Ann-alog, a Pixel Remix, where Ann Torrence blogs about photographing for a book on U.S. Highway 89, the greatest road trip route in America. Photography tips, locations, trip reports, and real life.

Delivery of 45 cartons of books to the palace

On Friday I held the first book I have produced as publisher of Sagebrush Press: The Story of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, by Gary Topping. It has 16 photographs of mine in color, plus another 4 I managed to stuff in the text pages in B&W. The pink cloud buoyed me for less than 24 hours: the book is all I had hoped, and now I have to sell it. Actually 45 cartons of them, more or less.

I had actually expected it would take little longer to print, so I could get more ducks in a row as far as distribution and marketing, but no: 1 week from delivering my PDF on CD to books in cartons. Talk about awesome service. Now I am playing catch-up. I will be ready for the centennial celebrations of the Cathedral next month, hopefully with books in all the local outlets and an author's signing at the big party. That's the plan, as far as it is formulated.

In the meantime, I went on a Photowalk, one of the many world-wide photowalks that took place last week-end. Here's me trying to talk and shoot at the same time, in Bryan's recap. What was I doing on the phone? Arranging for Elizabeth to loan me a canopy for the Sanpitch Cowboy Expo this coming Saturday. It's regular circus around the palace.

I have learned how to photograph. I have learned how to design books. I have learned how to do many things I hope I never have to do again. I can learn how to sell books. But I'd rather give them away: it's much more fun.

The Giveaway: To celebrate this milestone with my readers, I will send a free copy of The Story of the Cathedral of the Madeleine to a random commenter to this post. Please tell about your first impression of the Cathedral. If you haven't been there, then recommend a photographable destination that inspires serenity and/or faith. I'll choose a winner by random from all comments received by Sunday at 6 pm.

If you don't win, but still want a copy, I'm offering my U.S. blog readers a special price (I wish I could give them all away, but I can't): $13.50 (instead of $16.95) including shipping, via Paypal only.

Congratulations to Shaun for winning the free book! Thanks to everyone who commented!

Proofs of the Cathedral of the Madeleine book

I signed off on the proofs, or "bluelines" for the The Story of the Cathedral of the Madeleine today. The cover will NOT be that lurid blue. I specified a royal blue spot color (a color that can't be produced by the cyan, magenta, yellow and black-- the CMYK process colors--used for proofing).

And it begins: books are on the way.

Angel at the ambo, Cathedral of the Madeleine

Did you know that ambo means the pulpit where the priest gives the homily? Me either, until I started reading drafts of The Story of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Sagebrush Press's next book release, and first under my stewardship. I took it to the printer today. We should have it back in time for the centennial celebration on August 15.

I rejoiced for about 10 minutes. Then I went back to work. One thing accomplished leads to several more things to do. Printing a book is not the same as selling a book. One thing Sagebrush Press lost in its hiatus was its web site; that is the next thing to tackle. And I need to get a merchant account before the Sanpitch Cowboy Expo. Not to mention that as soon as my other printing folks give me the profile, I have 175+ images for the Highway 89 book to convert to CMYK.

One prerogative of being the publisher is that, when the final page count allowed it, I could stuff in more of my own photographs. There was room for four if I converted them to black and white. This angel graces the opening spread of Bishop Wester's tender foreword to the book. It is a lovely piece of writing, and since this angel greets the Bishop every time he speaks to the public from the ambo, I liked the juxtaposition of it with his words. I hope he does too. In a couple weeks, I hope to have a copy on his desk.

As soon as I get the new Sagebrush Press website operational, I will post a link with info on how to buy a copy and about attending the centennial events. It's going to be full of pageantry and joyful celebration, that much I am certain.

No, not that book, the other book: The Story of the Cathedral of the Madeleine is about ready to go to the printer to be on hand for the centennial events around August 15. Then we'll return to our regularly scheduled U.S. 89 programming.

I devised this angel treatment for the chapter headings, taken from the frames of the Stations of the Cross paintings in the Cathedral--luckily there were only five chapters, and the Stations of the Cross number 14, so we had a sufficient quantity of angels for each chapter opening (actually, Gary tells me there are 258 angels in the Cathedral, and he knows the guy who counted). Each angel image is slightly different, although at the resolution they will print at, I'm the only one who will know. You might notice that one of them has a chipped-off nose, if you looked closely. In the book, they will be black and white, but I kind of like the desaturated look here.

I twittered today that I was having fun with the book-production process, and that is true. I'm learning a lot, for example, did you know that numbers like "1963-2009" are properly separated with an "en-dash" rather than a hyphen? If the dash reads as "to" then use the en-dash. Plenty of new factoids like that have entered my brain in recent days. One could study the Chicago Manual of Style for a lifetime. I have not. Instead, we muddle along and are counting on the benevolence of the angels and other friends to get this job done. I'll be back on the road soon, with a new Sagebrush Press book in the saddlebag, and won't that be something?

Scan of the original elevation of the Cathedral of the Madeleine
Before and After Photoshopping

My family heritage is Catholic, and my great-grandmother used to use the phrase "it's a mystery of the Church" to explain things to my mom when she was growing up. When I saw the best available scan of this image, I knew it would be a mystery of how I would get it publication-ready. Besides being overly dark and poor contrast, when it was photographed or copied from the original, the text on the back side of the paper bled through, leaving a very undesirable background effect. Tidying it up took some experimentation in Photoshop. My initial thought was to use the Threshold tool, which was an abject failure. I tried some variations on blending modes, and finally hit on a combination that worked.

First, I made a base layer of pure white. Then I made a reasonable selection around the outline of the building, using the Refine Edge" settings to get a visual guide for feathering. I hadn't used that particular tool in the Selection menu before, can't believe I've lived this long without it. Then I erased the background to reveal the white base layer.

I added a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. I have never used settings like these on my photos(!): brightness at +121 and contrast at +63. Next, I duplicated the layer with the cathedral, moved it to the top of the stack, and set the blend to Multiply at 80%. The duplicate layer has two Curves adjustment layers, set with a clipping mask to affect only the duplicate layer, that sets the black and white points. One curve is masked to the lower portion; a stronger curve was needed for the towers.

And Voila! All of this effort is on behalf of what is likely to be the reinvigorated Sagebrush Press's first book in the hands of the public. The Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City is celebrating its 100 year anniversary in August and we are working feverishly to finish a history of the building and community by the celebration. Barring too many more unforeseen delays, I think we will make it. My friend and archivist of the diocese, Gary Topping, has written a marvelous and entertaining text and found some great historical photos. My contribution is a short photo essay of the community of faith that uses the building.

If you are in Salt Lake City and you happen to be near the cathedral, take a look upward. You'll notice that the uppermost towers were not completed according to the original plan. It's an interesting bit of history, and one I'm glad we'll be able to illustrate with this image.

P.S. The Highway 89 book is still on schedule, but as a full-color project, it's going to take longer to print. The Cathedral's anniversary is setting the schedule for that project, and Gary's book gets to be first.

Ceiling detail, Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City

Since December, I have been shooting for another book project. The Cathedral of the Madeleine will celebrate its centennial, and my friend Gary Topping, the diocesan archivist, is rewriting the history of the Cathedral. When Gary asked me to contribute the photos, I asked him if there weren't already enough architectural photos available, why not just use those? He insisted, so we focused on images that show a portrait of the community of faith, with the Cathedral as its home. We hope to have the book out in time for the big celebration in August.

From the first time we walked through the Cathedral to plan the project, I wanted to get this shot of the ceiling right at the crossing of nave and transcept. With a little insider help to get permission to approach the altar and place my camera, I shot this one tethered to my laptop so I could adjust the D700's settings and evaluate each frame without having to move the camera itself. I don't know that it will make it into the book, but I am very glad to have it.

I cannot imagine working on this project without the D700's low light capabilities. I have been collecting candids during various events that simply were not possible with the D2X. The Easter vigil is Saturday, and I am looking forward to seeing how it performs in the candlelight service.

The Cathedral welcomes visitors, and sometimes after Sunday services a volunteer gives a tour of the building. Gary tells me there are exactly 258 angels inside. I'm not going to try to photograph them all.

Angel detail, Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City

What's the last thing on your mind in these final hours of 2008? Updating my website isn't on the top of my list. But I hate it when it gets to February and I'm still sporting that old-year copyright statement. Worse than writing checks with the old year. It turns out there's a number of things in this category, so as I think of them, I put them in my Getting Things Done action list, and the list popped up today:

1. Change copyright date on blog and website.
2. Change copyright statement stored in the D2X.
3. Update my Photoshop action that stamps my copyright on Flickr and blog images.
4. Revisit my on-line profiles (Google, LinkedIn, Technorati, etc.). It's not an annual thing, but now is as good a time as any to do a check-up.

What's on your update list for the new year?

Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City

The wreathe lit for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.