Why Archival?

There is a picture of my Great, Great Grandpa and Grandma in my father’s foyer. It is sepia and a little creepy cause it’s from the early 1900’s to late 1800’s, When no body smiled due to long exposure times.  Minus the photo’s creepiness I enjoy looking at the picture because I can see where my dad gets so many of his features from and in turn even where get some of mine. The picture was arrived and kept safe from the natural brake down process.

Often when looking at art supplies artist see archival and note the more expensive price. If archival is more expensive then why get it? For photographer’s it’s so the photograph stay’s it’s truest form and resist fading.  Using archival products deters unwanted degrading of the product. When a client purchases a piece of art for $100+ they do not want it to fade and degrade in value.

The most common archival concern is in paper, and adhesives. They contain acid, which erodes and yellows photographs. Have you ever looked though your old family albums and wondered why the pictures are turning yellow and fading; it is do to the adhesive, paper, and even the plastic covering. In a hundred years most of those picture albums will be indiscernible and lost to feature generations.

As Artist, we have to choose our materials for our art. Some times the subject dictates our materials, other times it is our own preferences, but if we want our work to last and out last ourselves we choose archive materials.

 

Some great archive art supplies :

I have used theses supplies my self and find then easy to work with.

You can get theses supplies at your local art store or here at ArtSupply.com http://www.artsupply.com/headerpages/archival.htm

 

I get my paper from B&H http://www.bhphotovideo.com or Calumet http://www.calumetphoto.com

Written by: Mandy S. Chenoweth, BFA owner of Focal Point Imaging http://focalpointimaging.org and member of the Professional Photographers of America http://www.ppa.com/

In house vs Out sourcing

In college, I spent hours, days, and weeks, in the dark room and print lab working my photo projects. I loved the feeling of working the medium and producing the perfect print. The longer it took me the more enduring the final print became. I enjoyed working the chemicals and experimenting with alternative printing process both in the dark room and in the print lab. Theses process and experimentation can only happen in an in studio print lab. My hands produced art, my heart felt, even when I switched entirely over to digital Photography and did much of my work on the computer, but controlled and worked the print.

Now, I out source all my print work to a print lab. The reason for the switch is an economical one. Unfortunately, I cannot afford my own state-of-the-art print lab, nor is it plausible to spend hours perfecting each print. A print lab has everything already configured and many more supplies than I have access too. Just for a basic print lab with just an Epson Stylus pro 9880 printer initial cost would be about $5,461 and to keep using it would coast $1,132 in paper and ink. At the moment, my studio is not large enough to hold the equipment and my cliental have not grown enough to support the financial investment.

Out sourcing has allowed me to print on many different mediums I would otherwise not have tried, such as metallic prints that have and in-depth chemical process and metal prints with is printed directly on aluminum. I also have the ability to have prints printed on stretched canvas and are ready to hang on the wall. With out sourcing I have the freedom to use my energy to prefect my images and let those who have already perfected the art of printing print my work saving energy, time, and money. To produce my 1^st 60 out sourced 8X10’s it coasted me about $186 to produce giving me $1,614 in profit. The 1^st 60 in house would still leave me approximately $3,661 in dept.

Economically speaking out sourcing to print labs is definitely more profitable, but for the love of art, I still want my print lab.

Prices were taken from B& H Photo-Video-Pro Audio http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Reputable Print Labs

Apollo Imagizing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin http://www.apollo-imagizing.com

BayPhoto.com in Santa Cruz, California http://www.bayphoto.com

Iprintfromhome.com in Buffalo, New York http://iprintfromhome.com/

Written by: Mandy Chenoweth, BFA

owner of Focal Point Imaging http://focalpointimaging.org and member of the Professional Photographers of America http://www.ppa.com

“Capturing the moment” what dose that really mean any way?

             Many photographers talk about capturing the moment, but what do they really mean? Moreover, what moment are they talking about? For the most part it really is artist speak tor the perfect picture. The perfect picture tells a story and expresses emotion. The favorite “moment” for child photography is the expression of true curiosity. Other popular “moments” are of adoration, love, growth, and surprise.  If a photographer can successfully capture these emotions and stories with a beautiful composition then they have captured the moment and not just a stander pose or smile.

            For weddings, photographers really are trying to capture moments to tell the couple’s love story and preserve the memories of the day. The most popular moments are the enviable cake fight, father’s goodbye, the first kiss, and the beautiful love between the couple.

            For seniors, photographers try to capture moments that revile the senior’s personality. The point of senior pictures is to celebrate the senior and their hard work.

            For families, photographers try to capture moments that are unique to the way the family members interact with each other. These pictures then are timeless as well as precious to the family.

            “Capturing the moment” is what sets experienced photographers apart from the armature photographer. Armature and hobbyist photographers get a lot of happy accidents and can often spot a decent photograph, but the experienced photographer can set the moment-up to happen.

By: Mandy Chenoweth, BFA Owner of Focal point imaging http://focalpointimaging.org and member of the PPA http://www.ppa.com