What do you do with your images?

coralnut
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · What do you do with your images?

Norm, I'm very much the same as you -- I photograph for my own enjoyment, mostly family, pets, vacations, landscapes, personal events, etc. I don't work for hire, I don't participate in social media and I don't post photos of living family members online. The life cycle of my images is to go from camera to hard disk library storage, where most of them sit and a few get printed. I still enjoy the process of photography, but I don't feel like I'm missing anything by leaving the images on my computer. It's the modern equivalent of developing film negatives, getting prints, and sticking them in a drawer or putting them in an album. I guess I'm odd in that I don't find value in putting personal photographs online to be viewed by total strangers.

May 23, 2024 at 09:14 PM

VoxLibertatis
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off

p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · What do you do with your images?

I mostly take photos of our two boys. I do it so that family members in far away places can still feel connected to them, and so that my wife and I will always have these moments to reflect on when we’re old.

Jun 23, 2024 at 05:40 PM

retrofocus
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · What do you do with your images?

1. Post-process selected digital photos and post some of them on social networks (IG, fb). Same process for film-based photos after scanning of negatives. Further below applies both for film and digital:
2. Make prints of further down-selected ones and hang them framed in my home.
3. Use some of my images as examples in my photo workshops.
4. Writing my blog regarding lens/camera tests and use some of the photos in it.
5. More rarely: make a photo book with a specific theme in mind.

Delete photos from hard drives which are doubles or triples of the selected best one, or which don't fit in quality by composition, focus, etc. Still many about 80% remain on hard drives which won't be used further. I keep them after I made the selection of good ones after they are uploaded but then I never go back and erase the unused okay ones which never made the first selection. It is likely because I am afraid I might need them for something in the future. Truth is I never do. With film negatives, I keep them all in archive foils. I rarely go back looking for an old one to rescan or print - but if it happens, I am glad I kept the negatives.

I am convinced that less than 1% of taken photos will survive me in the end - likely the ones printed and framed or the ones in photo books. But both all the digital files and the collected negatives will most likely just be trashed.

Jun 23, 2024 at 06:58 PM

philip_pj
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · What do you do with your images?

The Mohawk ProPhoto Pearl is the Blurb paper I've been very happy with. 'In fact, this archival-quality paper means that your book will last for more than 200 years without deteriorating. The pearl finish of the paper gives your book a high-end look, and the paper’s superb vibrancy and color reproduction make it ideal for photography books.

This paper is FSC certifiable which means that it’s also better for the environment, while the high whiteness ensures that your images will stand out. And if you’re worried about minor spills or dirt, don’t be—this paper is water and dirt-resistant.'

So yes, this is the way to perpetuate your work into the future. Online is untrustworthy.

Jun 23, 2024 at 10:11 PM

dmcphoto
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · What do you do with your images?

I've been passionately and exclusively doing nature photography since I was 11. I enjoy seeing other types of photography but have no desire to do them. I think that's because being out in nature is the best part of this pursuit for me, followed by the creative and artistic aspects. A decade out of college I thought about trying to make a living with photography but didn't. I had a good job and thought about how many photographs I'd need to monetize to make half as much. That wasn't going to happen. I also wondered whether the business aspects would ruin the enjoyment. Much later in life a good friend told me that making a business out of a passion is a great way to ruin a passion.

Instead I started a consulting business that made use of my education and job experience, but worked at it only two thirds to three quarters of each year. The rest of the time I traveled and took pictures with no worries about monetizing them. Along the way I published some and actively made and sold prints for ten years. The reason I did those things had nothing to do with money. It was about closing the loop and doing something with my photography. The fact that all of my photographs sat unseen bothered me a lot.

Selling prints through galleries and arts festivals was a real blast at first but eventually, as B.B. King might say, the thrill was gone. Selling photography became nothing more than a side job that I didn't need and didn't pay very well. Then came the pandemic, retirement from my day job, and a move from the US to Australia about 1.5 years ago.

Tonight I was sitting here wondering why I'm still taking pictures when I happened upon this thread. Unfortunately I don't have any good answers. The first thing that comes to mind is that I don't know what else to do. It has become sort of a lifestyle. If I put on my thinking cap on the best I can come up with is that it gets me outside doing something, seeing things, and enjoying my time. I still enjoy coming home, seeing what I got, and post processing it. I have a website that few people see where I put one photo weekly, more or less. Sometimes I put one on Facebook, which except for sharing with some friends and relatives is pointless. FB has become such a cesspool of fakery and scams that I feel a need to wash my hands every time I post one!

Whatever you do with your pictures, enjoy yourselves!

Dean

Jun 24, 2024 at 02:57 AM

retrofocus
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · What do you do with your images?

dmcphoto wrote:
I enjoy seeing other types of photography but have no desire to do them. I think that's because being out in nature is the best part of this pursuit for me, followed by the creative and artistic aspects.

+1. I am now using since more than 10 predominantly Leica M camera systems in my photography but have no interest to conduct photography with this gear where it mostly became famous for and still is: street photography. I tried it a few times but always felt uncomfortable doing it. I neither like approaching people to take photos nor I like to take photos of random people inconspicuously. This said, I admire photographers who have a passion and talent of doing street photography very well.

I believe I will stick to nature, scenery, and architecture combined with some close-up/macro photography (for the latter I am using a MLC from a different brand).

Jun 24, 2024 at 07:24 AM

johnvanr
Online
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · What do you do with your images?

dmcphoto wrote:
I've been passionately and exclusively doing nature photography since I was 11. I enjoy seeing other types of photography but have no desire to do them. I think that's because being out in nature is the best part of this pursuit for me, followed by the creative and artistic aspects. A decade out of college I thought about trying to make a living with photography but didn't. I had a good job and thought about how many photographs I'd need to monetize to make half as much. That wasn't going to happen. I also wondered whether the business aspects would...Show more →

I'm about to start dividing my time between Vienna, Austria, and Valencia, Spain, and I'm looking forward to shoot there. Even though I still don't know the answer to my own question posed in this thread, I do think going out with a camera in those places will enhance my enjoyment of those city walks.

I hear you on selling prints etc. When I lived in Cyprus, people were always urging me to exhibit my images and all I could think of what a hassle that would be.

I guess I'll just have to figure it out as I go along.

Jun 24, 2024 at 01:10 PM

1 2 3 end
FM Forums \| Leica & Alternative Gear \| Join Upload & Sell 1 2 3 end

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.