I'd like to share some things with you.

[dsim]

I enjoyed browsing through your website. Great job. Lovely photographs. Thanks for sharing.

[tgtaylor]

Inspiring!

Thanks for sharing Austin.

Thomas

[Greg Blank]

I like the website design, the pix are great. Like this one especially:

http://austingranger.com/astoria/chapter/4/page6

Suggested alternate titles, Blitzen guards or guns down Bambi, or perhaps "Kill the wabbit"

[Sascha Welter]

Really, really great images, website done well enough, but either I am not getting it or there is some information lacking: Those three entities seem to be presented in the form of books... are they actual books I could buy?

I think this would be kind of an obvious information a site visitors seeks (and a site creator wants to give). Or did I just miss that info somewhere?

[Brian Ellis]

Astoria, Oregon?

[Frank Petronio]

Obviously it is Astoria, Oregon, Brian. It's one of the most photogenic towns in America.

And that is my favorite work of Austin's, congratulations and kudos!

[Richard K.]

Really, really great images, website done well enough, but either I am not getting it or there is some information lacking: Those three entities seem to be presented in the form of books... are they actual books I could buy?

I think this would be kind of an obvious information a site visitors seeks (and a site creator wants to give). Or did I just miss that info somewhere?

I guess somebody's gotta tell you Sascha...

The design is intended to mimic a book. I think that it's a brilliant way of presenting. You get to see what your book would look like and you can also enlarge individual photos. Superbly well done IMO. And the photographs...WOW!

[Hugo Zhang]

Austin,

What an inspiration! I too want to hold these pictures in book form and take them down from book shelves now and then like my ohter beloved books.

Thanks for sharing!
Hugo

[austin granger]

Everyone,

I am compelled to poke my head out of my cave and thank you all for your incredibly kind words regarding my work. I feel as if I wandered away from my campsite alone into the cold night, only to return to find a group of friends sitting around a roaring fire. Yes, I'm mixing metaphors, but anyway, thank you! I can hardly tell you how much you've heartened me.

While I'm here, it strikes me that some of you might be interested to know how I got to this point, that is to say, why I've chosen to put my stuff out this way.

To try and make a long story short, I've been attempting to get the Point Reyes book published for about a year and a half now, and while I've had some "almosts," and have received some glowing rejection letters (if such a thing is possible), in the end, the book has been deemed "too risky in the current circumstances," which I've taken to mean either too expensive to produce, or else too regional, or perhaps just too odd. Of course, they are all wrong... Seriously though, I've never thought of it as "regional" at all (or at least, I've always thought that it has interest for people outside of Point Reyes) and even it it were "regional," two million visitors a year (so says the park service) is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, I'm ranting. Sorry.

In any case, after licking my wounds for awhile, I spent some time meditating on just why I made the dang thing in the first place, and what I came away with was the thought that (besides for my own needs and pleasures), I made it because I wanted to share my love for this extraordinary place with other people, and hopefully in the process make some kind of meaningful connections across the abyss.

Yes, so why not just put it out there, the whole thing, for free?
And so that is what I did.

Now, I can't claim that my motives are entirely pure. Like a person that carries around an unchecked lottery ticket in their wallet, I still hold onto the hope that eventually my little 'boat' will float into the hands of a sympathetic publisher, or else a wealthy patron (hey, it's my daydream)...

Anyhow though, even if it never becomes a book you can hold in your hand (Hugo, your comment about broke my heart-in a good way), I still feel like it would have all been worth it, that it is the right thing to do; I'll still have no regrets. Better this than sitting in a box in the dark somewhere.

And yes, of course I thought of trying to publish it myself, but honestly, I do not have the personality, nor the desire, to be out there hustling this thing for the next 10 years. I want, and I need, to move on. There are other worlds to explore!

Once more, thank you all for your kindness. And if you'll forgive me one last request, if the work really does move you, please, pass it along.

Gratefully yours,

Austin Granger

P.S. Hi Merg! I have studied your own new site more than a few times now. It is good to know you are still out there in the world doing good work.

[Hugo Zhang]

Well, it seems Michael Smith of Lodima Press liked this, along with a few other editors and owners of publishing houses. I would buy one if this ever gets published in book form. With pictures in contact prints, better yet.