BLOG NUMBER FOUR
Well my blogging sort of fell apart at the back end if 2021!
I do have a few excuses, of course. My trip to Scotland was disrupted a bit by a heavy cold (not COVID Idid take a testing kit with me) that slowed me down a bit, also I was hampered by not very good WiFi. The weather wasn’t great as well. After I returned we had trips to both north East Yorkshire and a birthday treat. November saw our very dear friends Mary and Missy from the US staying with us for most of November (this also included a trip to York). Then Christmas and the New Year.
Well that’s all the excuses out of the way what does 2022 hold? I will be blogging more, it will be a mixture of what I am doing as well as a few thoughts on equipment and workflows I use.
I have just updated the images on my website and I will do this monthly (I hope) over 2022.
This is just a short update and I will be posting more in the coming weeks.
Blog Number Three
BLOG NUMBER THREE
I had been hoping to write this blog a few days ago, but unfortunately family commitments and projects took priority! So I am sitting in my hotel room outside Carlisle writing this now.
The blog is about my trip to the North West of Scotland. Until COVID-19 happened I tried to visit the Highlands every year. For the past two years this hasn’t been possible so I am really excited to be finally on my way!
The purpose of my trip is to immerse myself in some photography and hopefully make some good images.
My plans are to stay four nights at the Kilchoan House Hotel (https://kilchoanhotel.co.uk) on the Ardnamurchan peninsular that sticks out just above the Isle of Mull. Ardnamurchan Point is the most westerly point of mainland UK and has rocky cliffs, lovely beaches, woods and a lighthouse.
I will then move to Badachero near Gairloch staying at an Airbnb called Skye View Studio also for four nights. This apartment is situated in a distillery-bliss!
I will then travel home via my cousin who lives in Largs.
I am staying near Carlisle to break my journey to Scotland. I will also add blogs describing my time and, hopefully, providing some insight into the various areas and photographic challenges.
Those readers who live in England will be fully aware of the issues of fuel scarcity. I was luck on Tuesday to obtain a tank full of petrol in Basingstoke and that has been sufficient to get me to Carlisle where I was able to refuel at a Tesco garage near my hotel. I have to say that the further north I travelled the less problems there seemed to be in finding fuel.
The journey itself was fairly easy apart from the fact that the main route north to Scotland, the M6, was close northbound due to a serious accident, so I had a very nice tour through Shropshire and Cheshire before rejoining the M6 just south of the Thelwall Viaduct.
The weather was mixed most dry but with torrential rain through the Lake District. I hope this is not an omen.
I will close now and update my blog on a regular basis over the next two weeks.
Blog Number Two
Well I was wondering if a second blog post was the same as a rock bands second album, always know as difficult (unless of course you were the Beatles!.
Anyway here we go I wasn’t sure what to write about, equipment, aesthetics, locations etc. As I spoke about acquiring a printer in my first blog I thought I would talk a bit about making prints this time.
To me just seeing my images on social media is not fulfilling enough. It is a very transitory experience, view for a few seconds and then move on. Compare this to an image printed and framed on the wall of your home. You see it everyday, the more you look at it the more you see. You can also discuss it with family and friends when they visit. I also like handling prints particularly the tactile feel of a quality heavy paper.
So having made the decision to print, how do you go about it? Well there are two ways of achieving this, have someone else to do your printing or do it yourself.
Personally I am not keen on having someone else print for me as you can loose control of your process. The best option for this option is to work closely with a professional printing lab. This will however be an expensive option. If you rely on on-line printing you completely loose control of the output and this will often lead to disappointment.
As you might guess from the proceeding paragraph I strongly prefer to print my own work. I do understand that this is a personal choice and it better to print than not to print at all!
OK I am not going to write a tutorial on printing, there are many good resources on the web that will show you how to do it, but I am going to share a few points that, in my opinion, are key to successful printing.
Firstly a calibrated monitor is vital. There are a number of devices available I use the i1 Pro that works well for me and I calibrate my monitor every four weeks.
Secondly it is important to have a profile for the paper and ink you use. I use the Epson ink designed for my printer. Other inks are available, and I am sure that the reputable ones are good, but I prefer the manufacturers. For paper I use Fotospeed. Their products are excellent and the company is very helpful and supportive. If you use their paper they will produce a profile specific to your own ink and paper for free.
With these two actions complete you are ready to start printing. I print via Photoshop at the moment, and prior to printing it is important to “soft print” the image to ensure that the printed output matches the edited image on the screen. It is also vital that you choose the let Photoshop manage the colours option and that you use the appropriate profile for your ink and paper combination.
It is worth pointing out that however careful you are in calibrating everything it is very difficult to exactly match what you see on the screen with the printed output. This is entirely due to the fact that your image on the screen is seen via transmitted light, whilst a print is seen via reflected light. However if all the above is done well the differences are very small.
After the image has been edited and soft proofed all you have to do is load the paper and press print!
In a future blog I will talk about the type of paper I use to print my images.
Blog Number One
Welcome to my first blog post. It is a little intimidating staring at a blank screen and wondering what I can write that would be of interest to fellow photographers.
So I thought I would explain why I made a recent equipment purchase. Now I know photographers can suffer from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) but I think in this case I can fully justify my purchase.
I love printing images, to me it is a much more satisfying and hopefully long lasting way to share and display images. I have always used Epson printers that have produced great results and been super reliable. Using my SureColor SC P800 A2 printer I had produced some great images that I have displayed on my walls and also given to my friends. However it had two annoying issues as follows:
It only has one black ink channel so if you want to switch between glossy and matt inks you have to purge the current ink and refill with the ink you want to use. This is a costly and time consuming activity. There is also a possibility of forgetting which ink you have selected and using the wrong paper thus wasting more time and money!
The other is that when loading a heavy fine art paper the procedure for doing so was a little awkward and could end up with a lot of frustration.
So I guess you have worked out what I am leading up to I have replaced my printer. When Epson announced the replacement of the P800 model with the P900 I was intrigued to check out what it could offer.
I was delighted to see that the new P900 addressed the two main issues I had with the P800 and what’s more they had added their New Ultrachrome HD Pro 10 ink. This newly developed ink set, built on from the already hugely successful Ultrachrome HD now has the additional violet ink. This addition of the violet ink has expanded the gamut into the blue area of the spectrum as well of course avoiding black ink swapping.
The loading of fine art paper is very straight forward in the usual top feed as well as a front loading option for art board and an optional paper roll feeder.
All this in a much more compact size (23% smaller) than the previous model.
So I bit the bullet and decided to purchase one. Then Covid-19 happened and the closure of the Suez Canal meant that they were not available for some time so patience had to be exercised!
I am now in possession of mine and my initial thoughts are very positive. I have had profiles for my papers built (thank you Fotospeed) and the quality of the prints is excellent. The paper loading is very straightforward and having the ability to print on both glossy and matt papers at will is great and I think I am falling in love with matt paper!
The much larger LCD screen makes adjustments much easier and the improved WiFi means I can connect without messy wires.
My only gripe is one common to all Epson printers is that they are not supplied with full ink cartridges, so I will be having to buy new cartridges soon (sharp pain in the wallet!)
I hope you have enjoyed my first attempt at a blog and will continue to read them in the future.
Regards,
David