making/giving prints for Christmas

[frank]

Who's doing this? Are they art/decorative or family images? I made these today; they're family group pics.

BTW, the cardboard is to block off the illuminated scale of the stereo hiding behind the enlarger.

 

[MattKing]

Prints, matted and framed, are a regular gift choice for my wife and I. My wife is the organizer, I bring things into being.

Some of our friends and relatives have a fair collection now. It is kind of neat when we visit, and they have them on the walls, and seem to enjoy them. I really enjoy making things to be used as gifts.

 

[HiHoSilver]

'Not able to print seriously, but it sure seems well aimed on several directions. Bravo for doing it. 'Hope I can soon.

 

[etn]

A print is a great present! It's also a much more personal present than anything bought in a store. My girlfriend's sister is the owner of the "Official 2nd Print Ever Made In Our Newly Created Darkroom" , which we offered her on her b'day earlier this month.

 

[Tony Egan]

A couple of 11x14s for my daughter... I usually take a film camera along to family gatherings and it often takes a year or two before a print emerges! I've given prints as Christmas gifts for the last 4 or 5 years.

 

[Geoffrey Swan]

Gotta say.. is that a darkroom or a camera museum... I can see lots of love in there...

 

[rpavich]

I give prints away for lots of reasons and Christmas would be one of them. I think it's a great idea.

 

[winger]

I give our next-door neighbors a framed print sometimes. This year, they're getting a print that's a hand colored hydrangea in a pitcher (shot on T55). Most of the rest of the people on our list wouldn't really care.

 

[HiHoSilver]

Hand-colored. *That's* a fine gift.

 

[mklw1954]

I have given some nice framed color prints at Christmas, mainly of flowers and landscapes, and I think people appreciate them as a personal gift because they know I take the photo, develop the film, and make the print in a darkroom. At least I see them hung when I go back to visit after Christmas. I'm an amateur but I think color prints made with my Pentax 645, and the processing I've learned to do, have a professional quality so it's very satisfying to me as well.

Nice darkroom, including some "laundry" hanging to dry.

 

[Neal]

I have given prints when they have a special meaning. Usually has been of a subject of interest to the recipient. The best one was a print from an old negative I found in my father's belongings. My Daughter accidentally made an almost identical photo while on vacation and now the two hang next to each other in her living room.

Neal Wydra

 

[munz6869]

For the last twelve years, I've given away (up to 14, but only 9 this year) calendars of 12 darkroom RC 8x10" prints (and explanatory pages!). It takes me AGES. Every December I'm running late and feeling a bit stressed by it, but after Christmas day I forget all that and enjoy reflecting back on a year of my photography, and seeing it hung up in family homes. It's such a tradition now there's even a bit of lobbying that goes on for pictures to be included.

Marc!

 

[Tim Stapp]

My wife is planning a "surprise" 60tb birthday party for me this coming weekend. I plan to give the guests a print to thank them for coming, some from hundreds of miles away.

 

[frank]

My wife is planning a "surprise" 60tb birthday party for me this coming weekend. I plan to give the guests a print to thank them for coming, some from hundreds of miles away.

Cool. What is the subject matter, if I may ask?

 

[dpurdy]

I am part of a large family with lots of adults. I have for years given away my strictly art photography and always platinum prints. We used to draw names and whomever I drew always requested a print.. framed. Once we abandoned the name drawing and it became just my decision to give prints to people, I became uncomfortable with it. For one thing I don't keep notes of who has which prints and I can't remember what they have. For another thing after many years people have a lot of my prints and I think at some point they get moved to a closet and I don't like thinking I am giving something to someone who doesn't really want it.
My spouse and I had quite an argument over the issue this year because she thinks I should give everybody prints every year and thinks my increasing reservation in truth means I am just getting less generous. I love to give family members work for their walls if they really love it but I know that once you already have 5 or 6 of my prints on your wall they become less special.

Re your dark room.. I wouldn't have all those cameras so close to chemicals and sink. just asking for fungus and haze in my opinion.

 

[frank]

Thanks for your response dpurdy. I play it safe by giving only family pics rather than art prints.
I'm very lucky to have this darkroom. It is not heavily used so gear located nearby is in no danger of fungal damage. I live in a very old drafty house at higher latitudes, and cooler temperatures automatically means lower humidity. Printing sessions are (unfortunately) too infrequent and short for vapours to attack the cameras.

 

[Allen Friday]

Around ten years ago I did a series of prints for my wife's family. My wife's grandmother had lived in the same house all her life. The house was built by my wife's great-great grandparents. The grandparents raised seven children in the house. They moved into a nursing home and the house sold to a cousin.

I spent the summer and fall before the move shooting images of the town and house and my wife's grandparents. I made a series of prints and gave each aunt and uncle a set, my wife's sisters all got sets and I made a set for each of my children. All told, I made 17 sets of 20 images each.

The prints were well received. Most of the family knew I was taking photos, but the sets were a surprise at Christmas.

The prints have lived on, a number of them are displayed in various relative's houses and I got a shock when the prints were displayed at Grand-mom's funeral a couple of years ago.

I'm glad the prints were and are appreciated. The project actually had a great impact on my photography. Shooting something meaningful, over a period of time, changed the way I approach other subjects. I'm really glad I did the project, and that it had meaning to others.

I have also done some prints for my family. I was given my my grand-mother's christening gown. I took 8x10 photos of it and made platinum prints for my brother and sister. Also, I did some updated photos for them. We had photos from our childhood taken with a child size rocking chair. I restaged the photos with the same rocking chair 50 years later with my adult brother and sister. I made prints as close as I could get to the original photos for each.

Giving photos for Christmas gifts is not something I do every year. But, I do try to keep my mind open to images that will have meaning to other family members.

 

[M Carter]

Of my three kids, two of them are very close in age and are very close friends, boy and girl in their 20's. They got a wild hair and went to Ireland last summer (from Texas) and my daughter asked if she could take a film camera - loaded up a Minolta Himatic with HP5+ and set it to 'auto'.

All those two wanted for christmas was lith prints. Framed one for each of them, and made them a few more loose prints.

If I'd had time, I would have found some cool-ass photo albums with nice paper and printed everything. Now that would have been cool!

 

[youngrichard]

Who's doing this? Are they art/decorative or family images? I made these today; they're family group pics.

BTW, the cardboard is to block off the illuminated scale of the stereo hiding behind the enlarger.

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I don't do it seasonally, but whenever I have printed good "people pictures" I print off a few for the family involved and post them off - such as for my mother-in-law's recent hundredth birthday party. These days it's mostly grandchildren, but time was it was skiing or sailing or 21st birthday parties or table-tennis in the garden. It is pleasing, next time we visit, to see the picture in a frame or on the wall. 8 x 10 seems to be favourite size. 'I think that is one of mine' I say. 'Certainly is' comes the reply. 'And so is that one, and that'. Soooo gratifying, keeps me going. Well, not the only thing, but nice.
Richard

 

[Tim Stapp]

Cool. What is the subject matter, if I may ask?

A 1956 Nash Metropolitan with a similar aged Schwinn bicycle taken last September parked on Main Street in my small home town.

 

[MattKing]

For those who wonder about giving "art" prints...

My thoughts are that if I like the print, and I know the potential recipients well enough to think they will enjoy it, that a matted and framed handmade print is a good gift.

 

[HiHoSilver]

If the recipient doesn't like yours, Matt, I can help - send it south.

 

[Halford]

I'm busy making a series of cyanotypes printed on linen for a birthday present. The 'total gift package' will probably also have some darkroom prints too.

 

[brunocstreet]

This year I didn't have much time to print, but I made this one for my aunt. (it's my sister, reflected in the lake). Quite simple to print and I had some IKEA frames laying around, and I think she liked the gift!

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