I'll fly with you

I'm in Chicago right now, away from the 2 K's. Never thought I'd miss them so much : ( The reason why I'm here? To attend Print09 on behalf of Océ North America. I'll be signing books they produced using text and images from my blog.

They have generously offered to print a few copies for me, so if you'd like a copy of the book, please shoot me an email with your name and shipping address (I'll cover the shipping costs for the first 10 people).

From their press release:

September 8, 2009 – Trumbull, CT– Océ, an international leader in digital document management and delivery, today announced that it will produce a fully-finished full-color book live at Océ Booth 1863 at Print 09. The photo book, "Where's My Birthday Cake?" is being printed on the Océ CS665 Pro color system, showcasing the system's amazing speed and color quality for high-visibility projects like photo books.

The book transforms a photographic web log, created by professional photographer Jason Lee, into a full-color case-bound book featuring his daughters Kristin and Kayla, illustrating how digital book production technology is fueling self-publishing trends that transform digital content like blogs and digital photos into books, creating a high-quality permanent artifact.

Social media experts estimate there are currently some 200 million blogs on the Web, a number that is growing exponentially. Meanwhile, with the ongoing migration from analog to digital photography, people are looking for ways to preserve their digital photographs. In both cases, cost-effective digital color printing enables bloggers and shutterbugs to cost-effectively memorialize their work.

When Jason Lee's mother was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2006 and couldn't spend time with her granddaughters, Lee began snapping pictures of Kristin and Kayla and posting them to a blog to share with his mother. What started as a blog evolved into a more complex personal project documenting the children's growth using a variety of lighting techniques and showcasing Lee's creativity and talent as a photographer.

At Print 09, Océ is transforming Lee's blog into a stunning, full-color case-bound photo book, highlighting the exciting opportunities available to bloggers, self-publishers and photographers who want to publish digital content. "I had always planned on creating an album of the images in my blog to present to my mother," said Lee. "I love the idea of producing a book that transforms something transitory like a blog into something permanent, preserving treasured digital images of Kristin and Kayla in printed form forever," said Lee.

As an industry leader in the fast-developing field of digital book printing and publishing, Océ is demonstrating live production of "Where's My Birthday Cake?" at Print 09. The book is being produced in an automated digital production workflow that produces color interior pages two-up on 12" x 18" paper and color covers on 11.5" x 38" stock on the Fogra-certified Océ CS665 Pro color production system to deliver an unmatched balance of outstanding color quality, speed, throughput and support for a variety of media. The imposition and workflow is managed by Océ PRISMAprepare™ software and the Océ PRISMAsync™ color controller, enabling end-to-end document preparation and production from pre-press to fully finished books, which are case-bound using On Demand Machinery case binders.

A limited edition of "Where's My Birthday Cake?" is being produced at Print 09. The author, Jason Lee, will be in the booth on September 15, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM signing copies of the book. To experience the work of Jason Lee and view more images of his daughters Kristin and Kayla, visit www.kristinandkayla.com.