My First Book

On the Street: India

For those of you who like my black and white street photographs, I have a book that you might be interested in. It’s my first book that’s available for sale.

The book takes you on a journey through India, the way I experience it. It’s told through gritty black and white street photographs. Starting at the the Bangalore Airport, you see the wonders of my first crazy car ride, my self exploration around everyday neighborhoods, and to a giant bustling marketplace. The book shows everyday scenes from Bangalore, as I saw them throughout the workweek, and a weekend ride though the countryside to the historic city of Mysore.

It’s a whirlwind trip told through one hundred twenty-three photographs spread across one hundred sixty-eight pages. Ninety-six photos have yet to be shown on the blog. Every photo has been re-processed and enhanced with more grain. Previously shown color photos have transformed into monochromes, with dramatic effect. The gritty photos works well with the uncoated matt paper in the trade book format. You can read about how I came up with the optimized design in yesterday’s post.

It comes in two flavors. A physical paperback book and a digital e-book.

Physical Paperback Book — It’s hard to beat the tactile, physical nature of a printed book. No batteries, no on and off switch. A classic technology that’s been around for over 500 years. The book measures 6 inches by 9 inches and a 1/2 inch thick (15.2mm x 22.8cm x 1.27cm). It weighs only 11 oz (312g). It’s an unfussy paperback that you can bring anywhere. In fact with use, a few bends and creases may add a patina that improves it even more.

Click here to preview the physical book

Digital e-book — We live in the era of powerful take anywhere computers with high-resolution screens. The digital e-book is formatted like the physical book but can be displayed on your screens. It comes in two formats .epub and .mobi, which should support iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC and Android. I’ve tested it on the Mac, iPad and iPhone and it works great. I have not tested the other format. It works best on devices that can be rotated, like the iPad or iPhone, since the book has pictures in both vertical and horizontal orientations.

Click here to preview the digital ebook

A Free Bonus

Regardless of the version you buy, there’s a link to a special online gallery that displays all the photos in a higher than normal resolution. All one hundred and twenty-three pictures in the book are there, of course. But, there are forty-two extra photos that I originally considered for the book, but didn’t make it in because of space constraints. There’s even a slideshow that plays through all the photos.

If you get the physical book, you get the best of both worlds. A physical printed copy and the photos viewable in digital format, without any of the cropping which occurs when pictures are laid out in a book.

Friends and photographers that have seen the book have been complimentary. I’ve even sold a few copies and several more are waiting for this link. Most of all, making the book has been a creative endeavor that I enjoyed. I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

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11 thoughts on “My First Book

    1. Thank you, Michael. I don’t think it will be a big seller. But, I enjoyed making it and looking at it. If anyone else is interested, they can get it too.

  1. Well done! I like the design work. Too many people “economize” by leaving out the frontmatter, which makes their book feel amateurish and unfinished, and most other people use too many fonts.

    Err, good photos too, I think (sorry, I’m a book nerd at least as much as a photography nerd 😉

    1. Thank you, Andrew. I’m new to book making but I do enjoy different aspects of design. It was fun designing and laying out the book.

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