What do you do with your best pics?

[ChrissyMarie]

We had a couple put onto canvas and have them hanging in the living room.
I use some of my best/or unusual captures on my blog where I chat and ramble about allsorts
But, other artists that visit are free to then use them as reference material providing they ask me first and I know some have been used by other crafters to make greetings cards for freinds and family.
I have used some for some scrapbook pages which make a nice visual diary to look back on.
I think I have taken a few ok butterfly shots this year which I haven't even got around to cropping and sorting yet. A Calendar sounds like a nice idea. I will have to look into that

[pressld2]

I post my best ones to stock photo agencies - Photographers Direct initially but I'm now with Alamy too. I've been doing this for about three years and have so far sold three images - none of them wildlife!

I always get myself an A3 calendar each year and usually theme it. The one I have this year is 13 species (one on the cover) of dragonflies and damselflies. This does mean that I have pictures for the winter months of insects that you'd never see at that time of the year but I'm not really bothered about that.

When I ordered the calendar last November they were doing a "buy one get one half price" offer so I did a second calendar of pictures of insects all taken at Crossness Nature Reserve and gave it to the reserve warden as a Christmas present. I can't remember exactly what the cost was but I'm certain it was under £30 for the pair.

I have a 30 inch by 20 inch poster above my desk...



...but most of the photos on my wall are of family members.

My PC screensaver is a slideshow of my favourite pics and it's very distracting when I should be working!

Dave P.

[eeyore]

a few on mine have made it onto our walls , but like dave my best ones I tend to sell either for stock, as prints, or direct to the media depending on what they are ( I dont just do wildlife).

like gill i also donate pics to charities including wildlife trusts, the wolf trust and sundry others - i also give them free of charge to venues where i have got decent photo ops , zoos, clubs, sports grounds , or whatever .. its part altruism, part free marketing , and part good buisness sense as it makes sense to stay on the right side of such places.

[cosmicma]

i have photo's of mine on the wall but not much wildlife more pics of the kids mostly done with studio lights etc..

i tend to make dvd slideshows of the wildlife i take and iv'e printed some to canvas which turned out quite good

another thing is to look for offers from the online photo printers one was offering 600 6x4 prints for 23 quid a while back so i took full advantage of that

i try to print/have printed a good portion of my photo's if it's economical to do so

[Geoff F]

The best photos of all subjects get resized and exhibited on my Pbase galleries crustacean's Photo Galleries at pbase.com

The very best get hung on my walls and some are given away. Manage to sell the occasional framed print locally but they are mostly local views. Have butterflies, hoverflies and a few bugs on my walls but haven't hung up a spider print yet - there are plenty of them there already!

Put selected images onto DVDs and give them to interested organisations. For example, I give a copy of anything of note shot on National Trust owned woods or cliffs to one of their local representatives. Also local wildlife clubs and the Maritime Officer of the local Council.

I have printed my own calendars for several years. Most desk top publishing programmes have a calendar option which is easy to use. Matte coated paper, around 150gsm produces a good effect but isn't cheap and costs around £5 per calendar. But I find that makes you more selective about who gets one of these personal Christmas presents; like close friends and relatives or selected business contacts. And, of course, one for the local pub.

Printing your own calendars means that you can include specific family events like birthdays and anniversaries.

But I find the most taxing part of this process is deciding which 12 photos to use from all the possibile images.

[earthdragon64]

I get prints of my best shots, either 6" by 4" or 7" by 5", and keep them in albums. I don't have any on my walls, there isn't room with my cross-stitch pictures.

I get the prints done mostly by Snapfish, an online photo processing site, who also do calendars, mugs, T-shirts etc. The calendars start at £14.99 for 11" by 8.5".

The best thing with the calendars is that you can personalise them with personal dates and there is quite a wide selection of designs to choose from.

[Words]

Originally Posted by FUDGEY

I love the idea of a callender. I'm going to do that at Xmas time. Does anyone know how much it costs if you get some company like photobox to do it as I haven't got the equipment to do it myself. Thanks for giving me the idea.

I got mine done by photobox and will be using them again. Quality is excellent. A bit pricey, but then Xmas is for giving

[zan]

I also make a calendar up at the end of the year (did my first last year, and will do it again this year), which I offer for sale through my website, where I display all the best photos I've taken on a marine wildlife theme! I use online printers, but the cost is pretty low and I can get A3 ones printed up for about £4-5 each (if anyone wants details PM me and I can point you towards the place I'll be using). This year I'll also be donating a percentage of the money raised to the RNLI I think...

Otherwise, I tend to leave them on my computer, and set my favourites as my desktop background I've printed off a few, but haven't got round to putting them up anywhere yet.

[Jeremy68]

Like a couple of others, I have sent quite a few to Alamy, and have had a few dozen published over the last few years. The money helps to fund new camera equipment, etc.