Photoclubalpha

I know that David K has, over the years, produced some of the best photographic magazines in the UK. At one time he had a self published mag available in the news stores but it was too good. I am sure that you know what I mean. Most photographic mags are not aimed at real enthusiasts. So I expect Cameracraft to be well worth the £20.00 but you have been strangely silent about it David. Please tell us more.

I'm being quiet because I am still working on the content and even on the size of issue 1. I'm faced some difficult decisions as the price to print it from one of Britain's biggest and best magazine printers is only 60% of the price from my regular printers, but over the years I have grown to mistrust extremely low quotes. At the same time, I would find the additional pages and print run too valuable to turn down.

Cameracraft is partly a successor to Photoworld - a quarterly at a similar cost of £20 a year UK. There is obviously some heritage from the Alpha/Sony history but the intention is to be non-aligned with any make or brand. Gary Friedman is running our US editorial office, which at the moment consists of writing a column, checking over the articles and discussing content, and promoting subscriptions in the dollar region. In future the intention is for Gary also to source content from other contributors, but at the beginning we don't have budgets to pay fees so it's not a matter of commissioning.

I want to introduce some of the things which were lost when we closed Photon (previously PhotoPro) in 1999. For the last 13 years, I've been very constrained by different agendas. I can't for example showcase great work, whether professional or amateur, in Master Photography - unless the photographer is some way connected to the association it's published for. In Photoworld, I could not really deviate from showing only Min/Sony related stuff. In F2/Freelance there was a bit more freedom, but the work shown always had to have some relevance to making money.

Cameracraft is a bid for freedom - also, to try to get away from advertisers as a vital support. These days advertisers make excessive demands for editorial support. Right now I am doing two advertorial features for Canon for different publications, a spend into several thousands - they will do this instead of just buying advertising, because it seems that editorial style coverage works better. Not all companies do this, some just buy ads and then try to place conditions on them, such as running particular press releases. This skews the editorial process, as space you might use for something else is taken up running a news item which is usually several weeks out of date (internet has already been there).

Ultimately getting this kind of freedom, and the right content and size of magazine, depends on acquiring several thousand readers. We start with several hundred, but most of those are just the former Photoclubalpha subscribers with the balance of any subscription transferred to the new title.

I'll know soon enough whether this will work in the long term.

David

David,

I can't wait to see it. As you are obviously going to be severely constrained by the budget, at least at first, I think that I would give the new printers a try. If the quality is a bit lower than your usual (which admittedly was always excellent) I am sure that the readers will forgive you.

Regards,

Bob

I think the best for the moment is to invited most of our friend to do like us, purchase the first edition .

Regards,

Frank

Passworded private forum is interesting, but that will mean more work for Gary and you, David... I just didn't understood if I still have a credit with Photoworld or not

I'm looking forward to the new magazine

pakodominguez wrote:Passworded private forum is interesting, but that will mean more work for Gary and you, David... I just didn't understood if I still have a credit with Photoworld or not

Is the forum protected for contribution or for content also ?

Frank

With Gary's help, the subscription list for Cameracraft has really taken off in the last 24 hours, and the first issue is well under way. The subscription systems on the main Photoclubalpha page appear to be working correctly, and after some odd glitches with pay now buttons not responding, our pages at:
http://www.iconpublications.com
(choices for subscriptions for various magazines) or
http://www.iconpublications.com/cameracraft
(dedicated UK or World options for just Cameracraft)
are all functioning correctly.

David

I got you some french Canadian today with the facebook link . More to come

Frank

Yes, those Canadian postcodes are rolling in. Like British postcodes, but different

Thanks!

David

Will we have also an electronic copy along with the hard one?

I'm considering how to do this. First, all subscribers will have access to a PDF copy. But this may not happen until the 2nd issue is out, as we have not included details of a link in the magazine itself. All the issues will be archived in PDF form.

Secondly, I may use the YUDU reader system to sell subs - based on exactly the same sub as the world deal, which makes it relatively expensive. I can't offer this for the UK because there's a complex set of rules about VAT which I regret we have broken in the past. But that would give people an unlocked YUDU version plus a postal copy.

Gary may be recruited for further help on email newsletters. I've had my emails blocked by my hosting provider and all I am doing is trying to send subscribers a notification. They think it's spam. It is not, these are my customers even if they have signed for a free account - they have provided an email and my communication with them is relevant.

David

The looks quite interesting I might even subscribe!
The appeal is that it's not tied to a specific maker which suits me down to the ground (obvious reason why I did not subscribe the the previous mag was I was moving away!)
I would think it would be easy enough to pull in subscribers and I'd be happy to spread the word where I am (forum hound and all) but I'd like to know a little bit more. Put simply what's the "take" on this?. ie review based, technique, news, what kind of theme/main thrust is the magazine aiming at or is it a mix of those?

It is not news or review based Barry, more a broad mix. In the first issue I've done a sort of three-page opening roundup of tech and spec changes in all the major camera systems over the last year, I've also done a detailed look at why legacy glass is so important for mirrorless users (with some examples - Richard managed to get Corfield extension tubes and a Zenith lens on a Leica adaptor to a Fuji X-Pro1 body...). Richard has done a thorough overview of the legacy Polaroid system and the materials now made by the Impossible Project, sort of part business, part history, part technical. Gary has told the story of a 1980s commission shot on film, I have written about shadows and why we seem to have forgotten their role in pictures, David Tarn writes about his one-shot-a-day project for 2012, and then we've got gallery, main central portfolio (hope the quality repays the investment) and incidental stuff.

There's no attempt to compete with websites or consumer magazines and in some ways it's a bit old-fashioned. We plan to cover film use, even darkroom work, as I believe there will be a return to this. Our general position is anti-gratuitous-identica-effect digital work (like the HDR and stuff currently plaguing pro wedding shooters).

It's not pro or amateur, or dry fine art or gallery crit. Maybe a bit too enthusiast for some.

David

Sounds exactly what I'm looking for!
As you know there are a lot of "photo mags" around and frankly I'm bored stiff with most of them, always nice to see photos and work from people. But for reviews, news and stuff like that I can get that on line as can everyone else (I don't mind bits of this but I like "real articles" that engage and make you think). So I'm looking for something a bit off the beaten path. I'd love to read about the back to basics stuff so I think I will be having a look at this.