My latest project and experiments
I started a project a year or so ago to capture Everyday Shadows, mostly around my home. Most of them are created using my mobile phone.
You can read a little about it in this post.
Why would you do this?
While that story is more of a helpful hints piece, this one will be more personal.
Being Inspired
Last month I was invited to join an online photography club that meets via Zoom every Friday. They typically do a short discussion about images the members submit and then they have a guest who comes on and answers interview questions.
I was a guest at their meeting about a month before. They liked me, they really liked me. So, they reached out to invite me to join. By joining I was hoping to be inspired, have my creativity woken up in some way, and of course to meet new creative-minded people is always a positive.
The first meeting I attended went well. The guest was Brooks Jensen, a photographer I had not previously been aware of.
Brooks operates the website LensWork.com. I was so inspired I paid for a year. This is big for me as I’ve sworn off all new subscriptions to all the things. I feel like we, as a society, are subscribed to death these days. I get it, but man, the outlay of cash never ends. And we forget about many of those subscriptions and are paying for something we don’t use.
Ok, sorry. <end rant>
Chapbooks
Brooks spoke about and showed us his chapbooks. What an incredible idea. So simple. Little collections of series of images that work together.
This idea stuck with me for about a week or so after the meeting. Then what felt like out of nowhere, I decided to throw one together of my own. I wanted to see what I could do, how it worked, what it would look like.
I decided to use my Everyday Shadows pieces to populate this first (yes, first) book. These are images that otherwise don’t ever make it anywhere except my Instagram stories and into a quick post on Threads.
Who knew this would make me almost giddy to create? I have not been this inspired or excited to create anything for quite some time.
The Chapbook Rabbit Hole
Once I printed the first test book, I couldn’t stop smiling. This made me so happy. I have to do more with this.
This led me to figure out how to put them together or bind them. I researched how to hand bind books and found an easy solution. My very inexpensive book-binding kit arrived the next day.
Waxed thread, needles, bone seam musher thing (yeah, technical term) and an awl was just what I needed. In under an hour, I found instructions and videos to show me how simply I could sew the binding.
During this process, I decided I needed to add another page/set of images because ideas were swirling. I stitched up my test chapbook and let it sit for a day.
What Can I Do With This?
My brain would not stop spinning with ideas. What can I do with this? When I was working on the test book I recorded a couple of spur-of-the-moment videos to ‘show the world’ what I was so excited about. They were well-received among my followers.
The ideas kept coming (and quite frankly, haven’t stopped). I put the Everyday Shadows chapbook out there for anyone who might want a copy for themselves. You never know.
Instead of putting a price on it, I allowed people to buy me a cup of tea or a glass of wine (I don’t drink coffee) through the Buy Me A Coffee site. This is the experiment. If I put it out there, will they come?
They did, more than I expected. Ten people wanted my little Everyday Shadows chapbook.
Expanding on the Chapbook Idea
Now what? Now, I’m planning on creating more. There will be a quarterly Everyday Shadows chapbook. I’ll be figuring out pricing and how to set up ordering. Buy Me a Coffee was a fun experiment but it’s not in any way a good way to have people place orders.
And there’s more! Of course, there is because my brain is off and running at full speed.
Not only will I be creating three more Everyday Shadows chapbooks for 2024, but I will also have two more themed series chapbooks. Am I crazy? Can I do this? I don’t think I can’t NOT do this. Every fiber of my being is calling me to create these.
Are You Interested in a Copy of the Everyday Shadows Chapbook?
I am not all that great about promoting my work and offering it anywhere. I know better, but I don’t like doing it.
This is it though, I’m promoting my first Everyday Shadows chapbook. If you’d like a copy, buy me a cup of tea or a glass of wine. If you do that, be sure to mention the book so I know what it’s for. I will contact you (your email address is private when you contribute) to find out where to ship your book.
Here’s the scoop and a peek at the book:
If you have any questions about any of this, the book, the process or any of it, please let me know.
Thank you for indulging me here.
