Lost in time - an irreplicable scene
The last time I visited of my favorite project locations [above], I noticed that my subject has been falling apart. The right-most panel has tumbled off, more surely to follow.
My proposal sits with a publisher, a good one, one I would love to work with. While it sits, in that slightly comfortable limbo, I have been asking myself, "why do I want a publishing relationship NOW?" as opposed to next week/month/year. I've been self-motivating, self-directing, self-financing this project for so long, so why now? And I realized I have eight concrete reasons to formalize my project:
Access to some special sites and situations
- One photo I REALLY want will involve a certain federal agency deeply engaged with national security. These people have weapons. I want a piece of paper to discuss with their regional PR people. The image I have in mind may take a year to set up. No time to waste there.
- Another photo will show an annual event organized by a certain religious denomination headquartered in the intermountain west. I'm working my connections to get an insider view of the event, but another good word on my behalf would be nice. I don't want to miss it this year.
- Yet another photo location is under the jurisdiction of a federal agency charged with protecting its natural beauty and thus is generally closed to any photography conditions worth attempting. This image isn't essential to the project, but I'd still like some help opening doors with this one.
Money - if I had an advance, here's where it would go first:
- Aerial work - I have two pilot friends who I trust and have volunteered to fly me to do some aerial shots. But I've got to buy the fuel, pay the aircraft rental, and secure the lodgings. We'll need a rental car when we land too. Not to mention a a tasty meal or two and tasteful gift for the pilot - after all, we're talking a dawn launch.
- Slide scanning - most of the images for the project are digitally shot, but I found a couple dozen images in my slide archives that I need to scan. And not DIY scans. Hi res, pay by the MB scans.
- Some gear rental - I can see in my mind a unique view of one of America's most photographed locations, but I need to rent some gear to do it.
Advice, because I haven't done a project like this before:
- Co-marketing of some images - I expect to repurpose some of the images as greeting cards, calendars, etc. and that it can be marketed as a package. But I might want to shoot some more stuff to augment what I've got for the project, and someone's experience would be very helpful here.
- An image doesn't really exist in the blogosphere until it's linked, keyworded and tagged. I've refrained from directly blogging about my project, even as I've blogged a wide net all around the topic. I will defer to good advice on when to plainly state what I'm on about, but blogging would be a lot more fun if I could.
And then there's that cherry picker I desperately want to rent for Christmas Eve 2007 and haul out to another federally protected and managed site... R is going to have to install a hitch on that truck... I'll need to get a permit, insurance...
Comments (2)
And much more time-sensitive stuff that I can think of:
I'll stop there but could go on and on. I'd argue you'd better find a publisher NOW as every passing day further erodes the character of the west. Soon, every piece of rock art will either be vandalized or off limits to all.
Posted by Robert Marc | March 28, 2007 10:15 AM
Posted on March 28, 2007 10:15
And Arch Canyon too - see www.suwa.org!
Posted by Robert Marc | March 30, 2007 10:21 AM
Posted on March 30, 2007 10:21