After seemingly make no progress for weeks if not months, we now have a flurry of activity! I’ve finally seen my text and photographs with captions combined with the archive photos I chose united into a whole, so it’s actually starting to look like a book at again. I say again as my original version created in Apple Pages had the photos added as I went along, and before enquiring if it was worth publishing “properly” its this version that would have been printed at somewhere like Blurb Books.
The front and back covers have been chosen, sadly because most of the photos I’ve taken of the development aircraft are indoors, they’re not suitable for the cover, as it makes it hard to merge the photo into the text for the name etc. Hmm. But I’m on the back cover at least and as Vol 2 has yet to go through the same process, I might be able to do something about it, but need some serious ducks to fall in line first, none of which I have control of.
The text has been proofread and gone back and forth to the publishers a couple of times as a result of changes needed for one reason or another, duplicate photos and mixed up captions for a start. But the one question I still don’t have an answer for is…when will it be finished and the hordes clamouring for signed copies can be sated. OK, that’s about four people , but it would be nice to know and ideally be ready in time to take a copy to show a group of special friends and say “look, I’ve finally done it!”
The Nikon Z fc has been on a little jaunt with me to Vienna and passed with flying colours, in terms of photo quality and usability, but with one caveat, it needs the sensor cleaning! Virtually invisible to the naked eye if you look at the sensor, but there on every photo was a dot or two in exactly the same place every time. Despite cleaning lenses, filters and deft use of my rocket blower on the sensor itself, it stubbornly remained, so the camera is now at Harrisons in Sheffield for specialist cleaning. I also discovered a tiny hair in the standard kit lens which only occasionally causes problems, but if it can’t be removed by deft use of a vacuum cleaner (I kid you not) the lens will have to go; I can do without having to use healing tool in Adobe Lightroom on every other shot.
