Yes, it's a digital world and everything is going to be a number. Photos don't escape this fate. The new brave digital world made much simpler and cheaper to take, post-process and share a photo and most of them are today viewed by means of a web browser. It's not so bad, even though you have to spend more and more time to dig some quality out of that huge pile of media.
But — I think that books have still their place in this world. I mean, printed books. While a well-calibrated monitor probably gives the best fidelity in reproduction, nothing can compare the feeling of browsing through sheets of real paper (of course, the good quality one, with the appropriate weight) and smelling the ink and the glue. That's why during the past year I've applied myself to find a practical way to share my production also in form of a printed book. Of course, not being a professional photographer, I can't afford the classic publishing process, with editors and bookshops, which relies on high volumes. But, thanks to print-on-demand publishers, it is now possible to create a catalogue of printable products that are created on demand and delivered at the customer's home. So I worked on it and, after three attempts, I've gloriously finished the job with the year — and now I have my first book available for shopping: it's “Birds, portfolio 1”, and collects some of my best bird shots.
I've evaluated a number of competing services and in the end I've found that Blurb is the best around. Unfortunately, the price tag is still high (I'm keeping it as low as possible by setting a mark-up that is only symbolic). I'm not asking to buy my books in order to keep this website running — I have the time and the resources without needing any money return — it's just a way to share more in one more fashion, hoping that in a short time technology improvements will bring the prices down.
In any case, in order to provide also a cheaper alternative, each printed book is also available as a downloadable PDF for a few euros.
Please feel free to visit the new Store section of this website.
Happy New Year.