I limped up to the MIM (http://www.themim.org/) this morning to get started on my next big photo project. Fortunately it’s still sandal weather in Phoenix so I wasn’t forced to shove my purple foot into a closed shoe. (I’m totally exaggerating for effect here, my foot’s not that bad. In fact, I’m a little disappointed the bruise isn’t bigger) When the MIM opened back in April, I took a buttload of photos (1000, in case you’re wondering how big a buttload is) and put together a photo book for my Dad to commemorate the occasion. It was a pretty big hit with him. I think it would be fair to say it’s the best present I’ve ever given him, as he asked for two additional copies. I was feeling pretty impressed with myself, since it was the first photo book I’ve ever done. I’ve put together tons of albums, but never a book. Honestly, a good photo book makes a photo album look like a kindergarten project.
The first book was focused on the opening events, so it featured a lot of photos of family and friends with a smattering of museum spaces and exhibits. Taken completely haphazardly as things appealed to me, which is largely my photographic style. So now I’m taking on the bigger task of doing a more comprehensive book on the entire museum. Which means I need to photograph every exhibit, every public space, most of the back of house spaces plus detail shots of random things that look cool. I was there for about 3 hours today and I took 789 photos, which is a new single day record for me. And I didn’t get to any of the back of house spaces. Crap.
I’ve been converting the RAW files to JPEG for over 2 hours now and I’m not even close to half way through. Double crap. This is going to be a monumental task. The museum is an amazing place and I really want this book to reflect that. But I do have a deadline. This will be my Dad’s main Christmas present and we are celebrating at his house on December 17th. So I have to have this puppy finished by the beginning of December to make sure it gets produced in time.
So I guess I know what I’m going to be doing for the next 3 weeks.
This is one of my favorite photos from April. It’s the Martin Guitar exhibit.