My Blog

Following on from my notes the other day, I am now pleased to be able to offer the following prints for sale.  These prints are currently on exhibition here in the Algarve and they have all received wonderful comments for which I thank you all.  It is my intention to produce, from my superb Canon Pixma Pro 9500 Mk2 printer, fine art copies of a selection of my photographic work.

The definition of “Fine Art” is rather contentious and many say it means nothing!  I tend to disagree.  My intention is to provide the very highest quality print possible from photographs that have been color matched throughout my processing.  In a nutshell, what you see here should be matched up to the finished print.  However, do remember that your computer image may not be color matched as accurately as mine.

I have looked at a number of “gallery” standard printing material and I have decided that Hahnemuhle Fine Art paper meets my high standards.  Coupled with Canon’s inks this will produce exhibition quality prints with a life surpassing 100 years.

It has been said, many times, that “a good photograph is a good photograph – but one mounted expertly can turn it into a work of art”.  All my prints will be supplied, mounted on the finest mounting board with beveled cut out for the image.  These are precision made, in the UK, by one of the world’s leading mount and framing companies.

All mounted prints come with a signed certificate confirming that they are part of a limited edition of ten and confirm the edition number.

Price – A3 prints mounted – €120 (plus post and packing)

Contact:- tony_woods@mac.com

Many towns and villages in the Algarve have “fairs” where local and regional produce and handicrafts are shown.

The beautiful Cartia enjoys a few quiet moments alone by the water’s edge.  Suddenly, she feels someone is watching her.  A short while later, she comes under the spell of Jennifer who is lusting for blood.

You are now viewing the new design and layout of my blog.  For those of you who have visited before, you will not notice a big difference.  The new design is ProPhoto3 from Netrivet.com. It has a number of great new features and, I hope, it will make uploading my photographs much easier.  In particular, it will make slideshows simpler to upload and this new version also has a great “light box” feature – traditional film photographers will know exactly what this means.

Over the next few weeks I will be uploading more photographs I have taken over the last year or so.  I will also be showing photographs that have recently been exhibited at the Amigos Museum in San Bras da Alportal here in the Algarve, Portugal. All the pictures are for sale as limited editions from a maximum of ten copies of any one print. The prints will be produced, individually to order, on my Canon Pixma Pro 9500 mk2 on Hahnemuhle Fine Art material.  After this, each print will be presented on a high quality, precision cut, mount ready for framing.

If anyone wishes to purchase any of my pictures please do contact me at:-

tony_woods@mac.com   (Please note the underscore in my email address)

Although I now live permanently in the Algarve, I do go back to the UK, about six times a year, to carry out a photographic assignment.  My last trip was in May this year and it happened to coincide with volcanic eruption in Iceland and all the disruption to air travel.  Under normal conditions, I travel back to UK on a Wednesday, do my photo shoot on a Thursday and travel back to the Algarve on a Friday.  The volcanic eruption made this impossible to plan with any certainty so I decided to travel by car.  It also gave me a wonderful excuse to bring back my new printer – the Canon Pixma Pro 9500 Mk2 along with a selection of Hahnemuhle Fine Art paper.

The printer is a ten ink, A3+, machine and has the look and feel of a serious piece of equipment.  It was relatively easy to set up and Canon have done a good job with their instruction leaflet.  The whole process took about twenty minutes before I was ready to try my first print.  I selected an image and from Photoshop CS4, I proceeded to print.  Imagine my dismay when I discovered that there were no ICC profiles for this combination of printer and paper.  I went ahead, anyway, and I have to say that I was disappointed with the result.  The picture was flat, a little on the dark side and did not seem to have that “wow” factor I look for in my prints.  The Canon website did not seem to have the profiles for downloading and neither did Hahnemuhle, the paper manufacturer.

I contacted Hahnemuhle, in the UK office, and I have to say that they have been superb in their support.  They admitted that they had not got round to profiling their papers for the 9500 mk2.  However, they offered to supply me with a total range of all their digital paper and asked if I would carry out the printing of their test chart on all the samples.  This I did and duly sent back to their offices in Germany where they were accurately ICC profiled.  These profiles are now available to download from the Hahnemuhle website.

I must say that I am very impressed with the profiles.  There is no question, they do make a difference.  Providing your computer monitor is profiled accurately then printing from Photoshop with the correct paper media and profile settings results in wonderfully rich, full tonal, and punchy prints.  My favorite paper – definitely Baryta FB. A Fine Art Glossy paper with a 350 gsm weight.

So far I am delighted with my new printer.  Ink consumption does not seem excessive although the “Light Grey” ink appears to be the one used most.  The printer is very quiet in operation and does not seem slow either, although I have only printed A4 size to date.  I can also confirm that I have not had a single paper miss-feed.