After a previous digital workflow article I was asked if I had experience of a program to save space by finding and removing duplicates on a hard drive. The use of a program like this this being obvious too anyone with multiple Gigabytes of .tif photographs and .mp3's clogging their hard drive. This is an all to common scenario in the modern digital darkroom.

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter. - Ansel Adams

Angelic photography? © 2007 David Toyne

The Seven Contrary Virtues (Of photography...)

Humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, diligence

I discovered that the Contrary Virtues were derived from the Psychomachia ("Battle for the Soul"), an epic poem written by Prudentius (circa. 410). Practicing these virtues is alleged to protect one against temptation toward the Seven Deadly Sins: humility against pride, kindness against envy, abstinence against gluttony, chastity against lust, patience against anger, liberality against greed, and diligence against sloth. I am lead to believe it is Prudentius that gives us the word prudent in our vocabulary.

In the spirit of Prudentius my next series of 'sins' articles will cover the seven contrary virtues of photography. That is things you should do to improve and develop your photography and avoid the pitfalls of the seven deadly sins.

The next series will focus on the positive. The things you can do right, rather than the things people tend to do wrong. I'll begin with kindness the contrary virtue to envy.

Mounting and Finishing Photographs

Image Copyright Chris Shepherd - Used with permission

Photographer Chris Shepherd has recently written a rather good series on his blog explaining in depth how to mount and frame your photographs. My guilty secret is that as I always pay someone else to do this for me his article is all new information for me. It's very important information and well wroth digesting if you want to exhibit or sell prints. I have included links to all seven of Chris's articles and really recommend them as an in depth and usefull read.

1. Introduction To Mounting & Framing
2. Preparation of your mount
3. Mount Cutting
4. Final Assembly Of Your Mount
5. Framing Your Photograph
6. Equipment For Framing & Mounting
7. Conclusion - Why Frame your own images?