We did get out for a few shots of Halloween in Havre de Grace, where part of Washington Street is shut to traffic and the whole town stays open to kids of all ages. I took a few shots – more should come later. I found these two charming young ladies behind the counter at Joseph’s Department Store downtown. Definitely an addition to my next book project…

I know it took far too long to get to these, but things do get busy at times. And I’m in the early stages of planning a book of my Havre de Grace b&w images – lots to do but working out the logistics is the the more daunting and time consuming stage for me. In a world where no book printer is “set up” for color, there’s no such thing as an optimal b&w photo book printing. Essentially, they print it in CMYK and hope for the best. It’s all compromises. Finding an in-country printer that exercises any kind of quality control (VERY important with b&w) is a nightmare. 

I have half a dozen requests out, to printers who advertize that they do b&w photo-book printing, asking to purchase, if necessary, a sample sheet – or, if not that, directions to where I can purchase a monochrome book they have printed. To date – not one has responded. A printer in London is honest about it, having a YouTube video explaining the pitfalls of printing b&w photo books, assuring potential customers that they will exercise the needed quality control. This is a $5,000 order – I can only assume that most printers want only such orders from those who aren’t going to be so picky as to want a sample. Offset, the route I went for my 2012 Easter Island book, is off the table – there’s a minimum now of a thousand copies for that.

I’ll try and get to a couple more Halloween images to follow this one soon…