How to Create a Photo Book Part 1

As you may have read in a previous post I am participating in SoFoBoMo 09, which means I have to create a solo Photo Book between the beginning of May and the end of June 09. I’ve never produced a Photo Book before and I’m learning a lot, so I thought it would be helpful if I wrote about the processes that I’m going through to create this ebook, and here they are:

What is a Photo Book?

As it’s name suggests it is a book containing mainly photographs with little or no text. Whether you’re putting together a book of holiday snaps, a wedding album, a collection for a client or simply displaying your best work to use as a portfolio anyone can, and should create a Photo Book. Why not! after all they look great, they’re easy and fun to produce and view, and can be made for free.

Choosing a Subject

The first step is obviously to pick a subject or theme for my Photo Book. In this case I have decided to make my Photo Book about food, mainly because I am a fan of food photography after discovering it’s lure recently. But also because I want to celebrate simple and healthy grown food and produce. It’s great to get out and buy food from the source, rather than going to a supermarket all the time and buying more mass produced food. You can taste the difference…

Planning the ‘Story’

Like any other book my Photo Book needs to tell a story. Just because I’m not using a ton of words to explain my message it doesn’t mean I can’t tell a story. Photographs are brilliant for doing this. So I am planning to shoot differnet types of food, but I want to group them together to tell a story or to follow a process, for example vegatables or fruit. Also I want these mini stories to follow on from each other or at least have some kind of link, to pull together the individual mini storiaes to give an overall picture (or story) as well.

Taking the Photos

Finally for this part of the process I need to create the images to go into the Photo Book, I need at least 35 as set out in the rules for SoFoBoMo. I am taking some of the photographs at home using my own setup and doing my own food styling. But I also wanted to get out and shoot fresh produce in situ. I thought an organic farm would be a great place to do this, and I knew of a farm close to home that would fit the bill nicely.

Church Farm Organics in Thurstaston is a great place to buy fresh organic food and I popped into their farm shop last week. After doing a bit of shopping (well I couldn’t resist), I asked if it was alright for me to take some photographs for my ebook. This was the very first time I had ever done anything like this, so I was wondering what they would say. But I thought the worse case scenario is they would say no, and I’d be back to square one. But they were lovely and said yes, they also thanked me for asking. As some people have popped in to take photographs without asking and admitted (when asked) that they were taking them to steal ideas!

When asked I just explained I was making a Photo Book about food. While walking around I was aware of the other customers while shooting, as I didn’t want to get in their way, or upset Church Farm. When finished I thanked them for letting me shoot, I also said I will credit them in the book, and send them a copy via email so they can see where their images ended up.

Mandy