mel jacobson on fri 11 nov 11
my favorite nephew is the editor/maker of the
woodworker's magazine. (staff of 5.)
he has done that now 12 years...in charge.
we talk about twice a month...art, design, ideas.
most of the time he calls about 11 p.m. we talk for
an hour. his dad/my brother died recently so the
calls are more frequent.
the other night i asked him about submissions, and how
does it all go together. (we have talked about his theme
hundreds of times. )
`uncle mel, it is all about quality images`. the jpegs
have to meet a certain criteria. so, it does boil down
to art direction, that will show the magazine is quality.
his own ego, his own bias will always trump content
of article. `he` has to produce a `high quality` magazine.
the rockler corporation never interferes with his work.
he is his toughest critic. but, in the end, quality images
trump everything. like he says..`hard to fix bad digital images`; and
it takes hours to make even the simplest jpegs work.
i think you can take that story and place it in any magazine
in the world. quality images.
in the early years of digital i had a terrible time knowing what
to do. i finally bought my nikon d70 with a close range lens.
learned to shoot pix at f32/15 seconds with quality low light.
now it is sorted out.
but as my nephew jeff said the other night....the editor is /can
be the victim of bad submissions. you only have so many days
to get that magazine ready for publication. it is not easy.
and then, next month you do all over again.
i have had three emails this week from very quality folks that have
been rejected by cm. they worked months on the story/piece.
but, it did not fit. they are angry and piss'd off. but, who knows
why? that is up to the folks that build that magazine.
it took me thousands of hours to put together `21st century kilns`.
and of course building the two hour video was part of the most difficult
problem. digital film from about 9 different cameras and formats.
but, it got sorted out.
funny side bar: jeff said he got an article written by a 85 year
old master woodworker. hand written with pencil and the pix where a
pile of black and white
pictures taken with a `brownie hawkeye`. the woodworking
was spectacular, but it could never be published. jeff called the
guy to see if things could be upgraded, but that was someplace
in rural georgia, and the guy just did not get it. sad.
jeff said he would have loved to go down there with some good
equipment and publish the guy...but, editors just don't have time
or the resources to do that.
as many of you have noticed, magazines are going out of business
by the dozens. it is a tough way to make a dime. the pressure is
sure on.
mel
time to take the family to the farm for the fall harvest. venison.
every deer taken makes the auto insurance agents smile. thousands
of cars destroyed every year by deer, and some human deaths in the
mix.
thanks joyce for helping out.
from: minnetonka, mn
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
clayart link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
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