Let’s Publish a Coffee Table Book.

[Kestrana]

Or maybe not as I’m putting together this spreadsheet…

[Choc-Ful-A]

Also are you guys ok with me pushing this forward? It would be nice to have everybody saying “yeah let’s do this” even if you don’t have the time/energy/motivation to do more than sign the piece of paper letting us use your photographs. Conversely, is anyone downright against this and doesn’t want to be included?

I would love to see this move forward and would be happy to participate however we structure the book. I don’t know what, if anything, I can do to help. But I’ll read all the comments posted here and give opinions are requested at a minimum.

[Kestrana]

Thanks Choc-Ful-A the more voices the better I’ll feel about consensus

[ravnostic]

I’d be happy to contribute pics, but against the likes of this group, I’d feel pretty outclassed. However if any of you have a particular photo I’ve done that you’d like to see included, I’d be more than happy to sign a waiver for it’s use.

[Kestrana]

Ok so here’s the data from the spreadsheet I put together of top 5s and how many pictures that entails. It’s a total of 265 pictures from 67 unique photographers.

advisorgee
ArcticFox
bucky_bacon x 8
ChimpMitten
Choc-Ful-A x 2
CitizenTed
continental_sausage x 5
corsec67 x 6
Curious
Deveyn
dompydude x 2
dprathbun
Elsinore x 16
Ennuipoet x 2
Eternal
FutherMucker x 2
GallopingGoulash
hackhix x 2
HagarTheHorrible x 2
harpo x 3
idle_hands
I’m No Big Deal x 8
IncorrigibleKitty x 2
jekxrb
jimpoz
JohnBEsq
Jpatten x 2
just kat x 2
kashari
kestrana x 3
lady_nocturne x 2
Linguine
Lord Ezekiel x 3
markie_farkie x 2
mattietoldhattie
Megain x 2
millera9 x 12
Mopsy x 4
MorningBreath x 4
No Catchy Nickname
No Such User x 2
nugz4lunch
nutkick_42 x 2
olavf x 7
orionid x 21
PandyFarmer
pangolyn x 4
QueenBee x 3
Ranger Joe x 8
RcMacStudent
schnee x 4
sclark5150
SilverStag x6
Sinnocent
sleeping x 6
SoCalChris
somewebguy
soosh x 14
stupido x 2
swampa2 x 9
sweetc
t_xerox
U-Man x 50
Uranus
USAF Retired
wrayvynn
zenprowler

One thought is, if you have more than 1 picture in the top 5, only one could be used in the book and we take the next place(s) down. You would get to pick which one goes in. Then we can fill up to 400 pictures with nominees? I’ll finish spreadsheet data about how that would change the spread of pictures when I get home from work.

[lokisbong]

I wonder why I am not on that list? I have a third place and a 4th place? Not complaining…just curious.

[Kestrana]

Was it in 2009? I only looked at the contests from “Money Shots” to “Farktography Classic: Season’s Greetings III”. If it is, let me know, but I was using the FSM data to compile the list.

[lokisbong]

That might be why. All my top 5s have been in the last 6 months I think.

[Kestrana]

Ok so I did the other spreadsheet actually before work so this is the difference: 272 total pictures and 71 unique photographers. This list is arranged by total pictures then alphabetical.

advisorgee
ArcticFox
ChimpMitten
CitizenTed
Curious
Deveyn
dprathbun
DynoFARKjr
Eternal
GallopingGoulash
jekxrb
jimpoz
JohnBEsq
kashari
Linguine
monsieurstabby
No Catchy Nickname
nugz4lunch
PandyFarmer
RcMacStudent
sclark5150
Sinnocent
SkyPig
SoCalChris
somewebguy
sweetc
t_xerox
Uranus
USAF Retired
wrayvynn
zenprowler

Choc-Ful-A x 2
dompydude x 2
FutherMucker x 2
hackhix x 2
HagarTheHorrible x 2
idle_hands x 2
IncorrigibleKitty x 2
Jpatten x 2
lady_nocturne x 2
markie_farkie x 2
mattietoldhattie x 2
Megain x 2
No Such User x 2
staplermofo x 2
stupido x 2

Ennuipoet x 3
just kat x 3
kestrana x 3
Lord Ezekiel x 3
nutkick_42 x 3

MorningBreath x 4
pangolyn x 4
schnee x 4

harpo x 5
QueenBee x 5

continental_sausage x 6
Mopsy x 6
sleeping x 6

bucky_bacon x 7
corsec67 x 7

SilverStag x 8

I’m No Big Deal x 9
olavf x 9
Ranger Joe x 9

swampa2 x 11

millera9 x 13
soosh x 13

Elsinore x 15

orionid x 19

U-Man x 35

With a working number of 128 more pictures, that would total 400. That would give everyone on the list the opportunity to add 1 more picture + some room for anyone who isn’t on the list also. U-Man at 35 is still less than 10% of total pictures and everyone else I think is ok. If we can’t get permission from some of the less active people we can go down the rankings. My brain kind of hurts now.

---

Or, alternate square one idea is to totally scrap the idea of using only 2009 photos, the contests as categories and the rankings at all. Come up with new chapter categories for the book and have all photographers submit pictures to those categories provided they were used in a farktography contest at any time. Create pools on Flickr for said categories. Upload picture in largest available resolution to said pools. Then vote on uploaded pictures via the favorites feature or comments on Flickr. Chapter categories relate to overall theme of the book and photography on the internet as staplermofo was positing.

[ravnostic]

I wonder why I am not on that list? I have a third place and a 4th place? Not complaining…just curious.

Had the same question [number 5, ‘squares’; but got to reading the entire thread (so much for sleep today.)

Ya’ll have figured I’m a bit enthusiastic about farktography despite being a noob, so I do have some thoughts, though. Sue me if it’s out of line there’s no money in it for ya, go ahead.

High school yearbooks are a pretty standard size nationwide, so that size as a result might be cheaper to produce (12″h x 9″w if I recall.)

If you’re looking at ‘Farktography 2009’, the goal is to get it published before it’s 2011, it would seem to me. If it’s not ‘Martha phuqin’ Stewart’s’ Farktography yearbook this year, who cares? Get it done, get the point across in a decent fashion, and hope for the best. One of the posts mentioned decent quality in a Christmas book. Run with that in mind, I’d say.

The ‘best’ would be more farktographers, of course (leading to sequels of, perhaps, better quality). The ‘point’ is that good photography isn’t always about fancy cameras and mad photo skills; talent plays a role in success, but so do humor, happenstance/good luck, motivation, and a willingness to participate and learn–which are kind of the things that can lead to success in life, as well.

Format suggestion: 4 page/contest (208 pages); first page left, winner; 2nd page right, 2 & 3; 3rd page left 4 & 5; 4th page right, biographies.

(If you went to 10, then 1, 2 and 3, 4-6, and 7-10 (5 page format), and either way amend shots to fit as needed–that’s what happens in life when you tie–a little limelight is taken away. Beyond 10? Good luck with that–it wouldn’t be a coffee table book, it would be a sr. year college art history textbook)

Yes, U-Man and Elsinore would be bio’d to death. Fine. Use the opportunity to lampoon them–that’s fark. Bio this and that in the beginning ‘chapters’. Then start in on the “U-Man: What, did you just flip to this page while pinching a loaf in the john? Don’t you know about him already? Who’s house is keeping this book in the bathroom? This is an insult! Wrap this book up in toilet paper, seal with tape, and send it back to P.O. Box {blah-blah-blah, get stapler to write the copy}(for more information on U-Man, see pages x, y and z)“

If it’s not fun, then it is neither fark, nor farktography, in the end {of the pinched loaf}.

Can’t get permission? Leave a ‘404 page’ error message, with a blurb about why, and an offer to ‘include {such and so screen name} in the ‘reprints’ {some pithy joke about going to reprints} if they contact such-and-so listed at the end of the book. It is a contest. Some people are one-hit-wonders, never heard from again. Apparently, one person has past on to that great farktographer’s forum in the skynet. Even so, readers can always see them by coming here if they must–and maybe there’d be another farktographer because of it, or maybe someone might become active in participating again (and, if there’s ever reprints…)

So there’s my 1 cent. About worth as much, I’d gather. Or you can go with Kestrana’s latest and go ala object de stapleur.

Either way, I’ll buy a copy of what you come up with, and should a 2010 version come about, I got one shot for it and will try to better it by a few more before 2011 rolls around.

[ravnostic]

Upload picture in largest available resolution to said pools.

I don’t know that flickr can handle that. I’m only using 2.5% of my 150 gigs web space, and get 1.5 terabits per month upload/download–and come within .2 percent of that. I could handle the large size pics, I think. if the average pic was 8 Mb, I’d get 187k views of them per month out of the account. For not much more (and I’d agree to it; new job is going well and I can afford it now), I can have unlimited bandwidth/storage space for such a venture.

[linguine]

Is there a reason for only looking at one year, I had been assuming we would include photos from throughout each year and would be trying to chase down some of the past farktographers to include them(and maybe sucker some of them into coming back).

[orionid]

Is there a reason for only looking at one year, I had been assuming we would include photos from throughout each year and would be trying to chase down some of the past farktographers to include them(and maybe sucker some of them into coming back).

I was talking to Kestrana about this on her lunchbreak. Here’s my idea, that she gave a nod to if consensus agrees.

1) Don’t limit it to “2009”

2) Shoot for a target of 50 contests out of the last 2-3 years or so. That way, the “meh” contests are skipped, as well as the top-ten-shared-by-three-people threads. Plus, I secretly hope to be able to include flavivirus‘s Hong Kong panorama.

3) We form a panel of volunteers (who would be willing to put in potentially a lot of actual time) to hash out which contests are the best and/or “Farkiest” as well as writing, layouts, etc. The committee should be 4-8 people, and will probably center communication through a facebook group (where everyone else can monitor progress or chip in 2 cents without having to be contacted for every decision). My logic is sort of like a high school yearbook. You had ten or twelve kids doing the whole thing, and most people were pretty happy with it when it came out. If you stopped to let the senior class vote or debate every page, nothing would get done by graduation.

4) I’d also like to see at least one old-timer *glares at staplermofo* who was around in the veruca/monkeybort days on the committee. I dunno why, I just think the perspective of having seen the growth/evolution of farktography might help. I know mockeybort specifically has her own commercial website, sho she could be easy to get a hold of, but we’ll have to relegate to modmin powers for tracking down some of the other old greats and/or one-timers.

[SilverStag]

3) We form a panel of volunteers (who would be willing to put in potentially a lot of actual time) to hash out which contests are the best and/or “Farkiest” as well as writing, layouts, etc. The committee should be 4-8 people, and will probably center communication through a facebook group (where everyone else can monitor progress or chip in 2 cents without having to be contacted for every decision). My logic is sort of like a high school yearbook. You had ten or twelve kids doing the whole thing, and most people were pretty happy with it when it came out. If you stopped to let the senior class vote or debate every page, nothing would get done by graduation.

I think this is a great idea. A few of us could move more quickly than a clusterfark of people, so we just have to pick a trusted subset of folks who’ve been around a while and have sound judgment.

That way, the “meh” contests are skipped

This, for sure: We can pick and choose among the contests, and let’s face it, some of them have been less than, shall we say, inspiring.

I’d like to see a contest-agnostic section for certain images that might not otherwise make a cut- let’s say something that was very clever, or unusually beautiful, whatever, but happened to land in a meh contest or one that wasn’t otherwise featured.

[SilverStag]

I have a semi-problem with Facebook, as a significant number of people seem to have issues with their policies, and image compression there sucks squirrel balls.

[Author]

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