The 7MSN Ranch, coffee-table version

Sometime in the last few years, online photo labs started to offer photo books - the kind where you upload your images and text into a template, push a button, and a book pops out of your mailbox a week or so later. What will they think of next, I thought.

As I scratched my head for the 50-somethingth year wondering what to give my parents for Christmas, I thought they might enjoy receiving a photo book of The 7MSN. So I spent many a night in November sifting through all of the photographs I've taken in the past year, selecting some of my favorites, and compiling them into my first book.

They received it Friday, and it was a hit. Of course I had to order one for myself, too.


I'm so used to looking at my pictures on a monitor that I forgot how much fun it is to actually hold one in my hands. I'll take prints over pixels any day.


All the animals are featured among the 80 pages, though George and Alan get a little more than their fair share. It was great fun to select the photos, arrange the order, and design the book to make one great big story out of many smaller ones.


There is a caption here and there, but I've tried to let the pictures speak for themselves.


Smooch is quite impressed with herself now that she's published.



Here's a link to the whole book, if you'd like to take a peek. Once you get there, it might take a minute or so to load. Click on the "full screen" mode, then click on each page to turn to the next one. If you can't be here to see the animals in person, it's the next best thing.