I was super excited last week to receive my second annual photobook . This isn’t something that is for sale, it’s simply a great way for me to compile my year of photography in the landscape (if you wonder why September, the end of August is the yearly anniversary of me becoming a full time photographer) and to put together a portfolio of my landscape work from the last 12 months.
In the era of digital photography and social media, it’s so easy for an image to just become data on a forgotten file hidden on a hard drive. Or to be viewed for a fleeting moment as we share on various social media sites, becoming almost disposable and forgotten the second the viewer scrolls to the next image. For those reasons, for me, printing my images has always been a big part of my workflow. But, even then, it’s difficult to curate into a meaningful viewing experience….short of having a gallery.
And so it was that I decided a photobook would be a great solution. A great way to display my work as a collection. A place that clients could view my portfolio. A place for me to document my journey in yearly volumes. And a place for my family to browse and see what I have photographed on all those days I was off into the landscape.
The most challenging part of the process was, undoubtably, choosing which images would make it into the book. Time and emotion definitely play their part. As this was my second time of doing this, I had gained that experience from the last time. More recent images tended to have more emotional attachment, that being enough to convince me the photograph was, perhaps, better than it actually was. This time around I had been making sure to file potential contenders throughout the 12 months. Having a good starting point from which to start the cull, I chose my photobook and decided on the number of pages it should have, thus informing my decision on how many images it would hold. Then the cull began.
If you are serious about your photography and really want to learn something about your development, this is certainly a great way to do so. The sifting process began with 46 images and, after some harsh self-critique, finished with 12. I added a few of my second choice images, to help tell the story of my year, and then it was finally time to design my photobook.
Once again this year, for the task, I turned to Saal Digital and their excellent Professional Line Photobook. My previous book was their XT Line with gloss finish. This year I decided that my work would be better suited to a more matte finish and so chose the standard Professional Line with Matte paper.
One of the reasons why I had gone with Saal Digital last time around was because their software just works. It is pretty darn intuitive and gives you lots of templates to choose from, loads of options around design alongside the ability to do everything from scratch if you prefer. I wanted that complete control over the design so opted to load everything in manually. This year, I designed my Professional Line Photobook with more flow and story that the last time around, when I went purely for a chronological order. Because of the software from Saal Digital, this was a really easy process to complete and my first draft was complete within a few hours.
Another great feature in the Saal Digital design software, is the ability to proof your photobook using a PDF export. This does put watermarks all over your images (otherwise I suppose, many would just use this feature and run) but is a great way to see how your product will look and how it works in relation to telling the story you want to tell. After doing this, I changed some images around, resized one or two and was ready to order.
The ordering process was simple (and I should add, your price is always displayed as you build your book so you can see changes as you add/decrease pages) and done within the Saal Digital software.
It’s nice to be kept informed when you order anything online. And that is exactly what I found with Saal Digital. Emails were received to inform me of the order status, workflow and shipments. My invoice was promptly emailed out and a schedule of delivery followed.
Plus delivery was scheduled with an actual time slot (not one of those wait in all day and hope jobs) which was really efficient.
Only six days on from placing my order, my 2020-2021 photobook was delivered. As I opened the very well packaged book, I was excited to see the results. And, as I already expected, the quality was immediate to see.
Wonderfully bound, beautifully covered, faithfully printed, and with a lovely, almost lustre, finish over the matte paper. The Professional Line Photobook is a thing of beauty. And you can really feel where your investment has gone…..into the crafting of a beautiful book, worthy of your art.
If I had one small niggle, it would be that the paper has a slight bowing in it, perhaps suggesting that it hadn’t quite dried thoroughly before being bound. But overall it is a fantastic product.
And so as another 12 months of Landscape Photography concludes for me, it is time to look to the future. To head back out into the landscape and start all over again. To learn from what has gone and put it to work for what is now to start. Of course, you can follow that journey over on You Tube, just search ‘Let’s Click Photography’ or follow the links from the top of this page.
See you out there
Dave
A big thank you to Saal Digital for their help and assistance in producing my photobook this year. Whilst they have gone above and beyond assisting with the cost towards my book, the thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are not influenced by them whatsoever, and are an honest assessment of my experience using their products and services. #saaldigital
You can find Saal Digital by clicking here: https://www.saal-digital.com
