**A Conversation with Chasing the Sun**

Chasing the Sun is an inspiring individual who has taken it upon themselves to create their own personal reference and have been working on a book that showcases their photography skills. When asked about their work, they explained that they don't really need any labels or references as their compositions, colors, and style speak for themselves. However, I couldn't agree more with this sentiment and think that their work is truly solid.

One thing that really caught my attention was the gondolas and waterways of Italy, which are featured prominently in their photography. The way they capture the angles and architecture of this beautiful city is truly impressive and shows a great understanding of composition. Chasing the Sun's love for Italy is evident in every shot, and it's clear that they have a deep appreciation for this place.

**A Gift from Tristan Harmson**

Chasing the Sun recently received a gift from Tristan Harmson, a photographer who has been following their work for some time. Tristan sent them an envelope with a beautiful wax seal on it, accompanied by a handwritten note. The note reads: "Dear Ted, greetings from Quebec. I hope that all is well in Texas. I've enjoyed your channel for a few years now and lately more than ever, I find it of great value. As I tried to transition from doing flashy Instagram-focused photography to a more documentary style and meaningful themes, I began work on 28 Days." Tristan's note went on to explain that 28 Days is a book that tells the story of the crew of the CCGS Griffon, the Coast Guard ship where he currently works. He expressed his gratitude for Chasing the Sun's inspiration and hopes that they will continue to create meaningful content.

Tristan's gift was not only a kind gesture but also a testament to the impact that Chasing the Sun has had on their photography career. It's clear that Tristan is someone who values creativity and artistic expression, and he recognizes the value of Chasing the Sun's work in inspiring him to pursue his own vision. I couldn't agree more with this sentiment and think that 28 Days is a truly impressive achievement.

**A New Direction**

One thing that stands out about Tristan's work is its uniqueness and willingness to challenge conventional norms. Unlike many photographers who simply post images on Instagram, Tristan has taken the time to develop a body of work that tells a story through a series of photographs. This takes a lot of courage and dedication, but the result is well worth it. I think that this is something that more photographers should strive for – to create content that not only showcases their technical skills but also tells a story.

While Tristan's work may be different from what we're used to seeing in photography, there's something about his images that resonates with me. The diversity of subject matter, the use of color and light – all of these things come together to create a truly cohesive and meaningful body of work. I think that this is what sets Tristan apart from other photographers and makes 28 Days such an impressive achievement.

**A Final Thought**

As I reflect on my conversation with Chasing the Sun and Tristan Harmson, I'm reminded of the importance of taking risks and pursuing our passions. It's not always easy to do things differently or to challenge conventional norms, but it's often exactly this kind of innovation that leads to greatness. Both Chasing the Sun and Tristan Harmson are proof of this, and I couldn't be more proud of them.

Chasing the Sun will continue to feature these talented individuals in future videos, showcasing their work and sharing our conversation with you all. In the meantime, if you're interested in learning more about 28 Days or Chasing the Sun's photography, please check out the links below. And who knows – maybe one day we'll even get to see Tristan Harmson's next project, which he hinted at might be a new direction for his work.

**Supporting Fellow Artists**

As I wrap up this article, I want to take a moment to talk about something that's really important to me: supporting fellow artists and creatives. In an industry where it's easy to get lost in the noise, it's more important than ever to recognize and appreciate the hard work and dedication of those around us.

If you're interested in learning more about Chasing the Sun or Tristan Harmson's photography, be sure to check out their books and websites (links below). And if you have any work that you'd like to share, please don't hesitate to reach out – I'm always excited to discover new talent and feature it on my channel.

**Change Coming**

Finally, I want to let you all know that I've been thinking about making some changes to my content strategy. While Mail Time will continue in its current format for now, I do have some exciting plans in the works that I'll be sharing with you all in future videos.

For now, though, I hope you'll join me on this journey of discovery and creativity. And who knows – maybe one day we'll even get to see Tristan Harmson's next project, which he hinted at might be a new direction for his work.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is brought to you by Squarespace welcome back everyone in this video we are going to take a look at some viewer mail I've got four things that were sent in that are completely awesome that I want to share with you but before we get going on that I want to address a question that I get asked pretty much every time I do one of these mail videos am I actually going to do some videos and some tutorials to teach you guys how to build your own Zen or book well after giving this a lot of thought a couple months ago I announced that we're doing a series of workshops on this very topic so if you sign up for one of these workshops they are four different weeks and week one week two week four are classroom type instruction I do these on zoom and then that third week we break down into small group so you can get some one-on-one I can take a look at your projects and kind of give you some direction and see what you're doing these have been a lot of fun we're in the middle of the first one so far the next one's in April unfortunately both of these are sold out however if you are interested in getting on the waiting list I do have a waiting list that you can get on and I will put information below this video in the show description if you're interested and if you just can't wait for that I do want to say that I have a couple extra slots that are still open on the workshop that I'm doing in New York City in April this is a workshop I'm doing with Ralph Gibson it's going to be amazing it's called The Next Level and if you are trying to get to the next level with your work this is probably for you we're going to do a whole lot of stuff in this workshop and you're going to come out with a portfolio of work to show for and it's going to be really cool so I will put information with that below this video as well and so check those out so without further Ado though let's get to some viewer mail all right so first up is this little book which does not have a title this comes to us from Chris Douglas who lives in Rochester Minnesota he also includes a note which reads dear Ted my sons and I have been followers of your channel for some time we're all amateur photographers and have greatly enjoyed your sharing and critiquing of others photography projects your photo work along with theirs is inspired us in our own photo Adventures after a year of planning the four of us took a long Labor Day weekend in 2022 and traveled Route 66 from Oklahoma City to the Santa Monica pier in California we made about 80 stops in 4 days along the 1,350 Mi route while taking a couple thousand photos using digital 35 mm and medium format films after several rounds of evaluating each others and our own photos we narrowed them down to 20 from each of us that are included in the enclosed book we only made five copies one for each of us and one for you for the inspiration that you gave us to take the adventure and put together a book and looking at all of our individual photos and starting to put the book together we thought it was interesting how each one of us approached the same subjects in a different way one of us might look at the larger Grand landscape and another would notice the smallest details while the photo adventure and putting together the book was both fun and challenging what I most valued from the experience is the time spent with my sons as they become adults moved on to other states and pursuit of their careers and started to get married there's been less and less time that we can all get together and do something like this anytime that we can all be together especially when it's centered around something we all enjoy like our pursuit of Photography makes it even more special that trip will always be one of the most memorable of my life thanks again for your channel and advice and I hope you enjoy the book we put together Chris PS pictured in this first photo in Oklahoma left to right is Chris Douglas Nick Douglas Evan Douglas and Nathaniel Douglas and there they are at the end of the route this is on the pier in Santa Monica Chris this book is awesome I am really touched by this that I'm very flattered that you would actually make a copy to send to me specifically and so I wanted to share it with everybody else on here I'm really Blown Away the quality of the work in here is outstanding and I think what's even more awesome about this and you've said it in your letters the time spent with your sons this is something I would actually like to see more of and I don't see a lot of is people who are families that actually collaborate and allow photography to be something that brings them together beyond that the work in here is really good and like you said there's a variety of different approaches to the different subjects that you have at hand from the grander scape down to the details but I also love the range of what you've actually tackled in here there's everything from astrophotography to abandoned buildings to night photography this is really cool and I you guys should be very proud of this work and I think that you've created a memory that you'll always have and this is something that I encourage so much more people to do I'm really blown away and I'm really flattered that you sent and shared the copy with me this is really awesome so uh so to Chris Nick Evan and Nathaniel work well done my friends if you guys are interested in this there's only five copies of it but maybe Chris will consider printing more and I'll put links to their work below as much as I can find so thanks for sharing Chris this is awesome all right so next up is a book that comes to us from a gentleman named hoger nitki this is called some squares I've emailed back and forth with hoger a little bit so it's really interesting to finally see this he also includes a note and I want to note that he put this in an AGA paper envelope here very cool hogar included a note as well as this awesome little print but the note reads dear Ted thank you very much for your positive reply to my email it is an honor for me to be a part of your Art of Photography because the book is less filled with text let me tell you a few things about me and the intention behind some squares I started photography 20 years ago from the very beginning my main focus were people portrait but just digital in 2017 I got my first analog 35mm camera and a friend of mine taught me how to develop film he always said that my photos would look great on film because I'd always edit the digital images rather than the quote unquote analog way I love black and white grain sometimes blur and I wanted my pictures to become more organic so I started to shoot analog besides digital during my photo shoots you probably know this photographers always suffer very quickly from the gas syndrome so the 35mm camera had to get a big sister I absolutely fell in love with the Vintage rooll Flex tlrs so I drove to town to buy one at a local dealer it was in March 2020 on the day before the first lockdown in Germany during the next months I spent hours and days in the dark room to improve my skills of film and print developing and to escape the media Terror of the pandemic I developed dozens and dozens of prints and film it was a cure for myself just me red light loud music and the smell of the chemicals and the time after and during Co I shot many pictures with the Rolex but also with my hustle blood 500 cm and added some other Ro of flex sisters as well did I mention gas I had already published a book of my own in 2015 and then again in 2017 I wasn't actually planning to create another one so quickly but the idea came to me spontaneously while I was jogging last fall suddenly the title of the book popped into my head when I got back home I looked through my stock of pictures from the last 2 and A2 years to see if I could turn turn them into a book I spent the following weeks and months designing it and in May 2023 I finally held the finished work in my hands and now you do too in addition to reduction variety is also very important to me so the book didn't contain just fashion and portrait shots but also some landscape and experimental photos as well as private shots as you will see there are also some errors and faults in the pictures I wanted the content to be as authentic as possible so apart from correcting the contrast and removing dust I really didn't edit anything I also kept the original negative negative edges just some of the new images have been cropped I think I've told you enough for now we just let the book and the photos speak for themselves enjoy some of my squares best wishes from Germany hoger so hoger this is outstanding you should be very proud of this book and I want to say that on a couple different levels first of all the photography in here is outstanding I'm going to come back around to that because I really do like the work that you're doing second of all you put some time and effort and money into getting this printed and it really shows I love the cloth cover I love the embossed photo on the front the print quality is outstanding this is really well done and you should be very proud of it I really like you sharing that story with me too because I think that you know a lot of us can relate to the whole pandemic issue and coming in and like spending that time really getting solid and getting better at something it's interesting how you've moved from digital to film and I want to talk a little bit about this because this is the important takeaways that you know I when we talk about film versus digital I mean they're mediums but one thing that you're getting out of here specifically by shooting two and a quarter 6x6 120 film whatever you want to call it with the roflex is that big surface on the negative and so many of these images in here have such a great 3D quality to them and it's the way that depth the field renders with that and I absolutely love these when you shoot wide open with an f2.8 lens on a surface that big it just looks so Lush and beautiful and and you get a real sense of dimensionality with that I think film helps with that too and so the work in here is outstanding I love the fact you've chosen black and white and your subject matter is really cool too I don't really think of this as necessarily being a fashion book per se because you have a wide range to the stuff that you're doing in here anyway really nicely done I will put a link to this as well as everybody else that we're talking about in the show description so make sure you support your fellow colleagues and check out Hog's work um this is beautiful man it inspires me in fact you're really making me want to go dust off my old rollof Flex because I haven't shot on it in a long time uh mainly because film requires time that I don't have these days but you're making me miss it a lot and so that's uh the highest compliment I can give you on there so um man appreciate you sending this is awesome thanks all right so I got a couple more things that I want to share with you these are both documentary projects projects and very different I might add but real quick I want to give a shout out to our sponsor this week who are the awesome folks over at Squarespace how easy is it to build an amazing website in a matter of minutes Squarespace has you covered it's dead simple head over to Squarespace hit get started you can start by selecting from an impressive collection of customizable templates or you can do what I do build your own something unique because you know you're not like other websites give your site a name next you can build your home homepage we'll start with a few preset layouts just to get us going want to sell products like books or prints well you can feature those on your homepage create a few more sections if you want let's also give it a color palette there's a whole bunch to choose from and just get it started we can change this all later next let's select the typography choices welcome to your website everything is set up and it's all ready for you to customize Squarespace is built on fluid engine the next generation of website design select edit and fluid engine allows you to drag place and resize any element on the page you can snap these to a grid you can make them float on top of one another you can free form however you like you can even preview and adjust how the site looks on either desktop or mobile the layouts are independent of course you'll want a portfolio for your work creating an image gallery is as easy as dropping a folder of images on your web browser once uploaded you can drag to Resort customize the look and Squarespace writes all of the code for you everything just works and it looks fabulous want to sell your own prints books or Zen Squarespace has the capabilities to not only set up your online store and collect payments but they also give you all the tools that you're going to need to be successful managing shipping and payment options manage your orders and engage with your customers they even give you the tax tools that you need to keep things organized and stay compliant you should try Squarespace for yourself it's absolutely free no credit card required just go to squarespace.com aop sign up for that free trial if you decide Squarespace is right for you I can save you an additional 10% on your order by using offer code aop on checkout that's right the code is aop so stop procrastinating go build your website today and I want to give a special shout out and thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video all right so next up is this book called Chasing the Sun photographs Ricky Bolton Ricky is actually an alumni he has sent stuff in before and he mentions this in his note which reads hi Ted Still Loving the show I don't know if you remember me but I sent my first ever Photography book called Seaside escapes which you featured on your channel a while back in March of 2022 it was a collection of color images taken in the south coast of England created during the year of the pandemic just as I had discovered my love of Photography since that book I decided to dip my toes into the world of black and white and created another title called not in color even though I enjoyed the cre ation process of making that book color photography is what I truly love I then discovered the amazing works of Alex Webb his use of vivid color and genius composition really inspired me to try to create a collection of bold and bright colorful images of my own hopefully using the experience of my first two books as a stepping stone to improve my difficult third once the pandemic situation had eased in the UK and we were allowed out of the country to travel again I decided to spend a year visiting as many places that I could afford aiming to see all of the destinations on my bucket list and help create a book that I could be proud of please find en closed my book called Chasing the Sun the title of the book truly encapsulates what I was going for on my glob trotting photography Expedition I attempted to be creative whilst composing the images and hopefully make it as interesting as possible for the viewer I still have much to learn and improve on but thanks again for creating the content that you do it goes a long way in helping budding photographers like myself and hopefully becoming more educated and knowledgeable about this fantastic art form that we all truly adore door kind regards Ricky So Ricky's book was shot in five different countries this is Portugal Italy Barbados Spain and Greece this is very well done Ricky I love your use of color in here particularly these kind of sunset kinds of things but also the very bold vibrant colors that you talked about being inspired by Alex Webb with I really love the book I think this is excellent I'm glad that you were inspired to go forth I think you just need to do more I mean this is really cool and I think it's awesome that you found something that you have a deep passion for the only critique that I would have on here and I feel like the broken record because I say this on so many books but when you put text at the bottom of images I am not convinced that it needs to be there all the time unless this is just for your own personal reference and you want to label where things were I don't know that it's location dependent I think the compositions the color the work speaks for itself pretty solidly and I think you've done a really nice job here and so uh one thing in particular that I really love and I think maybe it was just particularly inspiring to you but your work in Italy is very well done um I think the whole idea of the gondolas and the waterways and and the way that angles and architecture occurs down there really speaks well with your style so anyway thank you for sharing this once again uh Chasing the Sun is awesome so uh check his workout below all right so next up is this book which comes to us from Tristan harmson this is called 28 days Tristan also includes a note and I want to share this with you because the envelope had this awesome wax seal on it very hip and handwritten I might add but Tristan's note reads dear Ted greetings from Quebec I hope that all is well in Texas I have been watching your Channel for a few years now and I enjoyed it thoroughly and lately more than ever I have found it of Great Value as I tried to transition from doing flashy Instagram focused photography to a more documentary style and more meaningful themes to this end I began work a few years ago on 28 days this is a book which tells the story of the crew of the ccgs Griffon the Coast Guard ship where I currently work it was a good first step into this genre I felt to document a group of subjects to with whom I'm extremely com comfortable that being said I discovered a lot over the course of this project that challenged me despite this it was something wholly new to me to convey cohesive ideas through a series of images and create a story with characters I was insecure from the very beginning that this book would not ever see the light of day but now that it has I wanted to give you this copy for your collection as a thank you for all the inspiration that your videos have given my short photography career take care enjoy the book and if you're ever in Quebec the poutines are on me sincerely trist so Tristan I really like what you're going for here this is very different and I wish that more photographers would follow in something similar you know it's one thing to just do images on an image by image basis put them on Instagram social media we move on to the next it's another thing to try to tell a story through a group of images and have a project like this I think your subject matter is very cool it's something that's very different something I know very little about and you have a perfect opportunity here to peque my interest and show me more and show me something that I haven't seen I think you do that very well with the photographs that are in in here I like the variety of subject matter that you have I like the variety of people that you're documenting the only thing that for me that that makes this a little bit distant still just as a viewer I think that it would be a good idea for a book project like this maybe you could treat this moving forward for your next one to actually include some text I think that would bridge and it would put the images into a little more context where you can develop these characters by telling people who they are what they're responsible for doing uh with the Coast Guard and then what they're may be doing with their down time and I think that'll tell you a more complete story you don't need a ton of text but just some here and there just just tell me what I'm looking at and show me you know kind of some of the diversity within that range I think you'd have something that's really solid I think this is an excellent start though I love your use of color I love your use of kind of the documentary aspect of this and I think you're off to a really good start so uh please stay in touch and I want to see more work I think this is a really solid direction to go in and I'm proud of you for doing it um it takes uh takes some guts to jump out like that and it's something that most photographers don't do it requires a lot of time also as you well know anyway thank you for sending as I said before I'm going to feature everybody or everybody who's featured here I will put in the show description below so check their work out uh buy their books when you can support your fellow artists and if you guys want to send stuff in me you'll find my address there too been talking about changing Mail Time up and I'm not quite there yet so we'll still do Mail Time as is we'll still do it later but it's just going to there'll be some different things little more new format that's what I'm going for catch you guys in the next video Until then laterthis video is brought to you by Squarespace welcome back everyone in this video we are going to take a look at some viewer mail I've got four things that were sent in that are completely awesome that I want to share with you but before we get going on that I want to address a question that I get asked pretty much every time I do one of these mail videos am I actually going to do some videos and some tutorials to teach you guys how to build your own Zen or book well after giving this a lot of thought a couple months ago I announced that we're doing a series of workshops on this very topic so if you sign up for one of these workshops they are four different weeks and week one week two week four are classroom type instruction I do these on zoom and then that third week we break down into small group so you can get some one-on-one I can take a look at your projects and kind of give you some direction and see what you're doing these have been a lot of fun we're in the middle of the first one so far the next one's in April unfortunately both of these are sold out however if you are interested in getting on the waiting list I do have a waiting list that you can get on and I will put information below this video in the show description if you're interested and if you just can't wait for that I do want to say that I have a couple extra slots that are still open on the workshop that I'm doing in New York City in April this is a workshop I'm doing with Ralph Gibson it's going to be amazing it's called The Next Level and if you are trying to get to the next level with your work this is probably for you we're going to do a whole lot of stuff in this workshop and you're going to come out with a portfolio of work to show for and it's going to be really cool so I will put information with that below this video as well and so check those out so without further Ado though let's get to some viewer mail all right so first up is this little book which does not have a title this comes to us from Chris Douglas who lives in Rochester Minnesota he also includes a note which reads dear Ted my sons and I have been followers of your channel for some time we're all amateur photographers and have greatly enjoyed your sharing and critiquing of others photography projects your photo work along with theirs is inspired us in our own photo Adventures after a year of planning the four of us took a long Labor Day weekend in 2022 and traveled Route 66 from Oklahoma City to the Santa Monica pier in California we made about 80 stops in 4 days along the 1,350 Mi route while taking a couple thousand photos using digital 35 mm and medium format films after several rounds of evaluating each others and our own photos we narrowed them down to 20 from each of us that are included in the enclosed book we only made five copies one for each of us and one for you for the inspiration that you gave us to take the adventure and put together a book and looking at all of our individual photos and starting to put the book together we thought it was interesting how each one of us approached the same subjects in a different way one of us might look at the larger Grand landscape and another would notice the smallest details while the photo adventure and putting together the book was both fun and challenging what I most valued from the experience is the time spent with my sons as they become adults moved on to other states and pursuit of their careers and started to get married there's been less and less time that we can all get together and do something like this anytime that we can all be together especially when it's centered around something we all enjoy like our pursuit of Photography makes it even more special that trip will always be one of the most memorable of my life thanks again for your channel and advice and I hope you enjoy the book we put together Chris PS pictured in this first photo in Oklahoma left to right is Chris Douglas Nick Douglas Evan Douglas and Nathaniel Douglas and there they are at the end of the route this is on the pier in Santa Monica Chris this book is awesome I am really touched by this that I'm very flattered that you would actually make a copy to send to me specifically and so I wanted to share it with everybody else on here I'm really Blown Away the quality of the work in here is outstanding and I think what's even more awesome about this and you've said it in your letters the time spent with your sons this is something I would actually like to see more of and I don't see a lot of is people who are families that actually collaborate and allow photography to be something that brings them together beyond that the work in here is really good and like you said there's a variety of different approaches to the different subjects that you have at hand from the grander scape down to the details but I also love the range of what you've actually tackled in here there's everything from astrophotography to abandoned buildings to night photography this is really cool and I you guys should be very proud of this work and I think that you've created a memory that you'll always have and this is something that I encourage so much more people to do I'm really blown away and I'm really flattered that you sent and shared the copy with me this is really awesome so uh so to Chris Nick Evan and Nathaniel work well done my friends if you guys are interested in this there's only five copies of it but maybe Chris will consider printing more and I'll put links to their work below as much as I can find so thanks for sharing Chris this is awesome all right so next up is a book that comes to us from a gentleman named hoger nitki this is called some squares I've emailed back and forth with hoger a little bit so it's really interesting to finally see this he also includes a note and I want to note that he put this in an AGA paper envelope here very cool hogar included a note as well as this awesome little print but the note reads dear Ted thank you very much for your positive reply to my email it is an honor for me to be a part of your Art of Photography because the book is less filled with text let me tell you a few things about me and the intention behind some squares I started photography 20 years ago from the very beginning my main focus were people portrait but just digital in 2017 I got my first analog 35mm camera and a friend of mine taught me how to develop film he always said that my photos would look great on film because I'd always edit the digital images rather than the quote unquote analog way I love black and white grain sometimes blur and I wanted my pictures to become more organic so I started to shoot analog besides digital during my photo shoots you probably know this photographers always suffer very quickly from the gas syndrome so the 35mm camera had to get a big sister I absolutely fell in love with the Vintage rooll Flex tlrs so I drove to town to buy one at a local dealer it was in March 2020 on the day before the first lockdown in Germany during the next months I spent hours and days in the dark room to improve my skills of film and print developing and to escape the media Terror of the pandemic I developed dozens and dozens of prints and film it was a cure for myself just me red light loud music and the smell of the chemicals and the time after and during Co I shot many pictures with the Rolex but also with my hustle blood 500 cm and added some other Ro of flex sisters as well did I mention gas I had already published a book of my own in 2015 and then again in 2017 I wasn't actually planning to create another one so quickly but the idea came to me spontaneously while I was jogging last fall suddenly the title of the book popped into my head when I got back home I looked through my stock of pictures from the last 2 and A2 years to see if I could turn turn them into a book I spent the following weeks and months designing it and in May 2023 I finally held the finished work in my hands and now you do too in addition to reduction variety is also very important to me so the book didn't contain just fashion and portrait shots but also some landscape and experimental photos as well as private shots as you will see there are also some errors and faults in the pictures I wanted the content to be as authentic as possible so apart from correcting the contrast and removing dust I really didn't edit anything I also kept the original negative negative edges just some of the new images have been cropped I think I've told you enough for now we just let the book and the photos speak for themselves enjoy some of my squares best wishes from Germany hoger so hoger this is outstanding you should be very proud of this book and I want to say that on a couple different levels first of all the photography in here is outstanding I'm going to come back around to that because I really do like the work that you're doing second of all you put some time and effort and money into getting this printed and it really shows I love the cloth cover I love the embossed photo on the front the print quality is outstanding this is really well done and you should be very proud of it I really like you sharing that story with me too because I think that you know a lot of us can relate to the whole pandemic issue and coming in and like spending that time really getting solid and getting better at something it's interesting how you've moved from digital to film and I want to talk a little bit about this because this is the important takeaways that you know I when we talk about film versus digital I mean they're mediums but one thing that you're getting out of here specifically by shooting two and a quarter 6x6 120 film whatever you want to call it with the roflex is that big surface on the negative and so many of these images in here have such a great 3D quality to them and it's the way that depth the field renders with that and I absolutely love these when you shoot wide open with an f2.8 lens on a surface that big it just looks so Lush and beautiful and and you get a real sense of dimensionality with that I think film helps with that too and so the work in here is outstanding I love the fact you've chosen black and white and your subject matter is really cool too I don't really think of this as necessarily being a fashion book per se because you have a wide range to the stuff that you're doing in here anyway really nicely done I will put a link to this as well as everybody else that we're talking about in the show description so make sure you support your fellow colleagues and check out Hog's work um this is beautiful man it inspires me in fact you're really making me want to go dust off my old rollof Flex because I haven't shot on it in a long time uh mainly because film requires time that I don't have these days but you're making me miss it a lot and so that's uh the highest compliment I can give you on there so um man appreciate you sending this is awesome thanks all right so I got a couple more things that I want to share with you these are both documentary projects projects and very different I might add but real quick I want to give a shout out to our sponsor this week who are the awesome folks over at Squarespace how easy is it to build an amazing website in a matter of minutes Squarespace has you covered it's dead simple head over to Squarespace hit get started you can start by selecting from an impressive collection of customizable templates or you can do what I do build your own something unique because you know you're not like other websites give your site a name next you can build your home homepage we'll start with a few preset layouts just to get us going want to sell products like books or prints well you can feature those on your homepage create a few more sections if you want let's also give it a color palette there's a whole bunch to choose from and just get it started we can change this all later next let's select the typography choices welcome to your website everything is set up and it's all ready for you to customize Squarespace is built on fluid engine the next generation of website design select edit and fluid engine allows you to drag place and resize any element on the page you can snap these to a grid you can make them float on top of one another you can free form however you like you can even preview and adjust how the site looks on either desktop or mobile the layouts are independent of course you'll want a portfolio for your work creating an image gallery is as easy as dropping a folder of images on your web browser once uploaded you can drag to Resort customize the look and Squarespace writes all of the code for you everything just works and it looks fabulous want to sell your own prints books or Zen Squarespace has the capabilities to not only set up your online store and collect payments but they also give you all the tools that you're going to need to be successful managing shipping and payment options manage your orders and engage with your customers they even give you the tax tools that you need to keep things organized and stay compliant you should try Squarespace for yourself it's absolutely free no credit card required just go to squarespace.com aop sign up for that free trial if you decide Squarespace is right for you I can save you an additional 10% on your order by using offer code aop on checkout that's right the code is aop so stop procrastinating go build your website today and I want to give a special shout out and thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this video all right so next up is this book called Chasing the Sun photographs Ricky Bolton Ricky is actually an alumni he has sent stuff in before and he mentions this in his note which reads hi Ted Still Loving the show I don't know if you remember me but I sent my first ever Photography book called Seaside escapes which you featured on your channel a while back in March of 2022 it was a collection of color images taken in the south coast of England created during the year of the pandemic just as I had discovered my love of Photography since that book I decided to dip my toes into the world of black and white and created another title called not in color even though I enjoyed the cre ation process of making that book color photography is what I truly love I then discovered the amazing works of Alex Webb his use of vivid color and genius composition really inspired me to try to create a collection of bold and bright colorful images of my own hopefully using the experience of my first two books as a stepping stone to improve my difficult third once the pandemic situation had eased in the UK and we were allowed out of the country to travel again I decided to spend a year visiting as many places that I could afford aiming to see all of the destinations on my bucket list and help create a book that I could be proud of please find en closed my book called Chasing the Sun the title of the book truly encapsulates what I was going for on my glob trotting photography Expedition I attempted to be creative whilst composing the images and hopefully make it as interesting as possible for the viewer I still have much to learn and improve on but thanks again for creating the content that you do it goes a long way in helping budding photographers like myself and hopefully becoming more educated and knowledgeable about this fantastic art form that we all truly adore door kind regards Ricky So Ricky's book was shot in five different countries this is Portugal Italy Barbados Spain and Greece this is very well done Ricky I love your use of color in here particularly these kind of sunset kinds of things but also the very bold vibrant colors that you talked about being inspired by Alex Webb with I really love the book I think this is excellent I'm glad that you were inspired to go forth I think you just need to do more I mean this is really cool and I think it's awesome that you found something that you have a deep passion for the only critique that I would have on here and I feel like the broken record because I say this on so many books but when you put text at the bottom of images I am not convinced that it needs to be there all the time unless this is just for your own personal reference and you want to label where things were I don't know that it's location dependent I think the compositions the color the work speaks for itself pretty solidly and I think you've done a really nice job here and so uh one thing in particular that I really love and I think maybe it was just particularly inspiring to you but your work in Italy is very well done um I think the whole idea of the gondolas and the waterways and and the way that angles and architecture occurs down there really speaks well with your style so anyway thank you for sharing this once again uh Chasing the Sun is awesome so uh check his workout below all right so next up is this book which comes to us from Tristan harmson this is called 28 days Tristan also includes a note and I want to share this with you because the envelope had this awesome wax seal on it very hip and handwritten I might add but Tristan's note reads dear Ted greetings from Quebec I hope that all is well in Texas I have been watching your Channel for a few years now and I enjoyed it thoroughly and lately more than ever I have found it of Great Value as I tried to transition from doing flashy Instagram focused photography to a more documentary style and more meaningful themes to this end I began work a few years ago on 28 days this is a book which tells the story of the crew of the ccgs Griffon the Coast Guard ship where I currently work it was a good first step into this genre I felt to document a group of subjects to with whom I'm extremely com comfortable that being said I discovered a lot over the course of this project that challenged me despite this it was something wholly new to me to convey cohesive ideas through a series of images and create a story with characters I was insecure from the very beginning that this book would not ever see the light of day but now that it has I wanted to give you this copy for your collection as a thank you for all the inspiration that your videos have given my short photography career take care enjoy the book and if you're ever in Quebec the poutines are on me sincerely trist so Tristan I really like what you're going for here this is very different and I wish that more photographers would follow in something similar you know it's one thing to just do images on an image by image basis put them on Instagram social media we move on to the next it's another thing to try to tell a story through a group of images and have a project like this I think your subject matter is very cool it's something that's very different something I know very little about and you have a perfect opportunity here to peque my interest and show me more and show me something that I haven't seen I think you do that very well with the photographs that are in in here I like the variety of subject matter that you have I like the variety of people that you're documenting the only thing that for me that that makes this a little bit distant still just as a viewer I think that it would be a good idea for a book project like this maybe you could treat this moving forward for your next one to actually include some text I think that would bridge and it would put the images into a little more context where you can develop these characters by telling people who they are what they're responsible for doing uh with the Coast Guard and then what they're may be doing with their down time and I think that'll tell you a more complete story you don't need a ton of text but just some here and there just just tell me what I'm looking at and show me you know kind of some of the diversity within that range I think you'd have something that's really solid I think this is an excellent start though I love your use of color I love your use of kind of the documentary aspect of this and I think you're off to a really good start so uh please stay in touch and I want to see more work I think this is a really solid direction to go in and I'm proud of you for doing it um it takes uh takes some guts to jump out like that and it's something that most photographers don't do it requires a lot of time also as you well know anyway thank you for sending as I said before I'm going to feature everybody or everybody who's featured here I will put in the show description below so check their work out uh buy their books when you can support your fellow artists and if you guys want to send stuff in me you'll find my address there too been talking about changing Mail Time up and I'm not quite there yet so we'll still do Mail Time as is we'll still do it later but it's just going to there'll be some different things little more new format that's what I'm going for catch you guys in the next video Until then later\n"