JJP Designs | Photo Ninja

Glass is always an interesting subject in that it is very unforgiving regarding lighting... and reflections of said lighting... and of just about everything else in a 5 mile radius of your location... Now take that glass and bend it around so that it is curved and contoured... And then shape it into a vessel capable of containing liquid... Then try to photograph it with specific highlights and lines - and not others... And now we come to In Vino Veritas ... Because in your endeavor to control all light and reflections while photographing said glass vessel of liquid you will become suddenly and painfully aware that the truth is that you need a wine... stat... in great volume! Which reminds me, I need to restock my wine rack. Okay, so it's not THAT bad... but it can be challenging... While also quite a bit of fun and a tremendous learning experience... Recently, I had a bit of a go around with a camera, some strobes, a few modifiers, and a bottle (or few) of wine... My first sh...

How has a simple pile of paper, string and leather survived for so many years and in the face of so much technological assault directed at it? This is part of my series of blogs to explain what exactly is the Essence of a Book by photographically exploring my personal library. And I'm starting with my limited edition of The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night... There is something about a book - a REAL book... that has permanence - that says to the reader that the author committed to their words and thoughts... and the act of producing that book, those thoughts, on a typewriter gives the author the ability to physically produce their thoughts and ideas - instantaneously and indelibly. Here you just barely see the almost imperceptible indentation of letterpress. Today we crave the telltale indent that says we are beholding a work of handmade skilled craftsmanship but back in the day it was typically considered by many to be bad form to press into the paper to the e...

 Why do we still collect books? Well, I do... and apparently so do many others. Given the availability of digital texts, why do so many still love books? For me, it is the Essence of a Book... Material - Paperback/Hardback... Weight/Texture of the pages... Type of binding... The ink... the color... was it set via letterpress? traditional letterpress or modern? Can you feel the indentation of the letterpress or is it perfectly elegantly smooth? Size - Quarto... Sextodecimo... Folio... It's Tactile - the pages, the printing, the binding... everything about it... It's Three Dimensional - you can relate to the events within the story not only through the words but via their location within the block... how far through the block, how far up/down/left/right on the page - recto or verso... The typeface... The spacing/leading... The simple decision of margins... Illustrations - wood block, hand drawn, black and white or color... How is the title first presented to you - gilded, emb...