e-bookMike McEnaney spent nearly 10 years working as both an editor and a publisher of B2B photography and digital photography magazines for North American Publishing Company (NAPCO), the same organization that owns and operates both TeleRead and the Technology Tell network of websites.

Very recently, though, McEnaney struck out on his own. And somehow, along with fellow journalist Greg Scoblete, he has already managed to launch Your Digital Life, a website about the digital photography revolution.

McEnaney and Scoblete’s latest project, however, is an e-book, also about the world of digi-photography. From Fleeting to Forever: Enjoying & Preserving Your Digital Photos and Videos, as the book is titled, promises to be “the ultimate guide to everything there is to do with your photos and videos.”

According to a press release McEnaney sent my way earlier this week, the book includes chapters on:

• How to better organize your growing photo/video collections
• How to share your images safely and privately in the digital era
• How to ensure that you can pass your digital photos down to future generations as easily as you would a shoebox full of prints

That sounds to me like the sort of how-to photography book that was written, to at least some degree, with the social media shutterbug in mind. And that’s an idea I can get behind. Personally, I’ve lost or deleted hundreds of digital photos—maybe even thousands—that I kinda-sorta wish I would’ve held onto. And as for the zillions of cell phone shots I have saved? Every last one is tucked away inside a never-ending rabbit’s hole of file folders on probably two-dozen different USB sticks.

But McEnaney and Scoblete’s e-book, of course, isn’t only about obsessive-compulsive topics like digital organization. It also has a ton of tips about all the very cool things you can do with digital photos that most of us aren’t even aware of.

During the book’s research stage, McEnaney began realizing that “this was a subject matter that had potentially very wide appeal, [since] everyone we talked to immediately agreed that they never know what to do with their images and videos after they capture them.” A lot of people also told McEnaney and Scoblete that more often than not, the person who took a particular picture for them—or of them—was the only person who ever ended up seeing it.

e-books
Mike McEnaney

To get a better idea of what readers will find between the book’s two virtual covers, I asked McEnaney a few questions via email. Here’s a slightly edited version of our conversation:

* * *

TeleRead: The book’s press release says it “explores the many remarkable things there are to do with your digital images.” Can you share a couple examples?

Mike McEnaney: Sure. Among the many incredible print services we look at in the book is a service called TarcerPix, where multiple photos are combined into one print, that when tilted, shows movement from one print to the next—think old Cracker Jack tilt cards. The [company] can even take 30 seconds of video and turn [that] into a print that shows the movement when tilted back and forth. Another service we love is Animoto (pictured below), where you can turn your photos and videos into these amazing three-minute slideshows put to music in just a few simple clicks.e-books

TeleRead: The book also claims to explore “how to protect [digital images] for future generations.” What’s that all about?

McEnaney: Well, protecting your digital image or video collection is the part of the equation no one thinks about … until your hard drive crashes and you lose years of precious memories. The book has chapters that examine the external hard drive market, how to properly back-up all your digital memories, and how to best organize your image library so your images and videos are easy to find when you do want to turn them into something tangible.

TeleRead: Are there any other books out there similar to yours?

McEnaney: No, we really haven’t seen anything quite like this book. No one seems to be looking at the output market; [instead], it’s all about how to take better pictures, and how to buy a digital camera, etc. There really isn’t anything out there looking at the post-capture dilemma consumers face today: all these digital photo and video files piling up and not knowing what to do with them!

TeleRead: Aside from Amazon, is the book available elsewhere?

McEnaney: Yes, it is available, or will be available shortly, at the following e-book retailers: iBookstore; Kobo; eBookPie; Sony; Baker & Taylor; eSentral; Copia and Scribd.

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