2018 - Project 52 Print - Donald MacKenzie

[Donald]

Whey hey - am I printing these days.

My images from the north coast area of Caithness and Sutherland have really taken off. I have hit into a 'longing for home' stream and getting lots of enquiries and actual orders. I picked up that this image, that I've just printed for a customer in Scotland, has been shared on social media by Clan MacKay USA Inc., which seems to be registered in Atlanta, Georgia. Now if I could hit the Scottish community in the USA ....!

I have printed this at 11" x 11" (255mm x 255mm) on Permajet FB Mono Gloss Baryta 320gsm.

[Shadowman]

Very nice, interesting balance of clarity and haze.

[Donald]

An image from way back when.

There a little photo competition taking place as part of the week long celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the crofters buyout of the North Assynt Estate in north west Scotland. It's somewhere where I go a lot and I'll be going again July to photograph the celebrations.

Anyway, I captured this picture back in 2012. I printed it this week for the competition.

Printed on Permajet FB Mono Gloss Baryta 320gsm.

Achmelvich Beach

[Donald]

I printed this for the Assynt Crofters Trust celebratory photo competition. All images have, obviously, to be taken on the land that the crofters now own.

[Wavelength]

Your mastery in handling light and shades must be appreciated; really great images

[Donald]

Well, this is completely different, ...... and not even an image made by me!

I am applying for an Irish passport. I am an Irish ciitizen by virtue of my mother having been born there.

The Westminster government is determined to haul the entire UK out of the European Community despite Scotland voting to remain in it. Ireland is a member of the Community, and with it all the benefits for citizens. So, for the purposes of remaining Scottish and European, I will have an Irish passport.

The wonderful irony is that the UK parliament has awarded the contract for producing the nice and new, blue UK passport ..... to a French company. You could laugh if it wasn't so absurd.

Anyway, I need 4 photographs.

So I took this image, made by a colleague on a lighting workshop, duplicated it to give me 4 copies, and printed the 4 as a contact sheet. That gives me images that are just right size.

I printed it on Permajet's, FB Royal 325.

[billtils]

Lucky you to have that back door to deal with at least part of the Brexit insanity, but I prefer the one in your Profile

[Donald]

... but I prefer the one in your Profile

I know, but I don't think they'd let me away with that for a passport!

[Manfred M]

The Irish must have different standards, as I would not be able to use that image for a Canadian passport. The images have to be completely shadow free for it to be used, and the camera left shadows would be grounds for rejection by the passport office.

[Donald]

Possible. We'll see. They'll maybe reject it.

[Donald]

Sorry, I'm getting behind again.

Someone, who lives in England, who bought a print previously told me that his mother was born in a cottage in the very north of Scotland in the village of Tongue. I have been photographing around that area and the image he did buy was from there.

Anyway, he asked if there was any chance that I might be back there and, if so, could I could hunt down the cottage in which his mother grew up in. He gave me co-ordinates and told me that is wasn't accessible by road.

Well, I was back there and did find the cottage. And now he has asked for three prints of this image, one for himself and one for each of his two brothers.

[skitterbug]

It looks rather desolate and alone. Does anyone live there now? I certainly understand why the gentleman would want prints! It is well done!

[Donald]

It looks rather desolate and alone. Does anyone live there now?

Amazingly, yes. It is used as a holiday home by a doctor from Glasgow ... or so I am told. So, it is not lived in all the time.

[Donald]

I've been printing quite a few lately. This is one of them.

This is going to feature in my 20 prints that I submit for my Associate Panel to the Societies of Photographers.

For the moment, I has printed it on Permajet's Smooth Pearl 280. That was because I bought it to try and have a box left. I think the final print will be on Mono Gloss or FB Gold Silk 315, Permajet's new paper which recently won 'Best Professional Paper' at the Societies convention in London.

The Naver at Bettyhill

[Donald]

Am falling badly behind here, but an valliantly trying to hang on in there.

And does this count for this thread.

It is my photo, but ..........................

It was a photo that I captured during the B & W Masterclass with Paul Gallagher in the Lake District. I took the photo but Paul completed and printed it (under my watchful and learning eye) back at the hotel.

The tones in the image were all brought out by selections and curves with the use of Quick Selection Masks when appropriate. This is the image that opened my eyes to a new way of completing an image, which is far more subtle and nuanced that I have been doing up to now.

I am worried that it will not re-produce here as well as it does in print.

[Shadowman]

Hi Donald,

Reproducibility probably depends somewhat on type of paper used, if you used a glossy or metallic then some of the textures and highlights might not reproduce. Also, depending on how the viewers monitor is set some shadow areas might not be visible.

I can just make out some detail within the shadowy depths of the upper doorway, nicely composed image.

[Manfred M]

I am worried that it will not re-produce here as well as it does in print.

In my experience it won't simply because of the differences in the two media. You can't change your computer screen to show the higher resolution of a print, nor can you easily reflect the colour of the paper base. Paper thickness or texture of the paper are also out of reach of the screen.

[Cantab]

I can just make out some detail within the shadowy depths of the upper doorway...

As can I.

Donald, for reasons others have stated, I don't know to what extent the image on my monitor differs from the printed image. But it's an image which I enjoyed and was interested in looking at closely.

[Donald]

I've just printed this image..... twice.

It was my first time using PermaJet's Award Winning FB Gold Silk 315 and I wanted to compare it against known paper, Permajet's FB Mono Gloss Bartya 320.

They're still drying as I type, but early indications that the creamier paper of the Gold Silk is giving a blacker black. But I will reserve judgements until tomorrow morning, until they've had 24 hours to dry properly.

EDIT - 24 hours later: I do think the Gold Silk does produce a deeper black, but it is pretty miniscule. Both are excellent papers and I think it really boils down to personal preference.

[Donald]

Finished this yesterday, nearly 2 years after it was taken.

It is Fern Spring in Yosemite NP in California, which I spend almost a month in in September 2016, but like the other one I posted this week from that trip, I only now have acquired the skills to finish this in the way that I always wanted.

And given this was where I sat for ages on a number or occasions and contemplated my past and future life and how it would work out now (this was my first trip after my wife had died), it will always hold a very special memory for me.

Printed on Permajet FB Mono Gloss Baryta 320.

Edit - It hasn't posted on here very well. The print is a lot better than this.