In the May 2010 edition of the BBC Magazine, Countryfile - based on the TV show of the same name - willow sculptor, Trevor Leat, is featured in an article.
They wanted some photos to accompany the write-up so looked to his website. Several of the images they thought had potential were ones I'd taken, so they contacted me for high resolution, print quality copies. I wasn't going to get paid, but I would get a credit.*
This all happened a couple of months ago, around the time I was asked to do the exhibtion at the Mill on the Fleet, so I'd forgotten all about it. Maggie hadn't though, and found the article today when she picked a copy of the magazine off the shelf.
The full page and the small black and white images were taken when Trevor was building the Tam O'Shanter scultpture that was set fire to at the Burns Light Festival in January 2009.
You can click on the image for a larger, just about readable, version, or head to your local newsagent for a copy if you're interested.
The launch of the exhibition, Staring Back, took place on Saturday, barely 10 weeks after I was called by The Mill on the Fleet and offered the opportunity to put on a show of my portrait photography.
Photos courtesy of my son, Rogan, who enjoyed being the official photographer for the event.
24 images of people staring intensely into the camera, and thus at the viewers, seems to have gone down well, and I received overwhelmingly positive feedback from everyone I spoke to.
Of course I knew nearly everyone I spoke to, so there’s no guarantee the wider public will be anything like as enthusiastic or tactful.
However, it was a good afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed being the centre of attention and lavished with praise.
I could get used to this…
I’ve had many comments from bloggers, friends and relatives who have said they would love to have seen the exhibition but lived too far away to be able to attend.
This set me thinking about the possibility of creating a book of the event.
I already had all the images in digital format, as well as writings to go with each of the photos.
So using Blurb.com, an online print-on-demand service specifically set up to create photo-books, I put this one together
I ordered a copy a couple of weeks ago and fortunately it arrived in time for the exhibition. And I have to say I’m very impressed with the quality. I paid the extra couple of pounds to have the thicker paper and it was well worth it.
Unfortunately, the unit price on these things is not cheap, so it is more expensive than an equivalent book you might buy in a store or on Amazon. However, the real advantage is I haven’t had to fork out thousands of pounds in advance to be left with boxes of unsold books. They only print copies when someone orders them, and they are delivered right to your door.
The book is 10x8 inches in landscape format. The postage fee is the same whether you order 1 or 5, and if you order 10 or more in one go (if you’re wealthy and want to treat all your friends and relatives) then I think there’s a 10% discount.
