“How do you come up with things to write about?” Sometimes it is as simple as noticing what I’ve written on social media. Thanks, followers. Today I posted a small celebration, which prompted a comment, which prompted a reply, which prompted me to get past my aversion to “shameless self-promotion”, all of which inspired this post. As I posted to social media;
“The first sort of the photos for
Twelve Months on Hurricane Ridge
is complete.
Many more sorts to do to go from over a thousand
down to 48 (2 vertical, 2 horizontal X 12 months)
This one is a throwaway, but a good example of what I am working from. (Road encroached on the bottom of the frame. Sigh.)
Stay tuned. Hundreds more to winnow away.”
In the world of tasks required to produce a Twelve Month photo essay book, the first big job is taking twelve months of photos, and, at least for me, deciding which photos will be the final ones. Today I finished the first sort, where I set aside about half of the photos as candidates. From over a thousand photos, the list of candidates has shrunk to about a few hundred. Within the next few months, I hope, I will pick two horizontal and two vertical photos from each month. From over a thousand to a final 48.
I know that, but part of marketing is getting other people to know that, which is why I appreciated one response.
Is that a book?
The short answer was Yes. The longer answer was;
It will be. So far, I have three Twelve Month books in the Cascades (Barclay Lake, Lake Valhalla, Merritt Lake), and ten on Whidbey Island (various bits of natural shoreline.)The Cascade ones are written chronicles of Nature. The Whidbey ones are hardback photo essays. All are available as prints. I haven’t decided on the format for the ones I plan for Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge is the first of several I have planned – and since this answer is long, I guess I should blog about it. Thanks for the inspiration.”
And the length embarrassed me. They had a four-word question and I responded with a hundred. And yet, with the embarrassment out there, I decided to push into the self-promotion with;
“Practicing shameless self-promotion (and the practice proves I don’t do enough of it.) Books – https://trimbathcreative.net/books/ & Photos – https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/tom-trimbath”
As I type this blog post, it is almost 10 PM. I intend to describe the mechanics of my process. It sounds simple. It could be simple, but like many seemingly simple things, the ‘seemingly’ hides the complexity. My Twelve Month studies are more than 48 photos. It isn’t until I have twelve months of photos that I see trends and themes. There is a place for repetition, like a choppy time lapse, but seasons create such variability that there is some craft in deciding what story to tell, mostly visually. In 48 photos, show snow, and flowers, and weather, and wildlife, and whatever else Nature offered as candidates. And then save all of the photos because there are gems that don’t fit in the 48, and there are fine pieces of art and story that need more polishing and freedom than my selection process allows in the book. Panoramas appreciate formats that are best seen large and unbound. Stay tuned for that process.
For now, I’ll toast my mini-celebration, use this opportunity to begin the marketing, and welcome anyone who is patient enough to watch my process proceed.
Cheers. (And begin publishing this post, furthering the impact of that off-hand post from earlier today.)
tomthewriter.com 
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