Image Inspection is underway

Dear Friends and Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All,

Good Strength to you as we pass the midpoint of the First Week of Great Lent!

I am very happy to report that I have received the Final Proof Copy of the Thebaid Book from St Tikhon’s Press, and have eagerly begun working through it.

As I removed the book from the padded shipping envelope, I discovered it was further wrapped in two layers of heavy Kraft paper, and secured with wrapping tape to protect it. After carefully cutting open one end of the package, I admit to somewhat shredding the wrapping paper to more quickly remove the book and immediately begin looking through it.

Like the first proof copy from thirteen long months ago, the pages are unbound and loose; this is truly a proof copy. (I was told last year with the first proof copy that due to the large size of the book, the “perfect bound” paperback glued binding would not be able to hold it together effectively, and no other binding would be cost effective for our purposes.) Being spread out on my work table, it doesn’t slow me down in reviewing it, but it is a minor inconvenience when it comes to flipping back and forth, or turning numerous pages at a time. Therefore, I do plan on taking it to a print shop to use a commercial three-hole punch to enable me to set it in a binder, which will help keep it together and in order, as well as protect it and make it easier when moving it around or transporting it.

My initial impressions on the image reproduction are strongly positive. There are several key images early on in the book which truly wowed me by their visual impact, which I found both surprising and reassuring. At this stage of prepping the book to go to press, I am so familiar with the photographs and their sequence that I did not expect to have such a reaction. So for the printed proof to come across so strongly during my first review was most rewarding, and provoked a range of emotions, from relief (honestly, as we hadn’t done any test proofs since last June!), to a guarded confidence (as I’m only about twenty percent into the book as of yet), to the glimmer of a sense of deep joy at the potential for the book to truly fulfill my hopes for it.

Any negatives to report? Nothing major yet, only a couple of minor edits required so far. One image is a little on the light side, and needs to have the tones deepened just a touch to restore color saturation and the sense of “richness” of the original. In another the subject’s face needs to be brightened a bit, so a localized “dodge” is the solution. (I am literally thinking in and using darkroom terms, both traditional and digital, to describe these!) So I’ve placed the first two of hopefully not too many post-it notes to flag them. I will be very pleased if no more than ten percent of the more than 200 images require any further edits, and so far, we are well below that percentage.

So, that’s it for now. I hope to march through the book (pardon the pun) over the next several days (maybe even by the end of March), make my final edits and adjustments, and ship the proof copy back to St Tikhon’s even as I upload the revised files to Dropbox from where they will be used to replace the current files in the layout.

After I send the proof copy back to STM Press, we will still have one last round of professional text proofreading, which I understand will be handled by a highly regarded associate at St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, after which we go to press. While we feel confident of spelling, we want to have fresh, professional eyes on the titles, texts and formatting to check for spacing, punctuation, and all the little things we become blind to after working with it for months on end.

As you know, the pre-order period has officially ended, and I wish to thank again all those who took advantage of the extended deadline to place their orders, and indeed to all of you who have supported The North American Thebaid Photographic Pilgrimage Project over the last seven and a half years. Your contributions through two crowdfunding campaigns and our open pre-order period has sustained this endeavor and brought it to the threshold of fulfillment, and it is by your prayers (and by those who have gone before us) that we are pressing on to the goal.

With heartfelt thanksgiving, and great anticipation ~ zosimas