The Framers Forum

Wednesday a lady comes in looking for a photo of Littlehampton, for her bosses's 50th. I sell my own photos in the shop and had three of Littlehampton.

"Very nice" she said, "but he has just bought an apartment in a new quayside development, and I want one showing that, with lots of boats in, as he is into sailing"

Specific or what! Anyway, I knew I had some looking in the right direction in my pictures, so I said I would print some off if she could come back Thursday and have a look - she said OK. (No computer in shop)

Had a look and thought that what I had were taken from too far away, but printed some off anyway, if she didn't want one, someone else may, I always print the same size so can swap framed photos around when i please.

So, had dinner, watched the tour de France highlights, then noticed the sun getting low, nice red sky; thought what the hec, jumped in the car and drove the 6 miles to Littlehampton, got there about quarter to nine.

No spectacular sunset but a nice sky anyway, rattled off a shedful of shots - printed 4 of them out and took them down the shop. She never turned up Thursday and I thought 'ah well', but she did today and this shot - although nothing to write home about, was just perfect for her - she could have done it herself probably - Then she bought the first one she saw for herself!!!

Nice photo John!

What size do you print out and how much do you sell them for. I have quite a number of photos I took in some national parks in The Land of The Dollar Bill and must get around to making some frames for them and try to sell some.

I have shown many people the few I have printed out A4 size and people seem to think they are good. It would be good to get a few sales!

No computer in your shop!!! You could have been a framing God by now if you had just got your act together. How do you survive without a pc in your shop - what no POS - no email - no ability to print stuff out - no database?

Mmmmmmm......John must be living a bit in the past methinks.
I've only got four computers in the shop........and I use all of them every day!

I thought my digital camera was the best toy I have ever had until I bought myself an MP3 player -now I have 2 favourite toys! I have had some of my photos blown up onto canvas, you can get away with lower res pics on canvas. A 4meg pixel blows up to a 20 by 30 canvas and looks really impressive - not blocky at all, and certainly compares well with the stuff produced by The Art Group and Metroart. It also means that a day out to the Lake District to take some photos is a business trip!

Robin

markw wrote:No computer in your shop!!! You could have been a framing God by now if you had just got your act together. How do you survive without a pc in your shop - what no POS - no email - no ability to print stuff out - no database?

Several reasons why we have no computer in shop.

1. I am addicted to the grumble.

2. Wife is addicted to geneaology (lost any relatives? Pat'll find 'em!)

3. Pat also addicted to solitaire - gets out in 58 seconds!

4. We don't need no stinkin' computer!


Really, we work fine using our own personal hard drives - I'm a bilingual computer illiterate (don't understand them in two different languages)!

Not interested in POS

Read emails when we get home - don't have a website (YET)

I always print stuff out - with a biro!

We do have a database - it's about 4000 addressses - a newsletter goes out every other month - by post and email, plus by hand out in shop. Very very popular nothing flash, no photos.

All computer stuff. has to wait till we get home. However, when we get a CMC and a website, we will have to have a computer down the shop, I just don't know how we will get the time to manage it and use it to its full potential. There are two of us (3 on two days of the week) working full time framing and another 3 working full time on the craft side as it is.

So we Do have need for the above - and it happens after hours, but I'll NEVER be interested in pricing software thanks.

We sometimes take the laptop down to make orders (on the craft side) and to show my photos. But we do not have internet access there.

Ormond,

I print my pics out A4 - add a double mount (outer with a black core) 4" top & Sides - 5" bottom - UV glass, plain black or plain brown frame. £98. Have started getting more adventurous with frames of late and have sold photos for up to £130.

My camera is a little Nikon coolpix 4.1 mp. The idea was to use the money from photo sales to upgrade to a D70 or something similar. I've done it 10 times over, but blow it, this little thing gives such sharp results and I prefer to be in the right place at the right time anyway, and not 'interfere' with the scene - but I can if I want to.

I cant think of a good reason why anyone wouldnt want to use some form of computerised pricing structure apart from perhaps a generation who see computers as some form of strange threat to the way they work. Dont tell me your still using a price grid - go on - I could do with a good laugh.

I am indeed using a price grid/chart, a very pretty highlighted one. always have, it's fast and convenient and can't break down. Under it and on the back I cater for pretty much anything at a glance, then I write it all down on a triplicate order form. Every week I transfer the details of name, what the job was and what the order No is, into a diary.

Where I wish I had it all on computer is when a customer comes in and wants to match a frame from 2 years (or whatever) ago and it turns out to be 4 years ago - all the searching through diaries.

I do most things at bewildering speed - but that I can't (Oh and sex too - it used to LAST all night now it TAKES all night - but there wil be a computer that can sort that out no doubt!)

Tell me your turnover is under £300,000 Mark - I could do with a good laugh!

I wouldnt want to make an old man cry (me)
You know the old saying - turnovers vanity - profits sanity!

Well, back on topic but staying on profit. There is SHEDLOADS of profit when the artwork AND the frame is yours.

I printed this photo out twice, did the wrong size first time - 'fax' instead of A4. Sold the 'fax' size today AND one of the other shots I took the other night AND an old favourite shot of Arundel castle.

Tomorrow I am off down to Seven sisters, hoping for a nice dramatic sky.

Your wife know about that?

I have been thinking about putting a high quality printer into the shop for a while now. Prices have fallen and I have the necesary knowledge to use one effectivly - just wish I had the time.

Seven - your ambitous!

I have a HP Photosmart something or other - not giclee or anything, but it pushes out superb photos.

I was worried about lightfastness, but with the best quality photo papers and always using UV glass, the photos have passed my ageing test!

My window faces West and the sun blasts in from about 4 pm, this time of year we put nothing too posh in it and change it frequently. I've left nothing but my photos in it for a month or more - mounted onto artcare restore and they have not faded, nor have they succumbed to the intense heat.

One day we'll get a UV window coating and a nice awning - oh and air conditioning - we always remember we should do all this about this time of year!

Seven Sisters - hey I'm not gonna let Snow White get one up on me now am I!

Giclee is a generic term for inkjet print - it doesnt necesarily imply that the print has been produced on a professional printer. As long as you use a high quality paper and HP inks your prints should last. The big difference with the newer photo quality printers is that they use up to seven different inks - this allows for some of the anomalies in colour reproduction when using standard CMYK - they also take much thicker paper. I have played with the idea of tying up cutting mounts on my CMC with colour printing on the mount - both elements can be designed using Coreldraw - its something I normally get time to do about now - but we are rather unusually flat out at the moment.

Hi robo,
this is my first post & I'm With You,
I make frames for my wifes work, Plus a Few Local Artists.
Jills (thats my wife) an artist & photographer & she exhibits her work & sells a fair amount of Photogaphy, Local Scenes, Insects, animals, Ect,
Its mostly Digital good Quality 12million Pixels, she can pick out the hairs on your nostrils at fifty yards. (not that anyone wants a picture of nortril hair of course)
we also do A3+ giclee printing for our own & other artist work

The Black Santa

When taking pictures, sometimes a lucky chance turns out to be more important than high camera spec.

There is a tradition here in Belfast where the Dean stands in front of St Anne's Cathedral every day in the week before Christmas with a wooden barrel collecting for charity. He is well supported and raises a large amount each year. In the early years the press dubbed him 'The Black Santa' and the name has stuck.

It was one of those days (5 or 6 years ago) when we woke to find everywhere covered in a thick blanket of snow, it thawed and had almost disappeared completely by that evening, and I don't think that there was any more snow that year.

Although this picture was taken with a 1.2Mp camera, which was all that I could afford at the time, it has sold far more than any other single image for us.

John - very evocative image - I am not suprised this has sold well ( my wife has just looked over my shoulder and made the comment " your such geeks").

My youngest son has just gone off to Southern Peru with World Challenge (he's 16) and I was determined that he should capture as many images as possible - he would be in jungle some of the time - high up a mountain the rest - no electricity so it had to be powered by AAs - no computer link so big memory - he went off with a relatively cheap Fuji camera that will allow him to take nearly 700 images - hope he looks after it as these memories are precious. Wonder if theres much demand for pictures of lake Titicaca in Tetbury?