One
One is a SoFoBoMo warm-up book. I wanted to severely constrain myself and produce a work based on the number one. I’d appreciate any feedback that you’d be willing to give. The size is about 2 MB, so if you are using dial-up, you might not want to do this. 
I’ll work on getting an html version.
My point was to try to see how easy, or perhaps difficult, it would be to put a quick project together with my current tools. I cannot afford Adobe InDesign, or even Adobe Acrobat, for that matter. Well, I could probably afford it, but didn’t want to come off of $600+ at this time.
So, using Scribus, Lightroom, my camera, and one hour of my time to shoot, an additional hour to make edits and put the book together, I came up with what you see here. Actually, it took more like 45 minutes to shoot, 1 hour to edit and export, and about 30 minutes to put the book together. What a journey that was.
The part that took the longest was discovering that somehow I had switched my export settings in Lightoom from 72 pixels/inch to 72 pixels/centimeter! I was wondering why all of my pictures were way too large!
What I learned:
- Wow! An hour goes quickly, especially when editing and trying to think of something to say!
- I need more time to think about picture titles, so I skipped them.
- I like Scribus. It’s very powerful and, once you get used to it, rather easy to use.
- I need to think a bit more about the format of the book. I like 8×8, but need to think more of how to fit the pictures in the book.
- Shooting from the hip, so to speak, is fun. Turn the brain off, find a nice spot, and react to life.
I shot exactly 100 pictures. From those, I picked the ones that I liked best, or that spoke to me within the time constraint. There are 12 pictures in the book.
Wow! Bravo! What an inspiring project and, for a bonus, some really beautiful shots. This is an impressive collection of terrific ideas. I knew from the beginning that the best part of involving myself in this challenge would be learning from the talented and generous people participating. Thank you, thank you for posting this along with all the helpful details.
So, you see, Anita, you may only need a few hours, not the entire 30 days!
Great idea and great to see how it came through.
I love the concept and how you approached it. And of course I like the abstract way of showing nature. It are beautiful pictures. Love’m. Your front-picture is striking.
What I liked less was the way pictures were put in the book. I mean where they were put on the page, their size, border, etc. But this is a point you mentioned yourself.
Andre, you’ll get no argument out of me about the placement. I still have a few things to decide on, like the final size, full-bleed pictures, or borders, mix of color & B&W, etc.
What you have achieved here, especially considering the time limitations you have set yourself, is quite simply, stunning.
well done and what a great idea.
Paul, I had already taken this post quite personally. It seemed precisely tailored to address my time concerns. Thanks a million for shining a light down the path.
your photos are amazing!! well done!!
“Andre, you’ll get no argument out of me about the placement. I still have a few things to decide on, like the final size, full-bleed pictures, or borders, mix of color & B&W, etc.”
I am looking forward to see the final result
Andre: You know, I’m tempted to tweak “One” a bit, but that would destroy the whole purpose of it. I guess that I can make a copy of it, call it something else, and make the layout, colors, text, etc. the way that I want. Maybe when I have some free time, I’ll do that and post the final result. SoFoBoMo starts in a couple of days!
What a great way to warm up! Just downloaded it and enjoyed working through it Paul. First pass impressions – love the form colors and movements in the shots you chose. Second pass impression – not quite sure I understand the ordering/bleeds etc, but as a test vehicle for Scribus capabilties – makes sense. After your SoFoBoMo project, I hope you come back to it and create a derivative — 1′ (1 prime?)
Great exercise Paul. I like the collection of shots you put together. I have often wondered if InDesign is a worthwhile investment if I should ever try to do something like this. I have wanted to explore e-books for quite some time now, just haven’t put the time into it.
How great is that!? I have been fretting about how I will do this book in a month when I have such limited time, but you have reinvigorated my enthusiasm. I like the concept and the execution.
Nice going Paul! And great iamges.
I’ve too been wondering what software or which POD service I’d use for the “book”… and had tested out exporting JPGs from PSCS3 to a PDF directly. Is is easy and worked great. A link to the PDF is at:
http://newber.com/anil/journal/2008/02/23/sofobomo-p-o-d-options-narrowed-down/ if anyone wish to take a look-see.
Paul, this is indeed a wonderful example and inspiration what can be accomplished when one is willing to accept limitations and work within chosen constraints (I am usually not willing…)
You present a wonderful body of work here. What I learned from this project up to now is that added value of a completed work instead of pure shooting can be multiplying the pictures’ value.