No, seriously, when was the last time you printed your digital photos?
I hang out with a couple of photographers, and I talk to a whole lot more various places online, and since we all shoot direct to digital, almost none of us regularly print our photos. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. For one thing, there’s the whole volume issue. I mean, disk space is cheap, so I take hundreds of photos every time I go out shooting. I may winnow that down to a few dozen really good shots that are worth sharing, but, still, it takes time to sort through all those shots and find ones that I think are worth printing and displaying.
Then, of course, there’s the question of framing and display. What kind of frame do you put these shots in to display them in your home? What do you do if you want to make a custom size print and can’t find a frame? And, what about matting those shots before framing? So many decisions!
And, that’s all before you actually get to the print itself! I mean, who has a really great color printer at home that makes archival quality prints? Yeah, right, almost none of us. Those printers are expensive! And, how long will prints like that last? Who knows?! Photographic and print preservation is a full-time job and a pretty specialized field.
So, what to do?
Well, why not get some help from the professionals, on-line? Some time ago, Apartment Therapy listed some on-line sources for printing and framing your photographs. These folks will do all, or almost all, of the work for you, outside of taking the actual photograph. It’s all they do. All you have to do is take the shots, choose the ones you like best, and then send them to one of these folks.
Do yourself a favor and pick out a shot or two and go get them printed and framed.
Remind yourself why it is you got all the pricey camera gear and spend all your free-time behind the camera.
Share your work with those around you, too. The rewards will be worth it. Honest.
