A quick update for everyone who has purchased (or is going to purchase) a copy of The New Tradition!

Up above you can see the book jacket opened in InDesign. There's been a design change to the cover, thanks to Kathie, my wonderful wife and art director!

The book was sent to the printer in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago. Over the years, I have had Better Photography magazine printed in Hong Kong by Toppan for two reasons, price and quality. In the old days, you could get the same high quality in Australia, but not at the same price (and not always with consistency). These days, the difference in price isn’t so marked, but consistency still seems to be a problem based on other magazines I have had printed in Australia. However, since I have such a great relationship with this printer that spans over 20 years, I actually wanted to print with Toppan.

And they are really looking after me. They know this book is special to me. They know it is an ‘art book’. And we are using all the best materials and processes. We have a new French-fold jacket, all the pages are wet-on-dry machine varnished, we’re printing on a beautiful 157 gsm Moorim matt and the case bound book is section sewn and fully cased with arlin over boards, H&T bands and square backed. So there!

At this stage, the book will not reach Australia until 19 February 2019, based on our current printing schedule. It’s much quicker to print a magazine, but with books, you need to allow extra time for the binding. And you don’t want to rush things – you need to allow time for the ink and glues to dry.

I’m not in a rush. I want this book to be as good as it can possibly be.

And I would like to sign the pre-publication book orders, so while the shipment will arrive in February, Kim and I will need a little more time to unpack the books, open the postage cartons, sign the books, allow them time to dry, repack and address. To complicate matters, I will be in the USA on a photo tour and not back until early March, so it may be mid-March before your book arrives.

But I promise you the wait will be worth it.

As mentioned, my wonderful wife Kathie has re-designed the cover and refined the typography. Just as photographers like to pixel-peep, my wife is a stickler for good design. She gave me a B+ for my original design (and A- for effort), but her final result is now AAA+!

As I write this, some preliminary Xerox proofs are arriving. The printer wants to check they are on the right track and following my approval, they will then deliver a sample of machine wet proofs. This is the ultimate test – actually putting paper through a press so I can see exactly what the results will be like. It’s not a cheap process, of course, but it’s a bit like photography. When you do all the steps correctly, you’re more likely to get a better result!

If you'd like to order a copy of the book at its pre-publication price, or order a copy of the book and a personally printed photograph, click through to the website here. And we can provide gift certificates if you'd like to make this a Christmas gift - just email Kim after you've made the order!