Unless we print our photographs, we might as well be playing golf.
While photography can get us out and about and give us pleasure while we’re doing it (like golf), unless there is an end result, a printed picture, it is nothing more than a time (and money) consuming recreation.
While I get than many people will be happy to share their collections of 0s and 1s on-line, this isn’t the natural end of the process. If the pictures remain on a hard drive, the circle remains broken and the physical scene that we captured has not been put back into the world in its new, real, two-dimensional state.
I’m rubbish at getting pictures printed. When I do, I always vow to do it more often. But rarely do.
Those above are just back from AG-Photolab and are C-type prints on Kodak Endura with a textured silk finish – they feel like the prints my parents used to pass around when I was a kid. I was keen to see how the pictures I’d shot on film in Poland looked when printed, and they’re superb, even when printed from low-resolution scans.
I really must get pictures printed more often…
Barnaby Nutt 
You are perfectly right when you say that photography without prints is just a waste of time. Holding even a small print is so much more thrilling than seeing a photo on your screen.
But I am notoriously lazy when it comes to printing too, always vowing to get to it and always reporting it.
I tried inkjet printing but it’s not really working for me (though OK for a quick print), unless buying a 800€ Epson or Canon I guess.
Wet printing my films is not an option, unfortunately. Not enough time, money and home space for a decent darkroom. That leaves sending scans out or having the negs printed.
I shoot mostly black and white and the returns from my friendly neighorhood lab are 1) costly, 2) take 2 weeks and 3) never render like I like it, grungy and contrasty!
Only option is to send out the scans…
Thanks for this post! I’ll prepare some to have them printed tonight!
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A very important and crucial reminder. I’m guilty as you are and should print more often too…
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My opinion is identical…I do very little printing…but I found making photo books even better option… thought I don’t do that enough…
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It’s the choosing that befuddles me. Which of my photos are worthy of the expense of printing? And then what–what size to print, do I frame the print (another expense), or just tuck the print away and look at it on occasion? I have such a hard time deciding.
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life is tough 🙂
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Hi nice reading yourr blog
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Thank you for taking the time to look.
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