The other two, Pauls Studio and Fleetwood Film Studios have both invited me to visit and view the studios and to discuss the calendar project. Paul at Paul’s Studio has recently completed a calendar project for a client and has some feedback to offer, which could prove quite handy.

Keith Hicks at Fleetwood was surprisingly cooperative (why “surprised” – does that say something about me?), considering I told him up-front I thought the studio was a bit beyond my budget!

Three new contacts, three positive responses. Result.

I’m really looking forward to visiting and reporting back.

Although I already have all the lighting, background and so on that I need, I can’t help feeling that I should take these pictures in a proper commercial setting. After all, I’m going to be booking one or more models to pose for me wearing little or no clothes and requesting they do this in my living room while my wife is out with the kids; it seems a bit unprofessional. Well, downright dodgy, to be honest!

The contenders so far:

• Fleetwood Film Studios
  
• Pauls Studio
• Dave Kennedy Photography (may not be hiring the studio out any more – will have to investigate and report)

Next step is to contact the studios and see if I can pay them a quick visit. In the meantime, if anyone has any working knowledge of any of the studios, or any suggestions or advice, I’d love to hear it.

So essentially nothing at all has happened, other than a lot more thought and (during a long drive with friend and colleague Charlie) a lot of discussion.

I am seriously concerned that time is going to run out for getting the calendar produced in time for 2010, but the truth is that this is not a massive issue, just a minor setback. The project is about doing something I have always wanted to do and the timing is not that important.

This week I have a lot of time to myself (kids and wife away on a jolly) so perhaps I can catch up a bit. We will see…

Having worked in the print industry for many years myself, I was already expecting to rule out litho printing as I don’t expect to sell enough calendars to make this viable. Digital printing makes much more sense from the cost point of view, but I am not confident that the quality will be high enough. Mike at Fineprint showed me some examples which were better than I anticipated and suggested I send him an image so he can run off a proof for me, which seems like a good idea.

I have, up until today, been assuming the calendar would be that 300mm (approx) square format that you see so many of for sale from stalls around your local shopping centre over the Christmas period. This seems impractical for my project, so it looks more likely to be A3, either flat and Wire-O bound or possibly folded and stitched (unfolding to A3 when hung).

Although the costs for digital printing mean that I may have to compromise slightly on the specification of the calendar, it does make the project feasible, which is the most important thing right now. Digital printing also gives me options for personalizing the calendars, which opens some avenues for marketing and selling – I need to think about this before letting myself run away with the idea…

There are three other photographers who have produced calendars, which have the right kind of feel (again, for me at least) and which I have actually seen:

• Hervé Lewis – www.hervelewis.com – BackSide
• Tanya Chalkin – www.tanyachalkin.com – Sirens
• Mick Payton – www.mickpayton.com – Derrieres

There are some common elements to the calendars I have seen for all three and, to some extent, also to some of Bob Carlos Clarke’s work:

• They are all shot in, or produced in, monochrome
• They are all glamorous, sexy, female form based
• The photographic area of the calendar is around A4 size, making it very practical and achievable in terms of quality.

Hervé Lewis and Mick Payton (and BCC, obviously!) appeal to me because they are often quite challenging. Tanya Chalkin’s “Sirens” calendar is much less challenging but still very sexy, largely because of the three very real looking models featured throughout the calendar in various combinations. It’s a refreshing approach.

Although the actual subject of the calendar has not been decided definitely, at this point it seems likely to be of a glamorous nature. I think it is time to research studios and models.

After a couple of years of photographing “things” I was asked to shoot a portrait of my friend’s two-year-old and discovered that photographing people was what I liked best. Then a graphic design studio I worked with (I ran a small litho printing company) offered me the chance to shoot the photos for a promotional calendar. They were looking to show off their Photoshop skills (in the pioneering days!), so I took some fairly straightforward shots and they manipulated them to show a before and after effect.

Ever since then I have wanted to produce my own calendar and have made many, many excuses for failing to do so. I do not believe in New Year’s resolutions; if something in your life needs changing, it shouldn’t need an excuse! The truth is that I have always been good at saying that, but I can’t really say I have ever been good at demonstrating it.

Anyway, while hanging up this year’s calendar in the office on the first day back, I realized that I have started every year for as long as I can remember (which doesn’t seem to be all that long these days!) with the same feeble “I’m going to do more photography” announcement which inevitably comes to nothing. I don’t know whether it is a result of spending two weeks of last summer intensely studying NLP (for business, if you are interested) but I know that 2009 and is the year of doing things instead of just talking and dreaming.

There is a long way to go and I have know way of knowing what the outcome will be, but I can only see great things coming from this project, whatever the result. I’m so excited about the journey that the destination hardly seems to matter right now!

What is the aim of the Calendar Project?

Pretty simple, really – shoot and produce a calendar and sell shed-loads of them. Sounds easy enough! At this point I am intending it to be a 2010 calendar, but I have a suspicion that getting it all done soon enough might be a little too ambitious.

So far, apart from a little bit of chatting about the idea and several years idly thinking about it, I have done nothing more than state my intention.

There are so many things to think about:

• Subject matter of the calendar
• Physical aspects; size, format, layout, colours
• How and where to sell the calendar?
• How to produce it and what will it cost?
• Time scale; what will have to be accomplished by certain times

Already I’m letting this overwhelm me (and I’m certain that list barely begins to cover it!) – time to break it down into chunks I can work with.

Okay, so what I do know is that I am doing this because it is something I have always wanted to do. There is no definite deadline, I’m not relying on it making me rich and famous and whatever happens I am certain I will enjoy it and that I will learn from it. Right, all self-imposed pressure is now lifted!

The plan is to publish my thoughts and findings as I go along, hopefully creating a journal (and possibly even a plan) on the way. I think this is enough preamble – it’s time to go and consider the next small step…