I recently had an experience that reminded me when you see an opportunity you must take action. Don’t wait. Don’t think “I can come back and do it later”, even if later is a few minutes.

I was driving to the store to get some fresh food items we needed. It was late afternoon, about an hour before the winter afternoon sunset. I passed a field where there were some horses grazing. The light was beautiful and the horses well-placed to take some shots. As I drove by I thought “I will be back in a few minutes, the light will be even better and I can take some shots. I will only be there for 5 minutes or so.” I continued on to do the shopping. The shopping took a lot longer. I ended up taking about 20 minutes due to having to wait to pay. 

When I got back to the location, the light was good, but the horses were GONE. I had missed my opportunity. 

We have all done this. We see an opportunity, but we are focused on something else we are doing or about to do and we think we can come back or do it later. There is an expression “you can never go back”. It is often used in the context of you cannot go back to a place and expect it to be the same as you remember from many years ago. It applies to every moment and opportunity we have. When you encounter a scene that you recognize as “this is a good opportunity” take action. If it is taking a photograph, take the shot. If it is something else, take the action that allows you to get the outcome you expect or want. That particular confluence of events, timing. light. people, objects, whatever creates the moment will not occur again. Not the way it is at that moment.

I watched a VLOG earlier today and the presenter recommended going out on excursions just to see and experience the light. He expressly stated that you should leave your camera at home. While I understand the intent of this advice, I strongly disagree. If you are going out and there is likely to be an opportunity to get a great shot, you want to be ready to act. 

I have many shots that I got mostly because I was ready and could act when the moment presented itself. I also have lost many opportunities because I failed to act when the opportunity was there.  

Be ready, and act when the chance is presented. 

While listening to several Podcasts recently I have noticed some common threads. The first is that photography is becoming about the experience of getting a shot, not the final outcome. What people are craving is not to see and potentially purchase a print of some amazing shot you took, but hearing and ideally seeing a video record of what it took to get the shot. The assumption here being that you had to go to a specific place that presented some challenges either in getting there, needing very specific weather conditions, specific time of the day or time of year, or some combination of these. One example I ran into was a 15 minute YouTube video following a landscape photographer on a multi-day hike in a remote region with examples of still shots taken along the way. The bulk of the material was about the hike with momentary flashes of the actual photographs. There was no dialogue, just the sounds of walking and other natural sounds present in the environment. While this was interesting to watch for a few minutes, it provided me with little value. I did not learn anything new. I saw some interesting places I am unlikely to ever visit, but gained no real value from it personally. 

Returning to the various conversations I listened to, it became clear that this example and hundreds of other similar videos, some with more narrative, is driving more people to want that same experience, going on the hike and maybe taking some decent shots along the way. I am sure this is a reflection of my age, my generation, my values and what I seek to get from taking photographs, but I cannot accept that the experience is that valuable or achievable for most people. 

In one of the podcasts a statement was made that only a small number of people may ever be interested in owning a print you made, but thousands want the experience it took to take the picture. This is apparently the trend in present culture. It reminds me about what I think of as the “Instagram effect”. Thousands of (mindless) folks flocking to some place to be able to take a “me too” shot of the location or scene. Applying some built in filters and instantly they have their own personal masterpiece. Really! Why on earth would you do that, and in the process more than likely cause untold, irreparable damage to the location, especially if it is somewhere in a protected natural area?

The other part of this conversation is the assumption that everybody will consume this material that inspires them to want this experience, on their phones. Again – Really! How can you possibly appreciate the grandeur and splendor of some powerful scene on a screen that is 3 inches by 5 inches. Would the images Ansel Adams took with his view camera and printed as large prints ever have gained the fame and admiration if people saw them on a phone screen? I venture to say NOT! Being able to stand in front of such a print and see the detail, the nuance and care that went into creating that image is unique to that experience. One I do not see anybody having while viewing tiny images on a phone screen. 

In the swipe-through-images culture we have you are lucky if one picture gets more than a few seconds of attention. What can you remember of any image, no matter how amazing if you swipe through several hundred in a few minutes? Where is the personal enrichment and value of seeing a great image – a work of art? 

My hope is this is a current fad and one that will pass. 

There is some evidence that there is at least a portion of photographers and photo “consumers” that hanker for a physical rendering of images. 

The emergence and reasonable success of the Fujifilm Instax Mini Instant Film and Instant Mini Camera harkens back to Polaroid Cameras and instant prints, and says there is a need that is being fulfilled by this product. Another data point is the growth in published books, especially self-published books. While getting specific numbers is challenging, what I have been able to determine is that self-publishing of books (not just photo books) has been increasing at +/- 40% per annum for the past 2 to 4 years. 

An anecdote I heard just today was from a photographer that self-published a book in print and E-book format simultaneously on Amazon. After about 3 months of sales he is seeing a consistent ratio of E-book to Print book of 35 to 65, i.e. 65% of the book sales are PRINT.  

The service that is growing is the printing photo-annuals for families.  These services will collect images from your social media feeds and phones and print a book of all your (family) photos for that year in chronological order. 

When it comes to images there is much more value, satisfaction and pleasure from having a book to hold and see high quality prints of the images. When it comes to photo books specifically, the longevity of the Charcoal Book Club suggests that there is a sufficient audience that is paying for new works (books and prints). The annual fee to join the club is $696  for a new  singed book and one new print every month.

Go forth and print your work, or have it printed for you. Put them on your walls. Give prints to friends and family to enjoy. Find a gallery to exhibit your work. You will gain so much more from the physical prints you can hold and return to over time. 

Over the past decade, with the focus on social media and doing everything on our phones, printing photographs has diminished significantly. This is unfortunate in my view. 

When was the last time you made a print of one of your great images, or had one made? When last did you visit a gallery or photography museum to enjoy high quality prints of photographs? Currently going to galleries is more challenging, but we need to support them so they can survive and be here as we recover from the pandemic. They are an important part of photography. Another option is to get good photography books by top photographers. One of my treasures is Ansel Adams Images 1923-1974.

Seeing well-made prints of good images has a special meaning and beauty. It can evoke strong emotions when done well. Using well chosen papers or other print surfaces, as well as careful framing, mounting and display, the full impact of an image can be realized. Seeing a great image on a tiny phone screen for a few seconds misses so much of the potential of that image. We, and all the people that see our work, are missing out on the full experience of the work using phones, tablets or laptops to view the photographs.

It has been years since I made digital prints and more than 2 decades since I made prints in a darkroom. In December of last year I decided that printing my best photographs would help me improve and potentially create a different path for my work to be displayed and hence seen. 

Making, mounting and displaying an archival quality fine art print is a not trivial task, but well worth the effort. My knowledge was rusty, but there is a plethora of articles, Youtube videos and blog postings that helped me get back up to speed on current printers, papers and tooling. The first big decision was selecting a printer. After many hours of research, reading reviews and watching various video reviews and instructional sessions I selected the Canon P-1000 Color Printer that can print on up to 19-inch wide paper or print media. While I waited to get the printer to come I selected some paper to try out. I ended up getting several packs of fine art variety packs of Hahnemuehle paper. I also downloaded all the ICC profiles for all the paper finishes so that the color profiles could be adjusted correctly for the particular paper. If you are just printing Black and White the ICC profiles are not needed.

I was not disappointed with any of these choices and have selected a subset of papers after trying out a whole raft of them. I picked 4 papers, a Smooth Matte finish Matte FineArt), a heavily textured fine art paper (William Turner), a Glossy Byarta (Glossy FineArt) and their Metallic Paper. The Metallic is very interesting. It has a silver finish and is very reflective, but appropriate prints on this paper look stunning. The William Turner, creates beautiful prints, again for the right subject. Some folks may prefer the Museum Etching paper which is excellent as well. 

Having the printing part set up leaves the matting and framing process to learn and get in place. I am working on that, but do not yet have all the pieces to start practicing and fine-tuning how to do it properly. That will be in a future posting.

Doing all this, together with being restricted from serious travel, has inspired me to put together a new and very different body of work. I have just started taking the photographs and will share the results soon. The good news for us all is the constraints of our current situation can also be the spark to do something different than we usually do expanding our skills and horizons.