100th Post, Book Update, New Work

 Do you remember what you did 14 years ago, more precisely on  Apr 24, 2010?  I don't, but I can tell you that the was the day I made my first post here, it marked a new format of mtbbrian.com the website I created in 2003.  

This post marks the 100th post I have made on my blogsite as I call it so I thought I'd give a little update on my second photo book and post a new photograph or two that you just might see in the book.

 While I have a lot of photographs to choose from going back to 2016, I'd have to say that this has been one of the most active periods in my photography in a long time, if not ever, because I brought at least 12 rolls of film to Essential Photography Supply for processing this past two months or so; on one occasion I brought six rolls that I had shot over the course of two days at the King Rally, in Sigurd Utah, and came away with enough good photographs from it, that I my have a section of the book dedicated to the rally.

 

I also have some new photographs from the time I recently rode the route for 2024 Ride To Zero route that takes place from September 7-8, 2024.  The route runs through the town of Hanna, Utah and I made this photograph while on a brief stop.

  Like my first book, Trout Dreams,  I am doing it on blurb.com and am planning on doing two hard cover sizes, the Standard Landscape, which is 10"x8"and their Large Format Landscape which is 13"x11". I am really trying to keep the cost down, but the thing to keep in mind when purchasing a book through Blurb, is that the different paper choices are what cost you the most.  For example, the "Standard Landscape" book and selecting their "standard paper" will run you $54 dollars, compared to $90 by selecting their "Mohawk Pro Pearl" paper.  I also had a softcover version of my first book, which lowered the price even, so I'll check that out as an option for my second.  I am hoping to have some available for purchase from me personally or from a local photography shop, so if you are in the greater Salt Lake City, Utah area keep that in mind.

 In other news last month I was involved in  my first motorcycle related photography exhibit when I had one of my photographs as part of a photography contest/exhibit at the Two-Bit Moto Show, put on by a local motorcycle shop Tucker Speed in Ogden.  They had a great variety of motorcycle related photographs and a lot of cool looking bikes and other related stuff.  

I am really excited about my book and hope to have it published later this year.  If you'd like to see and guess what photographs will be in the book, check out and follow me on Instagram @harleys_and_holgas_forever or if you are Flickr I go by "Red Holga Man" where you can see my pano photographs as well as my square format photographs.

Thanks for checking out this 100th post and if you have been with me since 2003 when I first created a website, thanks for accompanying me on this journey.  

Brian

Let's Ride!

 

Welcome Home...

March 29, is National Viet Nam Veterans Day, it was first commemorated in 2012, and would eventually become an annual occurrence in 2017 when the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 was signed and became law.

In Layton, Utah there is an 80% scale of the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington DC and this year I went to make some photographs of the wall and of the event happening that day.

 It was a great event, complete with color guard.

All sorts of speakers, from Viet Nam Veterans, to politicians were at the event.

As the events wound down, I went over to the wall to find my uncle's name James F. Schiele, who was killed during the war and happened upon another Veteran who was standing in front of a nearby panel for several minutes. I waited and watched him more after I made a photograph of him and then I approached him,to let him know that I had made a photograph of him and asked if he knew anyone listed on the wall.  He knew a couple of names and was looking for them, but was unable to find them, then I pulled out my phone and pulled one of the many locators, but between the two of us, I wasn't able to find any of his buddies.

At the Layton City wall, there are eight benches placed along and facing the wall that honor the eight women all of which were Army nurses, that were killed in action and whose names are also listed on the wall.  

Largely because of my work life, I have had the opportunity to speak to several thousand Viet Nam Veterans and when our conversations were over I would always thank for what they endured after they got home, because it was not in vain, because it also made things better for my generation of Veterans; I always end the conversation by saying, "Welcome Home".

New photo book (in the works)

 For the dozen or so of you that have been following my photography for the past 11 years or so, you may remember my first photo book, Trout Dreams.   I have decided to do another book, that is very early stages for my motorcycle work that I am calling Harleys and Holgas Forever, which is what I go by on Instagram and also expresses my feelings toward both things. 

 If you follow me on Instagram, you may remember the January 25, 2020 post I made where I first mentioned publishing my second book, a book of my motorcycle photography. At the time, I had what I felt were just a few photographs that I thought would be worthy of a book and I while I don't exactly have enough for a book right now, I definitely  have more.

I have learned a lot about creating and publishing your own book, since Trout Dreams, so I am confident that my next book will be better in terms of layout and design.

When I did Trout Dreams I would regularly post screenshots of the book as I figured out what fonts I wanted to use and page layout, I don't think that I'll do that this time, but I thought I would at least post a couple of screenshots to give you an idea of what the book will look like.

On this format the book is a hardcover with a dust cover, the dark section on the right,which would be the back side of the front,  I plan on having some sort of text an artist statement and probably a picture of me.  On the left, section, I plan on creating some sort of collage of some of my Instagram photos of my own Harley, I may even create larger collage of them too for one of the last pages in the book.  

As with Trout Dreams, I will have a foreword written by someone that knows my work, and while I have a short list of people that I would like to do that, I am not ready for that just yet.

That's all for now, I don't know if I will post as much as I did about the book as did with Trout Dreams as I was working on it, but when it is complete, you will certainly see it here.

 Brian 

 Let's Ride!