I’m about to start on another photography book release via blurb.com that should take me most of the winter to put together. This is going to be a big project and an important landmark book (at least for me!) that completes the first phase of the Norfolk project.

Ten years ago, i decided that i needed a long term photographic project. What began as a loose kind of photography exercise in Norfolk, ended up gathering pace and direction. After ten years, it’s time for a break and some contemplation of where to take it next. I have lots of options open, plenty left to photograph in the county, and after a year or two i’ll return.

Over the next few months I’ll be putting all of the photography  together, around 80 images or possibly more, to make a retrospective book that , I think, will be the perfect way to present the first ten years of work. The majority of the photographs that have been released online have focussed on the landscape side of the project, however, the book will stay true to the original idea with a broad mix of landscape and documentary photography. I aim to release the book on March 21st 2012.

I love these seven benches at Sheringham. They were all dedicated to people who holidayed there and loved the place. A nice touch that at least gives the sitter a small personal detail about the memorialised person. I know Arthur loved this place.  Would i get that from a headstone in a cemetery? I very much doubt it.

I  hope i get a bench one day. Some weary photographer, carrying too much gear, may need it!

Approaching the Humber bridge

It’s with a great deal of pleasure that i can announce the launch of my first photography book release called Sea, Sky, Sand and Street available from blurb.com.

Based on this year’s Solo Photo Book month project, this brand new 7×7 inches (18×18 cm) photography book has been completely redesigned from scratch and features a new layout design, over 70 photographs including a number of new images and more.

For the next sixteen days (check out the book preview to spot why it’s 16 days) the soft cover version of book will be available to buy for the introductory price of £16.95 plus £4.99 postage. The sixteen day period will end on midnight September 10th when the price will return to £18.95. A hardback edition of the book is also available.

The new Sea, Sky, Sand and Street book in softcover and hardback can be purchased HERE

Phew! The hard work is over and the book is finished. Yep…  Solo Photo Book Month is over for another year – well at least for me it is – and it’s time to reflect on the book, the photography and the project generally.

This year i found it tough to come up with book ideas. I did have an plan of shooting the book in Norfolk as the dates for the start of the SoFoBoMo project coincided with my visit, however i thought i’d be using a regular digital camera or even 6×6 film. In the end though, the answer came in the shape of the iPhone. Small and light, it is the perfect instrument for capturing images quietly and quickly. It’s perfect for street photography and from that thought came the book. Combined with the Hipstamatic photography app it managed to create images with a black & white ‘Holga’ like aesthetic that i liked a lot. The photographs in the book are displayed as shot – NO PhotoShop work was done at all. Nothing was added or tweaked. A loose limit of forty to fifty images to be in the finished book was always the aim and the final total came it at a magical forty seven. Perfect.

The one element i’ve always loved about the Solo Photo Book Month project is the degree of control you have over what you do. The rules are simple and you enforce them yourself. You could cheat but why would you want to? You also set the level of difficulty and i did briefly consider that using the iPhone again might be being slightly lazy but, hey it suited the job. Many of the photos were literally see and shoot moments. Sometimes there is just no time for technical considerations. The photograph of the people crab fishing was a classic example of that. Within seconds of the photo being taken they had moved. A full selection of photographs from the book project (including many photos not eligible for inclusion in the book due to them being taken before the project commence date of July 1st) can be found in the Sand, Sky, Sea and Street gallery HERE

So has it been a good SoFoBoMo year for me? I think it has. In fact i would regard this as the best of the three photo books i have created for the SoFoBoMo so far. So what about 2012? Ah, well i do have some plans that are about 75% complete for next year and it will be the most ambitious and challenging book I’ve attempted yet. All i will say for now is….5×4. Highlands. Landscape.

Watch this space….

This year’s book can be downloaded and viewed at:-

http://www.sofobomo.org/book-558-Sand-Sky-Sea-and-Street

The iPhone and its photographic capabilities may have a lot of critics but as a candid street photography camera I think its pretty darn good.

The ability to take a photo in the blink of an eye is just one benefit to using a mobile phone as a image capturing device. The small size of a phone also helps you avoid attention. Critical when shooting candid street photos.

OK, the iPhone & other mobile phones are never going to replace the Nikons and Canons of this world but as a separate tool for capturing images quickly and quietly it’s ideal.

On the beach at Deganwy in North Wales looking towards Anglesey, 2004.

Photograph shot using a 1950′s Balda Baldixette

A visitor at the Minack Theatre near Porthcurno in Cornwall takes in the view.

A few refinements have been made to the blog recently. A tidy up. Some you may have noticed already. For a while i was only posting iPhone photographs which was getting a bit repetitive so I’ve decided to be a bit more proactive in submitting photographs to the blog, starting with the current Cornwall photographs.

This blog will, however, be the mobile blog i’ll use to post from my iPhone when out and about. One of the things I’ve had to do is define what the blog is about. What it is for? When i started it i thought i knew. I didn’t. Originally the blog was going to be purely about my b&w landscape photography, hence the title Darker Skies that refers to my landscape skies that are often dark and broody.

The blog has become more than that though. It’s a scrapbook, a mobile blog, a photo blog and a personal journal. The b&w landscapes are just part of that mix. It’s only taken me 18 months to work that out. Better late than never i suppose.

I buried my Facebook pages today. Enough is enough. I never did like the interface or the sterile look of the pages. 47 followers in six months is pathetic even by my low standards.

So here we are… Long live the blogs because the Facebook update is dead! Or is it? I have a love/hate relationship with the social networking website.  We argue, break up and then get back together again. I may return… maybe

Looking across towards St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall

An anchored yacht at Beaumaris, Anglesey in North Wales.

I love the misty mountain of Snowdonia that feature in the background of this photo. To wake up on your yacht to that view must be fantastic. I would own a yacht if i could afford one. I adore the freedom you have to move around that a yacht offers. One day maybe…

At the time of writing, I’m packing to go down to Cornwall. When this post appears on the blog, i will be boarding the train for an eight hour journey down to the South West of England. So keep an eye on this blog, the main photoblog and the other websites over the next few days for tweets, photos, audioboos, podcasts, blogposts and more.

Three people enjoying the atmosphere of a harbour. Here is the first of the Agfapan 25 i promised… oh so long ago. It was taken along the harbour front at Conwy, North Wales in 1994. Slow 25 ISO film wasn’t exactly the best choice of film for street photography, but i managed to get away with it.

Returning to harbour, Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk, UK