This film was a long time coming. I shot part of this footage in January of 2024, then completed the rest roughly six months later when I made a stop in Eindhoven. When people ask about Blurb, I always reply with some form of “The complexity is beyond what you might think.” The complexity of allowing a user to create a single copy of a high-quality book and sell and distribute that book worldwide is scary. Maybe, on my best day, I’d have the mental capacity to dream something like this up, but there is no way I have the intelligence, industry connections, technical savvy, or business savvy to pull it off. Thankfully, Eileen Gittins did. (Serial entrepreneur.)
As they say, the rest is history, and twenty years later, here we are.
Creating illustrated work is so different now than it was during the time I made this work on a full-time basis. Back then, I was often on assignment, or a private commission, and had a specific set of rules I was shooting around. Now, I typically make stuff daily, but often without any such parameters, so when I make something, I often don’t know where that work will end up. Oftentimes, working this way can feel like a fire drill. Do I use the phone, the long lens, the short lens, the action camera, or all the above? What do I reach for first? Do I prioritize motion over stills? What about the writing and notetaking? Should I record audio on its own? And how do I do all of these things at the same time?
When I see this footage, I think about how I would do things differently if given the chance to go again. I’m better at filmmaking now, barely, but still better, at least in some basic, technical ways, and I know what I would eliminate from the collection pile. I would trim down and commit to two or three channels instead of twelve. Story would be the primary focus. When I showed some of this raw footage to a Blurb user, he looked at me and asked, “A human touches my book?” “Several,” I replied. Being on the floor and watching this process happen is a treat. It also, once again, reminds me to never take anything for granted. What I casually came to in 2006 was a massive peak that a team of others had already climbed.
Comments 14
Addictive
Author
It is. Still, even after 300+ books.
Looking forward to trying the process out
Author
DANDEAL30 will save you 30%
I’ve been a Blurb customer for years but have never, ironically, used their software to design and upload to Blurb. Usually I upload a PDF of my yearly personal journal and consider it done. This year I intend to make a much smaller book based on a a trip or just a project. I’m excited!
Thanks for all you do for Blurb and the community, Dan!
Author
Man, you are a stud. Those year books terrify me. I’m so all over the place now with what I shoot. But, good on ya. I think you are going to dig the smaller books.
(Looks up at the shelf above the photo editing computer. Counts.) 12 books printed through Blurb. 4 big layflat capturing travels to New Zealand, Yukon, and Newfoundland. A couple more big hardcover, and the rest are 8×10 softcovers. The book creation process is fun. It’s a good reason to review the many photos on a topic and winnow them down, thinking about why this one and not that one, why this one is good, and that one isn’t as good. Which ones tell the story. I’m quite sure Dan would say that any of my books has way too many photos, but that’s ok. They’re for me, or the buddy that commissioned a couple of them. It’s much easier to pull a book off a shelf and revisit the memories, than to dive into Lightroom and try to find those photos. So pull the pin, get off your butt, and create a book. Don’t think about perfection, especially for a first book. That won’t happen. Just do it anyway.
Author
Who cares what I say! You are doing your thing. Sure, I’m an editing jerk, but not everyone needs to be. If you are happy you are happy. Keep doing what you are doing.
“A human touches my book?” I love that. The fact that we still crave humanity over machines. Soul over chips.
Author
Those folks putting the books together are such cool people, and they take a lot of pride in their piece of the puzzle.
It’s truly amazing how much time and work goes into preparing a short peace like that. Good effort Dan, what a nice business guys run. It’s nice to feel that your work goes into making book creation process so easy and available. Maybe I’ll be lucky to find work with more purpose one day.. 🙂
Author
I believe purpose makes everything a bit sweeter.
Love this video! My first Blurb travel book is printed and enroute…!
Author
Let me know how it goes!