Making an eBook Cover

I had an idea for the cover art for "Mask Glass Magic": We've got some small metallic mask decorations, and if I can fix them so that two reflect each other it would look cool and relate to the story. So, it was time to set up a photo shoot.

Step one: Clear off the table. Euw, at least I know what we had for breakfast... and who was eating there... anyway. The next step is looking at the shadow theatre I made a few months ago.

Unfortunately, the shadow theatre's been a little beat up -- it's a cereal box, so it's been re-purprosed as a storage box, and the paper screen has some oil or food or something on it. I thought I could be lazy and use the old paper, but it looked more dirty than antique, and I ended up replacing it with new paper.

We have a lot of glass objects d'art in the house (I'm sure Mark has another name for them). I want to photograph the two masks in front of some stain glass that Mark's mother made. The trick is to make the photo interesting, but not cluttered. Must. Not. Arrange. Every. Glass. Object. In. The. House. Into. Picture.

I actually own some lampworking tools and I could... no, Mark would probably not appreciate me trying to photograph a live blowtorch flame in the house and I'd probably melt the plastic parts of my camera.

And, of course, after fourty-five minutes of gathering, cleaning, and repairing objects, I have an errand I have to go do.

I've returned! I arrange the masks, fastening them together with bits of Post-it Note. Unfortunately, the masks I want to work with make the photo look like flier for a Night at the Theatre. I take a couple of shots of mask shadows cast on the theatre. But the light's not right. Arg. Mask. Glass. How hard can this be?

I move to a darker part of the house where I can control the lighting. As I'm shooting I'm trying to remember that I'm going to want an image that divides horizontally into five sections. More prop-wiggling.

As I'm about to snap a photo that it approaching what I'd like the cover to look like, the camera batteries die.

OK. This probably a sign to go play with CSS.

Pictures later when my batteries have recharged.