![Photography for Writers: A Writer’s Companion for Image-Making (Flash Writing Book 3) by [Melanie Faith]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rcohVMxdL.jpg)
THE BOOK: Photography for Writers: A Writer’s Companion for Image-Making.
PUBLISHED IN: November 2019
THE AUTHOR: Melanie Faith
THE EDITOR: The talented Alexis Paige has made my editing journey meaningful as well as fun. I look forward to working with her later this year on editing my next series of nonfiction craft books for creative writers.
THE PUBLISHER: Vine Leaves Press, an international publisher which publishes book-length vignette collections, writing reference books, short story collections, memoir/autobiography, and character-driven novels with a literary bent. Vine Leaves Press specializes in blurring the line between commercial and experimental works. It’s an honor to be published among the brilliant and diverse Vine Leaves Press writers.
SUMMARY: Love taking pictures? Have a passion for writing? At last—a craft book about photography specifically written from a writer’s POV! If you savor self-expression, then this book is for you— no previous photography skills necessary.
Written by a published photographer and writer who has insight into the image-making process, rest assured that this down-to-earth, expressive guide is directed towards developing your writing and visual arts skills concurrently, not a dusty technical jargon-filled tome of F-stops or aperture priority.
Packed with tips to spark inspiration, prompts to motivate, self-assessments, reflections on the intersection of writing and photography, ideas for crafting a photo series, and advice for sharing your art for fun and for profit as well as marketing your skills, this book is not to be missed.
Chapter topics include: portrait photography, food photography, black and white photography, landscape and travel photography, documenting special occasions, writing about our art, writing fabulous artist/writer bios, a resource list, and much more.
THE BACK STORY: I created an online class for writers who also love photography in 2018. While searching for a textbook that combined my two artistic passions, I couldn’t find an existing text that approached taking photos from a writer’s unique POV. I found plenty of great writing craft books without photography elements and many wonderful photography craft books without approaching elements of writing. The two art forms seemed to have their own lanes, but I wanted to combine them.
I knew then that there was a gap in the market. I sat down to write my own handouts for my class that combined the two arts and carried that little light bulb moment with me. In 2018 and early 2019, I adapted, added additional prompts, and expanded significantly my handouts for the class into the book manuscript, Photography for Writers.
I still love teaching the class that inspired this book at Women on Writing, along with an array of other creative-writing classes in various genres (In a Flash: Writing and Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose, 5-week workshop with Melanie Faith (wow-womenonwriting.com)). Now I get to assign my own book for the Photography for Writers course to share my tips and anecdotes and passion for both arts with fellow writers—talk about a dream and one part of life inspiring another! I love it when my teaching inspires my creation of art and vice versa.
WHY THIS TITLE?: Most of the writers I know see the world in patterns and imagery. Lots of writers I know are also visual artists or love to compose photos and to up their photography game.
Photography, much like writing, is an art with craft steps that everyone can practice for self-expression and to add meaning to our daily lives.
These days, with the advent of compact DSLR camera technology and amazing cell-phone cameras, almost everyone has access to a portable camera to make great shots on the fly whenever inspiration strikes.
This book will encourage further exploration into the art of photography while also sparking a deeper dive into the writing process. Win-win!
There are two other books in The Flash Writing Series: In a Flash! Writing & Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose (In a Flash!: Writing & Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose: Faith, Melanie: 9781925417708: Amazon.com: Books), and Poetry Power : Writing, Editing, & Publishing Dynamic Poetry Poetry Power: Writing, Editing, & Publishing Dynamic Poetry (2) (Flash Writing): Faith, Melanie: 9781925417807: Amazon.com: Books . For more on the whole series: https://www.vineleavespress.com/flash-writing-series-by-melanie-faith.html .
WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? Photography for Writers reaches writers and photographers at all skill levels—from beginner to advanced. I love to meet creatives wherever they are along their journeys. I have a little something to spark inspiration for your creativity and oodles of ways to approach making images from your pen and your camera (either film or digital) or even your camera phone.
This book is truly meant to be a companion—revisited more than once during the artistic process as one’s skill level grows. The chapters are arranged by topic and intuitive flow, so photographers may choose to read the book chronologically or to skip around to topics of most personal interest.
This is not a gadget-filled or jargon-filled book at all. Fancy equipment and a dark room not required! Like writing, working with basic equipment can create layered and meaningful art.
Plus, we all know that reading, writing, photographing—it’s all tremendously self-expressive, challenging in a great way, and just plain fun. Start where you are now, and make something new and very you.
REVIEW COMMENTS:
Review
“Photography for Writers is a treasure trove of ideas, prompts, and down-to-earth advice given in a conversational and uplifting style. A practical and vibrant guidebook to the intersections between writing and taking photographs, this volume is a must have for your shelf on the creative life.” – Shawna Lemay, author of The Flower Can Always Be Changing and the creativity blog Transactions with Beauty
“Finally, poetry for the photographer, and photography for the poet! Whatever art you practice, the lessons in this book will inspire you to keep making—whether you need a reminder that imagery is the keystone or a lesson on how to learn from failure, this book will make you grow. Melanie is able to put the ineffable qualities of the creative process into simple, aphoristic lessons, illuminating the mystery of what we experience when we feel inspired. Melanie effortlessly wraps this how-to guide with personal anecdotes, highlighting that she continually practices the lessons she imparts while leaving us with the feeling that we are a little less alone in the creative process. Don’t skip out on the prompts—I was shocked to find my poetry develop from an exercise found in the section on food photography (an art form I had no interest in before). Whatever your medium, this book will help your creativity flourish, with more than a few laughs along the way.” — C. M. Tollefson, High Shelf Press
“If you’re a writer (or photographer!) that’s tired of the same old how-to books, then you’re in luck. Melanie’s advice takes you on a delightful tour of the creative world in a way you haven’t seen yet. Her voice and ideas will spark ideas—you’ll be laughing and learning but also producing! This book is a treat!” – Kandace Chapple, publisher and writer of Grand Traverse Woman magazine
“Finally, the book on Photography for Writers has been written. We now have all the ideas and inspiration we need to master the “show don’t tell” challenge. And of course, the author would be Melanie Faith, teacher, master creative and master craftsman. As with her other excellent craft books In A Flash and Poetry Power, she educates, illuminates and entertains. Whatever your creative challenge, using this guidebook with stimulating prompts and exercises, will direct you to where you need to go next.” — Mari L. McCarthy,
AUTHOR PROFILE:
Melanie Faith is an enthusiastic creative-writing teacher and ever-practicing photographer and writer. She likes to wear many professional hats, including as a poet, photographer, prose writer, professor, editor, and tutor. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is a Gen-Xer who collects quotes, books, and twinkly costume-jewelry pins, and she enjoys spending time with her writing students and nieces.
She has a typewriter that she definitely should use more often and a novel that’s begging for her attention.
This semester, she is teaching Poetry Fundamentals at SNHU. Her 2021 online writing classes for Women on Writing include: Creating an Online Writing Class for Fun and Profit, and In a Flash: Writing and Publishing Dynamic Flash Fiction.
Currently, she is editing, writing poems and more craft books (stay tuned to VINE LEAVES PRESS – Home for more great reads as well as another inspiring series of craft books for authors that will be published in 2022), and making photos with her film cameras. Her fine-art photograph is featured presently in the online gallery of PhotoPlace Gallery’s “The Poetry of the Ordinary” show. She also had work featured in the Don’t Take Pictures photo exhibition, A Show of Hands, earlier in 2021.
AUTHOR COMMENTS: I wrote the chapters in this book to cover a wide variety of topics to spark creativity, no matter what genre(s) authors write or what type(s) of photos people like to take. I’d love to share the chapter titles now for your perusal:
Section One: Inspiration Station—Sparking Ideas and Chugging Forward!
- “Um… Um… I don’t know.”
- Recognizing Your Subject
- A Skinny Little Boy with Copper-Penny Hair
- The Punch Line: Finding Photographic Resonance
- Jolie-Laide: Photographing the Unconventionally Beautiful
- Tropey-Dokey: Enhancing Imagery with Tropes
- The Great Hide-and-Seek Expedition
- True North: On Mute-Buttoning the Inner Critic
- Going Incognito: Street Photography and You
- The Extraordinary Ordinary: Finding Your Subject Just Around the Corner
- Imagery Inventory
- Big Value, Small Consistent Investments: on Artistic Challenges
Section Two: Practical Craft Tips and Topics—the Intersection of Writing and Photography
- The One with the Science Fair in it
- Ah… Sweet Silence! Crafting in the Calm
- Meet ROY G BIV
- Beware the Giant Claw: The Tricky Matter of Hands
- Fast and Fleeting: Capturing the Gone-in-a-Flash Subject
- Dishing up the Delish: Food Photography Tips, Part One—Markets, Shots, and Angles
- Dishing up the Delish: Food Photography Tips, Part Two—Affordable Backdrop Ideas and Working around Challenging Foods
- #bwphotochallenge: Put on your Monochrome Goggles
- Fascinators and Carriages: Documenting Special Occasions
- The Nest: Working with Littles, Cuties, and Other Unpredictable Subjects
- Popping the Bubble: Keeping in Mind Your Subject’s Needs
- Photographing Particulars of Place: Tips for Landscape and Travel Photography
- Analog-Tastic!
- Save Everything: To Delete in Camera or Not to Delete, That is the Question
- Restriction Station: Working around Common Yellow Lights and Red Flags
- Writing about Our Art
- Top Ten Guidelines for Creating a Sensational Photo Series
Section Three: Getting Your Art out There
- To the Benevolent Stranger who Bought My First Art Print
- On Saving a Nurturing Space for Yourself
- Tips for Selective Sharing
- Napoleon’s Toothbrush & Other ARTifacts: On Selling Your Work
- Art, Publication, and The M-Word Self-Assessment
- Tips for Writing Fabulous Writer/Artist Bios
- Submitting Your Work to Literary Magazines & Other Venues Looking for Photos: Cover Letter Tips
- Image-Making Resources to Check Out!
SAMPLE CHAPTER: Photography for Writers: A Writer’s Companion for Image-Making (Flash Writing): Faith, Melanie: 9781925965186: Amazon.com: Books
LOCAL OUTLETS: n/a
WHERE ELSE TO BUY IT:
- Also: Flash Writing Series by Melanie Faith – VINE LEAVES PRESS Includes direct purchasing links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ingram, Kobo, Powell’s, Indie Bound, and more:
PRICE:
- $14.99 paperback at Amazon
- $2.99 Kindle
- $16 signed copy at my Etsy page: Photography for Writers Signed Book | Etsy or Writing Books Muse Cards & Fine-Art Photo by WritePathProductions (etsy.com)
CONTACT THE AUTHOR:
- writer@pa.net
- Melanie Faith (melaniedfaith.com)
- Books and Classes — Melanie Faith (melaniedfaith.com)
- Instagram: @writepath99
- Twitter: @writer_faith
Snowflakes in a Blizzard 