SoFoBoMo Book 2, Neon, but first the internal editor and book one....

But .... must focus ... finish book 1.

And, it's not going well, so book 2 may not be in the cards for the fuzzy month. Right now I'm stuck in a space where my internal editor is yelling at me. Nothing I'm shooting seems to be good enough for her. The main complaints seem to center around:

• Technical issues (blown highs, blocked lows, depth of field ...)
• Matters of style and being consistently wishy washy about which style is right for the project
  
• And qualifications, "You're not qualified to do this, you are not a photographer! You don't have an MFA!" she says.

I go through this a lot with music, and have had many recording sessions that sit on the shelf for many of the same reasons.

I just have to remember....
"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me."

Selecting a subject

(Photo: Rambling Jack Elliot, last night, my band opened for him... P.S. he hates having his picture taken while he's playing, and told me so right after this snap)

The book "On being a photographer" by Bill Jay and David Hurn has some great info on this issue ... (From memory here, I loaned the book out)

List the subjects you are interested in
1. Rank them in terms of how passionate you are about them
2. Rank them in terms of how "interesting" they are to your target audience
3. Rank them in terms of how accessible they are (Can you get to them often and easily)
4. Rank them in terms of how photogenic they are
5. Rank them in terms of how knowledgeable you are about them, how much can you say as an expert

At some point in the process the choice will become clear ...

"On being a photographer" is a great photography book ... it contains no pictures.... :)

This has nothing to do with how I selected my subject... I had a business meeting at Stanford and took a walk afterwards with my camera and ran into the Rodin installation.

It's amazing art that photographs well, but is still challenging to work with as it is black(ish) and the surface is shiny so you are mainly working with specular highlights, also because of the dark material managing exposure and dynamic range are tricky .... I digress ....

I decided that I wanted to learn more about Rodin, so it's my mission for SoFoBoMo to learn more about Rodin , then try and express what I learn thru photography.

That being said ... I think I want to try and do 2 books ... because I want a Butzi print and cant afford his normal prices!

I may implement the Jay/Hurn method to select book two, after I finish Book one.