I think this is the hot topic right now in the forum - and there's new info there about the Lulu experience (are you experienced?). Incidentally - the main saving grace for me through this has been loading the Allman Brothers Band on my iPod. Whipping Post seems to be the appropriate song. I suppose that someday I'll do some shooting again - but don't hold yer breath. I'm basically just printing (good ole 4800), experimenting with ads, and doing the publishing stuff right now. Paul's Lulu book arrived and as I say - it's actually pretty good. Paul's Lulu Book (scroll to the bottom)
I don't know how to link to a specific reply in the forum.
* * *
Hi Dave,
Bill sent me the link to your current blog discussion of the lulusaga, and this would be solely because this is the exact idea I proposed if he would just let me design an unusual calendar for him to use for ... well, getting his work stuck on art director's walls and far more. I wasn't sure I could have high hopes for lulu; seemed too good to be true that the underfunded could still offer it up for others, but I'm so dismayed.
Sorry to ask you this off the blog, and you're welcome to post it if you want/think others would find it of interest, but I'm really stuck on this issue of submission of PDFs. They asked you for PDFs for final printing?? They didn't ask for or let you supply high res CMYK .tif images? More color management there, and all around more reason to have faith....
[Julie for the calendar - all they accept is an RGB JPG. Period For books, the recommend a PDF with embedded RGB files. But I believe they will take CMYK files, but what they'll do to them, I don't know.]
If you're doing a fairly standard size calendar, I have a strong recommendation for a printer, from a group that just send me LOADS of their work. So many pieces they sprung out of the pocket folder like trick snakes out of the peanut butter brittle can. But they're good to have bookmarked, and if you don't already know them, go to the site and request their sample packet.
[Julie, I just requested samples from them. Telling them that what I really wanted was a good b&w calendar.]
EXCEPTIONAL printing. I was overwhelmed. Very good prices, and an unbelievable variety of what they'll print for you. But, overall, the print quality was unexpected. Best of all, they're independent and devoted to artists who are just doing everything they can to get the
truth of the creation to reproduce.
www.jakprints.com
And now I'll have to review their booklet to see what files they allow for this purpose. The hatching -- was it at all moire like, where lulululu didn't adjust this plate or that by a few degrees? Curious.
[It wasn't moire in the way that I'm used to seeing it with digital images where it happens in certain areas where there are fine lines and high contrast. It was just this general cross-hatch pattern. Maybe they just ran out of ink :)]
Hope you've been well, and have a wonderful morning....
Julie
_____________________________________________________________________
"Your work is to discover your work, and then
with all your heart, to give yourself to it."
--Buddha
11/16/2005
11/15/2005
Lulu Arrives
The first calendar via Lulu arrived. I wasn't expecting anything great but it was worse than expected. The cover, which is on a heavier stock than the inside pages, is okay. Once you get inside there are streaks of magenta ink in various places; usually showing up the most in the lighter areas. Not the type of thing you need to look closely to see. It's almost as if you took a little magenta, mixed it with water and did a bit of watercolor painting in the lighter areas.
There is also a cross-hatching (what I'd call banding on an inkjet, but this one goes in both directions). And of course the maximum black is nowhere near an inkjet print. What else can I say - it basically looks like a badly made calendar by an inexperienced high-school student on a xerox machine.
The next calendar to arrive has sharpening applied - though I can't imagine that will help much. Also - even if it does arrive without streaking - what am I to make of that - some will be streaked and some won't?
I also have one book arriving. That may be better. I don't know. All in all - pretty dismal so far.
* * *
I'm pretty sure this is going to be a waste of money, but I'm going to take one more stab at it, this time doing the "premium" calendar (larger and more of a card stock paper is used, i.e. thicker). And I'm going to take - I think it was Jeff's suggestion and stick the images on my own white template so I can have more control over the layout, put some rule lines around the image and place the caption where I want. This is surely asking for trouble because even if the damned thing does work - the production cost is like $20 for each calendar. Gods above, be kind to me as I am a stubborn guy.
There is also a cross-hatching (what I'd call banding on an inkjet, but this one goes in both directions). And of course the maximum black is nowhere near an inkjet print. What else can I say - it basically looks like a badly made calendar by an inexperienced high-school student on a xerox machine.
The next calendar to arrive has sharpening applied - though I can't imagine that will help much. Also - even if it does arrive without streaking - what am I to make of that - some will be streaked and some won't?
I also have one book arriving. That may be better. I don't know. All in all - pretty dismal so far.
* * *
I'm pretty sure this is going to be a waste of money, but I'm going to take one more stab at it, this time doing the "premium" calendar (larger and more of a card stock paper is used, i.e. thicker). And I'm going to take - I think it was Jeff's suggestion and stick the images on my own white template so I can have more control over the layout, put some rule lines around the image and place the caption where I want. This is surely asking for trouble because even if the damned thing does work - the production cost is like $20 for each calendar. Gods above, be kind to me as I am a stubborn guy.
Kick Me
I'm just printing all day. Printing, printing, printing. About 20 prints to get out. And everything was going well until - you guessed it - I couldn't find a negative. What is wrong with me? I could picture the strip it was on. It was for a 5 x 7 print ($25). And after spending two hours looking for it - I remembered that I had been in the middle of filing negs. the other day - and hadn't finished and sure enough it was in that pile. So kick me.
It's bad because it ain't the first time and I know it won't be the last that some neg. disappears. The problem is that there's always a different reason. A few weeks ago it was because I had pulled a negative from the file system (at least I have one) because so-and-so wanted a high-rez scan. Did I re-file it afterwards? No. I just left it in a pile with some other stuff.
Most probably some of these negs. end up where my socks end up. I can buy a million pair of socks at the beginning of the year but by the end of the year only two are left (I'm wearing them now).
Oh and on top of that - my healing brush cursor which used to be a nice circle just turned into the healing brush icon and I'm too proud to ask someone who knows why that happened. I changed all the cursor preferences but no luck. When you select the source with the ALT KEY you get a nice circle - and then when you go to zap something you get this stupid healing icon which doesn't show me exactly what it is healing. What did I do to deserve this fate? Must be bad karma for doing too much marketing and getting too many orders.
It's bad because it ain't the first time and I know it won't be the last that some neg. disappears. The problem is that there's always a different reason. A few weeks ago it was because I had pulled a negative from the file system (at least I have one) because so-and-so wanted a high-rez scan. Did I re-file it afterwards? No. I just left it in a pile with some other stuff.
Most probably some of these negs. end up where my socks end up. I can buy a million pair of socks at the beginning of the year but by the end of the year only two are left (I'm wearing them now).
Oh and on top of that - my healing brush cursor which used to be a nice circle just turned into the healing brush icon and I'm too proud to ask someone who knows why that happened. I changed all the cursor preferences but no luck. When you select the source with the ALT KEY you get a nice circle - and then when you go to zap something you get this stupid healing icon which doesn't show me exactly what it is healing. What did I do to deserve this fate? Must be bad karma for doing too much marketing and getting too many orders.
11/14/2005
Blue Face
As I was going through the Mermaid Day shots - this one hit me again. This may be the only shot that I've done that must be in color. It was shot through a fence which gives it that misty feeling around the edges.
Misc.
I'm beginning to put back galleries organized by theme: the first one is Mermaid Day Gallery. It's getting very busy around here again (yes - orders) but the next gallery is going to be a New York Protest gallery (loads of images). Eventually, I'm thinking these would be good for calendars (the first calendar proof should arrive tomorrow).
As far as print-pricing - if you look through the for sale gallery - you'll get a good idea of the range of what works. Once you hit the $100 for a print, no matter what the size - watch out.
As far as print-pricing - if you look through the for sale gallery - you'll get a good idea of the range of what works. Once you hit the $100 for a print, no matter what the size - watch out.
11/13/2005
Faces at a Marathon
Mother and Child at New York Marathon
Ash
Untitled
When you have cut into the continuity of time you are only stealing your 1000th of a second as if the other minutes don't matter.
And I'm not talking about Heidenberg's Uncertainty Principle.
And I'm not saying, as some believe, that you've really stolen the fraction of a second from someone's soul (or possibly their entire soul) - but you have put your 1/1000th of a second forward to be looked at as if it were reality. But when you present your slice of time you are always messing with reality.
"The rose dies because you picked it," Tom Waits
Education and Art in Western Society
Julie and her husband Jude were drinking expensive ultra-premium Vodka. Jude had a paunch and was doing a comb over. The bar was dark, but Julie looked the same as in college - except her hair was all streaked silver.
They are both psychiatrists on the upper-west side - and they've been specializing on the problems of artists in Western society.
Two days later - Julie sent me a sample chapter of the book they're working on. Julie asked me to comment on it before it went to their editor. You can read the rest of their chapter here.
They are both psychiatrists on the upper-west side - and they've been specializing on the problems of artists in Western society.
Two days later - Julie sent me a sample chapter of the book they're working on. Julie asked me to comment on it before it went to their editor. You can read the rest of their chapter here.
11/12/2005
In the Trenches
I added a simple Photoshop Workflow aimed at showing how I get to a web image (after Markus') in the (Scroll down to the bottom when you get there) Cafe Forum.
* * *
Man, is anything going on in the world I should know about. I swear I've been glued to this computer for the last month or so. And lord preserve me - it's all been about selling. Last night I found myself up at 2 a.m. for no other reason than I had the brilliant idea of lowering prices and adding a few more prints to the 5 x7 section (since those are selling like the proverbial hotcakes).
Poor kitty. Doesn't know what to make of these odd hours. These are his hours for prowling and here I am with all the lights blazing clicking away on what seems to him to be - I can only guess he thinks the keyboard is a new-fangled scratching pad.
And naturally FTP connection was giving me all sorts of grief. Did some investigating after getting a no help response from the ISP and saw that I had some extra goodie for advanced FTP turned on in Dreamweaver. I haven't touched that particular goodie since I installed the thing, but now the Advanced mode was the cause of the problem because when I unclicked it - everything began to work as advertised. Someday, when I'm rich and famous I'm going to hire a webmaster to deal with these idiotic problems.
Anyway - if something important is going on outside my apartment - please let me know.
* * *
Man, is anything going on in the world I should know about. I swear I've been glued to this computer for the last month or so. And lord preserve me - it's all been about selling. Last night I found myself up at 2 a.m. for no other reason than I had the brilliant idea of lowering prices and adding a few more prints to the 5 x7 section (since those are selling like the proverbial hotcakes).
Poor kitty. Doesn't know what to make of these odd hours. These are his hours for prowling and here I am with all the lights blazing clicking away on what seems to him to be - I can only guess he thinks the keyboard is a new-fangled scratching pad.
And naturally FTP connection was giving me all sorts of grief. Did some investigating after getting a no help response from the ISP and saw that I had some extra goodie for advanced FTP turned on in Dreamweaver. I haven't touched that particular goodie since I installed the thing, but now the Advanced mode was the cause of the problem because when I unclicked it - everything began to work as advertised. Someday, when I'm rich and famous I'm going to hire a webmaster to deal with these idiotic problems.
Anyway - if something important is going on outside my apartment - please let me know.
COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
I interrupt the general meandering of this blog to announce that prices have been radically and lovingly lowered in ye olde Photography Store.
The reason: sales were dismal at the old prices and the holidays seemed like a good time to do this slashing (that's an original idea - Christmas Sales).
Everyone was buying the $20 prints and a some medium sized $90 prints. So I tried to make the range from $20 - $90.
My marketing consultant advised me to remove the FREE FEDEX SHIPPING FOR ORDERS OVER $150 but I think he's skating on thin ice right now. Never hire your relatives to do your marketing, especially if they're still in junior high-school.
The reason: sales were dismal at the old prices and the holidays seemed like a good time to do this slashing (that's an original idea - Christmas Sales).
Everyone was buying the $20 prints and a some medium sized $90 prints. So I tried to make the range from $20 - $90.
My marketing consultant advised me to remove the FREE FEDEX SHIPPING FOR ORDERS OVER $150 but I think he's skating on thin ice right now. Never hire your relatives to do your marketing, especially if they're still in junior high-school.
11/11/2005
Mother and Child, Marathon
Mother and Child, Marathon
Speaking of Photoshop technique: these are almost totally unworked since I didn't have the time. They're just up as reminders to me - worth working on. Scanned at 5400, flipped down to 72 dpi in one pass; and just sharped with the Photoshop unsharp mask. They are just ideas for me right now. You can see all sorts of technical errors - bad sharpening; highlight of baby's face blown; hair of woman mixing with background, etc. And it can all and will be fixed.
Business Crap
So far I've spent about $100 on samples from Lulu and haven't seen a thing yet.
I published the first Lulu draft calendar on11/04/2005. Still hasn't shipped. And what has shipped - still hasn't arrived. Oh man - today's Vet. Day. No mail
What does Lulu mean anyway? "It's a Lulu?"
I also think Lulu was Ed Norton's childhood dog. Remember the sleep-walking episode? Poor Ed is dreaming about his pooch and starts sleep-walking - looking for his poor Lulu that he lost at Coney Island. "Loooo-looooo."
There was also a screen siren in silent films called Lulu. (Louise Brooks)
Lulu may be the bleeding edge technology of the day.
Anyway - the ftp connection was (is) unbearably slow this morning so I decided to develop two rolls of film. Ah the old technology. Can't beat it sometimes. Hope to have something worth looking at later.
I published the first Lulu draft calendar on11/04/2005. Still hasn't shipped. And what has shipped - still hasn't arrived. Oh man - today's Vet. Day. No mail
What does Lulu mean anyway? "It's a Lulu?"
I also think Lulu was Ed Norton's childhood dog. Remember the sleep-walking episode? Poor Ed is dreaming about his pooch and starts sleep-walking - looking for his poor Lulu that he lost at Coney Island. "Loooo-looooo."
There was also a screen siren in silent films called Lulu. (Louise Brooks)
Lulu may be the bleeding edge technology of the day.
Anyway - the ftp connection was (is) unbearably slow this morning so I decided to develop two rolls of film. Ah the old technology. Can't beat it sometimes. Hope to have something worth looking at later.
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