Seeing Everything

OK, OK, I admit it. I severely underestimated the amount of work needed putting together the Norfolk project book. This week i added more images to the gallery for the project on my website, and it suddenly dawned on me the task that lay ahead. It’s pretty damn big.

I want to do a good job on this book. No, actually i want to do a fantastic job on this book, and it seems only right for me to take my time doing it. I have hundreds of images to go through, and i have to choose a total of 100 for the book. I can’t really do that without having some idea of what i’ve actually got. The images i’ve shown so far are just a fraction of what i shot. I haven’t really gone through the work in detail, apart from the occasional quick scan through the negatives and digital image files. I really need to collate all the work. I thought i could do it all in 3 months. Ha!

With that in mind,  i’ve decided to delay the release of the Norfolk project book until early 2013. It will give me this year to thoroughly go through the work and see everything, every last bit of the project. It seems pointless to rush the book, and I already have a book planned for later this year with images of Scotland, so i will produce a book in 2012.

I’m looking forward to exploring and producing images in an area of the UK i’ve never been to before. Scotland looks fabulous. I’ve already started using the impressive power of Google Earth to help me spot the best shooting viewpoints, check out the surrounding area and plan what images i want to take.

Photographer Profiles

The photographer profile page has finally been completed. All of the links to my profile posts from richflintphoto.blogspot.com have been gathered together to create one handy reference page. I was pleasantly surprised at how many profile posts i’ve done – Robert Capa, Larry Burrows, Robert Doisneau, Peter Korniss, Edward S Curtis, Tony Ray Jones Margaret Bourke-White, and Martin Parr, to name just a few!

Another three  photographer profile posts are due to be added to the website over the coming months.

To check out the photographer profile page click HERE

Retrospective Book

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.

Rest in peace

Is the dedicated bench, commemorating a life, purely a British thing? Do other countries do it? I assume they do.

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!

Book: Sea, Sky, Sand and Street

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

On the Rocks

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. :)

Two Shakes

Remember the conversation Agent Smith has with Morpheus in The Matrix? The Virus speech. I have to admit that he had a good point even if he was a psychotic computer program who enjoyed his job far too much. We humans can be really disrespectful to our surroundings and other humans.

Nothing like a walk down by the river especially if you have a good drink with you. Maybe it was a first date or a walk back home after a night on the town. Whoever it was, they left their calling card. Two shakes left on a step… for someone else to tidy.