Crafty? No. Arty? Maybe. Hopkins? Definitely

I'm usually working on a ton of projects all the time, but for some reason I feel like they'll seem out of place on this blog. Well screw it, I know this isn't going to fit in very well but I'll tell you about it anyway.

There is this town called Hopkin's Park. I've never actually been there before, but I know it has a bad reputation. Maybe that reputation is earned, maybe it is just because the population is predominantly black. Maybe a little bit of both. In any case, I accidentally ended up there with a couple of friends while driving aimlessly through the country looking for things to take pictures of. Not long after reaching the proper city of Hopkins a guy (a black guy) offered a piece of advice, "Knock on people's doors to see if they are home before taking pictures of their property." This advice seemed reasonable enough, though the property I was photographing was clearly abandoned. A few minutes later he came along again with some more advice, "I said, knock on doors or else I'm going to put a cap in your ass." personally, I interpreted this advice as "Get out of Hopkins" and proceeded to do so.

Before long however, a county sheriff driving past decided he should offer up some advice as well. He turned out to be a middle school pal of my passenger and so he gave the kind of advice that I was already acting upon, rather than the kind of advice which costs me court fees and fines.

The secondary point of this story is to tell you that I took a series of pictures that day of which I'm proud. I think you should look at them. They are available for viewing at hopkinstour.blogspot.com

The primary point of this story is to tell you that there are websites on the internet, to which you can upload your photographs and then receive a softcover or hardcover book which can be used as a gift or as a selfish keepsake that you keep for your own sake. I tried out a couple of these services. I wasn't happy with the design process or the print quality of the books produced by Lulu.com. Another guy looked at the book and thought it was fine. Blurb.com, on the other hand, has a nice looking site and the design interface is pretty easy to operate. I haven't received a physical book from them yet, but most reviews of the print quality seem to be pretty positive. Both of these companies allow you to offer up your new book for sale to the public from their websites. So make a good book and get filthy. I'm working on a fat photo-book about Abraham Lincoln. When it is done, it is going to be so freaking awesome. Seriously.