What is in a print?........A LOT!!! Photos need to be printed, on walls and in albums, shown to your family and friends. They are designed to be seen, not stored on your hard drive, phone or USB. They are opportunities to not only capture a moment in time, but to create a piece of art! The difference between choosing a professional printing lab to using a generic printer is enormous. It may not se
em like a big difference at first, but in the years to come, the type of ink, wether pigment of dye based and the type of media and its properties will mean the difference between a quality image that was true to colour from day one and is still looking as new 70+ years later, to one that doesn't match what was on your screen originally and worse still has faded and discoloured over time. You can take the most amazing images or make the investment in the most talented photographer to capture your memories, but that is only the first step of the process. If you then go ahead with low level printing all that talent and hard work that you see on the screen will be lost. How did cd.fine.art.prints come about? Well, a long time ago...just kidding...but seriously it evolved after years in the photography industry being a daughter of a man behind the lens. My fathers passion for photography developed that "bug" to create and capture for myself. Later in my life I found myself needing to be a strong role model for my three young daughters, someone who wasn't going to just sit back and watch life pass her by, but actually go out and live it! I'd been brought up to work hard for what you wanted in life and I wanted to be able to provide my girls with opportunities. I was juggling three jobs at the time and raising the girls when I was fortunate enough to become employed by not only an unbelievably creative woman but an incredible business entrepreneur and mentor. Kim at Lion Studios Picture Framing has encouraged and supported me the whole way through this journey. Working on the other side of photography, (not the dark side, but we will call it the light side 😉) as a digital technician, I got to see art from a different perspective. Whilst restoring, reproducing and manipulating images, some things became very apparent. The damage that was caused to the older images was mainly due to environmental influences and how they were cared for. The more recent images I was restoring (some as little as 5yrs old) was simply from the poor quality of prints that they had originally been produced as. The acids in the papers and the dye based inks really did not stand the test of time. As my clients were investing in having these valuable memories of their family restored, I wanted to be able to generate a print that unlike the originals, would stand the test of time! This led me to take the leap and provide our local community with the opportunity to have Professional Photographic and Fine Art Prints developed from their photography and reproductions of their artwork. These are quality prints, not decorator posters. The time and effort into making sure each individual image is produced to give the most accurate colours and tones is something I take pride in. Choosing the best type of media to represent the content of the image and bringing it to life is what drives me. It brings so much joy to see the results come off the printer with so much depth and life! Well starting in January 2020 right before Covid19 hit has not discouraged my goals. I still aim to produce amazing quality fine art prints and develop a strong relationship with local artists and photographers. To help bring awareness to the benefits of pigment ink prints on premium quality archival papers. To continually learn and evolve as new products and techniques become available. To continue to repair and reproduce old images wether they be from print, film or slide and enhance and process current images for those that need the production side of things taken care of. To evolve the digital art side of the business. To witness the joy of seeing their prints true to colour. To prevent the sadness I see too often in the faces where family memories have deteriorated due to using budget or low quality printing. And to promote local artists and photographers and share the talent which we have in this beautiful community. So with this enthusiastic list of goals ahead of me and a huge smile on my face, I look forward to bringing your images to life! Sending Smiles, Cathy 😁