“Well, I didn’t do anything with them.”

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    Topic: “Well, I didn’t do anything with them.” Read 490 Times
  • Damon Lynch
    Damon Lynch
    Participant
    Posts: 6
    New Article Announcements & Discussions
    on: February 2, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    I have traveled all over the world and have been with some fantastic attendees as we photographed some of the most beautiful locations there. Many of these attendees are repeat clients. When we meet again, I ask what they did with the images from the last trip, and most of the time I am shocked by the answer of, “Well, I didn’t do anything with them.” Maybe they processed a few and put them on social media, but almost everyone didn’t make one print or even consider making a print project, collection, portfolio, or book.

    I’m interested why workshop attendees don’t print.

    Is it in line with the percentage of photographers who do not print? In other words, is there nothing special about these workshop attendees compared to other photographers?

    Or is it more the kind of folks who tend to go on workshops with Kevin? Perhaps they have extremely busy schedules, and their primary motivation for going on the trips is the experience of doing photography among like-minded companions, rather than the actual photos that result? That’s a genuine question. Having not gone on such a workshop, I’m only speculating.

    I don’t mean to focus on the workshop attendees per se (they have their own privacy), just to use this to start a conversation as to why people don’t print when you otherwise might expect them to.

    As an aside, due to an overseas move, for 6 months I was without my own set of self-printed and framed prints. When they were finally delivered, what a difference it has made to have them in the house! Out went the awful photos and paintings the landlord had left up on the walls, and up went my own. Wow. I really didn’t expect it to make that much of an impact. But it does. It truly does.

    Kevin Raber
    Kevin Raber
    Silver Member
    Posts: 1284
    Re: “Well, I didn’t do anything with them.”
    Reply #1 on: February 2, 2023 at 11:32 pm

    Damon, I used the workshop attendee as a way to do my own poll.  Since I see many of the same folks at different workshops, I am curious, after going to workshops and taking some marvelous images, why they are not being printed.  I have said many times that you don’t have a photograph until you can hold it in your hand.  Prints don’t always have to be big wall prints. They can be a collection of small prints or medium-sized (11×17 inches).  I have wondered if it is a time thing or a cost thing.  In our upcoming workshops, we will show that it is easy to make prints and not all that expensive, especially when compared to what many folks invest in camera gear.  You mention how good it feels to have your own prints on your walls.  The same good feeling can be enjoyed with your own photos of some of your own adventures. It’s why we do photography.

    Kevin Raber
    Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

    Brad Smith
    Brad Smith
    Participant
    Posts: 29
    Re: “Well, I didn’t do anything with them.”
    Reply #2 on: February 5, 2023 at 8:51 pm

    Kevin, my thoughts regarding why many photographers don’t print……I tend to think it is an available time thing or they’ve come to photography in the smartphone/tablet era when that was the way most newcomers would have seen photography.  I think the least likely cause for your workshop attendees would be cost.  If they can afford your (or most any other workshop) and their full frame cameras/pro grade lenses, etc, they can afford a $1,000 printer and paper.    And I agree with your premise……it isn’t really a photograph until it is printed.  Today in the digital age, until it is printed, it is only a bunch of excited electrons.

    Brad

    Eric Brody
    Eric Brody
    Participant
    Posts: 58
    Re: “Well, I didn’t do anything with them.”
    Reply #3 on: February 6, 2023 at 6:40 pm

    I continue to be fascinated by “serious” photographers who do not print their work. I am not intending to be critical or judgmental, each person is clearly entitled to do whatever they’d like with their images. A while back, I met a fellow at our Japanese Garden in Portland with a Fuji GFX, the big one. I started a conversation based on my awe of his camera, 100MP files are not to be trifled with. I asked him if he printed his images and he said he did not. I kept my cool and we had a perfectly nice conversation.

    I am not interested in selling prints; for me, marketing is simply too much work for the returns. I love photographing and producing photographs, that is, prints. My favorites are placed in my home on the walls, or given to family members and friends; others are placed in boxes for later review. If a friend says they like an image, I’ll offer them a framed print. If they’d like, I make one and gift it to them. If a stranger shows interest, I’m happy to sell one a a pretty reasonable fee; we’re both happy, my ego is massaged, and the purchaser has a nice image.

    I started in photography in my teens, a LONG time ago and in the day, with film, one either made print (or had one made) or you really didn’t have a photograph (excepting those horrid slide shows of someone’s trip). People had shoe boxes, full of family photos. (I still do) I realize that’s different that what we perhaps arrogantly call “fine art photography,” but these were treasured nonetheless.

    I hope this conversation can continue, perhaps with the additional commentary by someone who is both a photographer and a psychologist. It would make a good New Yorker or Atlantic article. Now that Mike Johnston, “The Online Photographer” writes for the New Yorker, perhaps I’ll suggest he take on this project.

     

     

    Jeremy Roussak
    Jeremy Roussak
    Gold Member
    Posts: 997
    Re: “Well, I didn’t do anything with them.”
    Reply #4 on: February 10, 2023 at 1:24 pm

    I don’t print anywhere near as much as I feel I should, and that’s despite splashing out on an Epson SC-P7500 (my wife describes it as my mid-life crisis: I point out that even if that’s true, an Epson is a hell of a lot cheaper than a Porsche). I suppose one of the reasons is that although I love holding a print in my hand, I’m rather uncertain what to do with it after I put it down: my walls are pretty full.

    I suspect another reason people don’t print is that it ain’t easy (any more than printing, especially colour printing, was easy in the darkroom days). Getting past the terminology – colour spaces, calibration, ICC profiles and so on – takes time and effort. It’s immensely rewarding – at least, I found it so – but it’s non-trivial. There’s no way round it other than bookwork, reading and of course attending courses such as Kevin’s.

    Just my thoughts.

    Jeremy

    Erik Brammer
    Erik Brammer
    Participant
    Posts: 288
    Re: “Well, I didn’t do anything with them.”
    Reply #5 on: February 20, 2023 at 10:32 pm

    Hi Jeremy,

    just get frames that make it easy to replace your current prints with some new series from time to time. Then store the ones you have just removed from the frames. They don’t take much space.

    Best regards,

    Erik

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