Iceland Book Feedback

Dear all, I'm currently in Melbourne, on my way to New Zealand today. I just spent the weekend with one of my very first workshop participant friends - Andrew, and we made some photographs around Port Campbell - where the twelve apostles are. It was an interesting return visit for me, as I feel this is the place where my photographic-journey really took off in 2000. It was nice go to back and say hello to this fabulous piece of landscape.

Anyway, I just thought I'd ask you all, those of you who have bought the book so far (quite a lot of you as it seems, and sales have now exceeded the first book in the same timeframe), to be so kind to let me know what you think of the book.

I'm going to leave you all with some of the personal email feedback I've had so far. I'm really pleased so far to find out how the book is being received!

Thanks once again for all the encouragement and support, and for buying the book :-)

Regards, Bruce

-----

It’s an object of beauty! That’s not something I say at all lightly, I can assure you. The finished product is superbly printed on excellent paper and each of the embossed cover, the paper cover and the slip-case are themselves very fine indeed. Plus, the fonts used are gorgeous. I’m a fan of fonts and those in ‘Nocturnes’ are just right for the subject matter.

As to contents: clearly, I like Bruce’s images very much and this collection has a strong theme which give the book a good structure; I also enjoy the short essays which relate to the making of those images. Often, monographs are simply collections of images. That’s an elegant approach, but in this case Bruce has also interspersed the photographs with a few essays stimulated by, or pertinent to the creation of, the images in the book. This, for me, makes it even more interesting and attractive as an artefact. ‘Nocturnes’ does not rely solely on images to communicate, it also gives some insight into the creative process and, more widely, into Bruce’s development over his several visits to Iceland. This seems to me to be a great addition to – again – the book as a piece of art in itself which extends it beyond simply ‘a collection of excellent photographs’ and makes it something richer and deeper. Mike Green

To read Mike's full review: http://mikegreenimages.com/2012/11/08/musings-on-the-allure-of-photography-monographs/

-----

It is a wonderful collection of work; standing apart from what has become a much photographed location. Beautifully produced, too. Well done. Steve Watkins, Editor, Outdoor Photography Magazine UK

-----

I received the book yesterday. It is a stunning production! We really like it. Well done! My wife is saying that if I do a trip to Iceland she is coming too. The print is beautiful and is in to be mounted and framed. Leslie Tait

-----

There aren't too many books I pre-order but this was one and it does not disappoint. I really like themed portfolios. There's something special that happens when it all comes together, the whole being greater than the sum of its parts or something like that. A really beautiful book. You can really see the thought and care that went into every page and how it all fits together. I wish you every success with it. Simon

Book Launch & Thank You!

Dear all, Last night I had my book launch for my Iceland book. It was held at a really nice venue in Edinburgh, just behind Hollyrood park. It's been a very hectic month or two for me and I've not been around on my blog much, but just wanted to say a big thank you to you all.

Some of you managed to make it along last night and that was just great: I saw lots of friends and workshop participants in the audience. The entire night felt like a celebration for me, as I got to hang out with those of you who have come on workshops with me, and reminisce about our times together, or maybe just catch up. Some of you I didn't have time to get round to saying a good hello to, but I was so glad you came along.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to all of you who have bought the book so far. It's been an interesting month watching the initial flurry of limited edition print versions of the book move faster than the standard slipcase editions, and then notice sales take off in a very different way once we received stock.

Anyway, I've not had a great deal of time to write of late, and I'm hoping that over the coming months while I'm in Australia, I might be able to share some images with you. Until then, thanks once again for the support and encouragement, whether it be via turning up last night, buying the book or just dropping me an email of encouragement. It's very kind of you.

Iceland books shipping!

We're in the office today, packing up all the pre-orders for the Iceland book. Still got a long way to go to completing all the orders, but hope to have them all out on Monday next week :-)

Iceland book now available

Well the announcement says it all. I'm delighted to let you all know that the book is finally here! I'll be doing a book signing event on the 1st of November in Edinburgh at the following venue:

Douglas Robertson Photography 42-43 Royal Park Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 8JA tel. +44(0) 131 467 7028

7pm to 10pm

If you can make it - you're more than welcome. We will have wine and also some soft drinks for those of you driving. There is a slide show and I'll be giving a talk about some of the images from the book. I do hope you can make it.

The schedule for the evening looks something like this:

7pm - 8pm - red/white wine / soft drinks 8pm - 8:40pm - slide show / talk by myself about the making of some of the book's images 8:40pm - 9:40pm - book signing

If in the meantime, you'd like to order a copy, you can get it from the Half-Light Press website.

Many thanks for all the support and encouragement from everyone over the past year. This book has been quite an evolution of sorts since I thought I'd 'finished' it in January of this year, and was only really truly complete around June of this year :-)

All the best,

Bruce.

1 space now free for Bolivia 2013

Dear all, I'm just taking some time-out at the moment, after a rather busy schedule this year. So I do hope to be back on this very blog with more thoughts about photography soon!

In the meantime, I have had one cancellation for Bolivia next year, due to a graduation, so I thought I would let you all know about this space as the trip was extremely popular and sold out in a matter of hours this year.

--

My Bolivia photographic-safari for 2013, now has one space free on it, due to a cancellation. This trip was extremely popular this year and had sold out before I'd even gotten round to mentioning it on my monthly newsletter!

If you'd like to know more about this trip, then you can find the details here. I expect this space to go very quickly, but rather than just let you find out by going to the workshop pages on this site, felt I should really just tell you all about it.

I hope you are all out there making nice images!

regards, Bruce.

Lost, now presumed Stolen

Hi All, Last week I was in Ullapool conducting a photographic workshop. On the first morning, I managed to leave a Think Tank rucksack at the edge of a small loch on the road between Ullapool and Lochinver. It hasn't been handed in to the police.

The thing that's bothering me about it the most, is that I had business cards inside the bag, which would have given whoever picked the bag up - an idea of who to call. Well, I haven't received a call yet and I now assume that the bag and its contents are now thought to be owned by whoever picked up the bag.

Inside the bag, I had:

Lumix GF1 14-45 lens 45-200 lens spare pair of glasses - just new, so not really happy about them not being returned Bankers security pin machine/keypad Garmin Sat Nav Business cards with my name and address on them

If you know anything about this, and wish to let me know - please contact me at bruce@brucepercy.com.

Many thanks, Bruce.

Camera Repair Recommendation

For the past year, I've had endless trouble with my Hasselblad 503CW body and numerous film backs. I've even sent it in for repair to Hasselblad but asked for the equipment back, because they were going to charge me £400 just to service two film backs. The body itself was going to cost another £400 to service.

On top of this, I had a local camera repair outfit 'service' the film backs and I think they just charged me for doing nothing. I really believe they didn't service the film backs because now I've had them serviced properly, I can feel they are lubricated.

I put out feelers through this blog for recommendations and I got a few people telling me about JDCamTech. I'm happy to say that John at JDCamTech was extremely efficient, and did a terrific job of servicing the entire outfit for around £300. He explained that Hasselblad equipment needs to be re-lubricated every three to five years. My outfit is running really smooth now.

If you do have any problems with your cameras, then I can't recommend him enough. I feel that credit should be given, where credit is due, and so if you do feel you have trouble with your camera equipment, please give John at JDCamTech a call.

Kinesis Large Grad Filter Pouch

If you've got a lot of ND and ND grad filters like I have, then you're probably making do with the (cloth) Lee Filter case. I have the excellent leather access case - see below -  (but it's rather heavy out in the field and it only stores six filters). It is a great filter case, sturdy, and has amazingly quick access to my filters. I've had no complaints using it, except perhaps the weight of it, and the fact that I could do with a few more slots for a couple of more filters.

I personally detest the cloth case made by Lee. The zip makes getting access to the filters cumbersome, and once i've got the case open (like a book - using both hands), I have to go through each page in the holder to guess which filter is in each cloth cover. If I'm using the ND filters - which are square, they are buried deep within one of the cloth pages, and it can take a while to fish them out.

I hate faffing (a UK term for fidgeting).

Anything that causes me any delay in making the images I'm seeing open up in front of me - must go. I've discarded a lot of equipment over the years because it's either too cumbersome, or simply it gets in the way. You'd be surprised how much stuff isn't made to do the job it's advertised to do. Well, the Lee case isn't quite in that territory - it works, but it's a little fidgety for me.

Each month on my workshops, I get folks coming along with the latest and greatest cameras, tripods and bags. The past few months I've started to see the Kinesis Large Grad Filter Pouch on my trips and I've just placed an order for one today (Kinesis have a problem with their web site which means you have to email them to buy anything from them if you are not in the US - get this sorted out Kinesis! You'll be losing a lot of trade from this!).

The pouch as you can see is like a mini filing cabinet. I like how the filters are stored sideways, and there are some nice velcro labels attached to each section so you can find the right filter quickly. Access is a breeze. No horrible zip to undo, no filters falling out all over the place either. The filters are tightly packed together, and there's ample room in there for quite a number of them too.

I can't stress how important 'process' is to my photography. I have all my gear organised. I put things away in the places they were before I used them, because it means I don't have to spend time hunting (faffing). Likewise, I dumped the Lee cloth case because it's just a pain to use. I never zip it up because it takes a lot of time to unzip it round three edges of the case. The Kinesis has been designed with thought and care. It doesn't just store your filters - it has been put together to give you quick and easy (read organised) access.

Highly recommended.

Home

I'm just home from Iceland - a fabulous country with fabulous scenery and fabulous people. I had the good fortune to meet up with Daniel Bergmann - he is a very fine photographer who runs workshops in Iceland and has a very nice book out too.

But I'm so glad to be home. And the reason is simple:

I *love* Scotland. It is my home, and it is a beautiful part of the world to live. I'm just going to have a rest now for the next few days.

Wish you were here,

Bruce.

Lenswork Interview

This past week, I had a very engaging telephone interview with Brooks Jensen, the publisher of Lenswork. The interview is slated for release sometime this month or in October. I'm not exactly sure.

If you don't know much about Lenswork, then I would strongly urge you to seek it out. There are not that many interesting photography related magazines or on-line subscriptions which focus on the art and creative aspects of being a photographer. In fact, I think it's telling that most of the sites out there are predominantly focussed on gear. So it's really refreshing to have Brook's magazine available.

Anyway, the interview with Brooks was covered by himself recording his own audio while he chatted to me on Skype, and I recorded my own segment with my handy Sony PCM-D50 audio recorder (I love taking a little audio recorder with me on my travels as I think sound is a further dimension in which one can creatively explore their surroundings and it's been very useful for adding a richness to some of my podcasts).

In his interview, Brooks covered many things with me, but I think the area that interested him the most was how I've managed to make a living from photography and in which mediums I've managed to do this (we discussed e-books, printed books and also my podcasts). I think he's very interested in photographers thinking more outside the box, and not being too constrained by the ideas that they should try to sell images or prints only.

Anyway, Brooks was very nice to talk to. He came over very much as he does in his audio podcasts. You should really check out his magazine. Yes, there is a predominant focus on black and white photography, but he also has a Lenswork 'extended' edition which covers colour photography and how best to illustrate or show your work to others.

Very highly recommended.