HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
2002-07-28 by Martin Wesley
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Yep that's right Digital B&W, The Print starts it's second year today. The last year has that surreal quality of having gone by in the blink of an eye and feeling a decade long all at the same time. I remember the sinking feeling when we started up wondering if anyone would come and here we are today with 1659 members (according to Yahoo who we all know and love <G>). That is not a huge number of people in terms of the millions involved in photography both traditional and digital. Still I think that we have made our voices heard. We have inspired competition among the vendors and manufacturers, which is always good for us customers. In return I think we have been a forum to communicate our wants and needs to the vendors helping them to make better products. While the group's topic is the discussion of all methods of making B&W prints from digital files, the focus has been primarily on inkjet printing. At times it has bothered me that there has not been more information on the other technologies but I think this is simply a matter of where the widest interest lies. Hopefully we will continue to get reports from time to time on such esoteric topics such as how to make contact negs on an Epson 9600 for albumen printing and other important technologies. In the area of inkjet printing the landscape certainly has changed in the last 12 months. The handful of inks available a year ago has grown to over a dozen, papers have evolved, new workflows developed, and Epson has decided to seriously tackle B&W printing. In the area of image capture, technology has continued to leapfrog itself with ever improving quality and falling prices. It is really amazing to be involved in this transition and evolution from traditional darkroom methods to new digital techniques. Hopefully this group is helping us all stay one step ahead of the cutting edge. Most of all, the group has provided a place to ask questions, get answers, share our successes, report our failures and help each other out. A couple of rough spots aside, I think that the membership has done an admirable job in this department carrying it out with a degree of friendliness and an amount dedication that continues to amaze me. Remember this is your list and it will be what you make of it. So from me and Antonis to all the members who have given of their time, effort, support and expertise to make this one of the best groups on the Web, a very big "Thank you!" Martin Wesley [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]