so…just got my book…

so i just got my book in the mail. let’s just say, i am not super excited by it. i have a love/hate with it. the pictures that i love, i LOVE, and the ones i hate, i wish i could rip out of the book. let’s look at what i mean:

the good:
i was surprised by how much i liked this picture in digital form. i didn’t think about it much when i was taking it but now, i really like the way the camera captured it’s essence, or the essence i saw. the colors are lovely and every aspect that i expected to be shown in the book was shown. i am very pleased with this image in the book.

the bad:
the picture was great, the cropping was horrible. i don’t know what i was thinking putting the best part of the image in the middle of the book fold and now that i have, the image is totally ruined. i think i was just conflicted with where to lay all of the flowers without getting too redundant but i know see that redundant may have been a better idea than laying the photo in the middle of the spine.

the ugly:
not only does this image not really go with the rest of the “pretty” flowers in the book, but it was extremely fuzzy in the print. i checked and it was my fault to choose it as it was not as detailed as i first thought. however, this is an upgrade from the “bad” picture as at least i didn’t crop the main subject in the photo to sit in the spine. i now see that i should’ve chosen a nicer picture that would’ve went with the book. plus, the colors of this picture don’t really match the brightness of the rest of the book.

i appreciated the experience to “publish” my own book. i think it was definitely a learning process. there are several things i would do differently if i were to republish this book. some of the “bad” images would be replaced, perhaps not all of the photos would be double page spreads but some full single page spreads with something like text on the opposing page. i also would’ve chosen to get the hardcover for the book as opposed to the softcover. i think the softcover distracts the reader. these are all things i will keep in mind in my next book.

shipped!

i got a confirmation email today letting me know my book has shipped! yay! only a few more days now :)

so this weekend i went back up to visit family in riverside. i had been up there a few weeks ago and had my book imprinted on my brain so i also brought my camera. thankfully so, i got a few pictures of flowers in my cousins garden. when i was there yesterday i began to relook at the flowers i had photographed. i guess i didn’t notice when i was taking the picture but woah, i was all up in that flower’s business. i remembered a picture i put in my book of what looked like a relative of the morning glory and when i saw it this weekend, i realized how small the flower was initially and that i was able to capture it and magnify it to allow others to really see what the flower has to offer. i guess you could say that the goal of my book was achieved, i got up close and personal to my subjects :)

terminé

i finished my book! sent it in today. woo! i am pretty happy with it. i know that it is plain but i hope that the pictures are strong enough to distract from the subtle-ness of the book. i hope that i like it enough to be proud to present it to others and keep it as a portfolio for now. i know flowers aren’t that daring and the images are pretty safe but they’re good nonetheless.
i liked the idea of making a book though. i spent $20 on this one. i would consider doing it again although i would probably want a better topic and i would probably want to be a bit more creative, either with scanned pictures or perhaps making it look like a scrapbook. who knows what could happen :)

workworkworkworkwork.

i don’t remember where i left off but i’ve mostly been working/stressing out about my book. i finally settled on macro photographed flowers. it took me forever to decide but after a trip to balboa park’s botanical garden, the answer was obvious for me.
so then i began to work. i chose a 10×8 landscape book to work on and then the doubt and frustration appeared. i was having the worst time trying to figure out why i couldn’t make the book work. i couldn’t decide on a layout, which pictures to use, and which pictures to use next to each other. the colors of the flowers would often conflict and i didn’t want the audience to open each page and be overexposed to too much color and detail for each picture. i was lost.
then my professor showed us a previous student’s art book and then the lightbulb went off. the student had used the idea of a double page spread, where his image would cross both pages. i was sold!
so i flipped my book from landscape to portrait and then took off running with this idea.

here are some examples:

i had debated photoshopping them but in the end i decided keeping them au natural would be best for me :)

panoramic viewing

i put together my panorama from a couple of pictures i took while in Julian. i absolutely love this picture simply because the left side starts with dead trees and the right ends with green, healthy trees. the dead trees are from the wildfires san diego is beginning to gain popularity for.

official book idea

Okay, I’ve decided on a theme.
Macro photography with an emphasis on plants, mostly flowers.

book topic

we are supposed to have chosen a topic for our books by now but i still haven’t decided. i’ve gone back and forth with a few ideas but i can’t pick enough to make a book out of it.
i really want a colorful book. i have considered making a book about san diego, and the different cities within it, but even saying the idea aloud kind of bored me. i took a ton of pictures when i was in julian with the theme revolving around close-ups and extreme zoom on certain things. but a lot of the pictures also revolved around plants and greens though i’m unsure if i want to stick with plants. surprisingly as i write this, one of my favorite pictures i took was the “Julian-Sunflowers” which i included in my previous blog. although it is plant related, it’s not very close up but it is colorful. i really want to check out a deluxe camera and really play around with some of the ideas. perhaps this weekend i can go play with some ideas.

my top five

the top five i chose to be printed are:

“Julian – Squash”

“Julian – Pumpkins”

“Bee”

“Julian – Box of Squash”

and my favorite,
“Julian – Sunflowers”

here’s an idea!

I was just browsing the san diego reader’s website when i stumbled upon this article named “i’m king of this alley,” which happens to be the cover story from last weeks publishing. the article is about alleys and alley artists. i began to think that that might be a fitting idea for me.

“I like how plants growing in alleys are still green because they’ve been making do all along. I love the hubbub of commercial alleys.”

i grew up in north park in san diego. it’s full of…um, eclectic people, and things, lots of art and culture and it’s very urban. everything is within walking distance. i think this may be where i go for my next batch of photos. maybe i’ll even borrow a nice camera from school!

one artist from the article is xavier nuez. i looked up some of his pictures and i must say i love the use of color. and now that i know how to work with photoshop, i can edit my pictures to reflect the same idea. i love that it was taken at night, when alleys are scary and we’ve always been told, especially females, to stay out of the alleys because they are unsafe. even after he edited his pictures the dirt and grime of the dirty city is left, which gives the buildings and alleys their character.

i actually know an artist mentioned in the article. he used to teach kick-boxing and i took his class in my early teens. then i ran into him again after he began to show his work at the san diego art institute (sdai) where my aunt worked. he does more paintings but i love his work. the places he paints are also usually local and make them feel more personal. here is a painting of an alley he did.

book theme

i still have not come up with a theme i want my semester book to be about. i’ve debated sea life (turtles), beach, san diego overall, city life, my neighborhood, night life but still no conclusion. i am most leaning towards san diego night life because i just recently moved back to san diego from north county and apparently love it down here. but i am also interested in portraits. still haven’t decided.