Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Displaying Your Family Photojournalism

First and foremost, I'd like to sincerely thank Daniel for stepping up and maintaining this blog over the past few months. Life threw a curveball my way and I had to refocus some energy in other places.

Ok, so you've been reading our blog and I have no doubt that your photos are improving. So what should you do with those great shots?!

1. I urge you to print your digital files semi-reguarly! I had a conversation with the great wedding photojournalist, Evan Baines about the boxes of photographs that we all have from our childhood. Think about it, our parents shot FILM, maybe 24-36 photos at a time. The film was brought to a lab and the end result were PRINTS. When I look through these photographs, I do not judge composition, light, or other technical aspects of the photo. I simply enjoy them. All too often (and I am guilty of this myself) we let our digital files STAY DIGITAL. Or we'll only print our 'best'. Print the middle of the road shots as well! Your children will appreciate them in 20/30/50 years. For great online labs, I can recommend www.mpix.com or www.adoramapix.com (I love their matte finish).

2. Albums. You can go in many directions here: a) Take your prints and buy a 4x6 album and make your own. b) Take advantage of the digital age and create a digital album. Most printmakers offer various digital books. c) Old school. You can take a 12x12 album without the pre slotted plastic sleeves and buy photo corners and archival tape and create a nice, clean, photo album that will be fully custom.

3. Family Photojournalism as ART! Frame your favorite/best photos and make a display! There are so many amazing products on the market now (canvas, acrylic pressed prints, fine art, etc) that you really cannot lose! Chose which ever type of print/look you desire and hang it in your family room!

Personally, I have always loved the look of a gallery style wall. But I was always aware of how costly custom framing is! As a solution, I purchased 12 'decent' 12x16 black metal frames (on sale). But in order to give my 'gallery wall' a custom look, I paid for custom cut mats (each one was around $9) cut to the various sizes of my prints. All prints were made on an Epson 2400 with Velvet Fine Art paper. I tried to print at 'odd' sizes so there was some variety in the uniform look. I would estimate that the total cost of framing/matting the series below was about $300.

This is the current set up. The photos have not been switched out in 4 years. I am in the process of printing new prints.

http://www.pbase.com/anerino/image/122273660/original

http://www.pbase.com/anerino/image/128935903/original


Thanks all for stopping by!

Chuck

6 comments:

  1. Thanks Chuck. Another great idea that I will put to use in the near future. I like the fact that the gallery style allows for a number of images to be used, but has the impression of a large single display. Has a clean, uncluttered feel about it.

    Speaking of best pics, I find that my wife (and kids) sometime have different 'best' photos to me. With this being such a personal display, I agree its not about the best photos but more so the most emotive ones.

    Thanks for the post.
    Cheers
    Chris

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  2. I love your photos. I would love a photo gallary like this in my home. Great work and greats posts.

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  3. I just wanted to give an update, so to speak. I now have a wall gallery of eight of our favorite photos. While not all are in the FPJ style, they are our personal picks and my wife and I love it.
    In addition this gallery is a strong background in all future FPJ shots taken in our lounge room, adding depth to all those shots yet to be taken.
    Thanks guys for providing the motivation and inspiration for me to do this.

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  4. If (1) is important to you, I would urge you to print them in color and NOT in black and white.
    Like most people I have old family photos from my childhood, some of which are in black and white (my grandma kept using that for a long time, probably because it was cheaper), but I like the color photos ten times better, they are just a lot more lively and real.

    So converting your photos to black and white now might make them seem al photojournalistic and artsy, but if you are really doing this for your children, keep the bulk in color, and maybe convert one or two to black and white for your wall.

    Anyway, good tips, keep up the good work.

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  5. You’ve got some interesting points in this article. I would have never considered any of these if I didn’t come across this. Thanks!. Photojournalism Tips

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  6. I read all the reviews and they are accurate. This is a great book. It's given me much to consider as I head out to do my slide shows. There's good technical information on lenses, camera bodies, strobe, portraits etc.,
    Photojournalism

    ReplyDelete