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Amateur Photographer Finds Three Big Ways to Save Money on Developing Pictures

Taking pictures is my hobby. There is nothing like capturing nature, the subtle way a flower bends in the wind, or spreads it petals in the morning sunlight. But some hobbies have a downside; mine sure did, in terms of finances. Fortunately, I turned things around by saving money on developing pictures, printer ink, and paper. Here is my story on how I made my photography hobby affordable and cut costs in half.

For a while every time I went to the photo lab it cost several hundred dollars. I hated writing those checks. Giving up photography was not an option, but something needed to be done and fast before the expense turned my photographic passion sour.

When my friend Stephanie called and told me that she developed all her own pictures that it was as easy as printing, a light bulb went off in my head. As I questioned her, she said, "just come to Sedona, take a look at the red rocks up close and you'll figure things out, there's nothing like being out with nature to put things into perspective."

As I packed my stuff I stared at my old trusty Nikon then removed it from the luggage and held the Canon digital camera I'd purchased a few months back in my hands and said "just don't cost me a fortune anymore." I had purchased the digital camera in the hopes of developing only photos I wanted as a way to save money. But I had put off getting my own photo printer so utilizing that functionality was a mute point.

I promised myself as I read the flyer about Sedona being a life affirming place, that I'd make taking pictures economical. I had too. The flyer described Sedona as magical and nicknamed the region the "Land of Awes". The flyer went on to say that after hiking and meditating in the vortexes that I'd have a life-changing experience. That's what happened to me, but I'd hardly expected it to be over a photo lab, ink cartridges, and paper then again sometimes the universe works in strange ways.

In Sedona I took pictures at all the vortexes; my favorite one by far was Cathedral Rock. I loved photographing the u-shape in the middle of the formation and focusing on the pinnacles along its sides.

When I returned home I reviewed the bills from the color lab and looked into getting a photo printer. I'd heard from Stephanie that I could duplicate the color lab effect in my own home and save money. At first I considered getting an Epson, but lost interest when I watched my cousin print pictures. The images looked great at night time, but then something happened in the morning light. I saw the green and yellow, but the orange colors didn't show up. They suffered from what is called metamerism the technical term for color shifting under different lighting conditions. 

After scanning through a flyer at Office Depot describing the HP Photosmart 7960 I purchased it, figuring I had nothing to lose the printer cost the same as my last bill at the photo lab.

Retail Price	Office Depot Price
$362.00	$298.46

The clerk at Office Depot said, "The pictures produced by the printer would match the quality for both color and black and white photos developed by a professional color lab." Those words were not a sales gimmick.

I love this printer. It's so easy to print directly from a digital memory card. Using the HP 7960 each photo comes through just the way it looked the day I photographed it. I'll never forget the first time I hit the print button and watched with anticipation as the photos of Cathedral Rock in Sedona materialized before my eyes. All the rich reds of the Sedona rocks and the details of each crevice and shadow appeared in all their glory.  The tonal scale went from open shadow detail to the slightest textured highlights.  I love the authenticity the ink cartridges deliver, each color comes out with true color integrity.

 

Since that Sedona trip I've been up and down the Pacific Northwest and back east a couple of times. By developing all my pictures I'm saving me hundreds of dollars a month.

 

The second place where my photography costs quickly got out of control is the cost ink.  It's embarrassing to admit, but for several months I spent triple the cost of the printer just on ink. At Office Depot I paid $86.90 for a complete set of cartridges.

 

B/W Cartridge	Color Cartridge	Total Cost
$28.95	$57.95	$86.90

 

 

 Using the search engines, Google and Yahoo, I typed affordable HP inkjet cartridges and did comparison shopping on three of the websites on the 1^st page results. I found an affordable solution for ink that fits my needs without jeopardizing the quality of my photographs. By clicking on the top listing on the index page, HP ink cartridges I found a black ink cartridge for $17.95 and color cartridge for $25.95, reducing my ink bills in half.  

 

B/W Cartridge	Color Cartridge	Total Cost
$17.95	$25.95	$43.90

 

 

The third place I saved money is on the cost of paper. At first I used HP paper, but learned that I could get the same quality photos by using third party paper and adjusting the default settings on the printer for the paper type. I've been real happy with the quality of both color and black and white photos which I printed on Legion's Concord Rag Soft White.

 

With three smart decisions including: purchasing a photo printer instead of taking every roll of film to the photo lab, finding the best deal on ink cartridges, and using third party paper I have reduced the cost of developing pictures by 50-65%. Now taking picture is fun again and the only thing sour about it are the lemon trees I photographed yesterday. 

 

Julie Shapiro is a amateur photographer and a marketing consultant. She reviewed hundreds of articles about photography and found Bob Caldwell's website to have informative articles on Canon printer supplies, Lexmark printer cartridges, HP printer ink cartridges, and Epson ink cartridges.

 

This article is copyrighted. To publish or reprint it you need to obtain permission from the webmaster.

 

 

 

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