Going Old School

HeatherTheVet

Top Veteran
Location
Scotland
Name
Heather
Well moderately old school anyway.

I have a thing about notebooks. I adore them. I have piles of them, and yet I still find it irresistible to buy a new one that meets my demanding criteria. I have half a dozen of the Rhodia type reporter style 5mm squared ones on the go at any one time - one in my pocket, one in my jacket, one by the bed, one in the car, one in the living room and or kitchen, several buried in and around my desk.

Moleskine is the gold standard by which all others are measured, I've recently found a couple which surpass it to my delight. So I had a great time in the Pompidou Centre in Paris earlier this week - they have a substantial collection of notebooks in the book shop. Most of them I already knew, or were shy of the mark. And then I found something quite delightful - a handmade, hand bound book, heavy paper, the cover is brown with a small round hole cut out of it to show through to the first page. That's nothing amazingly special or different so far - you can pick up hundreds like it in any market in India. But this has sheets of black and brown papers bound into it as well, the binding is fairly loose and it is perfect for making a little photo album.

Digital is amazing. PP is brilliant. Without it I probably wouldn't bother with photography because I wouldn't be able to do any of the things I want. But when I get a good picture that I am happy with, I do miss having the physical photo. So I am going to start getting the ones I like printed somehow, and stick them in my little book.

How do you guys go about printing? I'd be interested to hear what you do with the pictures you like. I know photobooks are getting quiet popular. I'm thinking about using one of these professional printers out of the back of Practical Photography.

Do you do folios or just keep things on a hard drive?
 
Alas I print virtually nothing, just send all my stuff electronically all over the world.

I do however still see the print as the ultimate expression of photography. I've promised myself that when I get too old to rock and roll, I'm going put some serious time in printing up all the images I have that I would like to actually hold in my hand and show other people without the benefit of a screen.
 
Right, I invested £30 in ink cartridges, got myself all excited, cleared my desk (that was the hardest part!) and settled down to some photo printing this evening. Imagine my disappointment to find that all my printouts, whilst being sharp in terms of focus (I thought the inkjet might blur them a bit), are very muddy in terms of colour - even the monotone ones. The black isn't black enough, the colours don't shine the way they should. I am mightily disappointed.

So - looks like it is off to a professional printer.
 
I just tried to print out a black rose which I had PP in LR3; seeing it starting appear from the printer I rushed to pressed the cancel button.
Its too dark much darker than I saw on the screen, it would seem that there is an 'art' to printing in monotone especially.
I've not had too many problems with colour in the past...perhaps I'm becoming more fussy these days.
 
I print infrequently enough that I send it out to Mpix. They do a better job than I can for not very much more money and a lot less hassle and I usually have the prints in a few days. I actually have some 12x18 prints I did myself, on 13x19 paper, with an old HP business printer. And the results really aren't bad at all. But paper jams are a constant headache, ink for this printer costs a LOT and will clog and dry up if not used pretty regularly, and the printer does not take up a SMALL space on my table. So I'm done with trying any serious printing - even my good results were not better than mpix and usually worse, so I'm sticking with them. And they have a really cool mounting option where you can get it printed on canvas and the canvast stretched and mounted on a wood frame back. Which I guess you could still frame, but I find them a pretty good, easy, and relatively economical way to get prints I can hang on the wall where-ever and when-ever. I'll still occasionally print small snapshots on my normal HP jack of all trades printer.

For books, I use Blurb. I did two last year and I'm in the early stages of selecting photos for my 2011 Greatest Hits book, which I hope to have to the few people that want 'em by Chanukah / Christmas...

-Ray
 
Well moderately old school anyway.

I have a thing about notebooks. I adore them. I have piles of them, and yet I still find it irresistible to buy a new one that meets my demanding criteria. I have half a dozen of the Rhodia type reporter style 5mm squared ones on the go at any one time - one in my pocket, one in my jacket, one by the bed, one in the car, one in the living room and or kitchen, several buried in and around my desk.

Moleskine is the gold standard by which all others are measured, I've recently found a couple which surpass it to my delight. So I had a great time in the Pompidou Centre in Paris earlier this week - they have a substantial collection of notebooks in the book shop. Most of them I already knew, or were shy of the mark. And then I found something quite delightful - a handmade, hand bound book, heavy paper, the cover is brown with a small round hole cut out of it to show through to the first page. That's nothing amazingly special or different so far - you can pick up hundreds like it in any market in India. But this has sheets of black and brown papers bound into it as well, the binding is fairly loose and it is perfect for making a little photo album.

Digital is amazing. PP is brilliant. Without it I probably wouldn't bother with photography because I wouldn't be able to do any of the things I want. But when I get a good picture that I am happy with, I do miss having the physical photo. So I am going to start getting the ones I like printed somehow, and stick them in my little book.

How do you guys go about printing? I'd be interested to hear what you do with the pictures you like. I know photobooks are getting quiet popular. I'm thinking about using one of these professional printers out of the back of Practical Photography.

Do you do folios or just keep things on a hard drive?

Cool idea.

I print a great deal. To quote our friend here
I do however still see the print as the ultimate expression of photography.

Basically, if I am pleased with it, and captured what I wanted, I print it.

But I do like this idea, especially since I too suffer from a love of good notebooks. I like printed photo-books, but this promises a more personal feel.
 
I think I'll probably give Snapfish a go, but I'll check Mpix first. Next week. When I have time to breathe and am back home. B&B living is not as fantastic as folk think! Can't wait to get stuck into my little photo album!
 
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