Why should I print Photographs?

In the beginning, photography was a print media for the most part. People shared their photographs as prints, they put together photo albums, we all had them in our homes and from time to time, we would flip through them remembering the times or the people in the photographs. With the switch over to digital, a few things changed with it. People began taking more pictures for one thing, but more importantly, they don't print very much any more. Your town or city has definitely seen a decline in places where you can even print images these days. There is something about actually holding a photograph in your hands and viewing it that just doesn't compare to any computer screen or even projection of the image. To me, the print is the finished product of photography.

Another interesting thing to keep in mind is that some storage medias aren’t going to last forever. For instance, CD/DVDs are subject to possible degradation, especially the cheaper ones. All the more reason to print up some photos! My wife and I have begun to print some special examples for our walls. It looks great and we get to remember great times via these prints. We also have been known to give away a print or two as well. I strongly recommend printing some images, big or small to enjoy, after all that’s what we produce them for, isn’t it?

Photo of the Week # 221

I am often a little late to the “party”, let’s just get that out of the way first thing. It took me a little longer than most to learn composition techniques. Good composition often involves what you leave out of the frame as much as what you put in. When we start out in photography, we run around pointing and snapping like crazy and of course, they are all masterpieces, right? Back in the beginning, I would expect to bring home a basket ful of “good” shots or I was not happy about it. I heard about Ansel Adams’ comments where he said “a crop of 12 good images a year being a good crop” and I thought, “really?”.

The light bulb finally came on and I began to see what Ansel was saying. I looked back at all my old work and realized that the vast majority of it was documentary photography at best, snapshots. This is all very normal and part of learning. I also used to adhere to a few “standard” aspect ratios too…..to make it easier to print or frame. Of course not a whole lot of them got framed either so that really didn’t make sense either. Finally, I came to the realization that by far the most common place for anyone to consume photos was on social media and currently, mostly on a small phone screen. I began to see that by allowing myself some creativity in something as simple as cropping an image, I could change it immensely. There are people out there who simply will not crop a photo, not even for straightening a crooked horizon! I think those people are missing out on a valuable tool.

This image is called Sawtooth Range and was made in Alaska. I love the beautifully atmospheric nature of the shot and the 2:1 panoramic aspect ratio works great from my point of view.

Photo of the Week #220

The shot below is a shot I made in southern Utah. With all the famous places in southern Utah, this one might not be as recognizable as others, but that’s one of the things I like to do. Millions of people have images of Monument Valley (so do I), but sometimes you find places that are just as beautiful as the iconic spots but not as “peopley”. Since photographers began sharing their work online, some places are now inundated with people, all lining up to shoot the same photo that thousands before them have already got. You know the old story…..when all the peole are busy looking in one direction, sometimes all you have to do is to look the other.

Photo of the Week #214

I have said it many times over the years that you should revisit certain images as time goes by. You gain experience and know-how and so does the software we use for edits. Often you can breathe new life into an image and it is certain;y worth looking at. This particular image has been used in another form a couple of years ago but it didn’t do it for me in some ways. This re-work of the image is my final edit, I’m calling it done now, officially. “Feeling Blue”

Photo of the Week #205

When you’re literally surrounded by beauty in every direction, it provides so much inspiration! This one location offers you many different compositions depending on conditions. We spent lots of time right here. On this trip, we wanted to shoot more deliberate and went for quality over quantity. We waited out conditions or light to get the picture often. Traveling makes it hard to be in the right place at the right time so we slowed it down a lot and truthfully we enjoyed it more because of that I think.

Ha Ling Peak, Canmore