Almost a year has passed since I started my river walks. They began towards the end of March 2020, just after the UK’s first national lockdown, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and continued (almost) uninterupted for 130 days. That equated to over 130 photos posted on social media – usually one each day, but occasionally there was an extra shot, if the walk had been particularly productive.
When I began the walks there was no intention behind them other than to get my permitted daily exercise, and a bit of fresh, revitalising Worcestershire air in my lungs, at the same time. But as I began to document my perambulations, I thought (and it was suggested to me) that I might produce a book of the shots that I took along the way. I’m not altogether sure why the idea came to mind again recently, but come to mind it did. Perhaps I was reflecting on the fact that the anniversary was almost upon us, and that there seems to be a chink of light at the end of the tunnel now; but whatever the reason, I figured I might just do it. As a memento I think it would be something nice to have, and we don’t often print our photos these days. So, you know… why not?
This will effectively constitute Project 3 (I haven’t forgotten about Projects 1 and 2)!
I’ll be selective though, about what I include in the publication. I posted a photo every day, come what may, so the quality was variable – ranging from images that I was really pleased with (and maybe even some of my best shots) to those that were pretty awful at best! The latter obviously won’t make the cut; I’m not going to put any old crap in there!
I’m looking into how to go about it at the moment, weighing up the pros and contras of the myriad different platforms and methods at my disposal, and they are many. I think I’d like to produce a good quality, coffee table book, just as a one-off as I think that would be quite expensive, but I’d also like to produce some smaller, or at least more affordable copies, maybe via a print-on-demand service. I’m still undecided, and I don’t like the idea of experimenting too much and potentially throwing money away on something of dubious quality. But I guess you just don’t know what you’ll end up with until you end up with it!
The photo at the top of this post is a mock-up, as you probably guessed, but I think it looks pretty neat. I’d be more than happy if the finished book looked anything like that. For the cover I used a shot of a little egret (above), taken on walk #114, on Tuesday 21 July 2020.