March photo zine is out now :)
https://ewenbell.com/zine

Free to download. Not subs or trackers or logins. My monthly photography zine where I share my moments and thoughts from the field.

March 2026 edition of my zine comes from Arctic Norway. Lots of snow, slow moving light, warm embers and cosy homes. Plus the nordlys and capturing with a super-wide fisheye perspective.

#PhotoZine #EwenInNorway #Photography #Zine
@ewen Thanks for sharing your fabulous work Ewen. May I pick your brains? It's about file sizes - as you know, I'm planning to create a #MonochromeMarch e-zine in PDF format and a lot of the photos being posted are tiny files, many less than 1MB. What would you say is the minimum size you could get away with for an e-zine? I'm used to producing my own printed zines so I'm always aware of resolution, but this is my first e-zine so, are file sizes less critical? TIA, Steven
@StevenLawsonPhotography

:) Thanks for the lovely words Steven.

I think there's a lot of flexibility when it comes to viewing a digital document. 1MB of jpg goes a very long way. And it's not as if images need to be perfect. You're making a zine, not a documentary.

I seriously wouldn't worry about this at all.

Think about an A4 page, folded in half. Even a 1920px wide image is going to look OK set into half of an A4.

An A4 page is a good starting point for this project. And don't be tempted to fill every cm of the page. Leave space. Leave room to enjoy the photos.

So think you'll be fine. I export out with 87% compression on the JPGs, but always strict on reducing DPI to 144 max. Nice to have double the standard screen res (72dpi) for those with a retina display (macs). All this can be encoded into your export settings when you generate the PDF.

Some images you receive may turn out to be much lower resolution. But don't sweat it.
@ewen Fair enough, thanks for that.
@ewen Yeah, I'm fine on the design aspects, it was just the file sizes for digital products I was uncertain about. I'll chill out now!
@StevenLawsonPhotography

I just got back home to Melbourne and am drowning in reality. So many missed deadlines and unfinished chores. And hard drives full of unedited pix.

Not sure I'll have the headspace to post any pics for a few weeks. We shall see. Great to see the responses to the challenge coming through on the fediverse though.
@ewen Yeah, it has been very satisfying to see so many people taking up the challenge, though I fear I've set myself up for a monumental task of curating them into a zine once it's all over!
I hope people aren't offended if their photos or artwork aren't included but I will have to draw a line somewhere.
Good luck with your huge backlog!
@StevenLawsonPhotography

It's a good thing you're doing here. It's encouraging for so many people. Maybe not everyone makes the first round, but there'll be others. 🤍
@ewen Superb work, Ewen 🙌🏻 Love this 🤩 Look forward to having a proper look at the PDF this eve.
@ewen so nice, thanks for sharing, it's beautiful! (As are the other zines on your page)
@snowgaze

Yes, there are four zines in total on that page. Once a month since December 2025 :)

Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed this one!
@ewen I checked them all out, they're all so good, tranquil images. Thanks for making them available!
@ewen Beautiful, Ewen. Thanks.
@carusb

Thank you so much Chris :)