civilized ku # 163 ~ the times they are a-changing

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.

Update on Monday, March 2, 2009 at 01:42PM by 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.