A Great Way To Share Prints

Through the mail

A great way to share your photography in print form.

Well, it's that time of year again. Each year I send out New Year's greetings to my clients and business colleagues which gives me a personalized way to maintain my contacts with the folks who make my business a success.

I print the cards in our studio, usually sometime in September or October, then spend some time over the ensuing few months to quietly think of each person who will receive the card and what I want to say. On December 30 I drop all the cards in the mail.

As you can see from the photos here of my 2023 card, I use an image I captured that relates to the message contained inside. So it's important to me that the photo, the card design, and the fine art paper be something I can be proud of, much like a gallery display.

Capture & Design

I first choose the image, typically, but not always, one that I took that year. In the case of the image you see here, it was of a gecko that I photographed while on Maui. I was actually shooting the backlit leaves when I caught some movement to my right and swerved my ball head around to make the capture. Man, that guy was fast! As an aside, I do have several images of the entire gecko, but I liked this one for its compositional value and for the tonal gradations throughout. I captured the scene with my Fujifilm GFX 100 with the 120mm Fujinon lens.

Next comes the card design. For that I rely on the incomparable skills of my Associate, Bob. After nearly fifteen years working together that part goes pretty smoothly. I say "pretty smoothly" because that's in sharp contrast to the times I come back from a photo shoot and show him an image that I like, to which he accuses me of crimes against humanity for potentially forcing people to view it.

Paper and Printing

The next critical decision is in choice of paper to print on. For several years we chose a sheet of 8-1/2 x 11" paper, printed on it, and then cut it to size and scored it lightly for the crease. That was a labor intensive and time consuming task. Since we are sponsored by Moab paper, paper choice was an easy decision because we love their Entrada line.

This past year, however, Moab finally came out with a line of Artist Cards. They are pre-cut at different sizes (small, large and square) and different paper weights (200GSM and 300GSM). They're dual-sided, so you can print front and back as is obviously needed for greeting cards. There are no OBAs. They are packaged with matching envelopes. I can't begin to explain how much time this has saved us. The paper is fully up to Moab's high standards and Bob and I really like the way our cards turned out.

We printed the cards on our Canon ProGraf 1000 printers. I find that loading ten cards at a time works great. I then flip the cards and print the interior. That allows the printing to go on in the background as I do other work around the studio.

The Response

I also use the card stock as note cards for other purposes during the year. We have received lots of positive comments for our cards over the years. For me, the ones I enjoy most is when recipients tell us that they loved the print so much they had it framed to sit on their desk or, for the less fine art inclined, tacked to their bulletin board or taped to the refrigerator. In any event, it's a New Year greeting that can last for years.