It’s been over three months since I released my first ebook Insights From Beyond the Lens: The Art & Craft of Landscape Photography , and the feedback and response has been overwhelmingly positive to say the least.
To date it’s been downloaded over 3,500 times, with the ratio of iPad to PDF roughly 50/50. I was honestly surprised by this, but I guess that just shows how many people are buying and using iPads for reading. In fact the reason I made the iPad multi-touch version was because I think it’s a better reading and learning experience than pdf. With the release of the new iPad mini, I think this trend will continue to grow as the price point gets lower and lower for iPad’s in general. I’ve decided all of my future ebooks will be designed as a multi-touch version for iPad first, and then I’ll convert to pdf and Kindle.
It’s also been downloaded in over 20 countries, although mostly in the US as I expected. In fact, the first day I published it, someone from Belgium emailed to ask when it would be available there – incredible. It’s amazing to me that the ability to write and distribute a book all over the world from my desktop was unimaginable just 10 years ago. It has certainly opened my eyes to the tremendous potential that ebooks offer, and publishing is definitely a big part of my future as both a photographer and instructor.
Reviews
Below are a few reviews of the Insights ebook – I also recommend you check out their respective websites for some great photography and resources.
Writing Your Own Ebook
If you have any interest in writing your own ebook, there has never been a better time to self-publish. The technology and tools are readily available, and the internet is your gateway to finding your target audience regardless of where you live. Here are some of the tools I use to write my ebooks as well as some resources.
Writing
- Byword – my prefered plain text and markdown writing app, simply great for both the desktop and mobile. I use it for the blog as well, and I’m using it right now.
- Scrivener – simply a brilliant app available for Mac and Windows for long form writing. I use it for ebooks and other lengthy writing projects. From Scrivener, I transfer it to iBooks Author or Apple Pages depending on the final destination. It can also export epub format for the various ebook readers on the market.
Research
- Evernote – my digital filing cabinet. Everything goes into Evernote where it syncs between my desktop and iOS devices. I maintain a dedicated notebook for each writing project, and just dump ideas, quotes, photos, and other snippets of information. When it comes time to write, I have a nice database of reference material.
- Mr Reader – great iOS app for keeping track of all the blogs I read on a regular basis.
- Zite – another great iPad app for discovering articles on a variety of topics
Layout and Publishing
- iBooks Author 2 – the app that creates the magic on the iPad. Amazing multi-touch capabilities that provide interactivity, image galleries, and lots of other cool features I’m just starting to explore on my new ebook.
- Apple Pages – When I want to layout pages for pdf or epub format, Pages is a great choice, especially if you don’t have Scrivener.
Finally, here’s a great resource with lots of info on ebook writing and publishing:
How to Write and Publish eBooks
I hope this is helpful for anyone who’s intersted in pursuing more writing or even publishing an ebook. I really think writing is a skill that complements photography extremely well, especially if you’re trying to market and sell your own work.
If you have any questions or feedback, please leave them in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading!
Using ByWord to write this post in Markdown
In part I of my studio setup article, I covered all of the hardware that I currently use to run my photo business. In this second article I’ll cover the apps that I use most often as well as some calibration software/hardware products I forgot to mention in the first article.
Mac Apps
- Adobe Lightroom 4 – my digital darkroom and database for my entire photo archive. From developing images, to keywording, printing, and sharing, I can do it all in one app. When a client or customer calls and needs an image yesterday, I can deliver exactly what they want with minimal stress – that means I’ll get paid. It’s also now available on the Apple App Store for $149.00.
- Adobe Photoshop – When I need additional photo editing capabilities (which is rarer these days), or more likely work on design projects and web graphics, Photoshop is the swiss army knife. As an alternative, I’ve been very impressed with Pixelmator and I’m liking it more and more each day. For many image manipulation tasks, Pixelmator opens faster, is easier to navigate, and just feels faster and lightweight.
- Auto Pano Giga – in my opinion, the best panorama stitching app for Mac or Windows. Consistently delivers great results, fast, and very powerful. Often I have re-stitched panorama’s in Auto Pano Giga after trying other apps, and I’m always pleased with the results without much tweaking or hassle.
- Image Framer 3 – this is a great app to mat and frame images virtually either for your own use or present to clients as virtual mock-ups. I use it all the time and customers love it.
- Final Cut Pro X- I’ve always loved cinematography and now with the amazing video capabilities of DSLR’s, I’m working on more and more video projects. FCP X is both simple and powerful, a makes working with DSLR files very easy. This is a deceptively deep program, but slowly I am learning my way around many of the advanced features, and it continues to amaze me with the capabilities it provides – on a laptop! (More on this in the future as I’m working on a 6 month film project based in the Hudson Valley – stay tuned.)
- Omni Focus – manages all of my projects, tasks and to-do’s, keeps me sane and productive. For ex. when a print order comes in, I drop it into an Omnifocus template which reminds me to cut the mat, print the image, order the frame, assemble and ship the print on time – very handy and efficient.
- Scrivener – a fantastic writing app which I use for longer blog articles, ebooks, and any other long for writing.
- Evernote – I’ve written in the past about how I use Evernote, but it’s basically my digital file cabinet. Plus I love how it syncs across all of my iOS devices which keeps any info I need at my fingertips at all times, no matter where I am. I use it to keep track of inventory, supplies and vendors, store reference articles I find online, and manage my photo projects.
- Byword – if you do any kind of writing on the Mac, I highly recommend this minimalist app that I use for distraction free writing. As a bonus it seamlessly syncs between the Mac and Byword for iPad via iCloud.
- BusyCal – calendar app I which I prefer to Apple’s built-in iCal app.
- Apple Pages – used for laying out graphic intensive documents, ebooks, brochures, flyers, etc.
- Apple Keynote – presentations, seminars, or any other speaking event, I rely on Keynote to help me deliver a compelling presentation. I wouldn’t think of using anything else – it’s one of Apple’s best apps, probably because it was designed specifically for Steve Jobs.
- Pandora – without this, work does not get done, period. From Mozart to Pat Metheny, and everything in between, it keeps the inspiration high. I really like Pandora
Framing an image for a prospective customer in ImageFramer
Plugins
I use a variety of plugins mostly in Lightroom and Photoshop to get some extra functionality I find useful.
- Photographer’s Toolbox – I love all the plugins for Lightroom from this developer, but my favorite is Mogrify 2 which allows you to add borders, annotations, extra sharpening and other nice embellishments when exporting images.
- Perfect Layers 2 – blend 2 or more images in Lightroom with this great plugin from OnOne, and best of all it’s free!
- Noiseware – the noise reduction in Lightroom 4 is really amazing, but when I need more, I turn to Noiseware, and it works as both a plugin in Lightroom and Photoshop.
- Photokit Sharpener – similar to Noiseware, when I need extra control, very localized sharpening, and precise output sharpening, Photokit is my favorite sharpening plugin for Photoshop.
While not technically software in my studio, I also use several web based services for the business side of things. It makes sharing information easier with others, and again lets me access it when I travel. Since my wife is my book-keeper, it lets her access the info easily from any browser.
- We use Batchbook for contact and customer management, Mailchimp for email newsletters (free for 2000 subscribers or less), and Mindmeister for brainstorming articles, presentations, workshops, marketing, and other ideas that pop into my head.
- In my opinion, Dropbox is a must have service for any photographer. I can write a whole post on Dropbox, but I use it mainly for syncing all personal and business files, sharing of anything over the internet, and for creating photo galleries for prospects and clients.
Color Management
To be honest, color management hardware/software should have been included in my hardware post, but I guess because I interact with it so much via the software, it slipped my mind. Either way, here is what I use to keep my studio color managed from camera to print.
- X-Rite i1 Photo Pro – I make my own custom paper profiles, and the i1 system does a great job of giving me accurate profiles that deliver predictable print results. For me this is critical because of all the printing I do. It can be tedious, especially when I use many color patches, but the results are worth it. X-Rite is the standard for color management software and hardware.
- NEC Spectra View II – one of the drawbacks to the wide color gamut NEC monitors is that you need to use the calibration device from NEC. The other popular monitor calibrators from companies like X-Rite will not work with them due to the wider gamut. This device from NEC is made for their monitors and works great, but it is expensive.
Conclusion
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but for sure these are the apps that do the heavy lifting day in and day out whether I’m in the studio, teaching a workshop, or out in the field making new images. I think the important point I want to make is that applications, like cameras and lenses, can become a distraction to the ultimate goal of getting work done, whether creatively or otherwise. I use the apps that have proven their value to me in real world situations. I try and invest the time to learn them well, and in return they help me run a business I could never have managed on my own 10 years ago.
I’ll cover iOS apps in the next post and illustrate the many ways I have integrated the iPad and iPhone into my workday.
Have any apps you want to recommend? Any questions of feedback? Please let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
