A first solo flight

Mike Sciacca

For much of Roger Camp’s career, the camera has been his

livelihood.

The 57-year-old has photographed a vast range of subjects

throughout the years, his work of the natural world ranging from

landscapes and beach scenes to fauna and flowers.

Camp, a professor of photography at Golden West College, has even

had his work published in numerous magazines, European publications

and displayed in exhibitions.

But for the first time in his career, Camp is being published on

his own.

He is the author of the new coffee table book, “Butterflies in

Flight.”

The accordion-style book contains 48 pages and those pages, or

“panels,” as he calls them, can be stretched out to about 42 feet.

Each panel, which is the equivalent to two pages, is designed to

stand on its own, as an individual piece of art. Each panel in the

book transitions into the next panel.

Those panels, of course, display Camp’s most recent subject of

devotion: butterflies.

And there are plenty of butterflies in his colorful book, with

more than 300 images of 285 species of butterflies.

“I was working on a project photographing flowers and one day the

thought of butterflies just came to me. It seemed like a natural

transition,” Camp said. “They were much like flowers, many coming

with a wide range of colors, patterns and shapes. It was a really fun

and interesting project.”

Camp, who has been on the Golden West College staff since 1977 --

the same year he moved to Huntington Beach -- said one year of the 1

1/2 years it took to complete the project, was devoted strictly to

studying butterflies.

He features just two North American butterflies in the book with

butterflies from every continent represented on the 48 pages.

A unique aspect of Camp’s book, in addition to its accordion-style

shape, is that, although it is considered a photography book, its

images were not captured with a traditional camera or on film.

Each butterfly was individually scanned using a flat-bed scanner,

which Camp said, is like using a “high-end Xerox machine.”

It took him eight months, working 10-hour days, to layout the

butterflies to the page.

The book, he said, was inspired by Japanese artist Kanzaka Sekka’s

1904 woodblock-printed book, “One Thousand Kinds of Butterflies,”

which was published in 1979 in a facsimile edition under the title,

“A Flight of Butterflies.”

“It took up all my time. Thank goodness I was on sabbatical,” he

said of the project. “I had wondered if I could combine the

traditional format with modern photographic images of real

butterflies. Today’s computer imaging has allowed me to combine such

tradition with the beauty of the butterfly to create this book.”

Camp then went to work trying to finding a way to get his work

published.

He said he originally thought about self-publishing the book but

instead, listed what he considered to be the top 25 publishing

houses, then selected five houses and sent each a letter.

He was encouraged, he said, when two publishers phoned him within

the week. He then sent out five more letters to another five houses,

and got one call back.

He ended up signing with the publishing house, Thames & Hudson

which is based in New York and London.

“It’s extremely difficult to get a photography book published.

This being my first book on my own, I was a bit nervous about finding

someone who might be interested in my work,” Camp said.

Not only did Thames & Hudson publish the book, but put out a first

printing of 55,000 copies. That number is unusual for a photography

book, Camp said, noting that a sale of 3,000 to 5,000 would be

“considered a best seller” for such a book.

“Butterflies in Flight” has an official publishing date of Oct. 25

but Barnes & Noble Booksellers has purchased 10,000 copies

nationwide, he said, and beginning today, the Huntington Beach store

will have copies of the book available.

Included with the 48-page book is a companion eight-page booklet

that identifies each of the butterflies featured in Camp’s book and

their country of origin.

“From start to finish this project has been an extraordinary ride

for me,” Camp added. “I’m thrilled with having my first solo work

published and everything else that happens from here on out, is just

gravy.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.