A few days ago we run a poll which was shared across numerous Facebook groups that asked the questions about how often people are currently printing their work. We are not talking in a professional manner here, but the average amateur and pro-photographer in their everyday personal lives. The results were quite disappointing.
The question that was asked; “How often are you currently printing your images for your own use?”
The responses available to choose from were; “Weekly or more”, “Monthly”, “Occasionally (once or twice every 6 months)”, “Very rarely”, “Less (only when I have to)” and “Never”.
I have been drumming it into people for many years how important it is to print, writing numerous blogs, and generally just letting people how important it is to have a final product once you have spent all your hard time editing and creating your images, or capturing events which you will never see again.
Let us take a look at the results in detail, here is the final result.
First of all the positive to take from this is that 15% of people are printing on a very regular basis, which is better than no-one. If you take into account the “occasionally” poll voting, then there is a very respectable 38% of photographers printing.
On a more serious note, looking at the bottom two choices “never” and “less (only when I have to)”, this is a huge 38% that basically NEVER print!!! Imagine having a main hobby that is about imagery, and never completing the final part of the puzzle! Include the people who rarely print and this number is 62% of photographers that rarely or never print. This makes me really sad! All that fine work, all those memories, confined to a hard disc that you can lose in one simple accident, but more important, images that will never be passed on for others to appreciate.
Was I surprised by the results of the poll? In all honesty, no, I was not. I know it can be difficult to find time to print, and I know that people think their images will just gather dust. But there is something so very special about getting your images printing.
This month for example I was like a kid in a candy store! Our printer has been playing up (more on that in another blog), so I sent off for prints! It was like waiting for a pack of film being sent away coming back! The quality and the price was amazing, only £3.99 for 45 prints!
It does not have to cost much, it does not need much work. Printing is important, especially if you are taking family photos, or weddings and events etc. There is something so special about holding a print in your hand, or putting them in photo albums. For these I used the FreePrints service, which is always a great service to use.
Hopefully, once again, this has made you think about printing your work. All comments welcome.
One Camera One Lens Photography 
I stopped printing years back, but I do put together photo and video productions that are watchable and we do indeed watch and share them on the big screen. What I find surprising today is how many people never even backup their phone photos or in fact take them off to create more space for new photos. When their phone fails or goes missing, they have lost everything. I still have lots of analogue photos down the basement, but one day, these will disappear. Cheers Mark. Allan
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Hiya Allan. I print selected family photos, and keep them as books or 6×4 albums because if anything happens to me, as we know, digital files nowhere near as likely be shared and viewed by family members.
You’re right about phones, I know a lot of people who lose all their photos every time they get a new phone!
Take it easy.
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