Cover Me! - Guest blog post by Lennart Guldbrandsson

Write and sell are the themes of Lennart Guldbrandsson's book Write Like a Pro.

This is a guest blog post by author Lennart Guldbrandsson. Lennart writes about how we made the cover for his 10th book Skriv som ett proffs (Write Like a Pro).

I'm leaving the word to Lennart:

During late spring, my book started to shape up nicely. I would definitely make my deadline and have it printed and ready for the massive Gothenburg Book Fair. What was still missing was a good cover. Indeed, what was missing was even a good idea for a book cover.


This was my 10th book but for various reasons my earlier books didn't have as much pressure on them. The first books were private affairs which meant that I did the covers myself. The others were books that I ghost wrote for others, which meant that other people designed the covers.


But this book was something else. It was a commissioned book – and it was a guide about writing and getting your book sold. That meant that everyting about the book needed to be above reproach. No typos. Good typesetting. A really great text on the back cover. And a kick-ass cover.


I didn't even have to think about whom I would turn to for such a cover photo. I have been photographed hovering, with several clones of myself, and hiding impossibly behind a thin tree, and more.

Memorable photos, all, by Henrik Mårtensson.

Meeting with Henrik at the Gothenburg City Library, we talked a lot about different possible effects that a book about writing could have on its cover. But our meetings became something more. They came to change my thinking about my book. I discovered that I needed to know more about my book – what tone did it have? What did I hope to accomplish? What feeling did I want to convey? Really detailed thoughts.


Writing a book, for anyone who haven't done it, is a time-consuming project, and even if you've done it several times, you always learn new things. But these talks with Henrik were some of the most enlightening moments of my writing career.


We browsed through several sections of the library, picking up books here and there, dissecting good and bad cover photos alike. We combined ideas, writing down and sketching rough cover photo designs. There were several times I just wanted the process to be over, ”just take a picture and let's be done with it”. But then we had another brilliant idea. And another.


Naturally, we tested a lot of alternatives. Could we imitate that photo that we found online? Could we get that effect to work? All the while, thinking about tying it to the analysis of my book, so that the photo would tell the same story that the book itself did. Could we illustrate that well enough?


All that work did pay off, handsomely. When we were ready to take the photos, we knew exactly what we wanted and what we needed to do on set. It minimized the time to shoot the photos, so that it almost felt anticlimactic. Setting up the scene, lighting the set, focusing the camera and then clicking away until we got a winner took a lot less time than you'd expect considering that we had not only one but two effects in the same photo.


It didn't take long for Henrik to perform his photo manipulation magic on the cover photo. In the end I think I gave him two comments on the photo about things to change, and since we were already on the same page about the tone and goal, he had already started working on those changes before I even asked. It once again proved that all that preparation stuff paid off.


In the process of taking the photos for my book cover my appreciation for the difficulties and possibilities of portrait photography has increased immensly. As has my respect for Henrik as a photographer. And I really look forward to next time. Better start working on book eleven!

–Lennart Guldbrandsson

---
A note from Henrik:
Lennart's excellent book can be bought from any good bookstore in Sweden. If you want to buy it online, I suggest you try:

Print version
Adlibris
Bokus

eBook version
Dito
Bokon

New eBook about street photography in Gothenburg

My eBook about street photography in Gothenburg has been released on Bokus, Adlibris, and Publit. The book is in Swedish. An English language translation will be available, but I am not promising a due date yet.

I ran a series of street photo courses this summer, and wanted to give everyone who took the course an easy to read, short, and very focused book covering the same things I covered in the course, and going a bit beyond.

Street photography is more than knowing your camera, and how to use it. It is a bit like nature photography, you have to know the right places to shoot. So, I wrote about fourteen photo tips, and fourteen great photo places in Gothenburg.

You will find tips on how to connect with other photographers, how to find out about events in Gothenburg, and other things you need to know when shooting in my home city.

I did go beyond technique, and wrote about how to think as a street photographer. When I started out shooting in the street, I did what everyone else did, and I did not get any good pictures. I started rethinking my approach, and met Gothenburg photographers like Petri Olderhvit, Julia Reinhart, and Madlén Hjelmroth, which helped me change, and vastly improve, the way I used my camera.

This picture was chosen for the image gallery at 1x.com, the world's best, curated photo website.

The basic tips and techniques in the book are very simple. Anyone can learn them. 

Most of the locations I wrote about are in central Gothenburg. You can easily visit six or seven of them in a single day, and get really cool photos.

A Rift in Time: An Adventure They Never Saw Coming

A Rift in Time is done! After more than a year living with this comic project, it feels fantastic to see it published. The comic is now on sale as an ebook on Swedish ebook stores: Adlibris, Bokus, Bokon, and Publit. We are working on getting A Rift in Time to international stores.

A little more than a year ago, I pitched a new project in a photography network organisation, Fototräff i Göteborg (Photo meetup in Gothenburg).

This is the pitch I made in Fototräff, the photo meetup network.

I had started the Fototräff network in 2013, to build up an organisation of both amateur and pro photographers, models, makeup artists, videographers, writers, and other people, with an interest in photography and media production.

We had been doing a lot of interesting stuff, but most of it was small scale: photo experiments, and model photo sessions. I thought we were ready to do something more ambitious, so I published the pitch in the picture above, in the Fototräff group on Facebook.

Five people were interested: Petri Olderhvit, Julia Reinhart, Petra Brewitz, Robert Johannesson, and Jesper Andersson. Two more people, Lennart Guldbrandsson and Marie Eriksson joined the team shortly thereafter.

Creating a comic is challenging, and we did not pick the easiest way to do it. Most of us on the team are photographers, and we decided early on to do it like I had done in the pitch, as a photo comic, but with the look and feel of a drawn comic.

I wrote the first version of the script using Comic Life, a comic book layout application. Then the entire team contributed to improving it, and finding ways to solve, or work around problems, both story related, and technical.

Panels from pages 1, 8, and 10 of the A Rift in Time comic.

The inspiration for the visual style comes from many different places, but the most important was 80's style superhero comics by Marvel. At the time, Marvel artists relied heavily on exaggerated perspectives to create drama. We decided to do the same, but photographically, rather than by drawing.

This meant we worked a lot with short lenses, in the 10-30 mm range, for key, dramatic comic panels.

The team spent a lot of time lugging photo equipment around in parks in, and near, Gothenburg.

The team did a fantastic job! We worked for a year, and took more than 2,000 photos, to create the comic. The story went through several revisions. We learned new digital compositing techniques, honed our photography skills, and figured out how to do stunts that looked lethally dangerous, but were actually quite safe.

Just creating the comic wasn't enough. We knew we had a good thing, a cool story that lots of people besides us would enjoy reading, so we started to figure out how to market A rift in Time. It had to be a guerilla marketing campaign: low cost, but a lot of bang for our bucks.

We started by exhibiting pictures from the comic at Planket, the largest photo exhibition in Gothenburg. We had timed it so A Rift in time would go on sale right before the exhibition.

The A Rift in Time exhibition at Planket drew a lot of attention.

The exhibition was a success: People liked our comic! So, we went ahead with our plans.

One of those plans were to start up a web store at Zazzle, for people who want to buy t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, and other products with motifs from the comic. There is more, lots more, but we'll keep that under wraps, until we are ready to deliver.

The work we did could fill a book all by itself, and that is exactly what we aim to do. In parallell with developing new projects, we are also going to document why, and how, we did A Rift in Time, in a book of its own.

I hope you have as much fun reading A Rift in Time as we had creating it.

A Rift in Time is released!

The A Rift in Time photo comic has been released. It is available on several Swedish online stores, including Publit, Adlibris, and Apple iBooks.

A Rift in Time will also be available on international stores, like Amazon, and Lulu very soon.

We are also releasing a line of A Rift in Time products: T-shirts, mugs, and more, at the new A Rift in Time online store.

Street photography course in Gothenburg on July 11th – Have fun with your camera!

I am running a street photography course in Gothenburg on Saturday, 11th of July.

You can bring any kind of camera, from a camera phone, to a professional DSLR.

We will take a walk, look at some of the best spots to shoot street photos, and you will get tips and learn  useful techniques.

After the photowalk, we'll go to a café, show each other photos, and talk about how to improve our photography.

When: Saturday, 11th of July 2015, 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM
Where: Kungsportsplatsen, at Kopparmärra (the statue), in Gothenburg

You can sign up for the course at simplesignup.se.

Save the freedom of photography!

A photo like this will become illegal on July 9th, 2015, if if the EU parliaments votes yes to a proposal for an ill-considered new law.

On the 9th of July 2015, the EU parliament will vote on whether to restrict the freedom to take photographs in public spaces. If the proposal goes through, it will be harmful to everyone who enjoys taking a photo, whether it be vacation photos, or street photography, whether it is amateur or professional photography.

The consequences, if the new law is adopted and enforced, can be devastating not just to photographers, but it can harm democracy by restricting news reporting. According to Farida Shaheed, UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, the new proposal poses a danger to human rights.

In this article, I will go into details about the consequences of the proposal for a new law, but first things first: There is a protest movement fighting the proposal by gathering signatures for a petition. 

Click here to sign the petition to protect the freedom of photography!

The EU parliament vote is on the 9th of July, only a few days from now, so if you need to be quick if you want to help protect the right to take photographs.

The proposal explained: A Good Thing Gone Bad

It started out as a good thing that went bad: The EU member countries currently have copyright laws that are confusing, obsolete, and different from country to country. The copyright laws were written a long time ago, long before the Internet, and also long before the European Union. Some of it dates as far back as 300 years ago.

The EU parliament has been aware that copyright reform is sorely needed for a long time, but little has been done, until recently. Julia Reda, a member of the German Pirate party, was appointed to write a report on how to unify copyright laws across the European Union.

The original report by Julia Reda is pretty good. You can read a summary here. Basically, Reda wants to strengthen creator rights, while at the same time ensuring that public works are free.

The problem was that over 550 amendments were added to Reda's original report, and some of these were not good. One in particular stood out as exceptionally bad. Despite this, the EU parliament voted to add the amendment to the report.

The amendment causing all the trouble was written by French MEP Jean-Marie Caveda. Caveda's amendment, according to Caveda himself (English translation by Google), directly targets Facebook and Wikipedia, whom he considers to be American monopolies, with highly undesirable business models.

Be that as it may be with Facebook, but Wikipedia? Wikipedia is a non-profit organisation that produces and develops a free dictionary, and a library of public domain images and videos. The material is contributed by volonteer authors, photographers, and videographers from all over the world. The Wiki software that drives the Wikipedia web sites is in the public domain, and free to download and use.

Why on Earth target Wikipedia? And, Caveda's amendment does not really target Facebook, it targets Facebook users, like you and me.

Reda's original report wanted to extend panorama freedom, the right to take photos in public places, and publish them, to the entire EU. Many EU countries, like Sweden, where I live, already has panorama freedom. Other countries, like France, does not. For example, in France it is illegal to take a photo of the Eiffel tower at night, because the way the tower is lit, is copyrighted.

Caveda's amendment changes that. According to his amendment, if your photograph contains a copyrighted public building, or a public work of art, you are responsible for locating the copyright holders, which may be an architect, artist, or some other entity, ask the copyright owner for permission to publish your photo, and also pay a royalty. If you get permission to use your photo at all, that is…

Caveda's proposal covers commercial use, and that is where it gets sticky. As it turns out, the photos you take are likely to be commercial, even if you do not know it, and never get paid for them.

That is just for starters. It gets worse. A lot worse!

Let's have a look at some of the things that can happen if Caveda's amendment becomes law on Thursday 9th of July 2015. 

I am going to paint a pretty harsh picture. Exaggerated? I hope so, but I fear it is not. As far as I can tell, this is pretty accurate, according to the existing proposal.

The Facebook FUBAR

If you use Facebook, G+, Instagram, Twitter, or some other social media, you have signed an end user agreement. I'll write specifically about the Facebook end user agreement, but other social media sites have similar ones.

According to the agreement you have signed with Facebook, the photos and videos you upload can be used by Facebook for commercial purposes, without remunerating you, or telling you about it. Thus, anything you upload is, by definition, commercial.

The end user agreement also states that you are responsible for making sure that if you upload anything, you have the right to do so. If you do not have the rights to the photo or video, you are legally responsible, and obligated to pay any costs incurred.

Thus, on July 9th, many millions of Facebook users may become criminals, and legally responsible to pay damages for anything they upload. Depending on the interpretation of the law, they may also be liable to pay damages for anything they have already uploaded, ever.

Forget about uploading vacation photos, street photos, shots of your friends in or near a building.

That is truly a major FUBAR.

The Death of Photojournalism

I am a photographer and a freelance journalist. On Thursday the 9th of July, much of the work I do for a living becomes illegal, if Caveda's amendment becomes law. Many other professional photographers and journalists are in the same situation.

For example, if I cover a demonstration in Gothenburg, where I live, I can't photograph or film it, if there are buildings, or public works of art, that are in my field of view.

I can still take close-ups with a short depth-of-field, but there is no way I can show the scope of a demonstration by taking a wide angle shot.

Nor would I be able to cover things like sports events, because the arena is likely to be copyright protected. I can't cover the Gothenburg Marathon, because it takes place in the city streets, and some shots really require using a wide angle lens.

The magazines I work for have a lot of photos of buildings. Some of them cover nothing but building projects. They would be caught in an impossible situation.

This is a bizarre consequence not anticipated by Caveda, but if his amendment becomes law, it is what happens.

The Map Mishap

Can you imagine what would happen to map services like Google Maps and Apple Maps? They have satellite views with photos of every building and every publicly displayed work of art in the world.

Google, Apple, and the map service providers would have to locate the copyright holders for all those public works, and ask them, individually, for permission to use the satellite photos. And, they would have to pay enormous copyright fees, and create a ridiculous administrative apparatus to do the work.

For the end user, you and me, it probably means we would end up paying for it.

More likely, satellite views will be removed altogether.

The Movie Mortuary

Shooting a movie in the EU could get ridiculously difficult and expensive. Film makers, from small, independent, documentary film makers, to large studios, would suddenly be faced with the daunting task of identifying the copyright holder of every building caught on film or video tape, asking for permission to use it, and paying copyright fees.

If I was a film maker, I'd just make my movies somewhere else.

By the way, according to Julia Reda, there is a risk that the new law will be applied retroactively, to every movie, or photo, taken in the past 70 years, so, even if film makers move their business elsewhere, they may still become criminals retroactively.

If that happens, you need to carefully review all the photos and videos you have ever uploaded to social media, or you will become a retroactive criminal too.

Dumping Democracy

Well informed, engaged citizens are a cornerstone of democracy. If it becomes difficult or impossible to cover important events because they take place in public spaces, democracy will suffer.

Even if the law is not applied rigorously, there is a risk that it can be abused for political purposes. For example, a political group could use it to block media coverage of the activities of other groups.

The long term effects are difficult to predict, but we already have a trend towards increased control, reduced democracy, and a drift towards oligarchy.

At the very least, the effects of Caveda's amendment should be thoroughly evaluated, before it is voted on!

To the best of my knowledge, this has not happened.

The Human Rights Hiccup

We should always keep in mind that copyright regimes may under-protect authors, contrary to what is usually assumed or expected. This is because “subsequent right-holders” (e.g. producers, publishers, distributors etc.) typically exercise more influence over law-making than individual creators, and may have divergent and possibly opposing interests to those of the creators.

– Farida Shaheed, UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

According to Farida Shaheed, UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, the panorama freedom is important to human rights. Farida argues that both human rights, and creativity, are to some extent dependent on restricting copyright.

She also, quite rightly, argues that strengthening copyright does not necessarily benefit the creators. Instead, it tends to benefit subsequent right-holders, companies that buy the rights cheaply from creators, and then use their power as intermediaries to make a lot of money for themselves, while passing very little to the original creators.

Copyright exceptions and limitations are tools that can – and therefore should – be used to ensure that States abide by their obligations in the field of human rights, in particular the right to freedom of expression, including artistic expression, and the right to take part in cultural life.


– Farida Shaheed, UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

Farida also argues that copyright exceptions and limitations are important tools for strengthening human rights. This is a good point. If you cannot publish a photo, or a video, or quote a legal document, you may not even be able to discuss a human rights issue.

When considering Julia Reda's report, the Legal Affairs Committee chose to ignore the opinions of the UN special rapporteur. That is, I believe, a bit worrying all by itself.

Take a stand!

I would ask you to take a stand. Do not uncritically go by my opinion. Check for yourself. There is plenty of public material.

Both Julia Reda and Jean-Marie Cavada have blogged about their respective opinions. Cavada's blog is in French, but you can use Google Translate to obtain an English version.

If you decide that the panorama right is worth protecting, sign the petition!

You can also write directly to members of the European Parliament. Wikipedia has a web page that will help you get in contact with the right members.

A third way to show support, is to spread the information as much as you can. Plenty of people and organisations have written about this. If you search social media, like twitter, look for the hashtag #FoP.

Legs

I had been on a photo job, and decided to walk along the harbor to my next working location. I came upon this scene at a location called The Temple of the Winds.

I had been shooting architecture with a wide angle lens, so I quickly changed to a zoom lens, and started taking a series of photos, while slowly walking closer.

This was the best shot I got, before whoever sat there changed her position.

Getting a shot like this does not happen often, but it does happen if I bring my camera.

When I started shooting some years ago, I always had my camera ready. Over time, I became a bit lax. I always had the camera with me, but far too often it stayed in the backpack.

Recently, I resolved to always have my camera ready, and to go for more photo walks.

It paid off.

So, definitely more photo walks in the near future, and I'll keep my camera ready.