**Monochrome Mania: A Celebration of Analog Photography**

We've all been there - sitting on an airplane, gazing out the window, and snapping photos with our camera. But have you ever thought about the context of those shots? The fact that they're taken with a specific camera or in a particular environment can completely change the look and feel of the image. This is exactly what Mark is exploring in his analog photography project, "Monochrome Mania". With a focus on monochrome images, Mark is pushing the boundaries of what we expect from photography.

**A New Book: Among the Trees**

Mark's latest book, "Among the Trees", explores another side of analog photography. This time around, he's dealing with different cameras and techniques to create unique monochrome images. The book features a range of shots, from landscapes to portraits, all shot on film. What's particularly interesting about this project is how Mark has used the limitations of analog cameras to create distinct visual styles. For example, the use of certain film stocks can produce beautiful grainy textures that add depth and character to the images.

**A Fleeting Journey: A Limited Edition Book**

Next up is "Fleeting Journey", a limited edition book created by Akil Grub. This project is special because it's a personal account of Akil's first time visiting Japan with his friends Ichiro and Shinpei. The book documents their journey, from the airport to the grandmother's house in Osaka, Koto, Tokyo. What makes this book stand out is its intimate nature - Akil has included notes and stories about each image, giving us a glimpse into the people behind the photos.

**A Personal Project: Context**

Akil's book is also notable for its use of context. Rather than trying to present a polished or commercialized image, Akil has opted for a more raw and honest approach. The images are often shot in a documentary style, capturing everyday moments and landscapes without fuss or pretension. This approach creates a sense of authenticity and immediacy, drawing the viewer into the story being told.

**Design and Typography**

One of the standout features of "Fleeting Journey" is its design and typography. The cover and back cover are both full-page images, showcasing some of the book's most striking shots. The design sense in this book is impeccable, with clean lines and simple typography that allows the images to take center stage.

**Tips for Improving Your Photography**

As Akil embarks on his photography journey, he could benefit from a few tips on how to improve his work. One suggestion is to experiment with different visual styles and themes - perhaps incorporating geometrical studies or landscapes in relation to architecture. This would add depth and complexity to the images, making them more interesting and thought-provoking.

**The Importance of Printing Your Work**

Finally, we should also talk about the importance of printing your work. For many photographers, this is a turning point - taking their images from digital files to physical prints. It's an opportunity to see how they translate onto paper, and to develop a more intimate connection with the work. Akil's book demonstrates just how powerful this can be, using high-quality prints that showcase his unique vision.

**The Future of Monochrome Mania**

As we look ahead to future projects, it's clear that "Monochrome Mania" is here to stay. With each new release, Mark and other photographers are pushing the boundaries of what's possible with analog photography. Whether it's experimenting with different techniques or exploring new themes and styles, this community is constantly evolving and growing.

**Get Involved!**

If you're interested in getting involved in "Monochrome Mania", now's the time to start sending in your work. Mark will be communicating with us soon about upcoming projects, so don't miss out on the chance to share your photography with others. Whether it's a book, a series of prints, or simply a batch of images, we want to see what you're working on.

**Final Thoughts**

As we wrap up this article, I want to express my gratitude to Mark and Akil for sharing their amazing work with us. Their passion and dedication to analog photography are truly inspiring, and it's clear that they're just getting started. Whether you're a seasoned photographer or just starting out, there's always room to learn and grow - and "Monochrome Mania" is the perfect place to do so.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis video is brought to you by Squarespace welcome back everyone today we are going to do a little Mail Time and for those of you who might be new to this channel this is the video where I feature works that are sent in by viewers like you this is actually something that started years ago and over the years I've made these videos and we featured like over 300 different zenes books prints things that people sent in and it got to me early on that just in the spirit of creativity I want to reward people for making things which is really important and there's some really cool stuff that's sent in I've got some awesome some stuff that I want to share with you today uh but it's something that's really important I think and it's something that we've done for a long time and I've been talking about changing it up and we're nearing the end of the year so I want to talk about that for just a second so I've had a lot of people ask me about Mail Time and when it's going to go away and I want to send you something but it's not quite done and what's the cut off date and look here's the deal I have an idea for something that I want to replace this format with it just needs to grow beyond what it's done I think it's just kind of there's a sameness to it uh having said that though it probably will involve mail in the future so I want to be a little more selective about things but anyway all that to say if you have something you want to send in don't let this stop you it probably won't stop just right away there's no hard deadline or anything but anyway having said that I don't want to diss on mail time but uh let's get to some mail time because I really do have some cool things that I want to share with you guys today so first up is this awesome book which comes to us from Jeff karp this is called invisibility I love the cover this is a book that deals with photographs of unseen weather Jeff also included a note which reads dear Ted I'm Jeff karp a photographer from Minneapolis Minnesota I absolutely love your YouTube channel and have been a voracious consumer of your videos for many years now this book you hold in your hands is called invisibility a series of photographs showcasing all kinds of weather hidden in plain sight this book a fun creative departure from my usual focus on light and Shadow street photography includes moments captured in Minnesota and other places that I've visited over the last 6 years your Mail Time videos were especially helpful and instructive to me as I worked to put invisibly together between November 22 and February 2023 I often found myself thinking what would Ted do in this situation as I worked through the steps of the book layout sequencing captions and cover design your Mailtime videos and the constructive critiques that you share have been a constant source of knowledge inspiration and encouragement for me in my various creative Pursuits I sure the same holds true for many others in your Art of Photography Community thanks so much for all what you do warmly Jeff okay so Jeff really nicely done I want to talk about a few things that strike me in this book that we can share with others I think one of the things that I love about this so much is first of all it's a great concept weather that's hidden in plain sight and how you address that I also love the fact that you deal with that mainly through this wonderful contrast of abstract images and more realistic images and it's got a really nice flow to it a really nice mix I really like the way that you handle abstraction in these the color is outstanding and I think one of the reasons this works so well is that you have a nice balance in here I love this spread of the uh windows with the jet plane flying over just a few constructive comments on your book I think this is really well done though first off I want people to take note of the cover I think this is really cool and really well done photography books are really difficult to do when you get to the cover design it's like okay will I do I just include an image of something on the inside or can there be a graphic and I love books that don't have a photograph and I don't know why but I've always been like that you know the famous on cartoon abis song book the decisive moment has a mati illustration on the front and so I love that contrast and that justos of having the unexpected inside after something else is based on the front anyway I'm not really sure why I like that uh but it's something I haven't really thought through but I really love it on your book I think this is awesome uh the other comment that I want to make is on the interior pages so Jeff you have a lot of labeling going on in here and I don't mind it I think the typography is well done I think the size in relationship to the pictures is well done I don't think that they compete with one another the only thing I would suggest is because this book deals with something that's on a more abstract and even possibly emotional level at least for me as a viewer is I think that I really don't need them there at all and my point is is that they're all kind of around the Twin Cities area and so having a location attached to each one there's not much in the image that is location dependent if you know what I mean it's not a tourism book it's not a uh uh something that requires text to describe what's going on it just happens to be a label of where something is what I would do in the future on something like this and it's it doesn't kill the book to be clear but what I would do in the future is just have an appendix if you want locations on images or descriptions I think that would be much better um I think that you have such a strong contrast of images going on in here it's something that I really like and I don't want that experience to be tainted by reading something that not is well it's not directly related to the images I hope that makes sense but otherwise outstanding job on here the color is beautifully done the book is well put together really like it man you should be proud awesome work Jeff all right so next up I've got two projects that come to us from a gentleman named Renee first of all we have a Zen called 0101 2022 we also have a book called Low which deals with low riter culture and I want to talk about these individually because I think they represent a really cool range to what Rene is able to do as a photographer let's let's begin with the Zen so 0101 2022 I'm going to read a little bit from the front here and Renee States in here winter depresses me the cold the snow the dreariness the shortened days GH but if I were totally honest I would look forward to the first snowfall of winter but not only for the purpose of Photography and drifting once I satisfy those two urges well I'm over it take it all back and bring me more summer but this is Wisconsin and winter lasts 5 to 6 months here it is what it is I guess these photos were all shot on January 21st 2022 in rine Wisconsin the bricks the snowfall the slush the lingering Christmas decorations the Brave and bundled up Souls who go out and face the fight with old man winter it's beautiful to me but it's only the first time it happens each winter I'm definitely over it now take it all back and bring me Summer Renee so Renee your Zen is fabulous I love the concept I love that this was quick it was short it was improvised it was all done in one day and it has a solid concept around it it's nicely printed outstanding work this is really well done and I have this soft spot in photography for kind of these older meets new kinds of situations that you have in smaller towns where from an architectural standpoint you're seeing a city that has a lot of History to it that's very old and to see it just oppose in the snow or you know something we Midwest you're going to have a lot of snow in the winter this is just really well done I love it visually it's amazing uh awesome work now I want to move to the other thing that was sent in by Renee this is called Low Renee did include a note which describes this a little bit let me read you a little bit about low Rene says hi Ted this book low is the second body of work that I've published the low riter Community is one I've been a part of since I was a teen the photos featured in this book Spann from from my early digital photography days in 2014 to 2020 and were shot in various cities it also features two poems that were written for this by my friends Eli and Caro who are also part of this community I'm not sure everyone will understand or agree with how I spread their words across multiple pages but I feel that combining three forms of art photography low writer culture and words together make statements that help provide context and perspective both poems can be found in their entirety in the back of the book so people can also appreciate the words on their own hope you enjoy this book I wanted to create something that was different from other photo books that I've seen and in the style of the cars it features thanks for all you doing for photography Renee by the way Renee includes a note in here if you want to purchase these and I'll include links to everybody who sent stuff in in the show description below this video so make sure you check it out and support your fellow photographers Renee low is outstanding I love that it's a very different concept I love the way it's printed uh I love the ju position of the Poetry actually on the images I think it plays with the words in a really nice and beautiful way and I think that you've got something that's really interesting here um having grown up around low riter culture obviously this is a topic and a subject that's very familiar to you and I think that your skills in photography are on par and up to the task and one of the things that I want to point out because it happens in both books here is that Renee also writes about his images and I think that's a skill that not everybody has and it's it's it's something that I love when I'm reading a book because it gives me more context around the images that I'm looking at it helps kind of shape my interpretation of what I'm seeing uh and I think it's really well executed I love that the design on these books is completely different too I mean this shows that Renee has a pretty big range uh we have something that's just a s Sera helvetica kind of thing on here that looks very modern where is low reflects the community that it's serving here with kind of the graffiti black letter type and when you see the typography across from page to page it's really well done one small point of criticism Renee I know that you love a real saturated look to your images but uh I would talk to your printer about this first of all and talk about profiles and how to get the best look overall I think this is really well printed it really works but there's a couple of spreads in here I'll give you an example is this one here and I think consistently through the book it deals in areas where you have saturated blues that deal with darker areas I don't know if you can see this in here but like in particular the steering wheel uh we start to lose uh some stuff but honestly that super nitpicky I love both of these projects I will put a link to Rene's work below awesome work Renee thank you for sharing okay I've got a couple more projects that I want to share with you guys I have this little Zen called a fleeting Journey as well as three monochrome Zen uh that are really cool so I want to talk about these but real quick I want to give a shout out to our sponsor today 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 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 Webb 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 okay so next up I've got three Zen that are part of an ongoing series from a gentleman named Mark O'Brien these are three samples from that series Mark is clearly a fan of analog photography and is an analog kind of guy I love that he wrote his note on an actual typewriter bonus points there mark But Mark's note reads dear Ted I have been watching SL listening to your Art of Photography for many years I realized that I should have sent you a copy of monochrom mania when I first started this Venture anyway here's the latest issue featuring images from a camera you probably would have never considered using I hope that you enjoy the issue best wishes Mark Mark I'm going to assume that you're talking about the anop piix Panorama and my friend you would be incorrect I have an anop piix Panorama I don't know where it is it is in a box I bought it years ago and uh I'll tell you guys about this camera because it's very funky I bought mine for probably a dollar at a yard sale when I found it and I just couldn't pass it up so it's just kind of a notch up from a toy camera we'll use the cover here cuz that's it it's actually very tiny it's smaller than a phone uh but thick because it's a 35mm camera so in this camera in fact he's got some illustrations in the back that might help well there's the back of the camera so from the actual original ansco manual you can kind of see how the camera is put together there and how you load your film and shoot it the ancop piix Panorama is not really a panoramic camera it does have a wide- angle lens on the front and what it does is it simply uses masks to mask out part of the negative so you end up with only a visually very long panoramic image but it is a lot of fun to use and as you can see in his photos in here it has a real funky look to it because it is very lowf first of all we're talking about 35 mm as a format which is pretty small and then we're only using a portion of that so it becomes even smaller so anytime you shoot black and white film or you shootting low light or even push uh your exposures you're going to get a lot of grain to your images and the lens itself is super funky too it's just a piece of plastic one element meniscus and you get kind of a hogga effect but it has its own flavor as you can see in these images and it's a really fun and cool camera to use this one thing that I actually love about uh the work that Mark sent in here is that each one of these has a different flavor to it uh the second Zen that he sent in is this one uh which is called pocketing Memories and this one is images that were all done on iPhones and there's a variety of different styles the images in here run the gamut uh between landscape images uh the formats change between Square sometimes they are rectangular uh any it's really cool the other part that I really like in here uh is the Urban Landscapes as well as the aerial shots and what's really cool is uh you know we've all sat there in the airplane and taken shots out the window but the context what they're put into here and the fact that it's all monochrome it just gives it a different look it's kind of like a manual drone so to speak uh anyway I really love this the other book is called among the trees and it also deals with analog photography on various cameras uh I think Mark that you're doing some awesome work on these and thank you for sending these in um again I would check these out if you guys are interested uh I don't know how often monochrome Mania is produced here it looks like it's every couple months cuz we've got issue or issue number nine number 10 comes in March 3 months later in July anyway so uh awesome work mark thank you for sharing next up is another analog photography project this is called a fleeting Journey which comes to us from Akil grub is a limited edition I am the proud recipient of 100 of 100 kind of cool Heil also included a nice postcard in here which reads Ted before anything else I hope all is well your channel has taught me a lot since I started Photography in 2019 enclosed is a photo book documenting my first time visiting Japan with my two friends Ichiro and shinpei I visited their grandmother dad's Hometown we went to Osaka Koto in Tokyo this book documents our journey roughly in order of what we saw this is my first photo book so I'd love your honest thoughts and feedback on how to improve oh and it was shot on film cameras mamia 6 contacts T2 a context G1 Akil from Brooklyn so Akil I love this book I really love how color is rendered throughout and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it was shot on film and you really bring out a lot of that look in each one of these images U the other thing that I love about it is I don't think this book is trying to pretend to be anything that's not which is a document of you and your friend's experience uh traveling across Japan I love that it's a series of people in front of Landscapes people in front of monuments assume this is the grandmother's house uh there's some really cool stuff in here and I think it's really well done I would keep up the good work on this uh the thing that I really love about it is how you dealt with the cover so the cover and the back cover here are both umbrella shots and they're full-blade images that are just a crop of some of the images that he had but it has a really nice feel to it the typography is really well done in here a you've got a great design sense and I would just say keep it up the only thing that I would suggest if you wanted to improve on this is when you do travel Journeys like this um you know is try to get into a mindset where there's something you're trying to capture visually that represents the area that you're in without being uh the shots that you would expect and I know you've only been shooting since 2019 but you know you're shooting Landscapes or your friends or stuff like that those are great um they tend to be things that we would expect from any photo book but what is something where you could go into something where you're doing geometrical studies or you're doing something uh where you're relating landscape to architecture which is really awesome to do in a place like Japan um something like that that would make it just a little more significant of your experience and I know that's a little more conceptual but uh you know if you've only been shout shooting for a couple years shouting I've only been shouting for a couple years if I had only been shooting a couple years my work did not look anywhere near this good so you're off to an awesome start so I would just say keep it up I also love the fact that and part of this is just part for the course with all these books is that people want to print their work they want to make something they they're thinking of their photography uh in terms of a project and a context and I love how we had projects where people are writing about what it is that they're showing visually and so those are really cool ways to think about work and it's what makes it more interesting and so I want to congratulate everybody on sending stuff in this was a really good batch of uh of projects today so anyway uh we've got more of these to come towards we get to the end of the year I will communicate with you guys on where we're going with this format what we're going to be doing uh but uh don't let that stop you if you've got stuff to send in I'll see you guys in the next video Until then laterthis video is brought to you by Squarespace welcome back everyone today we are going to do a little Mail Time and for those of you who might be new to this channel this is the video where I feature works that are sent in by viewers like you this is actually something that started years ago and over the years I've made these videos and we featured like over 300 different zenes books prints things that people sent in and it got to me early on that just in the spirit of creativity I want to reward people for making things which is really important and there's some really cool stuff that's sent in I've got some awesome some stuff that I want to share with you today uh but it's something that's really important I think and it's something that we've done for a long time and I've been talking about changing it up and we're nearing the end of the year so I want to talk about that for just a second so I've had a lot of people ask me about Mail Time and when it's going to go away and I want to send you something but it's not quite done and what's the cut off date and look here's the deal I have an idea for something that I want to replace this format with it just needs to grow beyond what it's done I think it's just kind of there's a sameness to it uh having said that though it probably will involve mail in the future so I want to be a little more selective about things but anyway all that to say if you have something you want to send in don't let this stop you it probably won't stop just right away there's no hard deadline or anything but anyway having said that I don't want to diss on mail time but uh let's get to some mail time because I really do have some cool things that I want to share with you guys today so first up is this awesome book which comes to us from Jeff karp this is called invisibility I love the cover this is a book that deals with photographs of unseen weather Jeff also included a note which reads dear Ted I'm Jeff karp a photographer from Minneapolis Minnesota I absolutely love your YouTube channel and have been a voracious consumer of your videos for many years now this book you hold in your hands is called invisibility a series of photographs showcasing all kinds of weather hidden in plain sight this book a fun creative departure from my usual focus on light and Shadow street photography includes moments captured in Minnesota and other places that I've visited over the last 6 years your Mail Time videos were especially helpful and instructive to me as I worked to put invisibly together between November 22 and February 2023 I often found myself thinking what would Ted do in this situation as I worked through the steps of the book layout sequencing captions and cover design your Mailtime videos and the constructive critiques that you share have been a constant source of knowledge inspiration and encouragement for me in my various creative Pursuits I sure the same holds true for many others in your Art of Photography Community thanks so much for all what you do warmly Jeff okay so Jeff really nicely done I want to talk about a few things that strike me in this book that we can share with others I think one of the things that I love about this so much is first of all it's a great concept weather that's hidden in plain sight and how you address that I also love the fact that you deal with that mainly through this wonderful contrast of abstract images and more realistic images and it's got a really nice flow to it a really nice mix I really like the way that you handle abstraction in these the color is outstanding and I think one of the reasons this works so well is that you have a nice balance in here I love this spread of the uh windows with the jet plane flying over just a few constructive comments on your book I think this is really well done though first off I want people to take note of the cover I think this is really cool and really well done photography books are really difficult to do when you get to the cover design it's like okay will I do I just include an image of something on the inside or can there be a graphic and I love books that don't have a photograph and I don't know why but I've always been like that you know the famous on cartoon abis song book the decisive moment has a mati illustration on the front and so I love that contrast and that justos of having the unexpected inside after something else is based on the front anyway I'm not really sure why I like that uh but it's something I haven't really thought through but I really love it on your book I think this is awesome uh the other comment that I want to make is on the interior pages so Jeff you have a lot of labeling going on in here and I don't mind it I think the typography is well done I think the size in relationship to the pictures is well done I don't think that they compete with one another the only thing I would suggest is because this book deals with something that's on a more abstract and even possibly emotional level at least for me as a viewer is I think that I really don't need them there at all and my point is is that they're all kind of around the Twin Cities area and so having a location attached to each one there's not much in the image that is location dependent if you know what I mean it's not a tourism book it's not a uh uh something that requires text to describe what's going on it just happens to be a label of where something is what I would do in the future on something like this and it's it doesn't kill the book to be clear but what I would do in the future is just have an appendix if you want locations on images or descriptions I think that would be much better um I think that you have such a strong contrast of images going on in here it's something that I really like and I don't want that experience to be tainted by reading something that not is well it's not directly related to the images I hope that makes sense but otherwise outstanding job on here the color is beautifully done the book is well put together really like it man you should be proud awesome work Jeff all right so next up I've got two projects that come to us from a gentleman named Renee first of all we have a Zen called 0101 2022 we also have a book called Low which deals with low riter culture and I want to talk about these individually because I think they represent a really cool range to what Rene is able to do as a photographer let's let's begin with the Zen so 0101 2022 I'm going to read a little bit from the front here and Renee States in here winter depresses me the cold the snow the dreariness the shortened days GH but if I were totally honest I would look forward to the first snowfall of winter but not only for the purpose of Photography and drifting once I satisfy those two urges well I'm over it take it all back and bring me more summer but this is Wisconsin and winter lasts 5 to 6 months here it is what it is I guess these photos were all shot on January 21st 2022 in rine Wisconsin the bricks the snowfall the slush the lingering Christmas decorations the Brave and bundled up Souls who go out and face the fight with old man winter it's beautiful to me but it's only the first time it happens each winter I'm definitely over it now take it all back and bring me Summer Renee so Renee your Zen is fabulous I love the concept I love that this was quick it was short it was improvised it was all done in one day and it has a solid concept around it it's nicely printed outstanding work this is really well done and I have this soft spot in photography for kind of these older meets new kinds of situations that you have in smaller towns where from an architectural standpoint you're seeing a city that has a lot of History to it that's very old and to see it just oppose in the snow or you know something we Midwest you're going to have a lot of snow in the winter this is just really well done I love it visually it's amazing uh awesome work now I want to move to the other thing that was sent in by Renee this is called Low Renee did include a note which describes this a little bit let me read you a little bit about low Rene says hi Ted this book low is the second body of work that I've published the low riter Community is one I've been a part of since I was a teen the photos featured in this book Spann from from my early digital photography days in 2014 to 2020 and were shot in various cities it also features two poems that were written for this by my friends Eli and Caro who are also part of this community I'm not sure everyone will understand or agree with how I spread their words across multiple pages but I feel that combining three forms of art photography low writer culture and words together make statements that help provide context and perspective both poems can be found in their entirety in the back of the book so people can also appreciate the words on their own hope you enjoy this book I wanted to create something that was different from other photo books that I've seen and in the style of the cars it features thanks for all you doing for photography Renee by the way Renee includes a note in here if you want to purchase these and I'll include links to everybody who sent stuff in in the show description below this video so make sure you check it out and support your fellow photographers Renee low is outstanding I love that it's a very different concept I love the way it's printed uh I love the ju position of the Poetry actually on the images I think it plays with the words in a really nice and beautiful way and I think that you've got something that's really interesting here um having grown up around low riter culture obviously this is a topic and a subject that's very familiar to you and I think that your skills in photography are on par and up to the task and one of the things that I want to point out because it happens in both books here is that Renee also writes about his images and I think that's a skill that not everybody has and it's it's it's something that I love when I'm reading a book because it gives me more context around the images that I'm looking at it helps kind of shape my interpretation of what I'm seeing uh and I think it's really well executed I love that the design on these books is completely different too I mean this shows that Renee has a pretty big range uh we have something that's just a s Sera helvetica kind of thing on here that looks very modern where is low reflects the community that it's serving here with kind of the graffiti black letter type and when you see the typography across from page to page it's really well done one small point of criticism Renee I know that you love a real saturated look to your images but uh I would talk to your printer about this first of all and talk about profiles and how to get the best look overall I think this is really well printed it really works but there's a couple of spreads in here I'll give you an example is this one here and I think consistently through the book it deals in areas where you have saturated blues that deal with darker areas I don't know if you can see this in here but like in particular the steering wheel uh we start to lose uh some stuff but honestly that super nitpicky I love both of these projects I will put a link to Rene's work below awesome work Renee thank you for sharing okay I've got a couple more projects that I want to share with you guys I have this little Zen called a fleeting Journey as well as three monochrome Zen uh that are really cool so I want to talk about these but real quick I want to give a shout out to our sponsor today 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 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 Webb 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 okay so next up I've got three Zen that are part of an ongoing series from a gentleman named Mark O'Brien these are three samples from that series Mark is clearly a fan of analog photography and is an analog kind of guy I love that he wrote his note on an actual typewriter bonus points there mark But Mark's note reads dear Ted I have been watching SL listening to your Art of Photography for many years I realized that I should have sent you a copy of monochrom mania when I first started this Venture anyway here's the latest issue featuring images from a camera you probably would have never considered using I hope that you enjoy the issue best wishes Mark Mark I'm going to assume that you're talking about the anop piix Panorama and my friend you would be incorrect I have an anop piix Panorama I don't know where it is it is in a box I bought it years ago and uh I'll tell you guys about this camera because it's very funky I bought mine for probably a dollar at a yard sale when I found it and I just couldn't pass it up so it's just kind of a notch up from a toy camera we'll use the cover here cuz that's it it's actually very tiny it's smaller than a phone uh but thick because it's a 35mm camera so in this camera in fact he's got some illustrations in the back that might help well there's the back of the camera so from the actual original ansco manual you can kind of see how the camera is put together there and how you load your film and shoot it the ancop piix Panorama is not really a panoramic camera it does have a wide- angle lens on the front and what it does is it simply uses masks to mask out part of the negative so you end up with only a visually very long panoramic image but it is a lot of fun to use and as you can see in his photos in here it has a real funky look to it because it is very lowf first of all we're talking about 35 mm as a format which is pretty small and then we're only using a portion of that so it becomes even smaller so anytime you shoot black and white film or you shootting low light or even push uh your exposures you're going to get a lot of grain to your images and the lens itself is super funky too it's just a piece of plastic one element meniscus and you get kind of a hogga effect but it has its own flavor as you can see in these images and it's a really fun and cool camera to use this one thing that I actually love about uh the work that Mark sent in here is that each one of these has a different flavor to it uh the second Zen that he sent in is this one uh which is called pocketing Memories and this one is images that were all done on iPhones and there's a variety of different styles the images in here run the gamut uh between landscape images uh the formats change between Square sometimes they are rectangular uh any it's really cool the other part that I really like in here uh is the Urban Landscapes as well as the aerial shots and what's really cool is uh you know we've all sat there in the airplane and taken shots out the window but the context what they're put into here and the fact that it's all monochrome it just gives it a different look it's kind of like a manual drone so to speak uh anyway I really love this the other book is called among the trees and it also deals with analog photography on various cameras uh I think Mark that you're doing some awesome work on these and thank you for sending these in um again I would check these out if you guys are interested uh I don't know how often monochrome Mania is produced here it looks like it's every couple months cuz we've got issue or issue number nine number 10 comes in March 3 months later in July anyway so uh awesome work mark thank you for sharing next up is another analog photography project this is called a fleeting Journey which comes to us from Akil grub is a limited edition I am the proud recipient of 100 of 100 kind of cool Heil also included a nice postcard in here which reads Ted before anything else I hope all is well your channel has taught me a lot since I started Photography in 2019 enclosed is a photo book documenting my first time visiting Japan with my two friends Ichiro and shinpei I visited their grandmother dad's Hometown we went to Osaka Koto in Tokyo this book documents our journey roughly in order of what we saw this is my first photo book so I'd love your honest thoughts and feedback on how to improve oh and it was shot on film cameras mamia 6 contacts T2 a context G1 Akil from Brooklyn so Akil I love this book I really love how color is rendered throughout and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it was shot on film and you really bring out a lot of that look in each one of these images U the other thing that I love about it is I don't think this book is trying to pretend to be anything that's not which is a document of you and your friend's experience uh traveling across Japan I love that it's a series of people in front of Landscapes people in front of monuments assume this is the grandmother's house uh there's some really cool stuff in here and I think it's really well done I would keep up the good work on this uh the thing that I really love about it is how you dealt with the cover so the cover and the back cover here are both umbrella shots and they're full-blade images that are just a crop of some of the images that he had but it has a really nice feel to it the typography is really well done in here a you've got a great design sense and I would just say keep it up the only thing that I would suggest if you wanted to improve on this is when you do travel Journeys like this um you know is try to get into a mindset where there's something you're trying to capture visually that represents the area that you're in without being uh the shots that you would expect and I know you've only been shooting since 2019 but you know you're shooting Landscapes or your friends or stuff like that those are great um they tend to be things that we would expect from any photo book but what is something where you could go into something where you're doing geometrical studies or you're doing something uh where you're relating landscape to architecture which is really awesome to do in a place like Japan um something like that that would make it just a little more significant of your experience and I know that's a little more conceptual but uh you know if you've only been shout shooting for a couple years shouting I've only been shouting for a couple years if I had only been shooting a couple years my work did not look anywhere near this good so you're off to an awesome start so I would just say keep it up I also love the fact that and part of this is just part for the course with all these books is that people want to print their work they want to make something they they're thinking of their photography uh in terms of a project and a context and I love how we had projects where people are writing about what it is that they're showing visually and so those are really cool ways to think about work and it's what makes it more interesting and so I want to congratulate everybody on sending stuff in this was a really good batch of uh of projects today so anyway uh we've got more of these to come towards we get to the end of the year I will communicate with you guys on where we're going with this format what we're going to be doing uh but uh don't let that stop you if you've got stuff to send in I'll see you guys in the next video Until then later\n"