SoFoBoMo '09 bloggers:

The following SoFoBoMio '09 participants have blogs, click to visit their site:

SoFoBoMo blog posts

Many SoFoBoMo participants have blogs (the full list is to the right). Below are some of the most recent blog posts.

2008-04-30 06:44:16

By Robert Hoehne on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:38:54 CST

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What to do...

By Karen Oldfield on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:58:00 CST

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SoFoBoMo is coming up again - this time the "fuzzy month" occurs within the time-frame of June 1 to July 31. I'll have to start thinking about what I might do for it this time. I haven't a clue what to settle on. Being in a bit of a photography slump right now, I suppose I shouldn't worry too much that I don't have ideas yet. But I think I should nail something down by the end of April.

Harvey Benge on editting

By Martin Doonan on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:34:00 CST

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From a few days ago come these words of wisdom from Harvey Benge on editting for a photobook. Worth reading, especially with SoFoBoMo 2010 (Solo Photo Book Month) on the way.

2008-04-26 07:56:10

By Robert Hoehne on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:37:30 CST

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2008-04-26 07:45:58

By Robert Hoehne on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:37:20 CST

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Links

By Steven Scherbinski on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:09:00 CST

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I haven't done a links post in a while, and they are piling up.

The Oscar for best short film went to "Logorama". If you haven't seen it yet, it's a hoot as well as a commentary on advertising. See it soon before it disappears to appear someplace else. Warning it's got profanity, violence and even worse logos....

Some amazing photos of wildlife drinking out of a watering hole in Africa. While they are amazing, I would think the photographer could have done something so he didn't come down with all these weird diseases while immersing himself in the water.

Worldwide Pinhole Day is April 25th. Pinhole cameras are easy to build and use. Try one out, you'll like it.

SoFoBoMo 2010 has been announced. SoFoBoMo being the Solo Photo Book Month. Shoot a project and produce a pdf book in a 30 day period. Being held in June and July of this year, the rules have not changed.

Cheap ultralight light stands made out of tent poles and rope. There is an earlier video that shows them being used.

A free monitor calibration tool. It's cheap, but a hardware device will do a much better job.

The dangers of trying to do Wedding photography with cheap equipment and a snide attitude. As a side note, why do people go on these shows?

A type of pinhole photography, long exposure solargraphy.

A DIY Bounce Card out of cardboard.

Get your cameras ready

By Gordon on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:43:00 CST

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SoFoBoMo'10 is coming soon. The fuzzy window will run from June 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010. The rules will be unchanged from previous years. More details and the new web site to come.

2008-04-26 07:41:19

By Robert Hoehne on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:59:45 CST

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SoFoBoMo 2010

By Paul Butzi on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:47:31 CST

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I’ve gotten a large number of emails and comments recently, asking about SoFoBoMo 2010. Here’s an update. First, SoFoBoMo 2010 will definitely happen. The fuzzy window will run from June 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010. The rules will be unchanged from previous years. Things that have been done since last year: We’ve set up a non-profit corporation, the [...]

2008-04-26 07:25:03

By Robert Hoehne on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:58:30 CST

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SoFoBoMo 2010

By Gregory Roberts on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:43:18 CST

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I was just thinking that SoFoBoMo 2010 should be coming up shortly, so I did a quick search on Google and found that this year the fuzzy month occurs from June 1st to July 31st. Last year it was May/June, and next year it will be July/August. http://photomusings.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/the-future-of-sofobomo/ I like the idea of a slow progression [...]

2008-04-16 07:51:58

By Robert Hoehne on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:57:22 CST

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2008-04-16 07:46:17

By Robert Hoehne on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:54:36 CST

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2008-04-16 07:34:28

By Robert Hoehne on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:52:57 CST

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2008-04-16 07:29:44

By Robert Hoehne on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:12:27 CST

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2008-04-16 07:23:49

By Robert Hoehne on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:11:14 CST

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2008-04-16 07:22:59

By Robert Hoehne on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:09:16 CST

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2008-04-16 07:06:04

By Robert Hoehne on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:09:07 CST

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2008-05-10 07:22:06

By Robert Hoehne on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:44:15 CST

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2008-05-10 07:24:21

By Robert Hoehne on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:42:56 CST

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2008-05-10 07:27:18

By Robert Hoehne on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:39:57 CST

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2008-08-26 07:25:59

By Robert Hoehne on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:39:52 CST

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All about books

By Martin Doonan on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:26:00 CST

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For those of you who are into the whole photobook thing, as I am, or have been contemplating putting one together, there comes this from the excellent Idiotic Hat. If you've been contemplating the notion of what a book is, go read that post.

Out

By Steven Scherbinski on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:50:00 CST

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Mike and I made it out with the cameras Saturday. The plan was to hit the Allegan area to photograph. I knew of an old power turbine by the river, right near the downtown dam and old steel framed bridge. We wandered near that area for a bit and then hit the fairgrounds. There were some old city buildings that had been moved onto the fairgrounds as well as all the animal pens and buildings for the annual fair. We got a few photos apiece, but I was mainly interested in what the grounds looked like. I'm planning my annual Solo Photo Book Month Project (sofobomo) around the fair grounds of West Michigan. Since the project doesn't actually start until June this year, I have plenty of time to plan.

We wandered through a few of the smaller towns on our way home, and came across this abandoned house. Broken windows, the doors open to the winds and snow. We stopped of course. While I was inside photographing, I started thinking of the people who used to live there. Whether they ever expected their house to look like this when they first moved in. The upstairs had an interesting wallpaper, and one of the bedrooms was painted a bright blue. I admit I like photographing urban decay, but I wonder what it takes for someone to walk away from a place like this.

Urban Creatures

By Fi of WhereFishSing.com on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:26:00 CST

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The potential that people busy past every day. These are maybe what could be seen if people slowed down. Take a breath, focus on a point, attune, relax. These are what I find in the patterns around me.

And so to begin:

10 Great Photography Projects - SoFoBoMo 2010

By nielsp on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:32:00 CST

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Difficulty Level: Hard, not technically but in all the things that need to be done in a short period of time

SoFoBoMo 2010

This year SoFoBoMo it is set to start any time during the month of June and then to be completed within 31 days. The eBook (PDF) must include a minimum of 35 of your images that are only taken during this time period. Text is optional but for me this really anchors the story and theme all together into one unit.

SoFoBoMo Official site is: http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/l Web site http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/

The picture included here are from my 2 SoFoBoMo Books

The Solo Ph(F)oto Book Month (SoFoBoMo) is, in my opinion, one of the best projects that a photographer can undertake and with the full knowledge that it will lead to stellar learning opportunity and enrichment in having the finished book. It will make you think differently about photographs both individually and as a collection.

I have participated in this project for the first 2 years and will again for the 3rd year. The idea behind this was started by Paul Butzi ( (Musings on Photography ) but its success has been because the many photographers over the years who have not only finished their book but more importantly blogged about the their experience. What a great way to learn from so many talented photographers.

Do take the time to review Paul B articles under SoFoBoMo.

There was even a discussion group created by Hugh Allison
You can find it at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sofobomo/

A Photo Tells a Story

If a photo is worth a thousand words, then a collection of ten (10) images is a short story and 35 images must be a full novel.

That’s why this project is hard. It’s like creating a full novel and then there are only 31 days to complete it in.

The first year, which was also the launch of SoFoBoMo, was hard for me mainly as I didn’t really know what I was doing and there wasn’t a lot of experience in the online world to seek help from.

But once through a round of producing an eBook, it now became easier. Even during my second book I had to change themes part way through and I still managed to produce a reasonable photo book.

For a project to be successful, having the work planned out in advance helps you understand the full end-to-end effort and gives you that comfort-level of being able to adapt should that inevitable constant ‘Change’ show up.

Remember that any planning work and getting equipment and tools together is not part of the 31-day window. Take your time to get it all right now, as this will help you out later on.

I find it’s best to have a back-up theme, while probably not as good as your first choice, it will allow you to complete the book should something unforeseen happen with the first idea. Completing the book is more important than how super your images are.

Once you have your theme and locations selected I find there is 4 distinct phases that breakdown nicely to 1 week each in duration during the go-live event.

Acquire images – Week 1

If a lot of planning has gone into this section it goes from being the toughest section, to if lucky, one of pure enjoyment.

Take a lot more photos than you plan or even think you will need. It just pays to have extra. Before you are finished from a specific shoot, turn-around and look for more. Unless you are good at photo books, ‘More’ is the name of the game.

Processing – Week 2

There are a lot of images to go through and this week is for cataloging and rating each image on its own quality. Look over the better images several times but don’t try and layout the book just yet. Just focus on images that you like.

This part doesn’t actually take a week but with good planning and knowing the first section is critical we now have a few days to re-photograph some scenes because either we didn’t get them right or we want some other sets.

Selecting and arranging Week 3

The really hard part is over and we can enjoy the process of selecting the Best set of images to layout in a photo book. The original theme may change at this point, most likely not a whole lot anyway. The theme was a guidance tool to narrow down the field of images to photographs. It’s a discovery process and you are never quite sure where they lead. Therefore, staying flexible on ideas makes it easier and more enjoyable.

Tip:

If you have access to programs that can create slide show programs then create a new set every time you are thinking about the order and pairing of photos that create the storyline. When you start out thinking about time-lining the photos start with small sets that capture the basic essence of the book, a bit like chapter headings

Too many at once can make it seem more like work. I like to start small and then add adjectives (photos) around the theme. Make what you are doing play, not work, and be willing to accept whatever unfolds.

Depending on the length of textual information in your book, start taking notes on ideas for captions and other descriptions of sets of photos.

Publishing the Book Week 4 and Finally Done

There is a lot of Publishing Software available free or use your word-processing software.

If it doesn’t export as a PDF file, I use PrimoPDF (free) to create PDF files.

Two Free versions of publishing software I have tried:

Open Office, which I’ve used for both books and is my preferred software as it allow 0” margins for when you wish a different coloured background and it also exports in PDF.

Tip: when inserting images anchor the image to page to keep in same location. If anchored to paragraph I found these image will move around when I make changes to the text.

Scribus, which is more professional, but I found I had to have the image sized exactly for each change, as image wasn’t adjustable. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

Then upload and take a look at all the other eBooks.

Planning tips:
Get weather forecasts for the upcoming week. Depending on whether you need sun or clouds or both, plan each day based on the anticipated weather. While we all like to complain about the weather, forecasters never get it right. It does help to understand that if you look, and with the changes over the week this remains mostly accurate. Then only slight delays or early arrival for each change in weather.

I Have read most of the entries form last year.

I hope to see some of your eBooks this year.

Niels Henriksen

How to Create a Photo Book Part 4

By rvewong.wordpress.com on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:36:40 CST

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So I completed the project of making a photobook in a month – SoFoBoMo 09 and I enjoyed it that much that I am looking forward to participating in SoFoBoMo 10. I used Adobe Indesign for creating the photobook last year, but this year I want to do it a little differently and use an online [...]

If you enjoyed this post then you may like to read more at my blog

How to Create a Photo Book Part 4

2010 Will Be a Summer Book

By Margaret Abbott on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:10:50 CST

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Cruising for the date of 2010’s photo book, I found it here. It will be a hot-weather event here in Arizona, unlike last year. This has a genuine bearing on topic, so either it will involve heat in some way or maybe the escape from heat, or maybe just not involve the outdoors as intimately [...]