Hello everyone! As you may already know I have been hard at work creating a book to showcase my work. Well this said book is now finished and available for those of you who are iPad owners to download and enjoy for free.

I am very excited to have finished the project, it's been a project for a year or more now. Although i have not worked on the book for a year straight (even though it feels like it) its always been on my mind. Needless to say a lot of time and effort has gone into the images chosen to represent the first 7 years of my photography career.

I have always been about sharing from the very start and having a great outlet such as iBooks is really fortunate for me. I feel the pros to having a book on the iPad compared to sharing my work only on the web is that I get to control the experience. Regardless of where you are the viewing experience is going to be the same from person to person.

I have a favor to ask of you. On my birthday (which is today May 5th) instead of wishing me wishing me an impersonal "...happy birthday" I would like you to instead download my free books on iTunes! I know that if you made a book on _____ (insert topic) I would definitely download it! Especially if its free! :) Also while you are there feel free to rate the book! If you are a fan of my work these things mean a lot to me. If 30 people simply rate the book (click the 5 star icon (I think I'm worth 5 btw)) it will create a snowball effect. We all know that when scrolling through items we typically pass right by the books, apps, songs, whatever that have no ratings!

So to some it up! I know many of you are great friends and truly nice people. So to show this simply download the book through iTunes or iBooks Store on the iPad and just rate the book! This is all I ask!

My books can be found here: Long Nights and Streetlights and Love is a Lotto

Please don't make a man beg or gravel! Thank you all! I am humbled, the only thing I look to do is to inspire and share the world with you!

I would like to take a moment to say sorry for the following video, I hope we are still friends after...

httpvh://youtu.be/MBj9gCNrf8Q

I just read on twitter (after I recorded the above video) and realized that I made it to the "New & Noteworthy" section of the iTunes Store under Photography. I then looked a bit deeper and realized that I am currently holding the #2 and #3 spots for free books. I am beyond humbled. My vocabulary just doesn't let me truly express how I feel. If you know me small gestures then you would know that mean the world to me.

This morning was spent looking at photo books, more specifically Blurb.com books. I read some reviews and began thinking about what to explore in my upcoming fifth year of photography.

I haven't spoken a whole lot to anyone about my fifth year and my personal plans for it, but I will say a little bit now.

This upcoming year, I am going to focus on me, by which I mean I'm going to focus on work I have already shot and then selling myself. I'm going to focus on getting my name out there and starting to print. In all the years I've been shooting, I've only printed twice. I printed one image, a 20x30 a few years ago (which no one has ever seen), and a 16x24 of the GWAR crowd.

Printing is a strange beast for me. Why? Because people don't understand how big of a deal it is to an artist — I feel the more I print the less and less my images are worth. Strange? Sure, yes, very. But, keeping that in mind, I'm also realizing, how am I supposed to find the right mount or frame if I don't experiment a little bit?

Truthfully, I wish I knew someone who thought like me (minus the crazy broken thought process) and who I could simply follow around copy.

Here comes the future and in it, I want to try a little bit of everything, including printing, framing, and books.

http://www.blurb.com/make/books

I have known about Blurb books for quite some time, but fear has held me back. Now, I want to attempt a book.

First, I look at the price and at my potential market. Will the book sell? Am I good enough for people to want to own my art? Or will they buy it only because I'm a friend and they want to support me? Well, hopefully it's a bit of both.

The book will probably cost me around $50 to produce, but I have no idea what size it will be or how many pages it will have or even what paper quality I'll use. Honestly, I can't see myself adding much more to the price, for now I'm more interested in seeing if people will want to own my blood and sweat than I am in making a profit off it.

After a break from searching and some talks with different people, I have come up with a near final idea. I am going to do a full photo book with detailed stories on a few selected images. But only on images that have a story worth telling; I'm a strong photographer, not a writer.