Grinding the midnight oil on color proofs and preparing files for my 3rd photography book.

Grinding the midnight oil on color proofs and preparing files for my 3rd photography book.

Color Proofs

 

The last few weeks I have been working on my usual night time hours, where there is silence and darkness outside and around me. I have spent the entire day working on printing up my own set of color proof on my Canon Pro-1, using a semi-gloss paper that I find very pleasing to my eye. This is all in preparation for tomorrow, where I will eventually be passing the PDF files to my printer.

I had previously announced that I was printing 100 pages, but the numbers have risen up to 112. It is primarily due a change in layout. In my initial design for 3.AM, I allowed for text to appear alongside the image, so that one could read something about the image more readily. This is not the same as in my first 2 books, where I placed the image descriptions at the back of the book. I decided in the end to follow the same format as my original books, so now the descriptions are at the back, taking up 7 pages.

I have also included several more models than in my campaign. Now I have a total of 41 models, making this the most ambitious book of the 3. And after printing out the proofs, it makes me feel very happy to see the images become alive and real, tangible in the form that it can be picked up, framed, or torn in half if one so desires. The image can now co-exist in another reality or dimension within the world we live.

 

Color

 

Some people have asked me where they can pre-order the book. Unfortunately, I have not set up a site for pre-order at this time, apart from the Indiegogo campaign, which is now closed. The best time to get the book will be once I have the books physically printed, which should be within the next few weeks. It takes about 3 weeks for the entire process of files to actual delivery.

And as for the date of the book launch, it will be on Wednesday, August 13th, 2014, coming up very soon.

Final Countdown…

So the final count-down is on with 3 days left for the campaign. That’s a lot of time to make that contribution/purchase. On the Indiegogo site, it shows up on the 2nd tier under the Photography section and in the Final Countdown. So far the numbers are at US$8,270.00, which is pretty good I say. With that amount, I can print 1,000 copies as opposed to my original 1,500, which was what I was originally aiming for. What it does mean that is the cost per book increases on my side. And hence, the retail book will now be at US$65, versus my original price of US$50.final-countdown

 

A few people have been asking me when the book will be physically printed. At the stage right now, the last draft of the written content for the text (about 8,000 words) was sent to my sub-editor and proofer last week. He says it will be ready by next week. The text for the foreword, introduction and preface has already been read over by him and all is fine. There still remains the Acknowledgements and Process, Inside  and Outside Jacket, which too has been written. If it all goes well without too much modification, then I should have everything ready within 2 weeks (as of this writing). By then, hopefully, the funds from Indiegogo would have arrived (they say it takes several weeks). This is the first time for me crowd-funding so the process is still new.

Printers in Hong Kong are plentiful. In fact, there is a small printing company next to door in the studio. And for that I have to finalize who I will be going with, as there are several that I have approached for quotations. The most expensive is the one that I have worked with several times already, as they know what I would require press check on all the images. They were also the ones that printed my second book, which I liked, although I found the finish to the artwork rather too shiny/glossy now after looking at it now. My taste is slowly changing. With the printers, it should take about a week for them to do the job, which to me is blazingly fast!

Again here it the link to the campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-asian-male-3-am/x/6764531