It is Done.

My first edition book is complete. The PDF is uploaded on the Sofobomo site, or you can see it on issuu at

issuu.com/georgecpappas/docs/route15


I feel great about the book. I'm sure I'll start finding things to improve once I look at it in a few days...let the revision process begin.


Thanks to everyone who gave me advice yesterday with InDesign..it was very helpful down the stretch....

A Late Night Learning InDesign

OK. I am not a book designer.....yet. But I am off to a decent start. I stopped working last night at around 1am and a have a first version of all of my images pasted with text and layout more or less to my liking. I feel that I have a very basic understanding of how to use InDesign - the online video tutorials and help were very good. I can't help but realize that I am a beginner in a vast, complex program - but I know enough to get the book done at the quality level I want. I am sure that it takes me 10 times longer to do something with it than an experienced user would take for the same task; that will have to be good enough for now.

I am impressed with InDesign; it has an elegant interface and seems to be extremely capable. I plan to do more publishing so will save up and buy a copy when the 30 day trial runs out. Good sales technique Adobe!

I am still struggling with a couple of issues:
- JPEG quality. I tried to shrink the JPEG's from LR before I pasted them into ID and tried a variety of settings. So far, 100 dpi at an expected image size and 50% compression seems OK. The images still do not look as good as they do in Lightroom. Natt responsed to my post last night and suggested that I paste full rez/quality JPEG's into ID and let ID do the downsampling when the PDF is exported. I'll give this a quick test tonight to see if it merits re-pasting my 50 images (I know to do this now so it will be fast).

- Picture captions. I don't yet know if there is a function to do this other than having to manually insert a text frame with caption under each image. Any ideas or suggestions here?

The best part is looking at my book in full pasteboard view and scrolling through it. I can see the story and sequence emerge - it is exciting. I will finish tonight and upload to Issuu and the SFB website. After today, I will revise the book layout using Blurb's new InDesign template and test print a physical book.

Jpeg Generation for InDesign Help....

I have completed the book organization and text sections and am now experimenting with JPEG export settings from lightroom that will give me me a file with enough quality yet reasonable size. I have tried 750 pixels, 1280 pixels and non-sized files from Lightroom at a quality setting of 75-80. I am still seeing too much pixelation in my book preview.

My book dimensions are 8.5 X11, landscape format. Can anyone share what settings and dimensions have worked for them? I am using Adobe InDesign if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Abe Williams - Dignity in Motion

I met Mr. Williams at the Smithsburg Volunteer Fire Department Carnival. He was manning the raffle booth where five bucks gets you a chance at a gas barbecue (I haven't received my call yet telling me I can come pick it up). Abe was the founder of the original EMS service in Smithsburg.

He is an honored leader in the community - his booth mate told me of his lengthy service to the town and its people.

We had a nice chat and he watched my cameras while I hit the striker with a big hammer for $2.00 and won a prize for my stepdaughter. I returned home with two inflatable bats for my trouble.

I am knee-deep in editing and have the organization and sequencing for the book almost complete. I will sleep on the current order and organization and review them tomorrow. My crash course in Adobe InDesign is progressing - I have watched videos, read help text, and have a default book layout with text styles and sections ready to go. I will have the book complete by July 1st.......

A Final Day of Photography

I spent 11 hours making images yesterday from Point-of-Rocks to Smithsburg. The image you see here is from the Smithsburg Volunteer Fire Department Carnival - taken at 9:30pm.

It was a very productive day; I feel very good that I will have enough quality to choose from in completing my book by Tuesday evening. I have spent most of today in the role of (hopefully) ruthless editor and sequencer in Lightroom. My book now has some organization and form. I need to complete my crash course in Adobe InDesign to finish the layout and start inserting the images and text. I have already decided that I am going to continue revising this project past Wednesday with the aim of producing and expanded version of book by the end of the summer.

This image, like several from the Carnival sequence, was made with my Canon 5D and the 24mm TSE lens. I love looking for the patterns in the light and sky. This image turned out better than I expected when I saw the preview on the back of my camera. There is something beyond the contents that I really like. More to come as I make my final editing/layout push.....

Henry and his 1940 Willy Pickup

One of the great parts of doing a project like this is meeting new people who each have own their story to tell.....

I was driving by Henry's Garage in Brunswick, MD yesterday and saw his racing pickup truck peeking out of the open door. Henry was just finishing his Saturday lawn mowing as I approached him. We struck up a conversation and he proceeded to tell me that he had purchased this 1940 Willy over 25 years ago and had lovingly restored it. The disks you see on the windshield are certifications of races he has finished in his truck. Taped to the refrigerator in his garage were old racing schedules, notices, and a picture or two. He has rebuilt this vehicle and maintained it for years. He races it every chance he gets. He told me "there isn't money in this, you do it for other reasons."

We had a great talk and I went on my way. You will have to look at my finished book to see the vehicle in all of its glory; it is quite a site...

Commitment and Reward

I am now 11 days into my project with one and a half good sessions of photography under my belt.

This post is about the half session I had yesterday morning (early morning). I knew that I wanted to photograph parts of the region in the early morning light. The hills, mountains, trees, and natural features face East and West so I wanted different lighting and different ambience to choose from. Because I am doing this project between working hours and we have had a lot of rain lately, this meant that I would need to get up and get out before work one morning when the weather broke.

That morning was yesterday. My alarm went off at 4:15am. As I lay bleary-eyed in bed, I thought "well, the light will probably not be very good anyway, I guess I should go back to sleep and try again some other morning". I was millimeters away from convincing myself that I really needed to go back to sleep. When I took a look out the window, I saw a clear sky and a full moon. Holy Cow! Now my commitment was being put to the test. If I wanted to really put forward a quality effort in the spirit of Sofobomo, now was the time to put up or shut up.

One hot shower and a thermos of coffee later, I was on the road. I reached the Point-of-Rocks bridge at precisely 6am. I would shoot until 8:30am and then head into the office with the rest of rush hour.

I have been studying maps of the region and making sure I get off of the main road and wander as much as possible. I made several exposures at the bridge in the beautiful morning light and headed north. I took a small road off of Route 15 and headed towards Adamstown. On the outskirts of the village, I saw the scene pictured above. Halt! Find a place to park the car!

Camera on tripod, 45mm TS/E Lens already in place, mirror-lockup enabled. A couple of degrees of tilt to keep the near and far in focus, and a small amount of shift for better framing while keeping the camera back level - this image is the result. Because I have photographed so long with a view camera, I tend to see and line up landscapes and architectural images with camera movements already in place. This was no exception.

My morning outing was a success. I had several keepers that are now swirling in the mix to be part of the final 35. Life is good. I didn't even notice the rush-hour traffic into the office or the fact that I was a little tired yesterday evening............In my opinion, this is what it is all about.

One technical note, the standard Canon 45mm TSE lens will not allow you to have shift and tilt movements on the same axis. This is contrary to the way I work with a view camera. I had Canon Technical Support modify all of my tilt/shift lenses to put the tilt and shift controls on the same axis. Canon's newest 24mm TSE lens has the ability to rotate the axis already built-in eliminating the need for a custom modification. Progress comes in small doses.......

Some Photography Logistics

Like Many, I have been struggling with the migration from film to digital.  Prior to the digital revolution, I was an affirmed view camera (5x7) and 6x7 photographer.  I preferred the smooth, descriptive tonality that larger formats could deliver compared to 35mm.  Furthermore, I loved the ground glass of the view camera - what a great way to see!

Of course, it had its drawbacks.  it was slow (maybe not a drawback if it promoted careful seeing); it was less portable; less flexible; took more time in the darkroom, etc.......

Now with the digital age, I am using a Canon 5D.  I use tilt-shift lenses (24/45/90) and enjoy reasonable control over the image with tilts and shifts.  The 5D is a remarkable camera with "medium format film" image quality...from what I have read, the 5DMKII is yet again better...

I love the camera, but I still struggle with the viewfinder; especially when the camera is on a tripod with a tilt-shift lens.  The image is simply too small and not bright enough for my taste.  I have added the "high precision" focusing screen which gives me more manual focusing feedback at the expense of some brightness - it is a worthwhile tradeoff.  As we all know by now, the productivity and control of digital is off the charts.....the real reason to use this camera.

I am also trying something different for this project.  I am using my terrific Canon EOS 1-V with SPUR DSX film and developer.  This film/developer combination is the latest in a long line of "ultra fine grain" continuous tone films from Germany.  Erwin Puts reviewed the film on his site and stated that it had an enormous exposure range (14 stops) with exceptional grain and sharpness.  The main reason to try this is to be able to use the EOS 1V's wonderful viewfinder.  It is night and day compared to the 5D; I can actually see "into" the image with the 1V whereas I have to look hard to try to see the same thing with the 5D.  If the film/developer combination delivers good scannable (and printable "I still print") negatives this will be a great adjunct for Black & White landscape work.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

My guess is that Canon's current 1 series digital bodies have the same wonderful viewfinder, but they are out of my price range (and the are very heavy).  The evolution/revolution will have to wait until product/pricing/innovation cycles run their course.

First Good Day of Shooting

It was beautiful today and I had the opportunity take "a good ride" and make some images for my project.  I did a survey of the region starting at point-of-rocks in Maryland, and driving up to Emmitsburg  just south of the Pennsylvania border.  The region has all of the "feel" that I hoped when I decided to do my book project of it.  There is enough variety, humanity, nature, and Americana to go find.  I had a pretty successful day - I will write more on the logistics.

Here is an image I made in Brunswick..

Sofobomo project begins!

Today is June 1st. My project begins. I will shoot on at least one evening after work and make two trips this weekend to start wandering the area of Route 15 that I will cover.

Update on Blurb/Booksmart use. I spoke with the nice folks at Blurb, they will not have the unlimited PDF version available for our use this time around......they are working on it.

I will have to use a simple layout systsem and output to PDF....anyway, for now it is about getting enough quality images to edit from....

Will start posting as I accumulate.