100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

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Harlequin67
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100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by Harlequin67 »

I have recently purchased this part book/part magazine from WHSmith. It is published by Ian Allan and AI. The price is £8.99.

I think the photography chosen is excellent, the reproduction is excellent, the quality of paper is good.

However, the problem is the photographs spread across two pages. The binding means you need to break the spine of your book-a-zine to see the whole photograph. I feel sorry for any photographer, whose photograph is basically unviewable.

I think this is very poor. I can understand the need to make some of the photographs as big as possible, more dramatic, but not at the expense of loosing mid-section of the picture.
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wv383
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Re: 100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by wv383 »

I've been hunting around for this publication without success. However, that's totally typical of WHS in this area! (Fleet Hampshire) - Ian Allan please take note! I've asked them about it and one reply was "Oh not heard of that" and the other was "oh we won't have room for it" - that one after they got rid of an entire magazine section to fit in sweets! Before anyone mentions that it is available by mail order post free, I don't tend to do that as so often they aren't wrapped very well and get damages in the post.

Anyway the mag/publication thingie. It is a problem with 'perfect bound' as they call it. What the publishers should have done is perhaps either upgrade it so that it was a proper book or alternatively publish it in landscape format.
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Harlequin67
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Re: 100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by Harlequin67 »

I forgot to send congratulations to Kevin Jackson and StevieB as they are two names I recognised from this forum with photos in the book.
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Vodka
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Re: 100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by Vodka »

haven't seen the title myself but if its has a reasonably large number of pages it would have been perfect bound as you described. The other option is known as saddle stitching (stapled). This option allows the pages to be viewed flat but if the publication is too thick for getting the stitching wire through, perfect bound would have to be the technique used to bind.

I can definately tell you that the perfect binding option is not cheaper than the saddle stitch option.

One of the draw backs of perfect binding though is as you mention, obstructing the image across the double page spread and by trying to lay flat the mag' you will break the spine and the pages will fall out.

alot of the life style mags use this technique. .Top gear etc etc

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Re: 100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by Unknown74 »

Had a peak through this last week when I was at WH Smith to buy the Mosquito Tribute Special and although it's an excellent piece of work it's a bit steep at £8.99, agree about the Pictures and the staples problem.

By the way the Mosquito Tribute Mag is top quality much more affordable at £4.99

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Re: 100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by Jorgo »

Yeah, Nine quid might sound a bit steep, but remember that the publishers do have to pay the photographers for every single photo, as well as all of the other production and distribution costs.
And when the going rate for a photo tends to be less than £30 for the photographer, then we all complain that it's not enough. (well, only those of us that believe we ought to be paid).

So, £8.99 sounds reasonable to me.
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Re: 100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by Harlequin67 »

My main concern with this magazine was not the cost, nor the money photographers made from this publication. It was the photographers who had there pictures ruined by the binding process.

If that had happened to a picture of mine I would be, rightly, upset. As a photographer you hope your picture that you send to magazines and companies is reproduced in the best possible way.

I feel this "book-a-zine" is priced as a "premium" product with an exclusive WHSmith distribution and yet the final product has been let down in the binding process. With this process not being sympathetic to those photographs reproduced over two pages.
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Vodka
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Re: 100 Best Aviation Photographs - OOOPS

Post by Vodka »

£30. .is that all they are paying these days? :sad: shocking

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