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99% Finished on The Book’s Front Cover

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

The good news is…….that after a few more corrections, I’ll be signing off on a beautiful front cover.  I’m very happy with it and am especially glad that I persisted on a rainy day to retake the photo that I’d suggested using for the cover.  It’s a portrait of my backpack, slung casually on a rustic wooden bench, with lovely greenery in the background.  The first shot was a hurried job taken on a sunny day with my Kodak Easy Share camera and not a whole lot of preparation or forethought.  My lightweight walking shoes and a water bottle were also posed beside the pack, suggesting that I was about to take off for places unknown.

After a few attempts, my professional designers and I settled on the colors, the border, the style of the lettering and even the words to use.  Everyone to whom I showed the resulting sample really liked the effect and our only remaining question seemed to be whether to use white or yellow letters on the title.

Then, I began to think like a photographer’s assistant.  Previously, I’ve never claimed much photographic understanding or inclination, being strictly a point and shoot sort of person.  But, as I looked at my original picture, taken in my characteristic off-the-cuff way, I began to wish that several things could be different.  The umbrella pole and base didn’t add a thing.  My shoes looked rather strange because they aren’t hiking boots, though they are comfortable and lightweight and they did walk around the world with me.  Authentic, but tired and grey-looking.  What could I do to better “telegraph” the idea of backpacking?

So, I ran to the thrift shop thinking they might have a pair of boots that I could use as props.  Imagine my wonder and delight at finding a beautiful new pair of American Eagle Outfitters hightop hiking boots in a rich brown color with red laces and red ankle lining and gorgeous thick rubber treads.   They turned out to be one size too small, but that was alright as they’re much to heavy for my present use and I’m not doing mountain walking any more.  I didn’t really need them for myself.  The best thing was the $3 price tag!  

I set up the shot again and took many pictures before I realized that the afternoon sun was too harsh.  The next morning was rainy but I kept running out whenever the sun popped from behind the clouds.  Still too bright.  I was moving plants, setting up my scene, trimming brown leaves off the ferns, and fretting over boot placement.  Nature demonstrated that wet wood is much more attractive than sun-bleached surface, so when the bench and the floor dried out too much, I got the garden hose and wet it down again.  Then, in a rush of brains to the head, I figured out that the greenery would be much prettier under a slightly overcast sky because it won’t be so blindingly lighted.  I’m sure that there is much camera wizardry around to solve all this but I’m a dodo in that department.  I was barely coming into my own as a photographer’s assistant.  Even when the photographer was me.

After three separate photo shoots, I had some pictures that I was pleased with and I sent them off to my design team, suggesting that we try the new arrangement with all of the elements that we had settled upon.  WOW!  It’s beautiful!  At least, I think so.  Haven’t had time to run it by the family and friends yet, but they’ve got to love it too, because they liked the last one which is now only a pale copy.

And so it goes.  Tomorrow I shall chronicle the achy-breaky story of the early days of the Back Cover Design and you will see that these things go through a true evolution which probably can’t be avoided.  The moral of the story is that anyone who sets foot in this whole book production world must keep their hands firmly on the wheel and be ready to drive through anything.  You must be the book’s creator every step of the way.  But, if you can figure things out as you go along, you will really have something to be proud of in the end.