Six Thousand and a Sieve

Besides the writing itself, I have about 6000 photos in my arsenal to add imagery to the book. The hardest part isn’t what to include, it’s what not to include. There comes a point when the description that appears in the reader’s head is better than any image that could be added to embellish it. Or at least I hope that’s how it works out.

I’ve gone through the set of 6000 about 7 times. I keep thinking I’ll make a master subset and just pick from those, but every time I need to grab a batch, the subset I picked last time isn’t complete enough. Some aspect has been left out. When I spoke at Soul Food Books to the group who followed Clint and John, I knew they wanted to hear the music part foremost, so I focused on that portion. When I selected photos to go up on my photo share, I tailored it to the photographers and what I think they most want to see. When I spoke at REI in Seattle, I didn’t mention music once. I focused on the trekking, the culture and the people of the area. But this book is the first time I’ll be able to incorporate all of the different aspects of the story which means another run through the 6000 photos.

Regardless of how many there are in the book at the end, only a tiny fraction will be seen. This is a story, not a coffee table book. But there will be photos and they’ll be my favorites and they’ll be in color.