Exhibition naming...

[petemc]

Yeah I think I've probably talked too much about me. The book is about Liverpool. I'm rewriting it starting with when I made the blog. Thats how it started really. Definitely want to keep the last paragraph in.

[petemc]

Ok update.

In 2004 I started a website, a photoblog. Back then it was simply a site for me to dump photos on whenever I felt like I had something worth showing off. There was no real focus to the site. After running the site for a few years I found my feet in photography. I no longer wanted to photograph just "anything". I knew what got me out there: people and places. More specifically, the people and places of Liverpool.

Since creating the photoblog I've learnt more about Liverpool and its people. I've met so many great people through it and seen so many great places. Despite studying in Liverpool through 1997-2001, and having family there I didn't really know a whole lot about the city. Of course I knew the key places, Albert Dock, Three Graces and Sayers. However, I didn't know Duke Street from Dale Street.

So, armed with my Canon 10D I started looking for things to photograph in Liverpool. I started hearing about events like the Mersey River Festival, the QE2 arriving, and the Brouhaha International Street Festival. Fun events that allowed me to get in close and photograph people. When there were no events to photograph, I'd be out looking for nice cityscapes and interesting angles.

I learnt a lot about Liverpool by doing this. Most of all I saw how quickly it was changing. I knew that by taking photos I could document these changes. For example, some of the early photos on the site are of the rides on Chavasse Parkwhich which is now Liverpool One. The area around Mann Island and Albert Dock is also in a state of change. One of my favourite photos is of the Three Graces reflected in the dock at sunset. Its impossible to retake that photo now. The new Museum of Liverpool is being built on the left hand side and the warehouses have been demolished. Soon they'll build the new granite buildings and block the view of the 3 Graces. The same can be said of the people. In 10 years time fashion will have changed and the look on the street will be different. I'll have photos of what people were like in 2008. With Liverpool changing so quickly and the Capital of Culture year fast approaching I decided to rebrand my website from just my site to a site documenting Liverpool.

My site was initially inspired by David J. Nightingale's "Chromasia", which focused on Blackpool. His photos inspired me and changed my perception of Blackpool. In some way I hope my site can do the same about Liverpool. I can use my camera to document the people and places and then show them to the world. Liverpool is a fantastic city and my only aim is to show this.

I write this in the middle of the Capital of Culture year knowing that I can go out tomorrow and take a good photo of something in Liverpool. Perhaps it will be someone in town. They're always great to photograph. Sure, they'll look at me funny but often if I ask they're happy to stop for a photo. I can go to a gig and capture some random unsigned musician playing a fantastic song. I can wander round at sunset and capture the best light that you'll get anywhere in the country against that stunning skyline.

The photos in this book are just the start. 100 of the best from the past few years of documenting Liverpool. I could spend my life documenting the city. Who knows what will happen in 2009. Who knows what will happen in 2029. Good or bad there will always be photos to take here.

The city is amazing right now and it can only get better.

[petemc]

Update. Cover designs. I'm not sold tbh.







Personally I like the last, because I did it. I'm very much a perfectionist and because of that I'm unsure as to whether what I did does in fact look better than what the book designer did (1 & 2). But then I think about how bad it would be to constantly see my book and think "Eugh I hate that cover."

[Haly]

I prefer the third one too, and that was before I read who designed it
I don't like the fonts on the first two, they look wrong.

[Piggymon]

The square building has a scary face :/

[petemc]

Originally Posted by Haly

I prefer the third one too, and that was before I read who designed it
I don't like the fonts on the first two, they look wrong.

Annoyingly the design wants the book to flow. So the font on the front matches the font inside on the opening page, the title page and etc. It looks fine there but on the cover I just dunno. I don't have the font so I can't really play. The design I did was mainly for the layout.

Originally Posted by Piggymon

The square building has a scary face :/

haha it does too

[BBx]

I agree the third one.

The other fonts hurt my eyes maybe if they were a little smaller like yours?

BB x

[petemc]

Originally Posted by BBelle

I agree the third one.

The other fonts hurt my eyes maybe if they were a little smaller like yours?

BB x

I agree. Looks like I'm going to have to get forceful.

Originally Posted by Kitten

i like third one. Subtle and makes you look at the photograph more than the text.

Exactly. I just want people to go "Wow" at the image and buy the book. So the title should be kept neatly out the way.

Just a quick question - do you not think Peter Carr reads easier than Pete Carr?

Obviously it's down to which you prefer, but for some reason it seems to flow better

It does but for Google reasons I'm going with Pete

I think the scary building is the war memorial??

Scary building is the Birkenhead tunnel air vent thing.

[Desmo]

Prefer your one too mate, looks much nicer

[Mark]

Same again. To me it looks like they've over-egged the HDR - particularly the blues. So much so that the reflection of the boat on the right looks like it's glowing. Yours doesn't have that problem (don't know if that's a result of yours being a little smaller but I don't think so). Not sure if printing would tone it down a little.

As for the fonts, #1 is OK-ish, though contrast isn't great, #2 to me doesn't work as a result of where it is, and IMO it's too 'in your face' anyway. I think yours has the opposite problem though - it's too understated. Using the same font seems a bit of a lame excuse as I suspect very few try that. It's very common for titles to need a different font than the rest of the text for example.

Edit - thinking some more I'll assume you did the HDR on both, so it's probably some other post-processing (reduced colour count for printing?) that's caused the 'glowing' effect.