A Photographic Challenge…

Deep Cove Folk has put together an e-songbook that contains “songs of place” about the Saanich Peninsula.  It contains songs dealing with regional views and issues as well as the area’s history.  The book is entitled Saanich Songs: An Anthology of Songs About Life on the Saanich Peninsula and Environs.  Each of the songs has an introductory essay, a full lyric sheet, a link to a recording and a link to a chord chart.  You can see a working draft of this volume at https://songproject.deepcovefolk.ca/2024-song-book/ .*  This draft contains ten songs, but there are as many again “in the hopper” just waiting to be added, and more on the way.

Click here to see short summaries of the songs that will appear in the upcoming 2nd edition of Saanich Songs.

At present, the draft is very text-heavy.   It has no visual component at all—kind of boring (visually speaking that is—the songs are great!!). The challenge for you photographers (should you choose to accept it…) is to provide photographs that illustrate and compliment the songs, thus giving the book some visual clout and interest.  Perhaps from your archive, or maybe from a dedicated shoot, Deep Cove Folk is looking for images that clearly illustrate each song, adding to the impact to the volume.   We’re hoping that the book will evolve into a gallery of quality photos that illustrate life on the Peninsula by bringing some of the song lyrics to photographic life. 

“Then there’s that old blue fish shack, where the gulls and the crows play out back “
(photo by Chris Miles, https://www.cnmiles.ca )

An example is Daniel Cook’s song Salish Sea which you can hear by clicking the LISTEN HERE button for this song in the draft. The last line in the 2nd verse is beautifully illustrated in the lovely photo above by Chris Miles.  This image helps to breathe life into the song.  

All of the songs in the book have this kind of potential, just waiting for your creativity to bring them to life.

How do I submit a photo? 

As a beginning, the photos will be presented in the e-book, only to be viewed on a computer screen.  So, you need not send anything with a resolution higher than 100 dpi (suggest 1800 p on the long edge).  Colour is preferred but a smashing monochrome would also be acceptable.  Not all submissions will be used—will depend on the images, and the manner in which they fit into the project. You can send your submissions to info@deepcovefolk.ca with the subject line Image for Saanich Songs.  One photo per submission please (multiple submissions are OK). Please be sure to indicate which song and the part of the lyric you’re illustrating.  And please provide your contact information.  If we decide to do a print version of the book or a show involving the songs and images, we may get back to you for higher resolution copies.

What will you get out of it? 

  1. All photos will be clearly attributed to you in the citation that will accompany each image (with your contact information if you want it included) per the example above.  Thus, you’ll be getting exposure to a potentially large and varied audience.     
  2. An honorarium of $25, to help to cover your costs, will be sent for each image we use. 
  3. You’ll earn Deep Cove Folk’s undying gratitude for contributing to this emerging community songbook—and, of course, untold fame and fortune (well fame, anyway…)   

All images will remain your property, all you’ll be giving us are the rights to include the 100 dpi version in the e-book. 

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