Problems With Email...

To go with the nice shiny new website that's planned, I figured it made sense to have a proper email address - one that ended in creativeimagemaker.co.uk. An email was duly setup and that's where the problems started!

Personally, I'm not too bothered about using the current Yahoo email address - it seems to work fine and there's a couple of other advantages to me in using it. However, I guess that it doesn't look too 'professional' and I can see the advantages in having a 'proper' email address.

Anyhow, I've setup an email address which is info at creativeimagemaker.co.uk which seems to work OK from some email addresses - although, it now appears that emails originating from Yahoo, gmail, hotmail and BT may not be being received by me.

So - can you (and I know this could open the flood gates!) send me a quick email from your accounts so that I can check this properly. I've tried from my Yahoo account (did not work) and from a Vodafone account (did work properly). If you can make the subject line "Testing Times", then I can easily seperate these test messages out from any others. Remember, email: info at creativeimagemaker.co.uk if you can.

I will reply to each one, so if you don't get a response within a couple of days we'll know there's a problem. You could leave a comment here and I'll pick that up.

Apart from this hiccup, the website build continues on apace, with the various sections coming together nicely. Something tells me that January 13th might come round sooner than I expect!

Happy New Year to one and all.
David Vickers.
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Photographic Competition...

I'm quite excited about this - along with the new website, I'll be announcing a new competition for you all to have a go at.

One of our contributors - Christopher Walrath, has written an article which gave me an idea to run a competition to go along with an article he has written. There's no prize as such (other than the knowledge that you beat everyone else ;-) ) and it's just for fun. The winner will have their image published in the paper version of the Creative Image Maker magazine.

To find out more, watch out for the new website when it goes live on the 13th January 2008.

David.
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Happy Christmas

I'd just like to thank you all for popping by this site, offering your help, assistance, ideas and comments. I wish all of you a festive period full of good-will.

Take care over Christmas and I hope Santa brings you that Leica M / Gandolfi / Arca-Swiss Monoball or whatever it is! We'll back just after Christmas, getting everything ready for the launch of the new website.

Happy Christmas.

David.
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Testers...

I think we're sorted for site testers now - thanks to Rodrigo, Christopher, Johnny101 and Joe (hope I haven't forgotten anyone - that would be so embarrassing!).

Once Xmas is over, I'll be back in touch with some more details and it'll give me a bit more of a chance to put some more useful information on to the site. The template is sorted as is the basic layout of the site, and I've started to populate it with data.

We've got Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems covered and Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox and Safari browsers (and probably a few more too) also covered.

Thanks,
David.
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Help Needed...

So, the dates have been set - the first article will appear on the 15th January and the website will go live a couple of days before, on the 13th.


Before that however, it might be a good idea to get a couple of people to test the site. Would either any of you be interested? This testing won't need to be done until around the end of the first week in January, and it'd be useful to check the site out, make sure various links work and that the layout works with your internet browser.

I'm thinking that if we can get 4-5 people running PC's, Mac's with assorted browsers then it'll give me some chance of ironing out any problems before the 13th.

Hope you help - either send me a comment via this site, or email me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk

Cheers,
David.
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Two Weeks On (Nearly)...

Well it's nearly two weeks on since this idea of starting a new 'magazine' came about and things are still going on, albeit much more behind the scenes at the moment.


I've received some articles already - thanks to Christopher and John and I'm still busy writing one as well when I get a few free moments; looking forward to articles from Scott, Drew and Cheryl to name a few. I'm still really excited by this whole project so please don't think that just because I've not posted in a few days, nothing is happening!

The web hosting has been arranged and the building of the 'proper' site has started; at the moment the design template has been sorted and the layout is a work-in-progress, but the build is happening.

Which brings me on to something that I wondered if a couple of you might like to help me with? I need some testers before the site goes live. Read the latest post "Help Needed" to find out more...

If I'm honest, I can't see many posts happening over the festive period, but I will be available via email ( creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk ) or via the usual forums. Please, please do keep your comments coming - even if it's just to say "Hi!" and introduce yourself.

So, if I don't hear from you before Xmas, I wish you all a 'Merry Christmas!' and trust that Santa brings you that Leica / Gandolfi / Hasselblad you always wanted!
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Featured Photographer

I think I've already mentioned that it might be nice to have some feature photographs - images created by you and letting others know how you created that image.

But how about featured photographers? No-one famous, just your run-of-the-mill traditionalist photographer (does such a thing exist?)!


That means YOU. Not that I want to suggest that you are run-of-the-mill, but since it's unlikely that Annie Leibowitz, Don McCullin and host of other big name celebrities are likely to turn up here - why don't we focus on those of you quietly going about your photography.

I'm thinking a couple of your favourite images, equipment that you use, your favourite place... you know, just stuff.

Of course, you might just think it's a completely daft idea! That's OK - just let me know either way here at Creative Image Maker (had to get that in for the search engines to do their job!).

I'm also looking for some of your favourite images - why you took them, what is that makes you proud of them, perhaps it was a particularly difficult shot to get, or maybe sheer fluke. Whatever it is, if you'd like to see your image(s) on the real proper website in the New Year, or in the magazine, please contact me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk, via the FlickrMail or using the comments on this site.

DCV
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Digital?

Digital. One word, so many passionate views when it comes to photography! It's easy to take a stance and say absolutely no digital, but if we did that, there'd be no magazine as we all need to scan in our images for display either here or over on the Flickr group.

If alarm bells are going off in your head - then don't worry! Here's my thoughts, and as usual please feel free to post your comments.



This is one subject that is fundamental to us all and particularly for the Creative Image Maker magazine, so I am genuinely interested in your thoughts on this.

Firstly all images for display either online, or in the paper-based copy, must have been created by traditional analogue means. Whether that's through a camera lens, via a pin-hole camera or resting something on a cyanotype.

But no digital cameras.

Now we get to the slightly grey fuzzy area - scanning in the image and submitting it. You could scan the negative, or the print, but then you have the conundrum about how to get it looking as it should.

Imagine you spend a happy hour or so dodging and burinng your finest fibre-based print to give superb tones and finish it all off with a nice border. Then you scan it in and it doesn't quite look right as the quality just isn't there and you've lost some detail in the shadow / highlights. If you then make adjustments for the scan does that make it digital manipulation that shouldn't be 'allowed'?

Here's my view (for what it's worth) and it's based on a purely pragmatic approach to these things. I think that in the above scenario, a little manipulation should be allowed - levels / curves adjustments - to get the image back to looking how it should. What I personally don't want to see is colour photos, scanned in and then converted to B&W, Photoshop solarisation or toning added that's not there in the print.

But it's your magazine, so what do you think? Send in your comments and we'll see what happens. Are there enough digital articles elsewhere, that we don't need them here, or is there a real interest in how the effects that used to be created in the darkroom can be now done digitally? At the end of the day, it's pretty much an honesty system anyway - I doubt many of us could tell whether you've done a little dodging and burning in Photoshop or in the darkroom. I also know that when it comes to writing how-to articles, or pictures of equipment, that I'm likely to do that using my digital camera for sheer ease and practicality; and I'd imagine you'd do the same?

Actually, this is quite pertinent to me. As I write this I can develop my negatives, but my enlarger is out of action for the moment. So, if I scanned in my negative and adjusted it in Photoshop should that be allowed?

Now I've written this, I'm sure this will open up a can of worms! The rest is up to you!

Thanks, David.
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One Week On...

What an amazing week it's been! I figured you might be interested in an update on what we have achieved in one week. The site itself has been visited over 750 times with over 1,200 page impressions. I'm sure they're not all my wife, so someone out there has been looking. Thanks to both all of you.


Last Friday it all kicked off and this site was started with a grand plan to start a magazine catering for the traditionalist photographic community. The first posts started and people started to get interested; the RSS newsfeed was set up and people have been subscribing to that.

Since then, we have had several offers of articles - thanks to Scott, John, Cheryl, Drew and others. Thanks too, to Rodrigo for his offer of help.

You can currently contact me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk, but that's due to change now that the www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk web address has been secured. This means that I can now setup a dedicated web site and thanks to 'Mark', who through his generous donation has allowed me to get the web hosting we need to see this through. That's Xmas taken care of ;-)

This does mean however, that the first article, due to go online on the 15th January may well appear on the 'proper' site, and I'll be working hard to realise that goal. It would be nice to get it right from the start, rather than have to move everything over later on.

As noted on a previous post, we've also got an ISSN for the magazine, which we can use for the PDF and paper copy, and I'm still looking to distribute through Lulu.com to ensure the widest possible coverage. In fact, I've already started to piece together the magazine, working on styles, fonts, layout and so on.

That just leaves me to say a final 'thank you' to everyone, whether you've just popped along to the site to see what it's about, or you're making a contribution. Remember, this is all about providing the community with a means to see what's going on, who's doing what and hopefully teach each other various techniques along the way.

David Vickers.
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ISSN

I mentioned in previous posts that it would be great to eventually get an ISBN number for the magazine, potentially allowing it to be stocked by online booksellers - although that's some way off.

Prompted by one reader in particular, Rodrigo, I looked in to the subject and found rather than needing an ISBN, a magazine required an ISSN.


The ISSN is an International Standard Serial Number and applies to the magazine title, rather than a specific volume. Therefore, the ISSN remains standard across all issues of the magazine.

So, yesterday I applied for an ISSN for our magazine and, somewhat unbelievably, we were issued one within about six hours. When the magazine is produced (around April time), a copy has to be sent to the British Library as an archive copy.

Tomorrow, I'll let you know exactly how many hits the site has received in it's first week (it went up on Friday night, UK-time, and I'll have the results from Google Analytics, Saturday morning).

DV
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Getting professional?

Well in a bid to make the online magazine, and the future paper magazine, more professional in it's approach I've been busy behind the scenes sorting out various aspects.

Whilst I've been mulling these things over, I've been pushed prompted by a couple of people - you know who you are(!) - to get something done about it. So...



I have hopefully secured www.creativeimagemaker.co.uk with a view to creating a 'proper' website we can call our own. That should also mean that in time we can have a nice email address, instead of the Yahoo! one currently being used.

To be honest there's nothing wrong with what we have, but looking forward it would be nice to have some sort of scalable solution in place. Of course, it does mean that I now have to write a dedicated website for Creative Image Maker!

On the subject of ISBN numbers - it turns out that here in the UK, magazines cannot use them. Instead, we need an ISSN (International Standard Series Number) and so I've put in a submission for one of those too. I'll let you know how we get on with that.

That's about it, really.

DCV.
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Advertise Your Event / Exhibition

Do you belong to a camera club, are you running a photographic event or putting on an exhibition? Then let everyone know! Send your details in to Creative Image Maker and I'll try and put the information on the webpage - probably somewhere over there on the right hand side -->


Considering this site is for the community, here's your chance to let the community know about it.

Send the details in to the email address mentioned at the top of the page, or if you'd rather not avert your eyes (or are reading via the newsfeed), send the following information to creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk

• For exhibitions & events:




• Name of the event or exhibition


• A short description. Very short. About 20-25 words max.


• Start date.


• End date.


• Where it's happening.


• Any entrance fee payable / whether it's a freebie.


• Contact details.


• Errr... anything else that you think is appropriate.




• For camera clubs:




• Name of the club.


• When it convenes...


• ...and where it convenes.


• Contact details.


• Interesting facts or details about the club, or it's members.

That's all for now.
DCV
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Contact Your Magazine...

You can now email the magazine...I've setup an email account over at Yahoo - perhaps not hugely business-like, but it meets our needs and gives you somewhere to contact the magazine.




Note down the email address - it's creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk (replace the at with the usual @ symbol).

Use the address to contact the magazine and let us have your comments, wants, ideas, latest theories or just to submit an article.

Thanks everyone,
DCV
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Hard Copy Magazines

Entering in to the spirit of the magazine and in an attempt to make it a truly community-based magazine, I've been in touch with LuLu about publishing / distributing our efforts. So, following the link is a run-down of what the likely costs are going to be...

We have three options really...

1. We only have an online e-zine and no paper copy. Total cost - zero. Or thereabouts.


2. We can have the online version and a paper version that you have to order through Lulu. No ISBN numbers, no Amazon, no Barnes & Noble. This will probably work out at around about £6-8 ($12-14) per copy.


3. If we go the whole hog, and get an ISBN number and distribution on both sides of the pond, there's going to be a £50 ($100) up-front fee for each edition. If we base costs on selling 50 copies initially then that's £2 distribution + £6 magazine cost, putting an issue at about £8 ($16) per quarter.

What do you think about this? Is £8 / $16 too much to pay once a quarter, for a proper magazine that meets your requirements; or should we just stick to the easier Lulu-only method?

There's also a number of other considerations - in order to keep the price down for a paper copy I was looking at B&W only printing. On the face of it, it seems a reasonable idea and then it dawned on me that would mean that selenium toning, sepia toning, etc. wouldn't show up. What are your thoughts on this? Do we stick to B&W only to begin with and see how it goes? Or go for full-colour with the resultant hike in prices?

My original idea was to start with Lulu-only, charge the full amount and the 'profit' would then go to paying for an ISBN & distribution package for the next edition. But if ypu'd rather just keep it to Lulu only distribution that's OK.

Also, how many pages do we aim for? Lots of magazines (of any genre) carry lots of advertising and the amount of actual information pages can appear to be quite limited. Now I'm not saying this is true of all magazines, but I was thinking initially of about 30-35 pages (of actual content). This would be made up of articles that appeared online as well as finding some other articles that fell down the back of the sofa that will be kept in reserve.

Or, how about this for an idea... we create a hardback book edition instead of just a magazine. Considering many of the articles are going to be of a sort that could be good reference material, maybe it'd be nice to have something you don't mind taking up space on your bookshelves; something you can refer back to time and again. Personally, I like that idea - but it's a community project so you've gotta have your say.

Let me know your views on all of the above (and more besides)...

Cheers,
DCV.
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Setting Out A Vision...

I thought I might just take this opportunity to let you in to my vision of the magazine - but remember, I really want this to be your magazine, so if you think I've got something wrong, tell me! If I've missed something out, please let me know.

Also, I can reveal the proposed start date of the online magazine proper - i.e. when the first article of Creative Image Maker will be. It's going to be...

...15th January 2008. Now, I'm guessing you'll want to know what it will be?

You'll have to wait to find out!

Anyway, on to the vision. First of all, it's great that there really does appear to be interest in this project and I hope that you'll take ownership of it as well. Some of the following is just re-iterating what I've already said, but I hope you'll read through it and pass back your comments and thoughts.

Firstly, the name of the magazine will be Creative Image Maker and we're all aware it will cover a wide range of topics relating to traditional photography. There are to be no digital manipulations, other than scanning in your work to be displayed here. Articles for submission should be emailed to me at davidvickersphotography at yahoo.co.uk and you can include your images along with this, or put them in to the Creative Image Maker group on Flickr - speaking of which, there are several people who have joined this group already in anticipation!

Articles will (I hope) appear on a weekly basis on this site - potentially this might be difficult in the very early days, until we build up a 'backlog' of articles. A hard copy magazine will also be made available once a quarter, initially through www.lulu.com. More about the hard copy in a moment. The online magazine (e-zine) will be freely available to all and sundry, with no 'pay-to-view' or subscription charges.

Once a month I would like to have a 'beginners section' - it's easy to forget that we all had to learn the basics at some point, and it's up to those of us with some experience to pass it on to those who wish to learn new skills. I'd also like to publish articles from beginners, detailing their trials and tribulations with a process or piece of equipment. I'd also like to have a 'feature photograph' once a month too - and images for this should be posted on the Flickr group (or mailed to me), along with lots of details about exposure, equipment, processing information as well as some notes about the image itself. An RSS newsfeed has been setup that readers can subscribe to, and this will push the new articles out to them directly.

And so on to the hard copy magazine. Initially published via LuLu, it will be available for download (free) or, if you want to feel the paper in your hands, you can order from there. A charge will have to be made to cover publishing, LuLu's commission plus a little extra. Now, it's my intention to take this 'little extra' and plough it back in to the magazine so that we can get an ISBN listing. This would mean that it becomes available through normal distribution channels in the UK and US. So, how does popping down to the newsagents on a Sunday morning to get your latest copy of Creative Image Maker sound? Or getting it via Amazon> Or Barnes & Noble?

OK, so that's probably a way off yet, but it's something to aim for. But it also means that if you agree with this, then you must buy the magazine as otherwise there's no cash to invest in it! And if it helps, I've got to buy my copy just like you! In the spirit of the project, it's my intention to try and give you an overview of the funds that we create - I want to show that I'm not about to buy a super-yacht and a Bugatti Veyron with the proceeds! Anyway, the account is currently standing at £0.00 ;-) Should we ever get to a position that we could pay contributors that would indeed be fabulous.

I will also (this week) be sending out press releases to the photographic and art magazines in the UK, but I need your help to do the same in the States - if you know the email address of editors, or newsdesks, of suitable magazines over there - send them to me! Please.

I reckon that's about it - as always, thanks to you and let me have your comments.

DCV.
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Building A New Magazine... Part II

Wow! The project lives! We've several offers of articles which is great and it means that if they can be delivered by the end of the year / middle of January then we've certainly got the first few weeks covered.

So far, offers of articles covering lith film, using an 8x10 camera and platinum printing have been forthcoming as well as special printing techniques, film processing and specialist film information.

I'd like to run a beginners series alongside the more expert stuff and I shall be writing an article on testing films to arrive at an EI - but I'd also like contributions on the following areas if someone wants to run with this...

• Film processing: articles covering choice of developer, making up your first batch of developer, how temperature alters development, use of wetting agents, what does the fixer do, comparisons of hand / tray / rotary development techniques, etc....


• Film storage: what are the best ways of storing negatives for archival permanence. Is there anyone from the press who could comment on the way things used to be done in the newspapers - you guys must have cut several corners to get the pictures on the front page.


• Image printing: comparison of enlarger types, choice of enlarger lens based on fiom format, simple dodging & burning, and so on...

Of course, there's a demand for all the more experienced stuff too. So, please keep those offers coming and get writing!

Over on Flickr, several members have now joined, and several people have signed up for the RSS newsfeeds too.

Thank you everyone - you're on the verge of creating your very own magazine.

David. --- Click to read more ---

Building A New Magazine..

We've now got our own group on Flickr so that you can post your images. The group is called Creative Image Maker and you'll be able to find it at... http://www.flickr.com/groups/555449@N25/ - this'll be our other home for all our pictures. There's also a discussion board on it too, and that might be useful if it's related to the magazine. I've no intention of using the Flickr discussion group to discuss anything except the magazine / articles - especially with a great resource like APUG and others.


Other than that the work continues to get your magazine up and running for the New Year - January 2008 will see the official opening of Creative Image Maker.

Keep the comments, questions and offers of articles coming - the magazine will only work with your input! It's only Day 2 and there has been several requests of articles already - this is fabulous news and the future of Creative Image Maker is looking rosy already. --- Click to read more ---

A New Magazine

Welcome to your new magazine! Well, hopefully anyway!

After noticing that there was a general unhappiness within the wonderful world of traditional film based image-making with magazines who are increasingly featuring digital equipment reviews and how-to articles on using Photoshop, I thought that we should start our own.

So here we are - Day 1.


Well, there are no articles, just a couple of willing volunteers and me. So, I thought I'd put down a couple of ideas about how I see this working. You, dear reader, are of course free to comment (and I hope you do).

I would like to get to a position where I can post one article a week on a subject related to traditional image making. This might be areas such as:

• processing films - developers used, how-to guides, solarisation, etc.


• alternative processes - palladium printing, polaroid image transfers, creating your own concoction.


• photo-corner - a gallery of images highlighting different photographers, their creative thoughts and processes used.


• equipment reviews - whether it's a Kodak Medalist, Nikon F6 or a DeVere enlarger.

I would like to bias this magazine heavily towards image making and not dwell too heavily on the equipment side - it should be an inspirational magazine offering an insight in to the many and varied processes out there. There's really only one definite - and that is no digital manipulation!

Several people have already commented that they would prefer a paper-based magazine, which at first I thought was not really feasible. But then I had a stroke of inspiration and realised this was a possibility. If we can get an article published online each week, I reckon I could put together a real magazine and distribute it via lulu.com - that way you can read the articles whilst having a cup of tea sitting in your armchair - or whilst you wait the 6 minutes for the film to develop!

If I could produce such a magazine, once a quarter, for about £8 / $16 (less than £3 / $6 a month effectively) how much interest would there be - let me know. Remember, this would be a niche market magazine with articles you've supplied about the things that matter to you.

I'll also setup RSS newsfeeds as well, so that you can just receive any articles automatically without having to visit the site - might be useful in these early days when articles could be a bit thin on the ground!

I really, really want this to be a magazine for the community, written by the community.

For contributors - well I would need images supplied at something like 3000dpi on the longest side @ 300dpi. You would have to own copyright on any images supplied and all work would be credited to you. I'm not interested in reselling images or anything like that, and if you want to supply your details so that others can contact you direct then that's cool too.

Written pieces would need to be 500-1000 words roughly.

Unfortunately, I can't offer any funding or money for articles / images - which is why this must be for the community as a whole; all I can offer is letting others know about your work and the satisfaction that you and I are putting something back in to the photographic community.

So, please let me have your thoughts and comments on the whole project - are you up for this (either as a reader or a contributor)?

David Vickers. --- Click to read more ---