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Your thoughts on photo books


hibhaven

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<p>I am planning to create a photo book to send out to prospective clients. I've got a sample book created (horizontal: 8.5in x 11in) which is organized into sections: -Portfolio (selection of my best pics) -Cityscapes (diff pics depicting city life in various cities) -Niagara falls journey (photo story) -Pattaya beach stories (photo story) and -People. The book has 15 sheets (=30 pages) with approx 50 images. There are no captions for the images as I feel the images should speak for themselves. Before I get mass copies printed, I'd like to get your opinions regarding a few aspects of it.<br>

1) Is it a good idea to include captions or not (I know there is no clear way here, but it'd help to get your perspective)<br>

2) Any preference between horizontal layout versus magazine layout<br>

3) I plan to send copies to various travel magazine editors asking or work - Any suggestions/ tips on this are welcome</p>

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<p>This will be very expensive I think. Will the expense justify the return?</p>

<p>Would it not be more financially prudent to make initial contact with the editors you mention, a brief email and a few images, so they can quickly assess your prospects, and then if they respond favourably send either a nicely prepared PDF or a portfolio in some screen format?</p>

<p>Not to put a damper on your plan, but it might be an expensive disappointment.</p>

<p>But if you are a in posession of a great portfiolio of compelling images, have the budget for this, and are going ahead.....I'd prefer captions - I'd want to know that YOU know what you're looking at. I could tell a lot about you by the way you describe what you think you see in your images. Not overlong, but sufficient to describe the scene/content.<br>

H layout means your images will be bigger, not cropped to fit the V format, and can show more detail/quality.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your thoughts John. Yes, I think its a good idea to include captions. Its another avenue for me to tell about myself.<br>

Let me also add some background. I have just switched to full time travel photography after 12 yrs of corporate race, my last employer being Accenture consulting in India. Its been a month that I am now on my own. The photography business in India is pretty unstructured and hence I'd like to create a good first impression with prospective clients (primarily magazine editors, but can be others too).<br>

I intend to do travel photography as well as travel writing. Several images in my photo book are available for display at my website www.bhavenjani.photoshelter.net<br>

My travel blog is at www.bhavenjani.wordpress.com<br>

Any f/b on these are welcome too.</p>

 

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<p>I agree that the photobook idea might be a bit too expensive compared with the - average - expected return (which is, usually, around 10% or even less if you have not targetted it properly)...even at $25-$30 a copy (even though I suspect it will be more), you'd be talking around $500-600 just to send out 20 of them... can you afford that? Easily?</p>

<p>Also, on the subject of captions: I too agree that captions might be a good idea, but they need to be PERFECT! I had a quick look at your captions on your site and, to be brutally honest, I'm not that impressed. Photos, in order to sell, must convey, first and foremost, emotion. That emotion must be reflected in the caption and that, my friend, is no easy task. It should come as no surprise that there are people who actually make a living from creating emotion-reflective captions for images. A simple descriptive title might not always be either suitable and can even be damaging.</p>

<p>Finally, if you're looking to write about travel, you also need to up your ante quite a bit. Travel writing is, despite initial appearances, very challenging as you need to balance personal feelings and useful (and above all, accurate) information. That was not clear from your blog (which I found a bit all over the place and lacking structure).</p>

<p>I hope this helps. Good luck with whatever you choose to do...</p>

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<p>Marios, thanks for your critical feedback, very useful in knowing what I need to improve. I have decided to go ahead without captions, yes, it was extremely difficult coming up with captivating captions and hence i took the difficult decision of not having them at all rather than having weak ones.<br>

Again, Marios, it'd help to get some pointers about my blog when you say you found it a bit all over the place and lacking structure. I do want to move into travel writing over a period of time and hence any critical, specific f/b will help.<br>

thanks a ton again.</p>

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