Sunday, April 01, 2007

Grumble


I know I've grumbled about this before, but scanning is one tedious activity. Spent most of the day yesterday and this morning looking at contact sheets or reference prints, pulling negs, placing them in the holder, blowing canned air all over the place (with the cat sitting on the scanner) and saving to the hard drive.

At first, there is a sort of zen to it, but after eight hours, even if you are scanning porn star Lux Kassidy - which I was - it is tedious.

The results can be stunning, though. Chantal, above is straight from the negative - no Photoshop, no adjustment whatsoever other than my desired settings while scanning, which are relative to each shot. The shot you are seeing is squished down to web size of course, but trust me - the 27 meg file at 3200 dpi is pretty damn amazing. Blown up to 100% you can almost swim in the grain - and I think that's a good thing.

I spoke to Dian Hanson about the Taschen book and she told me that there are no surplus copies available for book signings or for outlets like The Strand. The entire press run has shipped, which indicates an inevitable 2nd printing, which is great for a number of reasons. Us NYC folks might actually be able to promote it at the Taschen store here in SoHo or at the ICP in Midtown and that my erroneous web address will be corrected in the bio section. Question - if a book is essentially sold out does one need to promote it? Probably not, but I think it would be a hoot to sit behind a folding table and sign my name in silver ink, while meeting fans, other photographers, potential models and perverts of all shapes and sizes. Right?

On to the next thing...

3 comments:

BD said...

I'd go get a signed copy. I ran across one at a Barnes and Noble while waiting to see 300, and I wanted to grab the next customer I saw, show off the dirty pictures, and say, "I know this guy...cool guy...great hair." But I didn't. I suck.

But if I was a matter of James Graham fans showing out, I'd be there.

James M Graham said...

I'm blushing, Brian...

You don't suck. You're one of the good guys...

Petr Sorfa said...

Eeep, forgot to tell you that I grabbed a copy the first week it came out. Took a while to locate it, as it was right behind the help desk person who directed me elsewhere (at the world famous Powell's.) Nice to see lots of friends (models and photographers - such as yourself - included.) One great new find (damn - don't have the copy here for the name.) Several notables missing, like John Santerineross, Visioluxus (aka Elisa Lazo de Valdez who is winning every single erotic photography award there is), Lithium Picnic and, well, me ;o)

Some really odd inclusions (more for being famous than photography.)

I keep have to keep reminding myself that the book is not called "New Erotic Art Photography."