The Photographer's Guide to Austin
My first eBook is live - check it out!
As I wrote about at the beginning of this year, I have a lot of plans for my photography work in 2016, and a couple of those things are to treat my photography more like a business, and to create valuable products that help people. In many ways, those two go hand in hand. Create value for people and build a business in the process. These are compatible goals...and I’m working on them.
I am also working towards adding more educational-type content to my blog, and this fits in perfectly with my goals for the year too. I get questions about how I did this or that, or why I did this or that, and things like that. So, I have been working on creating and sharing more educational content here, in hopes of it helping others who may be struggling with something, or those who are just interested and want to learn how or why I do certain things. I’ve done a couple of these posts lately, including this one that outlines how I use split toning in Lightroom and this one detailing my backup strategy.
Though it takes a while to get this stuff created, I enjoy it immensely and based on reader feedback, many of you enjoy it as well. So, I will continue pushing forward in that regard, with the goal being that this blog becomes more of a resource for photographers and those interested in photography - though of course, I still plan to share a LOT of photos. I just can’t stop doing that. :-)
Introducing The Photographer’s Guide to Austin
With that as a backdrop, I have spent several months working on my new eBook, The Photographer’s Guide to Austin, which I am happy to announce today. This is something I have thought about doing for several years, but thinking about it doesn’t magically make it happen (I know, right?!). Instead, I had to start with a simple idea and build it from there. And believe me, I never knew what it would take to actually get this project done. I suspected it would take a while, but it was more involved than I imagined, and I learned a lot in the process (and had to go out and take some pictures too - darn).
But despite the amount of time and effort involved in creating, photographing, writing, editing and finally launching this eBook, I am very glad that I did it. It was time well spent and I learned a lot. And truthfully, I am PROUD of this creation. It’s inspired me to do more eBooks.
You see, I have wanted to add “eBook author” to my description of what I do for a long time, mostly because I enjoying writing up stuff (hence, having a blog is a good thing for someone like me, and doing longer educational posts fits in well too) and this felt like the logical next step. And honestly, I was just dying to try it out and see if it would work for me and for this site. My initial inspiration to accomplish this was to satisfy my own psyche. It was a goal I set for myself, and I accomplished it. I had to work for it, but it was worth it. Don’t you love that feeling?
It all started with a list
For many years, I have had a list on my blog of the best places to take photos in Austin. It’s a very popular list, getting more views than nearly everything else on my blog. It started as just a place to keep track of stuff (mostly personal) and help guide people who were visiting, and has since morphed into something of value for people (based on the number of views, comments, and emails I get about Austin photo locations). I’m very grateful that it’s popular, though I’m more interested in the fact that it is helpful. I get a lot of email from people saying “thanks”. That’s awesome.
I realized some time ago that turning this into an eBook would be fun, educational, and helpful - and I also decided that I would offer it for sale, as an extension to the free list on the blog (which will of course stay there). I knew I would add significantly more content to it than I would ever have on the blog list, both in terms of locations and details about them, but also in terms of it being more orderly and logical in it’s layout...and I have. A LOT more.
It includes 60 locations in and around Austin that I have personally visited and photographed, and it’s all organized by section of town. That way, you can capture everything of interest in one area before moving on to the next area. Additionally, there is a Bonus Section that extends further across Central Texas and includes 16 more locations (as far away as San Antonio, TX even).
It’s ALL in there, and I know you will love it.
You can click here to read more about it and of course feel free to use the Contact Form at the bottom of the page if you have any questions.
Thanks for the support and if you decide to purchase a copy, I sincerely hope you enjoy the eBook and that it helps you get the shot! Hope to see you out shooting in Austin!
(And yes, I have already started on another eBook, though it will be completely different than this one. I’ll let you know when it’s ready. It will take me a little while, but I’m already working on it and having fun.)
