Archival isn't archival in the US?!

Thanks for everyone’s comments over the last couple of days - I have had an amazing response to this blog. Thanks for everyone who pointed out errors in my English (sorry about that!). To the guy who said the picture entitled ‘Spot the Puffin’ wasn’t Puffins but Gannets – Look a little closer – there is a Puffin – hence the title!

I did have one comment that naively hadn't thought about - the print media. I had assumed that Archival Matt from Epson would be Archival. However, somebody in the US pointed out that the name had been changed over there to Enhanced Matt because it wasn't Archival. Therefore I am going to look at different print media over the next week or so. Tom Gardner (I fantastic landscape photographer based in Scotland) recommened Hahnemuhle German Etching. If anybody has any other ideas then please drop me an email.

Whilst I am talking about printing – I am also investigating the new Epson 3800. I was about to purchase the 2400 to replace my 2100 (which has served me well over the last 3 years) – but it seems as though for not much more I can get A2 print capability.

Anyway – onto what I was going to write about – Matting or Mounting prints. I am a member of the local photographic club – Frodsham Photographic Society and regularly enter competitions. For this I need to mount my prints. Currently I have just been spray mounting them. However, I realise this isn’t the best way to ‘show off’ my prints or the correct way to best preserve them and decided to invest in a mount cutter. I opted for the A2 cutter from Longridge (for approximately £130) and received it earlier last week. Having used a cheaper cutter before I was a little sceptical – but was amazed at the quality of the first cut – it was almost perfect. So this weekend I have spent a few hours cutting and mounting prints for a landscape competition at my club on Monday.

I need to investigate the mounting of my prints in more detail as I suspect that I need to ensure that I not only use acid free mount board but also leave the prints and board to acclimatise so that I remove any tendency for the print to ripple.

I hope to produce a more detailed look at mounting over the next few weeks.