Okay, here's where we are with this. TOP Books (whatever it's going to be called—I haven't thought up a good name for it) needs to do a book as a "test case"—to try out the systems and get our feet wet. We've run into a few snags with the idea of doing a book of Mark Surloff's work, although I remain committed to Mark's work and to doing a book of it eventually. But the snags make it seem like that might not be the best first book to pursue.
So I think, to make it easy, the first book will be a book of readers' pictures. We'll use some of the best shots from the initial Reader Contest a year or two ago, and a few from the recent "People Working" contest. What I want to alert you to is that coming up, we'll ask for more submissions from readers for Book #1. So just be aware of that, in case you want to participate.
I didn't give people any warning last time, so I want to make sure to give everyone a proper chance to prepare for next time.
Don't send anything now. This is something I don't want to be a surprise, and I don't want to be limited, so I'll give you plenty of notice about when the entries will open and plenty of opportunity to submit. So no need to worry—if you check in here at TOP every few days or even only every week or so, you're still likely to not miss it.
Mike
Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
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Featured Comments from:
How can you do any better than TOP Books? Sounds like a top shelf book and has a built in link to your website.
Posted by: Ned | Friday, 30 August 2013 at 02:05 PM
I am very disappointed that we won't get to see Mark Surloff's book for some time.
[Hi Ram, Me too, but Mark's pictures range from traditional 4x5 B&W negatives to conversions from small-sensor color digicam files, and I want to hire Ctein to prep the images for the press so the files will have the highest possible consistency. That will take some time and some money. As I said some time back, I'm hoping each book will earn enough to pay for the next one. --Mike]
Posted by: Ram | Friday, 30 August 2013 at 06:47 PM
I hope the delay of Mark Surloff's book won't be too long. I've really been looking forward to it.
Posted by: Dave in NM | Friday, 30 August 2013 at 09:08 PM
say it ain't so!
what about a ctein, carl weese, or, *ahem* mike johnston photobook?
Posted by: aizan | Saturday, 31 August 2013 at 01:28 AM
Didn't there used to be a TOP camera, many years ago (like 45 years ago) ?
[Hi Paul, Topcon (Tokyo Kogaku) built cameras from 1937 to 1981, including the RE Super of 1963, the first SLR with open-aperture TTL metering. The company still exists, as an affiliate of Toshiba. --Mike]
Posted by: Paul MC cANN | Saturday, 31 August 2013 at 01:38 AM
Please, add this one to TOP's first book:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/.a/6a00df351e888f88340120a572182e970b-popup
Posted by: Sam Pieter | Saturday, 31 August 2013 at 09:09 AM
I am happy that you are announcing your intentions to ask for photographs for the book.
Last two times I missed sending one: the first time (first reader contest) since I took my time to decide and I was waiting for the next request, that never came; this last time I just missed it, it happened in one of the few weeks that I have not consistently read the blog.
None is your fault, just bad luck, but I will be alert now, just participating in the contest and getting some feedback (if I pass the first round that is) will be a very nice experience.
I am looking forward to see the resulting book.
Posted by: Alberto Castro | Saturday, 31 August 2013 at 01:22 PM