Something to Think About
What technology has done to photography in the last decade is really astounding; the instant gratification of digital capture, the ability to share and edit photos instantly is fantastic. It isn’t easy to find film anymore and what would it do to your image (pun intended) if you get caught with a film camera?
But in the film days, you took your film to the lab and came out with an envelope full of prints. If you were good, you’d arrange the prints in an album; otherwise you’d just stash them in a box, but every now and then pull them out and flick through the memories. Nowadays photos have a much shorter lifespan, most digital photos are seen once at the back of the camera before they get transferred to some external hard drive, never to be seen again. The lucky ones will get posted to facebook and 2 days later become archaic.
Coming to think about it, taking photos just to store them on a hard drive is equivalent to taking your film to a lab only to develop the negatives without the prints… what’s the point??
Print Products
I work with some of the best photo labs in the world in terms of quality and speed, there are hundreds of options for custom print products these days and almost all orders are shipped within 24 hours. I have many samples of different types of paper and canvas for you to choose from. Did you know that you can now have pictures printed on aluminum tiles, have your photos appear on official USPS postage stamps, or turn your photos into a jigsaw puzzle?
Visit MPIX.com, the largest photo lab in the country to get an idea for some of the options available.
Prints are are surprisingly affordable, starting from $1.99 for a 4x6", and $12.00 for 8x10".
Books
Books too have come a long way in terms of quality, availability and affordability.
Books come in many d
imensions, hard cover, or soft cover, leather bound, or leatherette, Plexiglas cover, embossed text prints and many more options.
The main factors to influence the price of a book are the number of photos and the layout design, primarily due to the effort required to lay out an attractive presentation. The physical features of the book (dimensions, type of paper, cover etc…) normally amount to less than 10% of the cost, therefore additional copies of the same book are available at very deep discounts.
Books are probably the best way to preserve a collection of images under a single theme; I can meet you to share some samples of books from various occasions.