civilized ku # 163 ~ the times they are a-changing
Sunday, March 1, 2009 at 10:45AM 
New prints over way too many pillows • click to embiggenIn an effort to help stimulate the economy, I ventured up to Plattsburg yesterday to purchase a few new prints at the now bankrupt Ritz Camera store.
Ritz Camera continues to operate under Chapter 11 (reorganization) protection. If one does not follow the news about things photographic, I doubt if anyone in the mall knew that anything has changed at Ritz. It appears to be operating the same as it ever was, which, for me and my print buying habits, is a good thing.
The one thing that I noticed was that the store was staffed by a single person. That's rather remarkable given that I visited the store on a Saturday afternoon - a prime-time shopping day. It's also worth noting that the single person in question was not one of the "regulars" with whom I was familiar. That person is a college student from Plattsburg State University - fortunately, she is a student in their photography studies so she was pretty knowledgeable (in a student kind of way) about things photographic.
I am fairly certain she was the sole store attendant because she is mostly likely the recipient of a lower hourly wage than the aforementioned "regulars". That said (and I fully appreciate and understand that decision on the part of management), fortunately for all involved, she is not only a photo student but also, as I discovered in our conversion, the daughter of a now-closed down-state Ritz Camera store manager. So, when faced with a nasty situation, management seems to have made a good choice.
My only hope - now that I have managed to create a really good output file calibration for that store's printer - is that they continue to stay in business. If not, I will have lost the second and only remaining provider of large, decent, and inexpensive prints in our area.
What that means is that I will have to bit the bullet and set up a wide-format Epson printer. If it comes to that, it will be time to get a storefront here in town (gallery in the front, printing in the back) and go "commercial" - but only to limited number of clients/customers.
In order for that to work, the setup will have to include an ftp site for customers (from near and far) to upload files for printing. The intent will be to offer very high quality "proof" prints at a very reasonable cost. So-called proof prints that are, in fact, suitable for framing - much like the prints I now get from Ritz Camera. Prints that are printed with the same archival ink set (on archival-rated paper) that most high-end / high-cost print services use but offered at nowhere near the price - in fact, at about 15-20% of the cost - that those labs charge.
With all of that said, I'm curious - how many of you out there make big(ish) prints of your own pictures? By big(ish), I mean prints with dimensions that are in 24-36 inch range.
gravitas et nugalis
I put these pictures on the wall above our bed (as a replacement for another set) while the wife was out of town. She arrived home safe and sound late yesterday afternoon. We spent some serious "quality time" together and at about 8pm she retired to the bedroom to "stretch out and relax".
I had purposely not told her about the picture change. It was a "test" of sorts. Sure enough, after a 5 minutes or so, I went up to the bedroom and there she was all stretched out and relaxing and, even after I hinted that she should put an extra blanket on the bed because "the room would be much colder tonight", she was completely oblivious to the new pictures.
How the hell does that happen? I mean, what - they only occupy about 12 sq. ft. of getting in bed / in your face space?
Here I'm thinking about a 24" wide-format printer. Maybe, if I want my pictures to be noticed in my own home, I've got to go for the 48" model.
Reader Comments (6)
For several weeks out of the year, I do print work on-site for a client who owns an 11880 and we make huge prints. (see: this post about hanging large prints )
Although the ink and media are a bit expensive, the control one has over the finished product is wonderful. With custom-made profiles for the different papers we are able to get very accurate, consistent results.
If the demise of Ritz leads to people like you opening up little artisan printing shops in out of the way places I wouldn't be happier. I would love to have a local business with knowledgeable staff and good equipment where I could go with my printing needs. I imagine it would be harder to price competitively than you might imagine, but easy to get results unrivaled by the local competition.
I pondered the same issue a couple of years ago when the size of my prints was growing. I determined that I could not afford/justify buying a printer for solely printing my own imagery. I live in Dallas and didn't think it would be viable in this market (especially without it turning into a full time gig!)
I actually use an insanely consistant small company to do my printing (up to 45"x75" so far...)
If you can do it, I think you will love the control and I think others will love the fact that they can get good, affordable prints.
Go for it!
Yep, I do a few large prints, maybe half a dozen a year. I get them done by a local camera store who also handle my film processing. It's a fairly old fashioned place in terms of services offered, thank goodness for it.
Good thing is there's also a good framing place less than 5 minutes walk from the camera store, so I can check out the print and go straight of to get it framed.
My standard large print size for exhibit is 15 x 22.5 (image size), not a very large print but certainly not a small one either. I am limited by my 17 inch wide 4800. For my last show I printed a pano assembly of 3 frames that was 60 x 15, which worked well. I made another assembly that is 6 frames and 120 inches, but for a reason I have yet to run down I couldn't print it even at 12%.
There are some salon printers in the DC area (about 70 miles away) who are well equipped and do an excellent job, but it is very expensive. So I don't do oversized stuff on spec.
You don't need a bigger printer - i just pretended i did not notice.
She has your number!