and other deciduous at the back of the property 7 years ago when I bought the place. They'd be adolescents by now). What I have is a carpet of pine needles, anyone who thinks "evergreens" don't shed in the fall doesn't live here! 

A neighbour once complained that I should rake up all those needles. He said it was preventing the grass from growing well. "Good," I said, "that means I don't have to mow it"! I live in the country, folks. 

If you go out in the Woods today...

I feel a little as if I'm making an AA speech here: "it's been a whole week since I took any pictures". Literally. From the 11th to the 18th. So I took the ATV up in the woods yesterday. I have a number of places where I like to sit and let my mind float (I don't want to use the 'meditate' word or the "Zen" thing, I'd have to research what they mean so I'd be using them properly). That's one of the places. 

It changes constantly. Look back a couple of posts to see that picture Cheryl took of me on my ATV, or here's another one we took that day, three short weeks ago.

The ATV trail ends at a dirt road called "Surf Trail". This is down near the end of it. 

This is what it looked like in the woods yesterday:

It was overcast and in fact drizzling a little. That adds saturation to the colours. HDR with added brushstrokes added via Topaz Impression, van Gogh 1 preset. 

Eat your hearts out, city dwellers.


New Fall Banner

I change it every couple of months and post it here in the blog as well for those who can't see the header on an RSS feed or mobile device and as a record because the old one disappears when you change it.

Topaz Clarity on Sale!

Topaz Labs makes my go-to set of plug-ins for Lightroom and Photoshop. The other set I use are from Nik (Google): I rely on Nik HDR Efex Pro 2 when I'm working with HDR's, and on Nik's Silver Efex Pro 2 to do black-and-white conversions, the others less frequently.

What are plug-ins, by the way? They're 'preset' programs that change a bunch of Photoshop (or ACR or Lightroom) settings to achieve certain effects in a professional manner. Things that you might spend hours slaving over are suddenly available with a single click. They don't actually do anything you couldn't do yourself, but wouldn't want to! For example, creating an HDR merge manually to match HDR Efex Pro would likely take you 8 or 10 hours of work, things that the plug-in can do in one click.

But Topaz keeps coming up with winners, their latest is "Impression" which addresses the frustrated paint media artist in me (one day I'll actually pick up a brush!). I use many of the modules in their complete bundle regularly too. Some are less useful to me, some address specific problems (like DeNoise) and some should be used on almost every picture if you're trying to prepare a final image. Clarity is one of those.

Here's their words:

There are a lot of ways to increase depth and definition in a photo, but many methods will leave you with unnatural-looking contrast. The intelligent technology behind Clarity allows you to enhance contrast without over-emphasizing transitions between light and dark areas. This unique approach essentially eliminates the common problem of halos, noise, and artifacts.

Using the adjustment sliders, you can easily strengthen an image’s levels of micro, midrange, and overall contrast. You can even do this selectively by taking advantage of the masking module. With Topaz Clarity, your images will never lack visual impact!

This plug-in makes the Clarity slider in Lightroom or ACR look mickey-mouse. But don't take my word for it, download the free trial and try it for yourself, you'll get hooked like I am. Here's the link, and enter "octclarity" in the coupon code field. You can also get a 15% discount on any one of their other products including the complete Topaz bundle by entering "faczen" in the code field. 


My New Book is out!

Those who know me know that I'm not a "multi-tasker". My style is to cogitate and procrastinate and then finally dive into a project with both feet, working at it pretty well single-mindedly until either it's done or I abandon it. That's not always a good thing: I have lots of started projects where I've gotten stuck and set them aside, hoping that my mindset and time available will let me eventually get back to them.

My Blurb "Best of 2013" book is one of those. It's almost the end of 2014 and it wasn't done yet. I made a few abortive tries earlier, being really fussy about layouts, etc., and wanting to do it with Adobe InDesign, but that got really tedious and finally I started over using Blurb's proprietary software, BookSmart. And finally it's done.

Yesterday I uploaded the book to Blurb for publication. I also had them make a PDF version of it because the cost of the hard copy book is high, it's about $1 per page. So the 104 page book is over $100 to print.

The description is as follows:

This 104 page full sized coffee table book contains a selection of the sporadic musings and compelling images of Glenn Springer, a published photojournalist and author and artist located in the Haliburton Highlands of Ontario, Canada. The images were all created in 2013 and reflect the artist's growth in that period. Many of the images are also available directly from the author as limited edition exhibition quality prints.

I ordered a couple of copies only because of the cost, and because I wanted to at least proof one before ordering more; I think the only people who might buy a copy of this book are future historians who want to say "I knew him when..." and who want to trace my development as an artist, those who are so impressed with my art that they need to have it in their collections, corporate, medical and personal clients who know that a book of this quality will add prestige to their coffee tables and waiting rooms, and close friends and family.

If you fit in any of those categories, don't be shy: the book is available for purchase through Blurb at the preview link below. It's printed on high quality premium matte paper and it's a full 11x14 hard cover book.

You can see a preview by clicking this link. It shows about 15 of the page spreads, my real "Best of..."! (be sure to click the "view fullscreen" icon at lower right below the image. Blurb does a good job of emulating the book, albeit at less-than-perfect resolution). I hope you will have a look. If you're a photographer or other artist or writer, it may give you some great ideas to do your own book. 

By the way, they have a deal running until the end of October for Canadian and Australian customers: by entering the code "CANADA25" or "AUSTRALIA25" you get a 25% discount on your order with them (and when books are as much as $100, that adds up!). Here's the link (yes, it includes an affiliate code for me...). By the way, they make less expensive products as well but I opted for the full-sized high quality coffee-table book.

PS: I have about 30 hours in the book, in addition to the actual photo editing, of course. Dr. Ron tells me he puts a book together in an evening, I don't know how! Maybe if I didn't customize every one of the 104 pages... I almost never use their preset layouts.

Winter Workshop

I don't want to say too much too soon, but  we're planning a massive winter workshop retreat up here in the Highlands on the weekend of February 28 - March 2, 2015. We have a fantastic facility lined up, with accommodations for up to 200 people (Gawd, we don't expect that many!!!), we're working on some really talented seminar and workshop leaders and we're talking to the Man Upstairs to arrange for some appropriate weather so we can do a bunch of outdoor as well as indoor sessions! (I personally hope we get some crystal clear nights for star shoots, although the moon is waxing gibbous that weekend).

February 28 – March 2, 2015

So watch this space for updates. And mark your calendars for that weekend, it's shaping up to be a great opportunity to build your photo skills and get away from the city for a weekend! Interested in presenting or running a workshop? Contact me.

Guest Photo

This image was made by Katherine Staynor in Newfoundland. She took my DSLR course last summer. I loved it so much, I asked her if I could post it here. She calls it, "The Three Amigos". Wonderful shot, Katherine, and thanks!

One more closing image for your enjoyment. Not much different from the earlier fall shot in the woods, a little different treatment, but somehow I wanted to share this composition as well.

— 30 —

Wow. It's hard to stay motivated!

I've said this before, but it bears repeating. I love living up here in the Haliburton Highlands, but there are certain times of year that are better than others, and this isn't one of them. A neighbour and I were talking and we're of the same mind: November and March are the worst months.

Right now It's damp and cold. The ground is muddy and monochromatic. The songbirds are gone and the only creatures that are stirring are the people getting ready for the winter. Actually, there's a skiff of white snow on the ground, the lake is active in the wind and although it's created an interesting rime of ice where water has splashed up on the land, and it could be photogenic, everything is too grey to be interesting, and anyway, I'm chilled and don't feel like going out.

My neighbour said he prefers November to March/April because "I have the winter to look forward to"! Fascinating. You'd think it would be the other way around. But he's right: winter is a magical time up here in the Highlands. I know that those of you in other climes (and especially those in the Big Smoke we call Toronto) think we're crazy, but that's your problem.

Still, I can't wait for those crisp white days. And I created a book a couple of years ago to celebrate Winter in the Highlands, there's a link at right to Blurb where you can see the book and enjoy it.

Several projects on the go

I'm working on my next book. I have about a week to get it off to Blurb to take advantage of their huge Black Friday sale (30% off!). Being the procrastinator that I am, I don't know if I'll make it. My big hangup is to create a theme and select images that work well together. I've segregated about 250 images so far, maybe I have TWO books to create!

The Haliburton Highlands Camera Club is taking a lot of my attention right now. We're a couple of weeks away from the inaugural meeting (Wednesday, December 11 at 7pm in Minden, see the website for details). I hope that's going to work out — it will if enough people come forward to help out. I can't do it alone.

I also have an eBook in the works. As regular readers know, I've been writing a weekly photography column for the Haliburton County Living (Weekender) newspaper for almost half a year now, without skipping a beat. Off-topic, it's hard to come up with new material now. As I write this, I have two days to come up with something for next week's column and I'm a little brain dead. Anyway, the column is mostly tips for novice and intermediate photographers, and I want to consolidate them into an eBook.

So I'm busy, but it's hard to stay motivated in the ever-shortening days of November.

D610 vs. D800

Hmmm. I wrote earlier that I'm waiting for Nikon to contact me with the news that a refurbished D800 is available and I have a promise of a swap for my D610 when it is. But I've not been proactively going after them about it because, well, I like the D610!

I used to like the D600 until the dust measles became untenable. So the D610 is the same camera without that problem. It's pretty well everything I need... so if Nikon calls, I'll have to decide.

Black Friday Deals

There are some HUGE deals out there. All of them end on December 2, though, so no procrastinating, hear?

ADOBE

The biggest one is from Adobe. ANYONE can get in on the Photographer's package from now until December 2, regardless of whether they've been Adobe customers in the past. Here's the deal: you get Photoshop CC – that's the FULL Photoshop program – and Lightroom 5, both for the amazing price of $9.99 (US + Taxes) per month. You need to sign up for at least one year – that's a $120 commitment – and they have categorically stated that the price will not jump up after the year (although they give themselves a legal out...).

Considering that Photoshop used to be a $700 product, and that the regular price for Photoshop CC ALONE is $20/month, and that they're throwing in Lightroom which is a $150 product, this is an amazing deal. Go to www.adobe.com to take advantage of it but don't wait!

By the way, Students and Teachers can get the entire Creative Cloud suite – ALL of the programs, not just Photoshop and Lightroom – for $19.95/month but just until November 29th. Same link, don't delay!

TOPAZ

Topaz is offering their entire collection – a $379 value – for $199 if you sign up in the period November 28 – December 2. That's all 14 Topaz products, complete. I'm a big proponent of Topaz products. I've used Adjust for quite a while now, and more recently Clarity and Clear and InFocus and Star and Detail... I love their products.

You have to wait until November 28th to pull the trigger. Click on this link or the one at right,  and you need to enter the promo code blackfriday2013 at checkout.

FACZEN

Yep, that's me. I've got THREE deals going on. Both of them are valid between now and Christmas. Oh, all right, until the end of 2013. Happy?

Deal #1: Any fine art print that I have in stock: $25 plus a flat rate $5 for shipping unless you pick it up. I have to compile a list of what's in stock, but almost all of the images in my Smugmug gallery are available, subject to prior sale. These make superb Christmas gifts! And pretty well any image is also available as an 8x12 or 8x10 lustre print for $5. On top of that, we can make any image into a folding Christmas card, 3/$10. You need to contact me for particulars!

Deal #2: A two-day DSLR workshop for $100. And it could be 1 on 1! Where else can you get personalized instruction for under $10/hour? Prices are going up in 2014 so don't delay! Again, contact me for particulars and check the website for details!

Deal #3: This one's only good until December 2. My eBook, "Take Better Pictures in a Winter Wonderland" absolutely FREE. eMail me for the link.

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If I hear of any other hot deals I'll send them out on my newsletter. If you're not yet subscribed, click the link at the top right corner of this blog. (or this one!)

Some images

Not a lot to show you this week. I've been busy getting my tooth pulled and other nasty stuff so I haven't shot a lot. I was cold the other day, and it was miserable out, so I stayed in and set up the light tent to play a little.

This is the battery that came with my D610. In the light tent, illuminated by a bounce flash, on a flexible plastic surface. A little Lightroom, a little Photoshop, some Topaz and Voilà!  

The original is the one on the left. It's Cranberry Juice. I decided it should be a 1977 Robert Mondavi Select Cabernet Sauvignon. It was more difficult than it looks, to get the colour and density right, plus if you look carefully, the glass was slightly tilted so the liquid surface wasn't level! I used "Puppet Warp" to fix it.  

While I was at it, I decided since I didn't have any Abelour A'bunadh Cask Strength single malt left, and since you can't get it in Canada,  I needed to make some. Believe it or not, this is THE SAME CRANBERRY JUICE! Ah, Photoshop!

My neighbour Jack dropped by to talk about the Adobe deal and learn a little about Photoshop, so I obliged him. I needed to find a picture to use as a demo, so I opened the abandoned gas station shot from Coboconk that I posted last week. At one point he said, "how about adding the sun to that picture", so I did. A really, really easy process if you know Photoshop!

I ended up liking this much better than last week's! This will be available as a large format art print, on Epson Cold Press matte paper. Talk to me if you want a museum-quality archival art print for someone you love! 

— 30 —

Published again!

OK, hold your horses. You know that I'm going to make you read through some irrelevant drivel before I get back to the topic in the heading and any pictures that I have for you to look at are down at the bottom of the post, but that's like the grocery store who makes you walk through all the food aisles to get to the milk cooler, on the off-chance that you might spot something else on impulse and throw it in your cart.

You know who's the master at that? Costco. Who has actually gone into Costco and left with only the items on the list they brought in? Not me. Go in for coffee and toilet paper and come out with 27 items totalling $350. And every one of them a great deal!

This week in review
Where was I? Oh yeah... it's been an eventful couple of weeks, some good, some bad. I haven't been shooting a lot of pictures because I've been spending time responding to a 'request' from CRA (that's the "Canada Revenue Agency" and for my American friends, think "IRS"). Yes, folks, I'm being audited. Fun, eh? OK, it's not all that bad (I hope!) and I should come out OK, but what a waste of productive time and I dread the bill from my accountant. I also had a wicked stomach flu last weekend and I put those events on about the same level of enjoyment.

On the good side of the ledger, we had our "Re-certification Weekend" at Humber College last weekend — it's "train the trainers" time for us motorcycle instructors, and the season is starting anew. I really have to get out of this computer chair and back into exercising on the parking lot. I promised one of my friends I'd lose 10 lbs by the end of April. Let's see if I can! The weather last week was incredible: many degrees above normal for this time of the year, and I unlimbered my motorcycle and rode a couple of hundred kilometers on the dirty sand-covered roads up here. I enjoyed every minute.

The water on the lake is wet again, instead of hard. I didn't see any incidents here, everyone seems to have retrieved their ice fishing huts safely. There was an interesting image or two that I captured.



Someone, or something made this path of raised footprints out onto the lake. Here's what I figure: wherever they walked, they compressed the snow/ice which made it melt later than the untouched surface of the lake. So it looks like a path of raised 'lily pads' heading out across the ice.

This mallard drake was wading in the shallows. That's ice in front of him. Another male landed nearby, and our friend Daffy here decided to defend his territory (and his hen, who's not in the photo) and steamed through the water in attack mode. I did enhance the image with Topaz to bring out the detail in the water and I actually added the sky because the existing one was boring. He let me get pretty close: it's a 400mm shot but he wasn't paying me any attention.

I was in Toronto last weekend as I said: and it's starting to 'green up'. Not here, yet though. You can see the odd daffodil plant beginning to show itself in protected sunny spots, but I ain't taking the snow tires off the car yet. However it did remind me that the time to shoot trilliums is not that far off, and I've sent out invitations to the usual group of characters who come up to enjoy a weekend here. I did repair the barbeque — replaced all the rusty innards with shine new stainless steel. Interesting how much better it is to eat food that's brown instead of black! I debated replacing it instead of fixing it but now that money can be earmarked for a new camera (if CRA leaves me any!).

What else... Adobé (see how I spell that? Tongue implanted in cheek...) has acknowledged the latency/slow problem in Lightroom 4 and said yesterday that there will be a fix released this week. I'm not holding my breath... they also announced a public beta test for Photoshop CS6. No thanks. After the LR4 debacle, I'll wait until the early adopters have already debugged the program. Then they announced that if you buy CS5 now, you'll get a free upgrade to CS6 when the time comes. Worth considering if you need the program.

Inspiration
I want to revisit a link to a site that I brought up last September. It's called "1x.com" and you can link to it here. I look at a lot of pictures on the web: friends, NAPP portfolios, etc. but on 1x the photos are to such a high standard, sometimes I feel like throwing away my camera and taking up needlepoint. It's a 'curated' site, so only the best images are approved. I've submitted 2 images, my best, and they were both rejected. I sent in another one today. If I ever get accepted there, you'll hear about it, big time. But looking at the images there is inspiring and as I said, a bit daunting. Go look, it's worth it. You can look at everything in that link or you can choose a genre that interests you.

Published!
I need to thank Lance for this one. He sent some links to a magazine publisher who was looking for images to use to illustrate the goings-on of various camera clubs, and the magazine chose my "Boat on a Dock" image to publish. As soon as I see it in print, I'll share the name of the publication here, but I'm honoured and excited to have been chosen to represent the club. But wait, there's more!

OK, this isn't the same thing — remember I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I won the Blurb book contest at the Richmond Hill Camera Club? (by the way, if you're not an RHCC member, you won't be familiar with the talent in that club. Click here and watch the slideshow of winning images from the last competition. Some of the talent there will blow you away). Anyway, I finished the book and sent it in for printing. While I was there, I learned that you can now create an eBook designed to work on an iPad or iPhone and I converted both the new "Winter in Haliburton" book and the previously unpublished "Pathways" book. You can preview both books here and here, or via the widgets at right, and you can download .ePub versions to your iPad for a nominal fee. Very exciting.

I'll leave you with a few pictures. Enroute to Toronto last week, I drove through the hamlet of Argyle and stopped to take a few pictures. I shot some 5-shot bursts and came away with these high-key HDR style images. After the fact, I noticed that there was a huge spiderweb in the door window of the old truck: hope it's still there next time I'm through!

See you next time!

— 30 —

My Book Arrived!

I picked up my book at the mailbox today!

It was exciting to see my own work printed and bound. However I have mixed feelings about the results.

The photos came out excellently. So did the text. My layout was great. The book quality was superb. So what's with the misgivings?

While I knew what size book I was ordering, when I got it I was initially disappointed. A 10"x8" book is too small for a coffee table. It's nice and all, but it's small. Also, I only produced a 40-page effort (on purpose -- it was a test) and it's very thin.

So: if you're doing a Blurb book,

• make it bigger (both the physical size and the number of pages. Also the image sizes on the pages).
• do order the premium paper. It's outstanding.
• I think I worried too much about sharpening and finishing. All my pictures were National Geographic quality (OK, I'm not talking about the images themselves, although they're pretty good! I mean the reproduction).
• While the printed jacket is really nice, I'm worried about damaging it. I think I'll hard-print on the cover of the next one.

So my next book will be (a) coffee-table sized, (b) have at least 60 (more likely 80) pages and (c) I'll create my own custom layout grids using a full page bleed size in PhotoShop.

While I'm writing here, I thought I'd remind everyone that the Wacom Bamboo Fun graphic tablet is very reasonably priced right now! Staples has it for $99 (the Fun includes a mouse and a software bundle). It still takes a bit of getting used to, but I'm at the point where I use it for everything. If you buy the one without the mouse, you need an extra USB port to plug one in. The Wacom mouse (by the way, it's pronounced "wack-om" not "Way-com", if you listen to the British voice on the tutorial) only works on the graphics tablet, but that's OK, it's pretty good.

And finally, we've set the date for the Pixel Painting Workshop: March 14/15 at Humber College. Drop me a note if you're thinking about attending and I don't already know about it. Details will go up on the photography.to website in a few days.

Have a geat New Year's, everyone. I wish you all health, happiness and prosperity in the year to come.

PS: Food for thought: I'm thinking about a trip out West this summer, in a car not on the bike. Maybe make Alaska? Anyone interested in coming along?

I'm a published author!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Well, busy in the sense that I’ve been working on a project and have been sitting in front of the computer for lots of hours to get it done.

The project? My first Blurb book. Yes, now I can say that I am a published photographer and author. The fact that it’s self-published, and I only ordered a couple of copies to see how it turned out does not have to come up in conversation. UNDERSTAND?

I put together a 40-page 8x10” (landscape) hardcovered book with a sleeve. It’s called “The Path of Least Potholes”, and to find out why, I guess you’re going to have to buy a copy! Blurb is not that simple to use, but considering we’re generating a whole book here, it’s not that bad. I’ll talk about the process and some of the mistakes I made (me? Misteaks?) in my photo tips section below.

I got an email from them telling me my book has shipped. Can't wait to see it! I'm published!

Last week when I started writing this, I was staring out the window at the snow coming down. I was up in “True North” (as I am now), of course. The lake was now iced over. a couple of nights before, there was open water and the setting sun lit the steam coming off it, reminiscent of a misty dawn. It was tough to capture on camera.

When I woke up the next morning, it was -22°C and everything outside was crispy crunchy. It was a beautiful winter day and when I walked down to the dock, Susan from the Inn across the road told me to check out the frozen ice crystals on the fresh lake ice. They looked like giant snowflakes, so I went back for the camera and took a couple of shots.

These crystals were about 2" (5cm) across. I false-coloured the image to make them stand out.

I also took a couple of shots of my axe, embedded in a log I was splitting for kindling. I painted the background, since it was kind of messy. I’m calling it, “That’s Life NOT in the Big City”.

When I came back in, I waited for the camera to warm back up to room temperature, then set it up to take a couple of self-portraits to use for the back flap of the book. Don’t you hate pictures of yourself? I do…

This is my workstation up at "True North". I've since moved a larger widescreen monitor up here.

By the way, last week I got a few images at the landfill (OK, the “dump”) when I dropped off a bag of garbage. It’s not going to win any prizes as ‘prettiest photo of the year’, but it does tell the story of what they do there. They’re feeding a whole mountain of stuff into that big red machine which reduces things to one or two foot size chunks. Then they plow it all in (that’s why they call it a ‘landfill’.


Planning is well under way for the Pixel Painting workshop we're doing with Hilarie McNeil-Smith in March. Watch this space for an announcement in the next week or so.

I did buy the Wacom tablet I mentioned last time: Future Shop has them on sale for under $100. If you're planning to attend the workshop, you need one. The Wacom "Bamboo" is $79 but the "Bamboo Fun" is only $20 more. You get a mouse with it as well as some software, so it's worth it. It's seamless. No issues with multiple monitors, no locking up the computer, works great.

FacZen Photography Tips You too can be an author! There are a number of online companies who will help you publish your own book. The one I used was “Blurb.com”. They seem to be quite affordable, much less than the likes of Vistek or Black's, and from what I’ve seen, their quality is quite high. There are some limitations but there are some workarounds that can make your book fully customized and looking just the way you want it. The first thing to do is go to the blurb website and download their software, called "Booksmart". Version 1.9 is the current one as I write this. My book cover Even though I put together a small book (only 40 pages) as a first test, I realize that workflow is an issue. Jim Camelford (he’s published a couple of hefty tomes) gave some hints which I unwisely ignored, so here they are again, but in my words. The concept is like this: Blurb offers several designs from a small square book to a large format coffee table sized book (13x11”). You can have as many pages as you like in it, up to 440 pages (now THAT would be a book!). There are dozens of page layouts provided by Blurb, but you can’t modify them. So if you don’t find the layout you want, you’ll have to work around it. You make .jpg files to fill the containers they provide. So if a page has two 5x5.5” image containers in it, that’s what you give them. The problem is, you’re probably going to end up cropping your pictures to fit their layout, unless you use a larger container and drop the pictures wherever you like in it. You could drop, say, a 5” x 3” image in a box and align it top or bottom or middle. You could also use a full-page bleed, create a suitably sized image in PhotoShop and position things where you want. Text too. Work with a grid, though, especially if you're going to put a customized page opposite a standard one. All files should be prepared for printing: proper exposures, clean cropping, sharpened appropriately, 300 dpi resolution and high quality. You get out what you put in. You could just drop your pictures into the Blurb containers and let the program resize or fit them. But then the sharpening and resolution wouldn’t be optimum and, well, it is your book, so you decide. Pre-plan your text. Blurb has several default styles: body text, headings, captions, etc. Choose the font, size and colour for each of these and store them as defaults. You should make everything consistent through the book. The thing is, PLAN YOUR BOOK FIRST. Collect all your photos and text in one place then make subfolders for each section (which could be just one page!). Decide what fonts and colours to use and preset them. Decide on picture sizes and prepare them in advance. Here are a couple of things Blurb doesn’t tell you: 1. You don’t need to import pictures into their library. You can just drag them from Explorer or even Bridge directly into the program. 2. Resize them according to the pixel sizes given in Blurb. Not 6”x6”, 1801px x 1796px. By the way, in Photoshop be sure to enter “px” in the crop size box or you’ll end up with inches. 1801 inches is one HELL of a big file! One of the page layouts from my book. 3. If you’re working in Word to write the text, set the font, size and colour to what you want in the book. If you have to, change the page colour so you can see your text (I couldn't figure out what was going on until I realized I was trying to look at black text on a black background!). 4. Try to be consistent. Your book will look MUCH better if pages look similar throughout. Stick with only one or two fonts and colours and sizes; try to keep the page layouts the same or similar. Creating the book is a tedious process. And "niggly". I scrolled several times through the book and found little problems every time. Remember, this is going to be printed, so you have to get it right. When you're all done, you connect to the Blurb site and upload the book for printing. Remember, it's a pretty big file so it will take a while even at high speed. Then you need to tell them how many copies, where to ship them and give them the usual credit card information. My 40-page book was $33 (I chose premium paper), plus shipping. So go for it! You can be a famous author and published photographer just like me!