New B&W 'Zine...? & Updates..

[Christopher Walrath]

David, I say we have a go at it. I would like to be called upon for my expertise (such as it is). HEY I HEARD THAT . . .

 

[Christopher Walrath]

David. Since you are the visionary here, what sort of material would you like to put together for the first couple of issues? And how would you like to receive any submissions?

 

[vickersdc]

Hi Chris,

I don't recall ever being called a 'visionary' before! I (and hopefully the rest of the community) are interested in anything to do with traditional photography. I'd like it to be a fairly wide-ranging series of articles and so I'm happy to receive...

- equipment reviews (not necessarily new equipment; it might be quite interesting to revisit older cameras, lenses and so on).
- processing techniques (everything from coating glass plates to 35mm and beyond).
- beginners articles (basic darkroom stuff - processing & printing).
- how-to articles (this is a very wide arena, so whatever you think).
- feature photographs (include details of exposure, camera, lens, processing plus a few words about the image(s)).
- events / camera clubs / exhibitions (dates & details).
- anything else that you might think would be useful to the community!

You can now email the 'magazine' directly at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk or leave comments (and check up on what's going on) at http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com.

Written articles could be in most formats to be honest - I'll find a way of dragging the information out! Word (.doc) should be OK, text (.txt) and RTF (.rtf) might be easier to deal with, or Acrobat (.pdf) is also OK. Articles should be somewhere between 250 and 1000 words - a wide range I know, but it allows me to either run the article complete if it's at the 250 word end, or split it over a couple of articles if it's longer. The other option with longer articles is that I can run an edited version online and the full version on paper.

Images should be [ideally] 300dpi, JPEG and 3000 pixels along the longest side. Either send images to the email address above, or log on to Flickr and submit the images to the Creative Image Maker group.

Thanks for your interest Chris, look forward to seeing your submissions.
David.

 

[vickersdc]

I'd also be really grateful if you all would pop over to the site and leave your comments about the decisions facing us with the paper version of the magazine.

You can leave comments at http://creativeimagemaker.blogspot.com or you can email creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk and leave your thoughts there.

Cheers,
David.

 

[vickersdc]

Just a quick post to let you know that things are still moving on apace - I've hopefully secured www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk for a future dedicated website and I've applied for an ISSN (basically an ISBN for magazines).

Cheers,
David.

 

[vickersdc]

What an amazing week it's been! I figured you might be interested in an update on what we have achieved in one week. The site itself has been visited over 750 times with over 1,200 page impressions. I'm sure they're not all my wife, so someone out there has been looking. Thanks to both of you ;-)

Last Friday it all kicked off and this site was started with a grand plan to start a magazine catering for the traditionalist photographic community. The first posts started and people started to get interested; the RSS newsfeed was set up and people have been subscribing to that.

Since then, we have had several offers of articles - thanks to Scott, John, Cheryl, Drew and others. Thanks too, to Rodrigo for his offer of help.

You can currently contact me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk, but that's due to change now that the www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk web address has been secured. This means that I can now setup a dedicated web site and thanks to 'Mark', who through his generous donation has allowed me to get the web hosting we need to see this through. That's Xmas taken care of ;-)

This does mean however, that the first article, due to go online on the 15th January may well appear on the 'proper' site, and I'll be working hard to realise that goal. It would be nice to get it right from the start, rather than have to move everything over later on.

As noted on a previous post, we've also got an ISSN for the magazine, which we can use for the PDF and paper copy, and I'm still looking to distribute through Lulu.com to ensure the widest possible coverage. In fact, I've already started to piece together the magazine, working on styles, fonts, layout and so on.

That just leaves me to say a final 'thank you' to everyone, whether you've just popped along to the site to see what it's about, or you're making a contribution. Remember, this is all about providing the community with a means to see what's going on, who's doing what and hopefully teach each other various techniques along the way.

David Vickers.

 

[Ian Grant]

Not wishing to dampen your enthusiasm but a few questions need asking.

How do you see this new venture fitting into the market place. Does it compliment or compete with B&W photography (UK) which many APUG members subscribe to.

Secondly by being B&W and analog your restricting potential readership, there is a need for a magazine which encompasses traditional processies both colour & black& white, which unfortunately B&W Photography doesn't.

Thirdly don't equate the no of website hits too closely with potential readership. Remember only a few readers of Magazines like B&W Photography, View Camera, Lenswork etc are regular posters/readers or subscribers of APUG, or the Large Format Forum.

Personally I'll read a new free online B&W magazine but it's unlikely I'd pay for a hardcopy.

Ian

 

[vickersdc]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the comments / questions - I'll see if I can answer them...

Do I see it as competition to the already well established photo-magazines? In a word... no. This only came about because some people were concerned that digital equipment and software how-to's were beginning to creep in to various publications (UK B&W magazine was one, but most photo magazines available on the shelves have understandably gone this way). I just wanted to create something that didn't have to appease shareholders / make mega-bucks / be swayed by advertising. I don't need to reach circulation levels of 10,000+ and yet using the internet I can still create something that fulfills a niche market. The hard copy version was as a result of people suggesting that they prefer to sit down with a paper copy, rather than view articles on the screen. The only realistic method for distributing a paper magazine across Europe and America is to use sites such as Lulu. This was, and is, all about creating something for the traditional photography community.

Am I restricting potential readership? Hopefully not! Funny you should mention about colour - you're not the first and I have to say that whilst it was initially about B&W, it's really about traditional processes. Personally, I have no problem at all running with some colour articles as well.

Number of hits? I don't equate this with readership, this is an exciting project and people are interested in it judging by the mail I receive. I'm just really amazed at the number of hits received in the first week, considering that at 6pm last Friday there was nothing and I had no idea I was going to being doing this!

This is really an online resource for the community, with the option of a paper copy for those that want it. It'll be led by the community, with articles written from within the community and it's for the community. So whether you deal with daguerrotypes, cyanotypes, C-41, E-6 or something else, it's included. Just not digital capture.

I hope you stop by the site when it's up and running properly and let me have your feedback. Sure I hope that you find it interesting enough to buy a paper version, but whether you do or not, I hope you'll get involved - that means comments, ideas, or images and articles.

Thanks,
David.

 

[Ian Grant]

Thanks David, those are good comments.

I asked the colour question because although I'm now almost 100% B&W for all my personal work I do like to see colour work. Commercially 99% of my work is colour.

Ian

 

[vickersdc]

Ian,

Thanks. I won't deny that the project has to be self-financing one way or another, and I really don't have any money to throw at it - but I do have enthusiasm, a whole host of ideas and (hopefully) the skills to make it all a reality.

I've been so fortunate with 'Mark' making a donation that meant I could afford to get the web hosting sorted and that has effectively moved that milestone forward by quite some way.

I can't offer contributors cash for articles / images (as much as I would like to) but I can offer them a voice, let them share something back to the community - and that's what this is about for me. I've been in to my photography seriously for around 17 years now and it's only just hit me that based on all the skills I have learnt - photographic, business, marketing, computers and so on - that I could use these in a positive way to give back to something that I've enjoyed over the years.

If we were to make a profit from the magazines, then it'll be ploughed straight back in to the project.

In the same way that I'm not anti-colour (and I know you didn't suggest that for a moment), I'm also not anti-digital. I use digital a lot - it has it's advantages and disadvantages (and I don't want to start a lengthy debate on that!). This resource is for the traditional skills, and I really hope that you'll see fit one day to send in a colour image or two for inclusion on the site / in the magazine.

David.

 

[Dan Henderson]

I guess that I'm going to take a different tack from Ian. I'm interested in a magazine (print and/or web) that concentrates on traditional, black and white photography. I was so thrilled when I discovered Black and White magazine several years ago, and am sad to see its inevitable transition to digital. I was similarly excited by the launch of Emulsion magazine and sad to see it die a premature death. So, with so slight meant toward photographers who shoot in color, for me, less (color) is more!

BTW, you've done a remarkable job getting your project to this point. I hope the rest of us support you with articles, photographs, etc. I have an idea for an article in mind that I'll be working on after the holidays.

Regards,
Dan

 

[vickersdc]

BTW, you've done a remarkable job getting your project to this point. I hope the rest of us support you with articles, photographs, etc. I have an idea for an article in mind that I'll be working on after the holidays.

Regards,
Dan

Dan, looking forward to seeing the article!

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Yeah, imagine my shock and awe to pick up the latest B&W UK now that Ailsa is gone and they have a digital product comparison on p66 like you would find in POP Photog, one page in front of Les McLean's Darkroom article (oh, the irony.) I didn't see B&W so blatantly jumping off the edge like that. I know they had a lot of digital info before but it's like they hired George Lepp or something.

 

[vickersdc]

Help Needed...

So, the dates have been set - the first article will appear on the 15th January and the Creative Image Maker website will go live a couple of days before, on the 13th.

Before that however, it might be a good idea to get a couple of people to test the site. Would any of you be interested? This testing won't need to be done until around the end of the first week in January, and it'd be useful to check the site out, make sure various links work and that the layout works with your internet browser.

I'm thinking that if we can get 4-5 people running PC's, Mac's with assorted browsers then it'll give me some chance of ironing out any problems before the 13th.

Hope you help - either send me a PM via this site, or email me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk

Cheers,
David.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Count on me, David.

 

[vickersdc]

Just thought you might be interested in a new competition that will start when the website goes live on January 13th 2008.

It's been inspired by a comment made by a contributor (Christopher Walrath) who has written a couple of articles for the magazine, and it's one of those articles that brought about the idea for a competition.

You'll have to wait until the new website hits the 'net for more details, but although there's no actual prize (other than the self satisfaction of being pronounced the winner - you will have your winning entry included in the paper version of the magazine in April)!

So, for more details look to www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk on the 13th January.

Cheers,
David Vickers.

 

[Snapshot]

I'm looking forward to this release. Thanks for the effort!

 

[vickersdc]

To go with the nice shiny new website that's planned, I figured it made sense to have a proper email address - one that ended in creativeimagemaker.co.uk. An email was duly setup and that's where the problems started!

Personally, I'm not too bothered about using the current Yahoo email address - it seems to work fine and there's a couple of other advantages to me in using it. However, I guess that it doesn't look too 'professional' and I can see the advantages in having a 'proper' email address.

Anyhow, I've setup an email address which is info at creativeimagemaker.co.uk which seems to work OK from some email addresses - although, it now appears that emails originating from Yahoo, gmail, hotmail and BT may not be being received by me.

So - can you (and I know this could open the flood gates!) send me a quick email from your accounts so that I can check this properly. I've tried from my Yahoo account (did not work) and from a Vodafone account (did work). If you can make the subject line "Testing Times", then I can easily seperate these test messages out from any others. Remember, email: info at creativeimagemaker.co.uk if you can.

I will reply to each one, so if you don't receive a reply from me within a couple of days it'll mean that I didn't receive it.

Apart from this hiccup, the website build continues on apace, with the various sections coming together nicely. Something tells me that January 13th might come round sooner than I expect!

Happy New Year to one and all.
David Vickers.

 

[vickersdc]

To go along with the new website, there's a new email address (which is active now) if you would like to contact this project. The email address info@creativeimagemaker.co.uk can be used to submit comments, ideas, thoughts, articles and images.

Speaking of images, the first Feature Image has been selected for the website and there's a photo gallery that will need some more images in it too. I'll be looking through the Flickr 'Creative Image Maker' group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/555449@N25/ to select some for the website. Take a look at the group pool of photos if you get a chance - there's some great images.

The first article has also been chosen, but I'm not giving away any more as there needs to be something of a surprise for when it all goes live on the 13th Jan.

Thanks,
David.

 

[vickersdc]

So Near, So Far.

It's just a couple of days until we go live and I can't wait! There's been a couple of set-backs, but we'll deal with those in a moment.

The site is just about ready - a couple of finishing touches which I'll do Sunday morning, before publishing the site. I'm looking forward to getting it live, as I'd like to spend some time with my wife and daughter!

Now, about those setbacks. One contributor, John Cowie, was going to write an article but is due in hospital thanks to a bad leg. I'm sure you'll wish John a speedy recovery - then he can use that rest and recuperation time to write that article ;-)

The article that I was hoping to lead with has had to be put back one week to give out writer a chance to complete it! I can't wait for this one, and he was always up against it to produce the article against a pretty tight deadline. Not too worry, as it just so happens that I've a couple of spare articles knocking around that have been sent in!

I'd just like to say a huge "Thank You!" to those who have sent in their writings and images, as well as to those who have pledged articles.

Now for the one big setback...

Despite that fact that we haven't actually gone live yet, I'm busy writing a new website. It turns out that the web hosting package that I purchased (that clearly advertised an 'unlimited' number of pages) only had a very limited number of pages - 66 maximum. Whilst that might sound like a lot - it was arranged as 6 top level pages, each with 10 sub-level pages. That's it - no sub-sub-level pages, and no more than 10 pages per top level page.

Considering the number of articles that I'm hoping we can produce throughout the year, we're not going to get too far with that restriction.

So, I've had to start back from scratch, loading up an web-server and Perl language scripts on my laptop. I've had to dust off a few brain-cells from my days as a Systems Administrator working on UNIX systems to create the new site!

So, don't get too comfy with the version 1.0 of the Creative Image Maker site! I reckon we'll be renting that space for about a month whilst I write version 2.0, then we'll switch over.

Anyway, until then, enjoy Dead Link Removed when it goes live on the 13th January (when we'll also launch the competition). The first article will be on the 15th.

Thanks to all those who have helped with advice, work, comments, pictures and to all those who have joined the Creative Image Maker group on Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/groups/555449@N25/ ).

David Vickers.

 

[Snapshot]

Good work David. I can't wait to see the site.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Nice headlight, Snapshot. I haven't seen that one before. Get well soon, John. Can't wait, David. Let the Pulitzers now begin.

 

[vickersdc]

We're Live!

I've just pressed the 'Publish Site' button, so I guess that means we're now live at Dead Link Removed.

You might find that there's a slight delay before you actually see the site - don't worry; because of the way the internet works, the changes need to be propagated throughout the web (for those in the know, the Domain Name Servers need to be updated and could take up to 24 hours).

Cheers,
David.

 

[Ian Grant]

No David, the sites not live yet.

Ian

 

[pesphoto]

It's just a wrong link.

Here it is:
Dead Link Removed

I like it! Nice job, keep it going.