People who check my blog regularly may have noticed a change at the upper right of the page. The cover of the first issue of Carrie Leigh’s Nude magazine – which included an eight-page feature on me and my photography – has been taken down, now that the next issue should be out soon (if it’s not out already).

In it’s place I’ve put up something else new: the cover of my very first calendar project and the first published work of my photography that I’ve offered for sale to the public. I realize that it’s a little late for offering a 2008 calendar, being that the new year begins next week, but I thought I’d go with it anyway, rather than have to wait an entire year. The calendar measures 11” x 8.5” inches and can be ordered at http://www.lulu.com/daverudin .

I had actually created this calendar at the beginning of the month, but when I received my copy of it I realized that a few things needed to be tweaked and that I needed to do some work on the cover image. It turned out that I forgot to include my name on that initial version! I had included my name in the calendar creation program but I took it out when I saw that it was overlaid over an important part of the image – and totally forgot about it until it was too late.

After talking it over with my friend Terrell Neasley in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, I decided to take another shot at it and so ordered a revised edition – which finally arrived here today. My concerns with the initial calendar have been taken care of, so today I made the calendar available for sale to the public. You can see the cover image at the top and a grouping of the other 12 images below. Click on it see it larger.

***********************************************************************In other self-publishing news, my hardcover book of photographs of Asia ordered from Kodak Gallery arrived yesterday. It actually looks pretty good, I think. Somebody I showed it to at my office agreed with me that it would not look out of place in the photography section of a bookstore – both the printing quality and the quality of the images! - so I’m glad I got it. It should serve as a nice portfolio to show to people. (Here's one of the photos in the book - a girl in Vietnam who I have dubbed "The Shy Schoolgirl.")

It’s just too bad that Kodak has essentially told me to take my printing business elsewhere by refusing to print one of the images in the fine art nude book project I had worked on earlier. (See my earlier blog entries from the past month or so for that story if you're not familiar with it.) I think I might try My Publisher next. I want to make up a couple of books with photos I made at my cousin’s wedding a few years ago, and I have a coupon code to get two of the same book for the price of one.