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Friday, February 12, 2010

Jeff Wignall's Digital Photography Crash Course--New Book Just Finished!

 
On Thursday I finished another new book: Jeff Wignall's Digital Photography Crash Course to be published by Lark Books in October--and here's the cool news: the book is based entirely on this blog! I've taken the top 150 or so tips from this blog and expanded them, added a few new twists and lots of new photos, and I think it's going to be a beautiful book. Lark did a great job and I'm psyched to see it being published  (hopefully one of several if I can keep the blog energy going). 

Finishing a book is always a huge relief and it brings with it a mixture of extreme exhaustion, the inescapable feeling of restlessness that comes from being tied to one project for many months and, thankfully, a sense of accomplishment. (The downside is that I'm already working on another book, so there is absolutely no rest for the wicked.) I'll write more about the Crash Course book when I've rested and reflected for a few days. Writing books is incredibly draining, both physically and mentally (and emotionally too, I guess): I just couldn't be more tired. Writing 75,000 words and coming up with 200 photos really grinds you down. And then, of course, after working on it for 12 hours a day (minimum) there is this feeling of "What do I do now?" I'm too wired to sleep and to exhausted to do much else.

In the meantime: I shot the final photos for the book at around 6 a.m. on Thursday morning after having been awake for 18 hours and nearly hallucinating from fatigue. The photos were made under black light (all those old enough to remember having a black light in your bedroom, raise your hands) and in the next posting I'll tell you how I made them. It's a very cool trick and it's really easy. The shot here is a mason jar full of artist's brushes that I was using to paint props with black-light reactive paint. Is that cool looking or what? I shot with a pair of fluorescent black-light fixtures and my Nikon D90 and the only tough part was not having someone there to help me hold the light fixtures in place. Anyway, next time I'll give you the whole inside scoop on black-light photography. 

5 comments:

Aquashell said...

Congrads on your new book!

Unknown said...

Congrats, Jeff!!! I recently purchased a copy of your book on Exposure and it is, by far, the BEST I have read on the subject. So fabulous to see you're still producing great literature for your fellow photographers!

Jeff Wignall said...

Thanks to both of you! If I could figure out how to create an email mailing list, I'd let you know when it comes out. Maybe I'll try to figure that out. And thanks Rebekah for the nice comment on my exposure book--it has gotten like 18 five-star reviews on Amazon which is great. I was SO careful in writing that book to try and explain everything carefully--I was equally exhausted when I finished that book :)

Thanks again to both of you.

jeff

Shaina said...

Congrats on the new book! That's awesome. I can't wait to read it. I love this blog :)

Jeff Wignall said...

Thanks Shaina :) Didn't see your comment when it was first posted, oops!