Whats on your wall?

Of course I keep stuff on my computer, if only for desktop backgrounds.

I create and upload to flickr albums.

I create printed albums.

I print to hang them on the wall (several 30cmx45cm prints, two sets of three 13cmx18cm prints, three 50cmx70cm prints of NYC, 1 120cmx80cm from Kauai, and then some more...

So print is definitely important to me

my study today

a bit of a mess but I hang images here

I have one wall devoted to pictures (the rest is personal history, books and kabinets). On the picture wall I usually have 5 photo's (standard matted and framed, 12x16 inch prints), 5 small paintings, and three drawings or lino cuts. Usually all seasonal themed, old work and recent work mixed.



All my pictures are aimed at printing, as art prints for wall display (12x16 inch, 30x40 cm) or in photobooks. Of course only a very limited number actually end up as art prints or in books, the rest is saved on hard disks, and might never be used (not everything I do is a master piece .



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My photo's: http://jankusters.tumblr.com/

how many of us actually print their photos and hang them on the wall?

Well, some of them. Some from past vacations. More in an LCD photo frame which isn't on the wall. At work I have a panorama of a glacier front in Alaska, and a 16x20 of some wildflowers, and an 8x10 of orchids that were in a Barnard College greenhouse.

...After a day shooting do you load them all on to your comp and sift threw them?

Yes, unless I'm away in which case it's after several days of shooting.

Do you erase all the images from your card when that's done?

Yes.

Is your computer filled with thousands of images that will never see the light of day

Well, sort of yes. I do clean out files of really old images that I'll never look at again. However, I do have about seven thousand pictures from 2011 to now on my PC. And on an external backup drive. Some of them have been uploaded to SmugMug at full resolution, for sharing and for archive. But if I'm being truthful the majority of those 7000 pictures are not uploaded, not printed, and may never be. I only delete recent images that are photographically bad. It happens. About the others, I want to be able to see them again at a much later time.

and do you periodically clean out your image folders.

Nah. Very rarely.

Now that you mention it, I have a 22" x 16" print that was made from a 35mm negative which was exposed in a plastic "junk" camera with a plastic lens and a single shutter speed. It is a seascape, sharp and colorful. It was taken by an old friend who is no longer with us. It reminds me how much experience and knowledge can overcome lesser equipment.

I have about 2 dozen prints displayed around home. They are an assortment of travel, family and landscape photos.

I installed four shallow ledge shelves in our family room, which makes it easy to prop up q half dozen 13x19 prints, flush-mounted on gator board. I change these whenever I get bored looking at the same ones.

I also sell prints from time to time and I've donated a number of prints for charity auctions.

Appreciate everyones input on this thread...was interesting to hear what everyone does with the photos.

Great wall. Love the photos.

My wife is an oil painter and shows her paintings in art galleries. I show my photos in 2 galleries. Each gallery wants their art work refreshed every couple of months. Because of this we have a lot more wall art than space. Our walls are were we keep are work before its goes to the art galleries. So a combo of photos and oil paintings.

Lots of the dead.

Martin.au said:

samtheman2014 said:

I print large quite often and rotate them as my mansion is a bit short on wall space I recently printed a 72" wide panorama. I have multiple copies of the images that matter to me which are mainly photos of my family and friends .

The somewhat obsessive retention of what sounds like every image they ever take by some forum members is a tad OTT Firstly there is no way that every images is perfect , harsh culling of those images that do not measure up will whittle down the numbers rapidly. Secondly alas beyond perhaps family photos of dearly departed loved ones which may resonate with the next generation basically no one cares about your images

Jim Stirling

Click to expand...

Speak for yourself.

Click to expand...

Fair enough , but its true

greyghost59 said:

After being on this site for a while i was wondering how many of us actually print there photos and hang them on the wall?...After a day shooting do you load them all on to your comp and sift threw them?. Do you erase all the images from your card when thats done? Is your computer filled with thousands of images that will never see the light of day and do you periodically clean out your image folders.

What determines what you will print.

Click to expand...

Hi,

I always clear my card after downloading the images to my computer. I like keeping the card "fresh and ready" for a new session.

I do not necessarily cull the images after downloading. I just quickly browse through and maybe discard some obviously poor images. Now, I must tell you that I am very conscious about safe storage of files. I have three various RAID arrays to work with on top of the 2TB drive in my Mac. One mirrored RAID is to hold files from recent takes with a file system that serves as a preliminary sorting stage.

Once I have time and inspiration in sync I sort and process my files from this RAID set. My main hard drive in the computer is only for the various programs I use, there are lots of them. Several main stream RAW converters, editing programs, plug ins you name it. Upon processing my files they get copied over to one of the two other mirrored RAID sets for archiving. I store my files in yearly batches. Each year has the very same file naming convention. Like, Mammals, Landscape, Butterflies, Birds, etc. Within each of these are sub folders. Like the bird folder has, Songbirds, Waterfowl, Raptors, Wading Birds, etc. Then within the sub files are the species folders. Like, in Songbirds I have folders for Cardinals, Flycathers, Warblers, Thrushes, Kinglets, etc.

All processed images carry EXIF for searching, like warbler, B&W warbler, magnolia, redstart, etc. I do not have star rating attached to my images, like good, better best type of sorting. That is since I only keep images that meet criteria for publishing. I only keep lesser quality images if I do not have better from a certain species and I need a reference image.

Then, to get even more safety conscious, or paranoid maybe, I archive the various year's folders onto a series of DVDs. Just in case a RAID array would get stolen, shot through or burned......... ;-) Archiving onto DVDs is a good winter project when I am stuck inside.

I understand that keeping TB on top of TB RAID arrays is not everyone's cup of tea. However, it is a good piece of mind to know that they are well stored and well protected. Yes, it is money. However, I keep an eye on the a couple of suppliers and when some trustworthy and fast drives are on special I buy a couple of them. I buy them in pairs, like two 4TB drives or two 8TB ones. When one of my mirrored RAID set gets close to its storage limit I pull them out, label them and they go into my camera storage cabinet. I pop a new set into the RAID enclosure and keep going.

I buy only quality RAID enclosures. It pays on the long run to have sturdy, quiet and well ventilated metal enclosures. They keep the drives cool thus prolonging their life. I learnt that it does not work well to have a noisy enclosure hissing into my ears while I am working.

So, here is how I work and store images. It is definitely not a good thing to jam your files into your working computer. It is not good for the machine and not safe for your files. All in all you put a lot of effort into producing quality images so do not take a chance on loosing them when something fails.

I find that mirrored RAID 1 systems are plenty fast to work with even on large image files. Some who use MF cameras may benefit from RAID 0 striping but for me mirroring is the way.

Boy, this turned out to be long.......

Best, AIK

About 15-20 prints, which represents about 0.1% of the total number of images I've actually taken.

The more I realize how few of my images actually go anywhere beyond my hard drive the more I wonder why I'm spending so much money on his hobby.

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Before you can start taking good photographs, you must first learn how to recognize bad photographs.

I've made prints of some of my favorite pictures and hung them throughout my basement office. Each time I walk in I get a sense of pride.

Terrible iPad picture-







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About ten years ago my photo printer went out and as things went it was the trend just to do everything electronically on the computer....then recently I got the itch again...I must say there is a calming effect in that room every time I put a new picture up as if to say look at me and dream on..