Category: Project

Final Pre-Press Stages

On By zosimasIn Project, Publishing, Thebaid BookLeave a comment

Photo Edits, Final Proofreading of Text near completion

Dear Friends and Fellow Pilgrims,

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Schema-hieromonk Ambrose (Young), Pascha 2013, Entrance of the Theotokos Skete, Hayesville, Ohio

I hope you all have had a good Lent and Holy Week, and a most radiant Pascha! What with the liturgical cycle, tax season, and other filing requirements it’s been a full plate here, and I apologize for the lack of updates over the past several weeks. The good news is St Tikhon’s and I both been busy, and I have much to report since my previous update in late March.

The Final Proof Copy of the Thebaid book was every bit as affirming as my initial impressions led me to hope, with only eleven images requiring any edits, almost exclusively regarding brightness. Out of over two-hundred images, that’s only about 5% that needed any further attention. My original hope for the Final Proof Book images was to reach 90% completion, with no more than ten percent (~20 images) requiring any further edits. To hit 95% was a major achievement, and gave our publishing team some real “wind in our sails” as we turned towards Holy Week. Out of the eleven revised images there are two which need an additional adjustment, then the images will be completed and ready to go to press.

The final proof-reading of the text is being finished by a member of the St Vladimir’s Seminary Press editorial team, and I’m looking forward to that status report during my weekly pre-press phone call with St Tikhon’s Press tomorrow (May 9). Of course, I also went over the text and format elements myself, and identified a “baker’s dozen” or so items for correction, mainly having to do with spacing and ligature, or punctuation.

Perhaps most engaging for STM Press and me has been the completion of a few final design elements which we had deliberately left until the end of pre-press. Deciding on a 2-page-spread image for the book’s end sheets was particularly enjoyable, and further, helped us decide on two other 2-page spreads in the front matter to highlight some important components of the book. No spoilers, so I will decline to say anything further, except to express my hope that you who have been following this project most closely will appreciate the opening pages of the book and why I kept it under wraps.

My weekly pre-press phone calls with St Tikhon’s Press will continue until we go to press. If you were looking at the side bar on the Thebaid website and didn’t see anything scheduled for the past few weeks, that was due to an oversight on my part, now corrected, where my calendar entries for the Pre-Press Phone Calls were tagged for my personal calendar, not the Thebaid Book Project (which is synched to my Thebaid Website). As soon as we have future dates for sending the file to press, and an expected date for receiving of the book shipment at St Tikhon’s, I will post those also.

Lastly, on a different topic, I am pleased to share with you about the recent launch of a new podcast series which you may enjoy: Homilies of Fr Ambrose Young. (I included with this post a favorite photograph I made of Fr Ambrose serving at Pascha in 2013.)

Adapted from the podcast description:

Hieromonk Ambrose (Young) is the author of numerous books and articles about Orthodox Christian life, and was editor of the journals Nikodemos and Orthodox America in the 1970s and 80s. Born in 1943, then Craig Young, at the age of 27, converted with his wife, Susan, and their small son, Ian, from Roman Catholicism to Orthodoxy, taking the name Alexey, for St Alexis, the Man of God. In 1979, he was ordained a presbyter of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), serving mission parishes for the next twenty years. After the death of his wife in the late 1990s, Fr Alexey, a spiritual son of Fr Seraphim Rose, was tonsured a monk and became Hieromonk Ambrose. For the last ten years, Fr Ambrose has been limited by illness.

I feel blessed to have been in close orbit around Fr Ambrose and the Skete of the Entrance of the Theotokos in northern Ohio (where he served in retirement as chaplain) for several years. One of the goals our small community had was to begin collecting and republishing Fr Ambrose’s writings, and perhaps record and distribute his homilies. It is therefore a great blessing to see this first series of his talks come to light and make its way to the internet. Fr Ambrose kindly give his permission and blessing for me to include in The North American Thebaid Book his article, “What is a Holy Pilgrimage?”, which was transcribed from a talk he gave at a retreat in the late 1990s. This article is one of the pillars on which the Thebaid Book is based, and there is, to my knowledge, almost no other article on pilgrimage like it, breathing the savor of Holy Orthodoxy, which makes it all the more important that it now will be seen by a wider audience. Thus it is a providential and timely occurrence that this new podcast series should be launched just as we are preparing to send the book to press.

With that blessing in mind, I wish you all a peace-filled remainder of Bright Week, and a luminous forty days to the Ascension of the Lord. Watch for more news coming very soon, I hope and trust.

Yours in our Risen Lord,

zosimas

The Proof Copy has Landed!

On By zosimasIn Project, Publishing, Thebaid Book4 Comments

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!

Last year’s cover of the First Proof copy of the Thebaid Book.

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

The Proof Copy has arrived, Final Pre-Press review is underway

On By zosimasIn Project, Publishing, Thebaid BookLeave a comment
The old print shop at St Herman of Alaska Monastery, Platina CA

Thebaid Book Pre-Order Store to remain open until 12:00 Midnight ET on Monday, March 4, 2024.

Dear Fellow Pilgrims,

A brief but important news bulletin today:

The Final Proof Copy of The North American Thebaid Book has arrived at St Tikhon’s, and the Press has begun reviewing it for any remaining spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting, and design issues which may have been missed in our final review of the digital book file three weeks ago.

The plan is for St Tikhon’s to finish their review towards the end of next week, then ship the proof copy to me for my review. I will, of course, be especially concentrating on the images, making sure they reproduced in print accurately, with correct color balance (or sepia tone, as the case may be), and with “impact.”

This is a very exciting time for us, and I look forward to announcing when we’ve finished our reviews and any last edits and tweaks, and are going to press.

As mentioned in the sub-title, I have set a deadline for pre-orders: Monday, March 4, 2024, at 12:00 Midnight Eastern Time, 11:00PM Central. Below are some important notes on key aspects of the pre-orders.

My heartfelt thanks for all your support and prayers for the North American Thebaid Photographic Pilgrimage and Book Project.

Yours in Pre-Press Mode,

zosimas

† Pre-Order Notes:

  • Pre-orders for The North American Thebaid book at The Thebaid Store will end at 12:00 midnight on March 4, 2024 ET, 11:00PM Central.
  • Discounts are available for multiple copies of both the Standard Edition and the Deluxe Limited Edition.
  • The Deluxe Limited Edition (leather-bound, signed & numbered, with signed & matted print) is available only by pre-order, and will not be available through retail outlets. Copies without the signed & matted print are not available.
  • The Standard Edition is available by pre-order, signed, with signed & matted print only. Unsigned copies or copies without the signed & matted print are not available by pre-order.
  • Signed and matted 8×10 prints are only available by pre-order bundled with the book.
    • Prints will not be available separately either before we go to press, or afterwards.
    • There are currently no plans to offer individual Thebaid prints for sale.
  • Pre-orders will be shipped before retail channels receive their copies for resale.
  • Upon publication, the Standard Edition will be available through the STM Press Bookstore, and through other online and ‘brick and mortar’ resellers.
  • Contact STM Press with queries about discounts for resellers and church bookstores.

Preparing to hit ‘Send’ – A New Year’s Book Update

On By zosimasIn Project, Publishing, Thebaid Book1 Comment
Cemetery Chapel in Winter, Dormition Monastery, Rives Jct, Michigan

Dear Friends & Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All ~

Christ is Born! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

The suspense builds at our end as we prepare to send the book file to the printer to order the Final Proof Edition. Even during the holidays we have been working behind the scenes on final details.

See below for links and details on preordering.

In our most recent news, back at the start of December I had completed the last image edits and file conversions to 4-color (CMYK) mode, which optimized them for the book’s offset printing. The proofreader returned the completed text edits about a week later, and my editor at St Tikhon’s Press has since then been replacing the place-keeper images and text in the layout file. Sometime in the next several days I expect to receive a new “final” PDF file of the book, and my editor and I will review it together and make any final tweaks before ordering the Final Proof Edition.

New to this round of updates will be the final designs for the book cover, the dust jacket, and the end sheets. These are the finishing touches, so to speak, and will complete the “look” and “feel” of the book.

So, the Final Proof Edition is finally at hand. As I described it recently for a friend, “we are now days away, not weeks.” Later this week, I hope we will be “hours away, not days.” I’ll update you when it has been ordered, and we’ll move forward to the final pre-press stage, the inspection of the printed Final Proof, after which we go to press.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported The North American Thebaid Project through your preorders and prayers, some from the very beginning, way back in 2016! Thank you for believing in this unique photographic pilgrimage book project and backing it with your contributions and pre-orders. You have made all of this possible, and I am deeply grateful. 

My thanks again to all you who have recently pre-ordered the book. If you haven’t pre-ordered, please keep in mind that there are real benefits to doing so, such as the inclusion of a signed & matted fine art print from the project (not available separately), and the option to order the Deluxe Limited Edition (signed & numbered with leather-bound cover and signed & matted print), which will not be available through standard retail channels, but only through pre-order. See the below Pre-Order Notes for details and links.

Watch for another update when we order the final proof copy! 

Yours in Pre-Press Mode,

zosimas

† Pre-Order Notes:

  • Pre-orders of The North American Thebaid book are still available for a limited time at The Thebaid Store.
  • Discounts available for multiple copies of both the Standard Edition and the Deluxe Limited Edition.
  • The Deluxe Limited Edition (Leather-bound, signed & numbered, with signed and matted print) is available only by pre-order for a limited time. Once the book goes go to print, we will close the pre-order Thebaid Store.
  • Signed copies of the Standard Edition (with a signed and matted print) are available by pre-order until the book goes to print.
  • The signed and matted 8×10 prints are only available by pre-order bundled with the book, and will not be available separately either before we go to print, or afterwards. There are currently no plans to offer individual Thebaid prints for sale.
  • Pre-orders will be shipped before retail channels receive their copies for resale.
  • Upon publication, the Standard Edition will be available through the STM Press Bookstore, and through other online and ‘brick and mortar’ resellers.
  • Contact STM Press with queries about discounts for resellers and church bookstores.

Thebaid Book Update: Last Steps before Ordering Hard-Copy Proof

On By zosimasIn Project, Publishing, Thebaid BookLeave a comment

Dear Friends and Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All!

I hope this update finds you well as we get into Autumn. Here we are quite energized by reaching the threshold of ordering the physical proof copy of the Thebaid Book!

Two full-page bleeds from the February 2023 proof edition.

As I’ve shared previously, unlike our first proof edition this past February, and the revised proof pages in early Summer, both of which were printed by STM Press’s local printer, this upcoming hard-copy proof will be done by the actual printer of the Thebaid Book, which will give us our most accurate view yet of the finished product, and reveal any final tweaks or edits needed for the more than 200 photographs. This is the critical, penultimate step before going to press and the printing of the actual North American Thebaid Book.

A friend of mine who is an author with a couple of books now published asked me a couple of weeks ago how it felt, getting so close to completion. I had to admit to her, sometimes it has felt like the goalposts keep moving! Her light-hearted laughter in response made me feel a little better about how much goes into the publishing process, as it does often seem we keep encountering new steps, things we didn’t know that we didn’t know.

Providentially, including this Summer, this has almost always worked to our benefit, the added steps and time allowing us to improve image and book quality through new resources and techniques which sometimes only recently became available. For example, several weeks ago, as we neared our deadline for the book files, we found we had a couple of added weeks in the publishing schedule. At about the same time, I had learned of powerful new image editing tools in the latest releases of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, enabling me to make deeper photo edits than were previously possible, dramatically improving image quality right as we have been preparing to go to press.

Below is a great example of the dramatic improvement in before and after these new editing tools, which help reduce digital noise in low-light images (a must for photographs in churches and monasteries), and improve everything from skin tones to shadow detail:

Mother Nectaria at the chanter’s stand, St. Paul Skete.

Beginning next week I will be working with my editor at St. Tikhon’s Press to prep the book file for our proof copy. It should all come together fairly quickly at this point, and I’ll keep you posted.

For those who have not yet pre-ordered or would like to add to your preorder, our Thebaid Pre-Order Store is still open for a limited period of time. When we set our date to go to press, I will announce the closing of the store. I should be able to provide 2-4 week’s notice in advance.

See below for links and details on preordering.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported The North American Thebaid Project through your preorders and prayers, some from the very beginning, way back in 2016! You have made all of this possible, and I am deeply grateful.

Watch for another update when we order the proof copy! 

Yours in Pre-Press Mode,

zosimas

† Pre-Order Notes:

  • Pre-orders of The North American Thebaid book are still available for a limited time at The Thebaid Store.
  • The Deluxe Limited Edition (signed & numbered, with signed and matted print) is available only by pre-order for a limited time. Once the book goes go to print, we will close the pre-order Thebaid Store.
  • Signed copies of the Standard Edition (with a signed and matted print) are available by pre-order until the book goes to print.
  • The signed and matted 8×10 prints are only available by pre-order bundled with the book, and will not be available separately either before we go to print, or afterwards. There are currently no plans to offer Thebaid prints for sale.
  • Pre-orders will be shipped before retail channels receive their copies for resale.
  • Upon publication, the Standard Edition will be available through the STM Press Bookstore, and through other online and ‘brick and mortar’ resellers.
  • Contact STM Press with queries about discounts for resellers and church bookstores.

4-Color Proofs & Pre-Press Progress

On By zosimasIn Project, Publishing, Thebaid BookLeave a comment


Dear Friends and Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All!

My apologies for the lack of updates since Pascha! In addition to my work preparing the image files for print, I have also recently moved to a new town and addressing all that is associated with that process. This weekend is the final move of my furniture and belongings from storage three states away to the new place. This is the final stage, and I can settle in now at a leisurely pace, while redoubling my work on the book at my desired determined pace!

My pre-press work on the CMYK 4-color file conversions nears its end at last (!!!), and in early Summer we ran a new batch of proof pages to see how the image quality is holding up when translated to the printed page. Fully 80% of those proofs looked excellent, which confirmed our work process and propelled us forward. Some of the photographs still needed adjustments, but even with those we have learned immensely from the proofing process, and this informs our work going forward.

In addition, the final round of professional proofreading of the text sections, and review of the design elements and titles, etc., are under the scrutiny of the proofreader used by St. Tikhon’s Press for all their publications.

With the success of the recent proof pages and the proofreading underway, we felt confident to set an internal deadline of end of Summer to complete the final book file.

This will be the penultimate pre-press moment! From this completed book file we will order a final physical proof copy of the entire book, but this time from the actual book printer themselves, which will give us the most accurate possible printed output to view before going to print.

After receiving the Final Proof Copy we will be able to make one last review of all elements, concentrating of course on image quality. If there are any final tweaks or edits required, that is our opportunity to make them, and then we send the book to print.

It usually takes 30 days or so for even a single-copy proof edition of a book this size to come back from a printer, so we do not expect to see the final proof copy before mid-October. Once approved, we go to print, and I will update you on the dates for distribution of the finished North American Thebaid Book.

I am truly thrilled and energized to get to this point. People often ask me, “I’ll bet you’ll be glad to get the book finished,” and while that is certainly true, I have also deeply loved this past year and all the finalizing work on the layout and images. They have come alive to me anew, in ways I would not have appreciated if not for this detailed labor. It has been sometimes painstaking work, with a steep learning curve and many long hours, but it has also been affirming of the individual images, and the project as a whole, and I am most eager not just to cross the goal line, but to finally deliver it into your hands, and to receive your responses. And, in a mysterious way, this long final pre-press stage has been the culmination of the “pilgrimage following the Pilgrimage,” an internal journey, coupled with a technical journey, to complete the entire project.

Pre-Order Period to End Soon:

With all this in mind, I am preparing to announce the end of pre-orders at the Thebaid Store. I think it is safe to say we will keep it open at least until mid-September. See below for links and details on preordering.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported the Thebaid Pilgrimage Project through your preorders and prayers. You have made all of this possible, and this book would not be going to print without your support, many of you from the very beginning, through our crowdfunding campaigns to fund the major period of travel from 2016-2018, and many others since then, with new preorders continuing to come in throughout this Summer.

Now we press on towards the goal. My hope and prayer is that the Thebaid Book will find its place in American Orthodoxy, and help contribute to the spread of the ancient and timeless Orthodox Faith in this land.

Yours in Pre-Press Mode,

zosimas

Photo: Holding the proof copy of the book cover, February 2023.

† Pre-Order Notes:

  • Pre-orders of The North American Thebaid book are still available for a limited time at The Thebaid Store.
  • The Deluxe Limited Edition (signed & numbered, with signed and matted print) is available only by pre-order for a limited time. Once the book goes go to print, we will close the pre-order Thebaid Store.
  • Signed copies of the Standard Edition (with a signed and matted print) are available by pre-order until the book goes to print.
  • The signed and matted 8×10 prints are only available by pre-order bundled with the book, and will not be available separately either before we go to print, or afterwards. There are currently no plans to offer Thebaid prints for sale.
  • Pre-orders will be shipped before retail channels receive their copies for resale.
  • Upon publication, the Standard Edition will be available through the STM Press Bookstore, and through other online and ‘brick and mortar’ resellers.
  • Contact STM Press with queries about discounts for resellers and church bookstores.

Unveiling of Proof Edition begins final round of PrePress Edits for the Thebaid Book

On By zosimasIn Photographs, Project, Publishing, Thebaid Book2 Comments

Dear Friends and Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All ~

Greetings for the second week of Great Lent!

We received our printed copy of the Final Draft Version of The North American Thebaid Book back in early February, and have been very impressed by the results, as well as launched into a new round of pre-press edits!

The large size of the book (13 inches by 11 inches) presents the images on a truly grande scale. There are about a dozen two-page full-bleed spreads, which, at 26″ width by 11″ height, make a real impact on the viewer. A hundred or so full page images complete the effect, alternate with smaller images to vary the pace with vignettes of the life and surroundings of the monasteries. We’re very pleased with how it has come together. Above is a photo of me holding the full-size cover proof, and below is an example of a couple of pages from the section on Holy Dormition Monastery in Rives Jct, Michigan (apologies for the glare on the left hand page):

Since receiving the proof edition, St Tikhon’s Monastery Press and I have had a few in-depth meetings on the final page and image edits required before we go to print. In a few cases we have actually changed the layout a bit, adding a couple of images to improve the flow and provide some unique views essential to this visual pilgrimage. In a couple of other places we have resized and rearranged images on the pages, again, all at the service of the pictorial and artistic narrative. Once these last image edits are done (and there are probably not (m)any more), we will be officially in “pre-flight” mode, and I will be working through the actual pre-press file conversions to optimize the images and convert them to CMYK for offset printing. We will print one last proof copy to review before going to print.

In short, we are at the threshold, or the launch pad, if you prefer, and that is a very exciting place to be after several years of working on this project!

Another big “Thank You” to those who have pre-ordered!

We continue to see a modest but steady flow of pre-orders for both the Standard Edition, Cloth Bound with French Fold Dust Jacket, and the Deluxe Limited Edition in Leather with Ribbon Marker. Both versions when pre-ordered come with a signed and matted fine-art print from the Thebaid Project. †

We greatly appreciate your practical support through pre-ordering, which really helps us as we ramp up to go to print. I will provide a final countdown notice here before we close the pre-order store and send the files to the printer. Please note that you can only purchase the Limited Edition by pre-order, and that the signed and matted fine art prints are likewise only available through pre-order of the book. See notes on ordering below; full details provided on the Thebaid Store.

Thank you for being such an important part of this amazing pilgrimage. I can’t wait to get the book into your hands.

With prayers for a Good Lent,

~ Ralph Sidway

† Pre-Order Notes:

  • Pre-orders of The North American Thebaid book are available for a limited time at The Thebaid Store.
  • The Deluxe Limited Edition (signed & numbered, with signed and matted print) is available only by pre-order for a limited time. Once the book goes go to print, we will close the pre-order Thebaid Store.
  • Signed copies of the Standard Edition (with a signed and matted print) are available by pre-order until the book goes to print.
  • The signed and matted 8×10 prints are only available by pre-order bundled with the book, and will not be available separately either before we go to print, or afterwards. There are currently no plans to offer Thebaid prints for sale.
  • Pre-orders will be shipped before retail channels receive their copies for resale.
  • Upon publication, the Standard Edition will be available through the STM Press Bookstore, and through other online and ‘brick and mortar’ resellers.
  • Contact STM Press with queries about discounts for resellers and church bookstores.

Major Milestone: Proof Edition of Thebaid Book Ordered!

On By zosimasIn Project, Thebaid BookLeave a comment

Dear Friends and Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All,

The photographer at All Merciful Saviour, Vashon Island WA

I am very happy and energized to report that we met our internal deadline last week for submitting our pre-proof photo and text edits, and after a couple of lengthy phone conferences and numerous last minute stylistic improvements, St Tikhon’s Press has sent the file to their U.S. printer for the first physical proof copies to be printed.

These will be full size (13×10 inches, 26″ wide when opened fully), approximately 200 pages, paperback (perfect bound), with full color printing inside and out, and our prototype cover design. We will be able to make an accurate assessment of the status of the book based on the proof edition.

The Press will keep a copy and circulate it at their end as part of the pre-flight process before going to press, and I will receive a copy here and be doing the same intensive review. The text sections will be professionally proofread, and every stylistic detail, from font usage to headers and page number placement, Table of Contents formatting, and so on, will be confirmed, checked off, and locked in before we send the final files to the offset printer.

I’ve been reviewing since yesterday the PDF file which was sent to the printer, and love how it looks. I am visiting family, and we excitedly put it on the wide-screen TV last night to go through. Certain photographs convey a positively cinematic impact, while others could stand alone as fine art photographs. I’m very proud of the image quality, the flow of this visual pilgrimage, and the inclusion of the special articles, which help complete the mission of the book and will help make it a useful as well as beautiful keepsake.

It will take about three weeks for the proof editions to be delivered before we can begin our final pre-flight review. In the meantime, watch for more updates, as I have some things to share coming up soon.

FOR A LIMITED TIME, we are still accepting pre-orders for both the Standard Edition (hard cover, cloth bound, with French fold dust jacket) and the Deluxe Limited Edition with Leather cover and ribbon marker. Both versions when ordered from our pre-order store will come signed by the photographer, and will include a signed and matted fine-art print (8×10 gallery quality print, in an 11×14 archival, museum mat) ready for framing.†

As always, my heartfelt thanks for your support, and your patient endurance as we persevered through the lengthy Covid lockdown and our subsequent pre-press work.

Wishing you good strength as we begin the Pre-Lent period this weekend!

~ Ralph Sidway

† Notes:

  • As a reminder, the Deluxe Limited Edition is available only by pre-order for a limited time. Once we go to print, we will close the pre-order Thebaid Store.
  • The signed and matted 8×10 prints are also only available by pre-order in a bundle with the book, and will not be available separately either before we go to print, or afterwards. There are currently no plans to offer Thebaid prints for sale.
  • Pre-orders will be shipped before retail channels receive their copies for resale.
  • Upon publication, the Standard Edition will be available through the STM Press Bookstore, and through other online and ‘brick and mortar’ resellers.
  • Contact STM Press with queries about discounts for resellers and church bookstores.

Nativity Update and New Year News

On By zosimasIn Photography, Project, Publishing, Thebaid BookLeave a comment

Dear Friends and Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All,

Greetings for the Nativity Season, whether you are celebrating this weekend, or in a couple of weeks! I’m thrilled to be able to provide a hefty report on our pre-press progress this past Autumn, and sketch out what the coming weeks look like for the publication of the North American Thebaid book.

My weekly production meetings with St Tikhon’s Monastery Press, publishers of the Thebaid book, have continued throughout the Autumn, and we have made enormous progress perfecting the layout and book design, such that we are very close to ordering our first physical proof of the book. (More on that below!)

The pre-press procedure for us has been analogous to that of a lapidary, woodcarver, or any fine craftsman: we had the basic layout and design in place this time last year, and then began the more detailed work of writing and inserting texts for each monastery, reviewing and refining the image selection and sequencing, and making final decisions on layout parameters such as margins, fonts, and other page styles. Each pass through the book since then has finalized more and more elements, and clarified our fewer and fewer remaining tasks.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect for me personally has been revisiting the images themselves. The initial photographs which we inserted into the layout last year were, for the most part, “quick edits,” and in no way ready for print. Except for the fourteen or so images included in the 2019 St Tikhon’s Liturgical Calendar, the remainder were only minimally edited, and were intended merely as placeholders for our work on the book design. (Almost all the image galleries posted here on the Thebaid website use versions of these early “quick edits.”)

The process of delving back into these images has been revelatory in many ways. Bringing them up on the computer screen one by one and using the powerful tools in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop brings back to life my original vision, what I “saw” when originally making the photographs, and it is enormously satisfying to bring out various subtle elements, balance the highlights and shadows, heighten sharpness, color and detail, and generally use these tools to restore the drama, impact and “feeling” the real world scenes originally presented to me, but which were usually hidden in the unedited RAW files captured by my cameras.

For you geeks and photographers out there, this workflow description may sound familiar to you. My practice when doing digital photography since 2008 when I seriously committed to the medium and left film behind, has been to set the camera to save both a RAW file as well as a JPEG. Because of its compression, a JPEG file has only 8-bit depth by which to convey sharpness, detail, color and tonal range from shadows to highlights. The RAW file format saves the maximum amount of image data the camera sensor is capable of rendering. In the camera models I have been using for the Thebaid book, the RAW files provide either 12 or 14 bit depth, gathering from 50% to 75% greater image depth and data than a JPEG file. In a nutshell, this is part of the magic of digital photography, that one can work with those RAW files, and draw out amazing amounts of dynamic range and detail, and then save that in a smaller file for use in publication.

The excitement of seeing these images come alive as I work on these deep edits has been immensely fulfilling, and I can’t wait for you to experience them in the finished book.

What’s Next? — As I hinted above, we are now very close to ordering our first physical proof copy/copies of the book, and have set an internal deadline of January 15 to have all our remaining design, image and text edits completed so we can move forward by that date.

Obviously, this is the major milestone we have been pushing towards, and marks the culmination of the long and detailed process of book design and layout. St Tikhon’s Press and I have literally hundreds if not thousands of hours invested in preparing the Thebaid book, and are excited to be finally reaching the proofing stage. St Tikhon’s Press has been posting their own updates, and we share a growing anticipation as we get ready to go to print that this will be a very special book. Our production call today confirmed all our image edits over the last couple of weeks, and made us realize how close we are to the proofing stage. Watch for more news early in the New Year!

What else?

STILL OPEN FOR PRE-ORDERING: We continue to be deeply thankful for all those who have pre-ordered the Thebaid Book, and are still encouraging pre-orders at the Thebaid Store, as this helps us determine our initial print run, and helps offset the printing costs. 

As I posted this past Summer, all pre-orders made through the Thebaid Store will be signed by me, and will include a matted print, ready for framing, of one of the images from the Thebaid Project, signed on the mat. You can check out the specifications on the Standard Edition (Cloth Bound, Hardcover, with French-fold Dust Jacket) and place your preorders here. (Discounts available for multiple copies.)

An important reminder as we get close to the print deadline, that the Deluxe Limited Edition will only be available by pre-order. This leather-bound version, with ribbon marker, will be signed and numbered, and will be limited in quantity to the number of pre-orders (plus a few extra copies for our Thebaid Team), and will not be available through any retail or online stores. If you’re interested, head over to the Thebaid Store to check out the options, which include substantial discounts for quantity purchases.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS AND BOOK SIGNINGS — I am deeply grateful for those who have recently contacted me about scheduling a Thebaid Presentation once the book is finished and in hand. One of the joys of my travels during the project pilgrimage from 2016-2018 was the experience of visiting numerous parishes in between my monastery visits, and giving a digital slide show and talk on Orthodox monasticism in America. I look forward to similar encounters when the book arrives, and my new presentation will of course feature extensive images from my monastery travels. Contact me for details, questions and to schedule.

As always, my heartfelt thanks to all of you, our many supporters and all those who have pre-ordered. It has now been a little over six years since we launched the crowdfunding and travel for this epic photographic pilgrimage to Orthodox monasteries in America, back in September 2016! We are profoundly energized by our progress on the book. Publication draws closer every week, and we are committed to getting it into your hands as quickly as possible. Please pray for us as we finish the Thebaid Book and send the final files to print.

Nativity and Christmas Greetings to you all as we celebrate the Birth in the Flesh of the Son of God and Lord of All, Jesus Christ.

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

Photo: Cross at St Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina CA, overlooking the California mountains. © Ralph H. Sidway.

Thebaid Book Update: AAC News, Text Deadline, Pre-Press image proofing

On By zosimasIn Project, Publishing, Thebaid BookLeave a comment

The Thebaid Display at the OCA All American Council in Baltimore, July 18-22

Dear Friends and Supporters, Fellow Pilgrims All,

Much news to share since mid-July, so let’s get to it:

The OCA’s All American Council, July 18-22, was a great opportunity to put The North American Thebaid Book Project in front of people for a whole week. I was invited by St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press to join their large vendor’s booth, and was given an entire table to anchor my display. STM Press had printed some handsome Thebaid Sample Booklets to share, and I brought my large (20″x 30″) canvas prints of some of the very best images to anchor the display. Two easels enabled us to have these large images facing both directions of the main aisle, and it was genuinely rewarding to talk with interested visitors about the project. We took some pre-orders for the book, and some folks donated directly to STM Press to help underwrite the printing costs, all of which helps us to the goal line. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the booth!

The new statue of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, carved on site from a tree which had recently died.

Following the AAC, I spent a week at St. Tikhon’s Monastery working on the book, and this daily interaction between myself and press manager Fr. Mikel Hill was very productive. In addition to my week at St. Tikhon’s I made a couple of stops at other regional monasteries and in general had a very productive mid-summer as we continued to prep the book for going to print.

My weekly production calls with STM Press resumed after my week-long working visit, and I’m very pleased to announce we are on track to complete all the text by September 15, and will be having the text files proof-read after that date. This is a major milestone, which will be followed immediately by our review of the image sequencing and layout decisions. This will be our final review of the entire book to optimize the flow of the photographs and make the visual narrative as strong as it can possibly be.

There are other steps also on the agenda, including final design elements, special graphic additions, and especially generating physical pre-press proofs to ensure proper reproduction of the images, many of which have a broad dynamic range, deep shadow detail, specific color gamuts, or heightened Black & White contrast and tonality.

My thanks to all who have recently pre-ordered the Thebaid Book. (I just received notice of another pre-order this morning!) Please note that we will stop taking pre-orders for the Deluxe Limited Edition once we send the book to print. This leather-bound version, with ribbon marker, will be signed and numbered, and will be limited in quantity to the number of pre-orders (plus a few extra copies for our Thebaid Team), and will not be available through any retail or online stores. If you’re interested to learn more, head over to the Thebaid Store to check out the options, which include quantity discounts.

As always, my heartfelt thanks to all our many supporters and those who have pre-ordered. Many of you have been waiting patiently for the fulfillment of this project since we launched this epic photographic pilgrimage six years ago, in September 2016! We are absolutely thrilled to be seeing the publication of the book getting closer every week, and are dedicated to getting it into your hands as quickly as possible. Please pray for us as we labor to get the Thebaid Book over the finish line.

Watch for more updates soon as we check off these various pre-press deadlines!

PS – Also in my summer travels were trips to Jordanville and St. Gregory Palamas in Hayesville, Ohio. Here are some examples of the images I made at these two monasteries. Click to enlarge, as these thumbnails are cropped to fit into the gallery format: