having been on the brink already last year and in the end procrastinated for too long, i had already decided to participate in 2009 sofobomo when there were the first rumors on paul butzi’s blog and now i have registered online.

the book’s topic is not yet decided as the fuzzy month from may 1st to june 30th is crisscrossed by several events: a business trip to sri lanka connected with a number of obligations but also possible photographic opportunities, school holidays myy ladies want to spend at the seaside…

whilst the topic needs some decision making (always good to have plan a and b, that keeps you flexible to follow plan f if necessary), the publishing tool is clear: scribus is available on my linux platform. i have used it already for 2 photobooks, and now on the ubuntu platform with color management available and lightzone and/or bibble 5 as high class raw converters/image editors, the basic kit is clear.

on the printing/publishing side i am still undecided: issu is optically very nice – i still do admire andreas manessingers tscheppaschlucht – where it runs, but last year it did not run on too many computers i tried. scribd looked promising, but on linux i was not able to enlarge a presented document up to legibility, blurb i have not tried. so there is still some research to do.

for me, there is however no doubt that it will be a positive experience to accept the challenge and make an intensive month out of it: designing, photographing, editing and finalising should be a real reward in themselves.