What’s Your Preference?

Winyari · #1 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 03:26 PM

What do you do with all the photographs you take?

I have been thinking about getting some printed out and to make a photo collage. I also have been known to make a few digital scrapbook pages from my photos.

I am specifically thinking in terms of photographing children because I have a little blog dedicated learning how to take better photographs of children. This documents my and my cousin's journey of learning photography, but I am interested in all sorts of answers for all sorts of types of photography.

Thanks for any of your thoughts on this.

geotography · #2 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 04:09 PM

Hi Winyari,

As yet I don't print anything. I am trying to manage my collection by deleting those that I truly do not want. I do not particularly enjoy the monotony of thinning my files; however, if I don't do it, my collection will be unmanageable.

shutterbug_wannabe · #3 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 05:55 PM

I only print the best images (which are few right now) using a pretty high standard. I want to compile enough for a great portfolio to show my work and hopefully get a few jobs here and there. I mostly just LOVE picture-taking!

vandergus · #4 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 06:03 PM

I've been using Blurb (Flickr partner) for making albums of more casual pictures. It's an online publishing service that allows you to design, layout, and publish your own books. I recently received a book that I had put together from a trip I took this winter. The quality is good (though not great) especially for the price ($35 for a 60 page hardback). The pages are a little thin and there were maybe 2 out of 100 photos that didn't appear exactly as they had on my computer. Other than that, I was perfectly happy, especially for a fun, casual way to get my photos into physical form. I'll probably end up using it for annual photo albums and things like that. It also made a great gift for the other people that went on the trip with us.

Major_Small · #5 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 08:19 PM

I also don't print my pictures just to print them. I'll print them for a portfolio, or to hang on a wall, or whatever, but if I were to print them and create an album, I'm sure I wouldn't look at it often enough to make it worth it. When I want to see my best work, I just visit my own Zooomr page and make sure it's still on "sort by Awesomeness".

As for getting rid of old pictures, I only finish pictures that I like. If you were to gather my complete photographic work, and sort by time taken/finished, you could see my tastes, methods, and abilities changing, and my standards rising.

Liz Caldwell · #6 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 08:29 PM

I bog down my internal hard drive with 50 gigs of photos, then I transfer the ones I'm not currently editing to my external hard drive and bog it down with 50 gigs of photos, allowing me to re-bog my internal hard drive. Soon I find both bogged down, and scramble to find $200 for another, bigger external hard drive.

But really, I don't have the best system

bagofscraps · #7 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 09:03 PM

Save all my average and above ones on hard disk. Get favourites printed. And get absolute favourites scrapbooked.

geotography · #8 (**permalink**) 07-14-2008, 11:36 PM

@Liz Caldwell: Liz, what you shared was funny and made me laugh.

Thanks.

Snowdust · #9 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 01:14 AM

I was just getting ready to post a similar question so I will tag on and thread jack.

I am finding that I am getting a few decent shots and wondering how to enjoy them. Does anyone print out and hang around the house for visitors to enjoy, or is a nice portfolio book on the coffee table the way to go. It seems weird to publicly display a picture on the wall that has no real meaning other than it is a great photograph. Meaning shots of strangers and the like. But then again, we go buy artwork that is pictures of things. Maybe my pictures aren't ready to be considered art yet and that is why I struggle. I guess my only real show stopper I have is the approching storm on my flickr page.

Winyari · #10 (**permalink**) 07-15-2008, 03:24 AM

Thread jack, away! I love it!!!

You bring up a good point - if I don't feel that my photos are "Wall Ready" maybe they aren't. I don't know. I think some of them are OK. But then, maybe you just have to take the jump and display them, if they bring you joy.

Thanks for all the responses. You all have great thoughts about it. Does anyone use the photos in any other medium besides just as a photo itself? I guess what I am asking is does anyone scrap book with them - besides in a photo album or brag book type setting?