I have previously written about the joy of printing photos and have been indulging this pleasure again recently. Moving into a new operating room earlier in the year gave me a reason to print up and frame half a dozen bird images but this past week I have been preparing some black and white images for an exhibition I have been invited to contribute to. The cost of printing and especially framing is not insignificant so it can be difficult to choose the images to invest the resource in.

For me, photography is a purely selfish past-time. I do it simply for my pleasure and sanity and don’t care what anyone else feels about my images. Positive feedback is nice but triggers some awkward discomfort so is largely neutral. To justify the expense of printing and framing I decided that the images had to be ones that I would want to keep if they don’t sell and this brought me to selecting a set of 4 black and white landscapes for framed prints as these have been on my personal “to do” list for a while.

I have my printing workflow from Lightroom pretty well sorted so it was easy to print a set of 8×12 prints onto A3 Ilford Galerie paper. I had ordered some frames from framingonline.co.nz  with pre-cut mats for 8×12 prints so it was a simple matter of trimming the A3 prints slightly to fit the frame, attaching to the mats and completing the framing. I have used these frames before and they are always easy to use and come with everything you need to complete the job including mounting tape, fittings for pre-marked locations marks to attach the hangers and even picture hooks.

My only problem now is that if they sell I am going to have to do the job again as I need a set for myself!

Trying to photograph these framed prints has simply highlighted the the importance of prints. Photographs just don’t convey the feeling of seeing them. The ability to stand and study the subtlties of tone and line are completely lost. The framed prints have depth that is completely lost in a photo of the print.