Quiet Light Publishing Blog – Page 16 – Richard Mack on Publishing, Photography & Fine Art Printing

April 14, 2008

A Sad Day for Publishing

I returned from my shoot last week in Great Smoky Mountain National Park to learn the very sad news that the finest book printer in the US, The Stinehour Press, had ceased operations. They have been lauded by, among others, the Washington Post, as the finest fine book printer – and by the many printing industry awards they have won over their 50 year run. Their client list included the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Fine Art Museums, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Boston, the Norman Rockwell Museum, The Getty Museum, the Guggenheim, the Whitney and the Smithsonian. Publishers included Random House, Little-Brown and many university presses, including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth. They have also printed the works for many photographers, and of course Quiet Light Publishing as this is where my book The Lewis & Clark Trail American Landscapes was printed.

We chose them for several reasons. One they were the best. They had shown us proofs on our paper selection using our images to prove they could deliver – even before we accepted their quote. Once we were there we could see first hand why they were/are the crafts men and women of such high caliber. Every one of them was dedicated to our project, from the front office, to production to the pressroom. And everyone had the right to say, wait, we need to do this before moving on – even as we were on press. Their quality and dedication to my book was never ending. And we quickly became part of the family there in their corner of Northeast Vermont. We dined at some of their homes, went to places around town with them and became friends. And I was only one of many hundreds or thousands of books they have printed over their 50 year run. It saddens me that their dedication to publishing has come to an end and that these folks will now be looking elsewhere for work.

One of the reasons they cited for their closing is the high competition with overseas printers. The cost of printing overseas has made it so many publisher’s choose this route. We considered it. And rejected it for two reasons. On price, when considering the cost of travel overseas for the print run, and the cost of shipping finished product back, they were within nickels on the price per book. And equally important – they were here – in the US. I have always thought we should support US companies such as The Stinehour Press when we can. A company which put quality first and treats their employees and customer’s with respect. Besides, it only seemed reasonable to have a book about America and its history and landscape be printed here.

But in the end, it seems, the cost of printing overseas did overcome them. They mentioned in their press release they could not compete any longer with overseas pricing when they can print books for what their cost for just the paper would be. This can not just be a labor cost problem. I can only imagine what the cost of health insurance for 26 employees and their families must have been. Imagine if that cost was taken out by having universal health care. Maybe then they would be able to stay and continue their craft of making some of the finest books published. And while some may knock me for being nostalgic here, why is it that we always rush for the lowest price on everything? Doesn’t quality stand for something? I realize the digital age has provided a cheaper, faster way to be able to send off PDF’s of a project to printer’s, have them make a few pages of proofs to be ok’d and then print on demand. But do these books give you the same feel in your hands as one which is handcrafted? Maybe the fact that they worked from 6am to 4pm instead of around the clock put them in a different league, personally, one which I admire. (Oh, and yes, if they were in the middle of a run they did finish it – they didn’t just stop the presses until tomorrow). And that meant family was as important in their company philosophy – at least from what we observed in our time in the Northeast Kingdom. And it showed in their product. Our book The Lewis and Clark Trail American Landscapes, has not only won over a dozen awards, I see it in the faces and hear it in the words the first time someone picks up the book for the first time. Right away they are impressed with the quality. There always seem to be sigh’s of wow, or “hey look at this”, as they show it to someone else. Quality does stand out. It should be what we all strive for.

As Warren Bingham, CEO of The Stinehour Press said in their press release, “These are not good times for American manufacturers. I hope we know the full cost of what we’re buying as a society. When lowest cost is always the determining factor, it might be higher than we think.”

Something to think about. After all, if we can help out Wall Street and their CEO’s when they make unwise structures of mortgages and derivatives, or give huge tax breaks to oil companies making 45 billion in profits – more than most countries gross national products, why can’t we invest in companies worthy of our investment? Companies that care about quality and their employees and customers? Those small companies which really are what America is all about – ingenuity and quality. It is something I don’t understand. It is something 26 people and their families in the northeast now probably wonder about as well.

Yes it is a very sad day for publishing, especially of fine art book publisher’s, but it is also a very sad day for America.

Post Script – When we were at the Stinehour Press we did our first “blog” as a series of posts each day on our website. I will reissue this post today so you can see exactly what it was like to be there. You can find it at www.mackphoto.com/Vermont.html

March 20, 2008

Three Years and counting…

March 20, 2008. Some look at it as the day the of the equinox, the day the sun passes over the equator and begins to warm the northern hemisphere. For photographers it marks the beginning of spring and the thought of wildflowers springing up, or light beginning to make its way to the north side of buildings and mountain slopes. For me it is also my 53^rd birthday. But it is also the third anniversary of the release of my inaugural book The Lewis & Clark Trail American Landscapes.

Some reflections of the past three years are what I would like to discuss here today. It has been an interesting ride. From the initial decision to start a project of this magnitude, spending 6 months planning the shoots, 2 years on and off the trail making the images for the project, finding a publisher, and ultimately thinking the best way to go is to become your own publisher (a notion made partly of the romance of being a publisher of fine art photography books and the hard line decision that it was the only way to make it financially rewarding). And once you make the decision to publish your own work, and maybe the works of others eventually (but will discuss that at a later date), then you must begin the process of making the book a reality and not just file cabinets filled with images. Editing the thousands of images, finding the perfect designer (or in my case two of them in Rudi Backart and Rich Nickel!), getting printing quotes from around the world before settling on a fine art printer right here in the United States – the Stinehour Press in Vermont.

But those are all of the production decisions which have to be made. There is an equally mind numbing set of decisions which need to be addressed on the marketing side. Now, you would think someone who has spent his career in the advertising industry as a photographer, would know how important it is to have looked at the end part – the selling of the book – before forging ahead on the production side. Nope. I was thinking to laterally. Get it done and they will buy. After all why wouldn’t they – the images are beautiful and the concept never done and there will be 40 million people along the different parts of the trail during the 200^th anniversary years of the expedition. How can it not sell! This was the thinking I had. Fortunately, I had others around me who whacked me upside the head. Bryan Glaza, my first client and now a life long friend, sat down at one of our initial marketing meetings, with Kathy Weber-Mack, Rich Nickel and Kristi Mendez and asked – innocently enough – “What will you do if it doesn’t make it to the shelves of the Barnes & Nobles of this world? Then how will you sell it?” Bang on. And the brick hit me hard! Why would they not carry it? They carry a book about a couch being carried around the world, about stark images of small towns, how could they turn this down? But they initially did. When I actually received a letter saying they’d carry it online but not on the shelves I was stunned. They eventually acquiesced but only slightly it still seems. So Bryan’s original question still remained, “then what”.

Well, we hit the trail again, placing the book in every store and museum along the trail we could. Put out the required press releases, got some press in the papers, then on TV and radio, then more in the papers and then on national TV on NBC News! (And yes you can see them from our website just go to www.quietlightpublishing.com/news.html and follow the links for the various programs and articles). We also were lucky enough to win roughly a dozen book, design and photography awards for this book. So, in the three years since the release of the book, we have sold roughly 5,000 copies. Not bad for a photographic book. But, what I didn’t know was most photographic books have a print run of 1,500-3,000 tops. And that leads me to mention one of the biggest mistakes I made during this whole process. The decision to print 10,000 copies, based solely on the printing costs, and the fact that the more you print the less the per unit cost. I did not think about the fact the reprint costs would make up for an initial higher price per unit. In retrospect I should have printed at most 5,000 copies the first time out, maybe even less. But the book has done exceedingly well, we’ve made money on the project, and it is still selling each and every month.

Of interest to me is the fact that most big book stores thought it would only sell along the trail. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve found, most of our direct sales through our website have been in states away from the trail, the northeast, southeast and southwestern United States buy as many as the Midwest and northwest where the trail winds its way through. Clearly this should be a book featured prominently at holiday time by the big stores nationally don’t you think?

We also released a Limited Edition version, limited to 200 editions in honor of the 200^th anniversary of the expedition. It is presented in a leather slipcase and includes three prints, each representing a year the expedition spent on the trail. Each book and set of prints are signed and numbered accordingly. This edition is available from Amazon or directly on our website at www.quietlightpublishing.com. We also have an extensive collection of fine art prints from the book available online. Images from the book have been in exhibits in several galleries, and were the backdrop for an exhibit by the Newberry Library in Chicago on The Lewis & Clark Exhibition.

On this the third anniversary of the release party (www.quietlightpublishing.com/gal_opening.html) I can say it has been a great ride! I have spoken to many groups about the book, photography and the Lewis & Clark Expedition. It has enabled me to think about other books now in the works, one on Great Smoky Mountains National Park and one on the Great Lakes, as well as some other projects still in the idea stages. We have begun to look at the idea of offering more expeditions for folks to join us on where we’ll talk photography as we explore different national parks and places around the world. Do you have someplace you’d love to go with the expertise of a photographer along with you – let us know!

I want to thank everyone who has enjoyed the book, come out to the lectures, worked behind the scenes to make this possible and in the making of this book. One person can never make a project this size come about alone. It does take a team effort. Without all of you we would not be where we are now. Thanks!

Peace,

Richard Mack

March 6, 2008

Winter in the Smoky Mountains

Late last week a spring snow storm dropped 12” – 17” on Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is a rare event, especially in the last few years. As part of my next book project I have been sorting through 30 years of photographs from the park and have found myself woefully lacking winter shots. So with the snow totals looking good, but the temperatures expected to rise back into the 50’s and 60’s, I called my friend who happens to have access to a plane and we took off 24 hours later, on Saturday morning to head down to the snow. This seemed a bit crazy to most around here, since Chicago has been inundated with snow this winter, but it had to be done for the book.

We took off about 6:15am on Saturday morning and flew down the lakefront past Chicago. In the morning light the city looked great from the air and I snapped a few shots as we went by. The remainder of the flight was a beautiful blue sky smooth ride at 9500’. We arrived at the Gatlinburg airport at 10 or so and after picking up the rental car and a bit to eat we were in the park by 11:30. On the drive up the mountains I started to get concerned because I had yet to see any snow! Were had it all gone? The weather reports had said there was even 5” on the ground in Gatlinburg, but it was not here now! I could not even see it on the edges of the cliffs. The farther up we went the more concerned I was that the trip had been for nothing! But then we reached the altitude where the base of the snow started. At the first creek with snow we pulled over and I began to shoot. It was almost like being in overdrive as I pointed the lens everywhere in a mad rush to get images. Predictably, these first shots were not very thoughtful. But after getting this first stop out of the way I began to settle down and really start to see images. As the snow depth increased, so did my concentration. It takes time and an openness to what is presented in front of you to find the images which will tell a story, make people want to linger over them. You can not be a bull in a china shop and just snap away if you want them to be interesting. You must slow down and see.

I worked streams with their snow covered rocks, hillsides with the pines covered with snow, small detail scenes of snow clinging to rocks, and icicles hanging from the cliffs. The biggest problem was it was a blue sky day – making it very sunny with the light casting shadows and making the images full of contrast. Not the best, but it worked and as the sun began to settle into the west the ridges blocked the light and gave me the perfect mix of soft light.

Because we had only one day, and maybe a few hours in the morning, we could not spend any time hiking into some of my favorite places, but stayed near the main road. We saw a lot of folks building snowmen, even putting them around the antennas on their cars so they drove with small snowmen on their windshields. By evening I went to a few of the overlooks which give you those sweeping look up the valleys. Winter is the best time for those long views of the mountains as the clear air enables you to see much further than in the summer. By now there was also a steady stream of overcast clouds moving in, making a sunset either one of those things that will not happen, or will be stunning. I shot at one overlook and then just before sunset went to the most famous overlook for sunset in the park, Morton Overlook. As I pulled in no one else was there. Guess they all figured nothing would happen this evening. I knew enough to hang out and wait, with the camera setup. This brought a few people to pull off the road, some getting out and looking and then going on, some staying. And then, right on queue and as I thought it just might, the sun went below the bottoms of the clouds and lit up the undersides of the clouds in a spectacular sunset. Now cars were pulling off the road in great numbers! I kept shooting while people talked to me. The show would not last more than a few minutes and I had work to do. Within five minutes the sun was gone and the clouds returned to a dark gray. The day was over. It was time to think about the morning shots over dinner.

Unfortunately, the weather back in Chicago looked like it would deteriorate early in the day Sunday, instead of staying nice until Monday. After much consternation, we agreed we needed to leave at dawn to get in before the weather in Chicago made it impossible for us to get back in the next three days. It would have been nice to have more time, but in the roughly 9 hours on the ground I was able to get enough I hope to fill out the book with the winter shots I so needed. To see the entire selection of the trip use this link to see my quick gallery of images: www.mackphoto.com/blog/SmokiesWinter/

We’ll soon have a selection of these images for sale online in the Quiet Light Publishing Gallery, http://www.quietlightpublishing.com/shop/Gallery.htm were we already have images from this upcoming book and from the Lewis & Clark Trail American landscapes book.

February 2, 2008February 2, 2008

Winter on Lake Michigan

Winter in the Midwest. Always cold. Often snowy. But yesterday’s 8+ inches of snow was perfect around here. It has blanketed everything with a new white layer and softened the sounds of the city. So it was with anticipation I headed once again down to my favorite beach on the way to the studio. Not sure what I would find, as Lake Michigan is different every day and as I left for the beach it was still snowing. The dark clouds overhead contrasted with the white of the ice which had been blown in with the Northeastern winds. It is not often we get this much ice built up on the lakefront here. Alone on the beach, with a cold wind still blowing the clouds quickly across the sky I worked both quickly and quietly. It seemed everywhere I looked there was a new image to be had. A wide shot before walking onto the beach, close up’s of the icebergs, shots of the old pier posts. One thing I like about digital imaging is it seems to capture a much wider range of light, from highlights to shadows. I wasn’t sure the clouds would look as dark as they seemed in real life, but they were coming out in the display, so there seemed to be no need to use the split neutral density filter to bring the brightness back into range. I was very happy when back in the studio on the color calibrated monitor they all looked great almost right out of the gate. Unfortunately I have not found a way to get that same vibrancy and luminosity online yet. Of course we all know that on the web everyone “sees” with a different monitor – most of which are not calibrated so colors and densities will be all over the place. Something which can ruin great shots, especially the one with soft delicate balances in the images such as snow shots.

But the images I found also brought about a starkness to the landscape which I fell in love with. Hopefully the images convey that feeling of isolation and emptiness. Nature is always full of surprises. Ice being blown in from across the lake, dark clouds overhead. Perfect. In the weeks ahead I will be working more with these images and hope to refine some for the fine art prints we sell online. So check back often, and of course you can ad your comments and tell us which ones you like best using the links below.

See more from this shoot using this link to our gallery: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LighthouseBeachWinter/index.htm ttp://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LighthouseBeachWinter/index.htm

Happy Winter! Oh, and Happy Ground Hog Day!

Richard Mack

January 4, 2008

On the Road Again…Zion & Bryce NP

Well today my son Sam and I are bound for Zion and Bryce National Parks in Utah. I had hoped to be able to report on how the new Canon 1Ds III worked in real life, instead of just all of the testing you here about on other blogs. Hoped to give you a real life, in the wilderness assessment. But alas, even though I order the camera through Calumet Photographic on the first day they took orders back on August 21st, it has yet to arrive. And unfortunately, no one at Canon or Calumet can give you and answer as to when it will be shipped and available. I know Calumet has 400 standing orders to fill, and while I am in the top 100, it seems no one is willing to talk about when I might receive it.

So, in the meantime Sam and I will head of to Zion and Bryce and have a great time, using the old equipment – my Canon 1Ds which I’ve used for the last 4 years. We will try to post some images from the road, but figure that may be impossible to do as there will be limited Internet connections. We’ll have an update when we return at least.

On to the roadways of America…

Richard.