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 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.
Not wishing to dampen your enthusiasm but a few questions need asking.
How do you see this new venture fitting into the market place. Does it compliment or compete with B&W photography (UK) which many APUG members subscribe to.
Secondly by being B&W and analog your restricting potential readership, there is a need for a magazine which encompasses traditional processies both colour & black& white, which unfortunately B&W Photography doesn't.
Thirdly don't equate the no of website hits too closely with potential readership. Remember only a few readers of Magazines like B&W Photography, View Camera, Lenswork etc are regular posters/readers or subscribers of APUG, or the Large Format Forum.
Personally I'll read a new free online B&W magazine but it's unlikely I'd pay for a hardcopy.
Thanks for the comments / questions - I'll see if I can answer them...
Do I see it as competition to the already well established photo-magazines? In a word... no. This only came about because some people were concerned that digital equipment and software how-to's were beginning to creep in to various publications (UK B&W magazine was one, but most photo magazines available on the shelves have understandably gone this way). I just wanted to create something that didn't have to appease shareholders / make mega-bucks / be swayed by advertising. I don't need to reach circulation levels of 10,000+ and yet using the internet I can still create something that fulfills a niche market. The hard copy version was as a result of people suggesting that they prefer to sit down with a paper copy, rather than view articles on the screen. The only realistic method for distributing a paper magazine across Europe and America is to use sites such as Lulu. This was, and is, all about creating something for the traditional photography community.
Am I restricting potential readership? Hopefully not! Funny you should mention about colour - you're not the first and I have to say that whilst it was initially about B&W, it's really about traditional processes. Personally, I have no problem at all running with some colour articles as well.
Number of hits? I don't equate this with readership, this is an exciting project and people are interested in it judging by the mail I receive. I'm just really amazed at the number of hits received in the first week, considering that at 6pm last Friday there was nothing and I had no idea I was going to being doing this!
This is really an online resource for the community, with the option of a paper copy for those that want it. It'll be led by the community, with articles written from within the community and it's for the community. So whether you deal with daguerrotypes, cyanotypes, C-41, E-6 or something else, it's included. Just not digital capture.
I hope you stop by the site when it's up and running properly and let me have your feedback. Sure I hope that you find it interesting enough to buy a paper version, but whether you do or not, I hope you'll get involved - that means comments, ideas, or images and articles.
I asked the colour question because although I'm now almost 100% B&W for all my personal work I do like to see colour work. Commercially 99% of my work is colour.
Thanks. I won't deny that the project has to be self-financing one way or another, and I really don't have any money to throw at it - but I do have enthusiasm, a whole host of ideas and (hopefully) the skills to make it all a reality.
I've been so fortunate with 'Mark' making a donation that meant I could afford to get the web hosting sorted and that has effectively moved that milestone forward by quite some way.
I can't offer contributors cash for articles / images (as much as I would like to) but I can offer them a voice, let them share something back to the community - and that's what this is about for me. I've been in to my photography seriously for around 17 years now and it's only just hit me that based on all the skills I have learnt - photographic, business, marketing, computers and so on - that I could use these in a positive way to give back to something that I've enjoyed over the years.
If we were to make a profit from the magazines, then it'll be ploughed straight back in to the project.
In the same way that I'm not anti-colour (and I know you didn't suggest that for a moment), I'm also not anti-digital. I use digital a lot - it has it's advantages and disadvantages (and I don't want to start a lengthy debate on that!). This resource is for the traditional skills, and I really hope that you'll see fit one day to send in a colour image or two for inclusion on the site / in the magazine.
I guess that I'm going to take a different tack from Ian. I'm interested in a magazine (print and/or web) that concentrates on traditional, black and white photography. I was so thrilled when I discovered Black and White magazine several years ago, and am sad to see its inevitable transition to digital. I was similarly excited by the launch of Emulsion magazine and sad to see it die a premature death. So, with so slight meant toward photographers who shoot in color, for me, less (color) is more!
BTW, you've done a remarkable job getting your project to this point. I hope the rest of us support you with articles, photographs, etc. I have an idea for an article in mind that I'll be working on after the holidays.
BTW, you've done a remarkable job getting your project to this point. I hope the rest of us support you with articles, photographs, etc. I have an idea for an article in mind that I'll be working on after the holidays.
Yeah, imagine my shock and awe to pick up the latest B&W UK now that Ailsa is gone and they have a digital product comparison on p66 like you would find in POP Photog, one page in front of Les McLean's Darkroom article (oh, the irony.) I didn't see B&W so blatantly jumping off the edge like that. I know they had a lot of digital info before but it's like they hired George Lepp or something.
So, the dates have been set - the first article will appear on the 15th January and the Creative Image Maker 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 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 PM via this site, or email me at creativeimagemaker at yahoo.co.uk
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