Just one test print before going to bed. That was around 0800. Then it just continued and continued... for hours. It is now 12.00 at noon.
But... Photo printing is so damn fun !
The Macro images I made with focus stacking merged together - where totally uninteresting when i printed a couple of them earlier as 10x15 cm images (with the Canon Selphy Printer). But once you eye them on a much larger surface like A3 size... boy they pop ! All the smaller, finer details start to emerge to the naked eye.
What a difference !
Gabriella's birthday coming up
As I am trying to find a good motive for a special gift, framing a beautiful handmade photo for Gabriella (Sal's school friend from Catania, who lives in Stockholm with her husband and daughters) - turning 60 (! which is really hard to believe). She invited us to her birthday party (without telling us that it is her birthday...) But Sal told me, so I know now.
I thought perhaps I can make or find something special, personal created for her. And started printing, because I wanted to see how those "Fire & Ice" series photo like in a much larger size.
Special frames are already on their way. Again, I ordered frames like a champion - 18 of them *LOL* And boy did I order more photo paper !!! The Epson Premium Glossy paper, works absolutely flawless in the Epson ET-8550 printer. No streaks, no anything - but very glossy brilliant images.
It is a delight to the naked eye.
So, I captured / ordered 5 pak of 20 sheets each of Epson Premium Glossy paper (255 gsm) because the price was 355 SEK, instead of the normal 600+ SEK. Curiously the larger A3+ size in fact a lot cheaper than the A3 size for 570 SEK.
Must been from an older batch nobody bought ? I don't know. Since I am now printing on 22 year old Epson Premium glossy paper (which was sealed all those years) - I can tell you, that it worked flawless.
Additionally but directly from the Epson Europe store, due to the 33% rebate, 150 sheets of A4 glossy paper. And in total, I have a lot more coming in, e.g. from Amazon with more Ilford Galerie paper.
Halloween my butt. *rolling my eyes*
I have a major problem, though...
After not having spend much time, or any at all in the physical photo darkroom - i lost my sense of how good is a print. I mean, to choose motives that are especially good for PRINTING, so that they look interesting... I feel as if i lost all my senses in that matter. Which makes it now utmost difficult for me to judge my own images.
On a digital computer screen, for my homepage - i have no trouble to choose images. But on Print, that is a whole different story. Images radiate quite differently if you imagine them in a frame, you know. And there... i seem to really have lost my judgment. I can't even tell what would be interesting as a present for Gabriella or not.
It all seems... well they are nice to my eyes. But I can't "see" from within, how others would perceive such photo prints.
That was so uncalled for, damn !
In the example photos below, the prints are slightly less saturated in real life. The only way to get them more saturated in print with the ET-8550 dye based printer, is to make them a notch or two darker. However, I am pretty tolerant to those differences, because they don't really need to be extra saturated (albeit abstract images can benefit from stronger colors - but it isn't a must). Lighter images do better on the wall, in environments that are not so brightly lit.
FIRE & ICE




Irritating Proportion differences
The realization since i started printing photos - is that the proportions between common image sizes, print paper sizes and image frames are all different !!
They only sell print papers in A4, A3 and A3+ sizes. Which are more longish. While Images Frames in the store like IKEA are much broader; like 30x40 cm and 40x50 cm. Albeit you can get 21x30 cm which in fact matches the A4 size. But all others have different proportions.
So, nothing really matches the original images if you wish to put them into a frame... I have to print them slimmer than what they originally looked like. In the photos above, those show the real proportions, though).
In the analog photopaper days; you didn't get anything like A4, A3 or A3+. It was 18x24cm, 24x30cm, 30x40cm and 40x50cm. A Image Frames in the store, also have the same sizes.
Just not ready cut digital photopaper *rolling my eyes*
To be honest; I am not really (yet?) into cutting rolls of photopapers manually. One roll could serve several formats, and match the proper dimensions / proportions. That makes sense. BUT - it also seems to be a hassle. Unless of course I have a special cutting machine / device where i can measure things exactly. (I don't want to have different sizes all the time. There need to be a norm to it.
But that all seems a bit... over the top for my taste; I mean for a simple home user "just making some photos".

Printing has grown on me fast !
Nevertheless, printing has really grown on me rapidly, in a way I really didn't expect. (I was pretty anti-printing regarding digital images for 20+ years).
Then, at first - I got into that little Canon SELPHY printer with its neat 10x15 format, longlasting waterproof prints and very affordable color & paper cartridges.
It is fantastic for giving away photos "just like that". People appreciate it.
Even the Fujifilm Instax film photos are great for giving away. simply because it is a classic "Polaroid format" everyone recognizes and loves. One can either take them directly, or print them instead - even when out and about, or at a café. With some corrections, higher contrast - then the images really pop. It is a great format that doesn't require anything from the receiver. Because those "Polaroid size" is simply a classic. Kind of personal, too. Can be put anywhere, and everywhere.
However, there are many photos which simply don't "flower" when printed in 10x15 cm or Instax size. Especially images made with high resolution cameras, or/and when you have many finer details presented.
The downside is, that much larger photos are a hassle when you want to give them away. Postage and wrapping also costs a lot i have realized, because you really need to protet a sensitive photo ! you have to think of extra extra mats, so that they don't get bent or spoiled during transfer.
A personal gift
For me personal, it is still a great way, to CREATE a personal gift for people. Either from scratch, in which you make something ground up for a dear person, or by using a good motive out of the photo archive***. And then frame it - and give it away. I've always been a fan of that. Earlier when I was younger, and all my spare money went to photography (material, chemicals, paper, film, etc) - there was nothing left in money, for buy presents... So, i made them out of what i had, instead. There are still people who over time approached me and said; i still have your photos. 30 years later.
Instead of flowers, i would give them a framed photo, with an image handmade in the darkroom.
Boy, am I babbling today.
***Choosing a motive... oh boy
Here comes the next bummer. Remember when I said that in Photography a way to grow is to use the phrase: "Kill your Darlings".
Well guess what. Yesterday during a conversation with a friend, about what motive to choose for a friend... I came across the thought, why not choosing a motive from my time when i made a lot of Light Paintings. So, I looked at the photos tagged with "light paintings".... only to realize (with the fixed thought in mind, that it is a give away present) - that almost no photo really held up... There was barely any photo I saw as something out of the ordinary.
So, i had to realize, killing my darlings, that barely any photo i made in the past regarding Light printings, held up as a photo you frame and want to have on a wall.
What a let down. It is like all those darling images suddenly where just dull, not so great really. It did surprise me a bit, but I do realize - that boy, thousands and thousands of people around the world, do so much better stuff. In today's world, the quality in what people bring about in terms of quality, is so much better. Than the images I made like 15-20 years ago
I was simply not engaged enough (i assume) for work deeper and harder, in order to accomplish extra ordinary photos. Instead I probably always been an experimental guy, but without ever fully finishing the job / without developing it any further. I can partially blame my job for that, because with my type of working schedule, one often doesn't have the nerve to go all the way with the same intensity... As if saying "you can't have it both".
And along the road of getting older, I also realize something else: I am just not as much at it (photography) as i used to.
So, there is that, too.
A wasted talent, who didn't get anywhere
You can see me as a wasted talent that in life never brought it anything significantly *LOL* Uh. That sounded not nice. But I think it is partially true, but will not cry over spilled milk.
It is also part of why i admire my husbands daughters Paola and Carla so much - their drive into accomplishing what their heart desired, by putting lots of effort into it. They can make things out of nothing, literally. Carla with her magnificent sense of art, sculpturing, being also a carpenter, stage creator, sculpture creator, clothes creator, as well her sense of photography art - and Paola for her art of gymnastics, her skills in sucking up a lot of knowledge, and as well being an artist of her own.
Those girls are simply amazing.
In them I see what I am not. And that is OK, too. In the mean time, I'll continue trying to create, and use photography as means of expression. The difference today with 30 years ago is, that I don't have that strong sense of deep sorrow and suffering. That - whether i liked it or not, did "help" me in going much deeper into the world of photography and expressions. Yet, i assume that at the same time, it also locked me up in a weird state, between creation and feeling as if lying under a stone. Perhaps my photography back then was just a survival mechanism, trying to cope. It was perhaps never a free medium for me to explore, access and truly work with in depths.
That is OK, too.
Suffering and suffering
My "suffering" today is rather different from how i felt 20-30 years ago. It isn't anymore oriented on how i feel about myself and my past. It is today a suffering for the state of the world, and the people around and in it - where I feel most pain. When I realize the massive amounts of lies that are being pushed upon humanity, under the umbrella of "it is good for you" and "it is for you protection", and "in order to make peace, we have to support war", and all that kind of utter BS, that being packed onto people, straying fairy dust into the eyes of the many. While those who speak like that, often themselves are the worst terrorists, murderers and criminals.
That is what hurts so much. Seeing people en masse looking up to such deeply corrupted, criminal people, who do nothing else than bringing death and disease over humanity at large. When those who say to rule the countries, see talks about peace, as a crime and call the people terrorists... because they want peace. Calling the actions of war, to "defend western values and fight for democracy" - while the enlightened one sees through the veil of deceptions, that it is all about money, deceit and power grab. In a world that sees the gas of life, the absolutely necessary ingredient for all plant life - CO2 - as the worst that happens to humanity, by taxing it. A machine called "man-made climate change", which in reality aims to suck up 50 Trillion Dollar globally out of the pockets from ordinary people, "to save the planet".
That's what it is really about. At least when observing it at this physical 3D realm's perspective. I suspect there are even greater powers at work, but that would just confuse the content of what i am trying to express here, so i leave that part out.
It hurts and creates pain and sorrow in me today, to see the lies unfolding at the world stage, especially in the west. Lies that are so primitive, and blunt and into our faces, that i often wonder "how can you not see" ?!
Also - it isn't about me anymore, that's what I am saying.
So, my personal drive in my photography once upon a time, in order to deal with my inner demons, expressing and overcoming the personal pain... - isn't valid as a source of energy in me today. It doesn't give me that necessary "drive" (for better or worse) to go deep, and using it for better photography. Instead that creation has become rather trivial and frankly not worth to write home about. Many other photographers do a much better job in their photography. (But I enjoy their images; the efforts the have been putting into)
OK, I leave it to that for today. |