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Two friends with one goal: PRINT OUR PHOTOS!

Inspiration, Motivation, Uncategorized

We started 2015 adding one goal to our long list of photography related projects: printing our images. We had either printed books or loose prints sporadically before but we wanted to commit to one print project per month and getting in the habit of printing our images.

Pros: How we motivated each other with making the books

  • Discussing ideas for books
  • Finding clarity to fine tune vision for book***
  • Pushing each other to set a goal for the month
  • Updating each other on progress throughout the month to keep each other motivated
***For me (Jackie), this has been the most beneficial because having the vision makes creating the book easy.  It is much faster to get it done when you have clear goal with specifics.  In the past getting stuck on this step is what held up my progress on a book or even starting one.

How:  What we found successful

  • Keeping the rules loose – minimum one print goal per month
  • Printing goal could be anything from printing loose images, vacation books, project 365, project 52, mother’s day books, gift books,
  • Checking in at the beginning of the month to decide on personal print goal
  • Sharing our progress during the month
  • Sharing finished product
  • Working through challenges, bouncing off ideas
  • Readjusting or refocusing when we got stuck
  • Talking out loud: Why am I making this book? Who is the audience? What is the objective?

We motivated each other by being present, listening, ideating together. Also by being open regarding the print goals, not every month was a book, some were prints or smaller IG books. Knowing that the other person was working on their print goal also served as motivation to choose a monthly goal and work towards it.

For me (Daniela) the individual prints were done for those images that had a specific use in mind, whether it is a wall gallery, a frame or an album. Also images that were made on film, I printed those for a gift for my dad and some to frame for my office. The books I did were for projects that cover an event, like a vacation, or a project like P52 or Top 10 images per month.

After watching many of Stacey’s free tutorials, we understood that having a clear vision was very important to achieving our print goals.  By discussing our vision together we helped each other find clarity and move forward on our book project.  The simple act of putting our monthly goal in writing and sharing it served as a commitment to getting it done.

For me (Jackie) questions like why am I making this book, who is the intended audience, will I included both digital and film scans in the book, what aesthetic do I want for the book would come up and having someone to work through them was instrumental in getting it done.   Some months I found myself paralyzed with indecision and after talking with Daniela, I was able to move on. The biggest advantage besides having a friend and sounding board to share ideas and questions, was having an open mind regarding prints, the goal was to have a physical proof of an otherwise digital only image. Being opened allowed us to explore a variety of ways to accomplish our print goals: books (Blurb, Artifact Uprising and Adorama Pix), loose prints (Mpix and local Lab), and  IG books (Chatbooks and Artifact Uprising).

What we have accomplished between January -July 2015:

  • Project 52 Book
  • Macro prints for office
  • 1st Half of a Project 365
  • Prints for home
  • Mother’s Day Books
  • Top 10 images per month of 2014 book
  • Prints from Film images for Father’s Day
  • Chatbooks as a Thank you, Instagram series of summer vacation, Instagram subscription
  • Travel books of family summer vacation and weekend trips
  • Grandmother and grandchild books
  • Prints for husband’s office

We plan to continue this Project during the rest of 2015 and most likely beyond. Printing our images has brought great satisfaction and joy, not only to us but also to our families. It is a great feeling to see your images in a book or on the wall.

This blog post was graciously written by two great friends, Jackie and Daniela.

Jackie is a hobbyist photographer and like most of us my passion lies in documenting my family.  I am a South Florida native, mom of two – a high school freshman and college senior (yikes).  Check out her website and be sure to follow her on instagram: @jackiecuervo

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