books – tim mcmurdo

Reading in Dialect

Posted on September 6, 2015October 15, 2016 by Tim McMurdo

On a recent visit to the farm, Debbie read from a 19th century cook book that was written in dialect. The lush phonetic vocabulary reminded me of the short stories I’ve read from Paul Laurence Dunbar, who wrote in dialect as well. He was a fantastic and well known poet and in his short life time, he gained quite a bit of fame. Unfortunately, he died young. Being a Dayton native and good friend to the Wright brothers, he is one of Dayton’s celebrated sons.

As for the cook book reading, the wonderful descriptions of the contents and the cooking process were delightful to hear in Debbie’s southern accent. When was the last time that you listened to someone else reading aloud? Do you read aloud? I read in silence, and perhaps I am missing out on part of the experience.

favorites of 2013

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Tim McMurdo

It's the holiday season and that means time for me to look at the photos I've taken in the last 12 months and decide which ones I want to put into my annual photo book. It's like choosing your favorite child (I only have one, so that would be easier for me than most).

I finally have the book ready to send off to print and I thought you might like a sneak peek. The image above? That's your sneak peek. That's all you get. Some of you may or may not recieve a copy and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.

Tim

looking at 2012

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Tim McMurdo

Looking at 2012

Every year, I create a book of my favorite images from the previous 12 months. This years book Looking at 2012 is finished and off of the presses. I give the book to family and friends that have supported my hobby. It’s also a great way to protect my photos from my greatest fear… lightning taking out my back up drive.

If you are interested in seeing this year’s effort, you can download the PDF here:

http://www.ephemerallife.com/File_Storage/Looking%20at%202012%20Small.pdf

What do you do with your favorite images? Do you print them out and hang thm on the wall? Do you give them to friends and family? Feel free to share your creative ideas in the comments.

fourteen months

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Tim McMurdo

If you are a photographer, you probably put a lot of effort into creating images of places you have visited, friends and family, or special occasions. Then what? You might post them online, e-mail them to friends, and maybe you print some of them out so that you can place them in an album or post them on the refrigerator with a banana magnet (only the best photos get to use the banana magnet.) If you are particularly fond of an image, you might even print one large so that you can hang it on the wall.

Have you ever thought about putting them into a book and having them printed?

There is nothing quite like seeing your photos printed in a book that you can share with other people. I create an annual book of my favorite photos of the preceding year. I also create a book for every destination vacation and give one to every one that traveled with me. You can see my latest annual photo book, titled fourteen months here: Download fourteen months.pdf (Its a big file at 160Mb).

With today's digital printing technology, printing your own custom photo book is affordable. From small pocket sized paperbacks to large hard bound coffee table books, there is probably a size and style that fits your needs perfectly.

If you have an Apple Mac, you already have alll the software you need on your computer in the form of iPhoto. However, there are a lot of other options available for Apple and PCs. Blurb, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak and many more all come to mind. There are many companies offering similar services, just search Google for "custom photo books."

Check these out:

I have used Aperture, Blurb, and iPhoto publishing services. The Apple products (Aperture and iPhoto) both offer nearly identical services and very good quality. Blurb offers an excellent option for Adobe InDesign users in the form of fully customize-able templates.