11x14 enlarger

[bob carnie]

Hi Brian

7500 sq ft in Manhatten, that is one big monkey on your shoulder. I know Toronto is bad but man that must have been tough. You bought 15 homes with that overhead.

We now have a location in a nice part of town which caters to the beamer crowd and our retail print and frame business is starting to pay for the location on its own.

I really am thinking of doing the plunge to the farm idea within two years, I will be 60 in three, my wife and I both love the rural areas, and my day job now (unless my head guy goes on vacation) is fine art print making, We have successfully put carbon pigment over palladium this past weekend and this will be a go too process for me and my clients.
If the economy picks up a bit and my staff stay loyal I think I may be able to live in both worlds, and keep all my gear and move the wet side to a less stressful location.

We are working on a few projects now that will blossom into wonderful museum and good commercial gallery sales. Times are still good but I think I have paid my dues printing crap along side the good stuff so a change probably is within three years.

A lot of my friends moved from their commercial studios, and in most cases all stated the move was hard but after about a year , they adapted to their new skin.

Bob

[Brian K]

Hi Brian

7500 sq ft in Manhatten, that is one big monkey on your shoulder. I know Toronto is bad but man that must have been tough. You bought 15 homes with that overhead.

We now have a location in a nice part of town which caters to the beamer crowd and our retail print and frame business is starting to pay for the location on its own.

I really am thinking of doing the plunge to the farm idea within two years, I will be 60 in three, my wife and I both love the rural areas, and my day job now (unless my head guy goes on vacation) is fine art print making, We have successfully put carbon pigment over palladium this past weekend and this will be a go too process for me and my clients.
If the economy picks up a bit and my staff stay loyal I think I may be able to live in both worlds, and keep all my gear and move the wet side to a less stressful location.

We are working on a few projects now that will blossom into wonderful museum and good commercial gallery sales. Times are still good but I think I have paid my dues printing crap along side the good stuff so a change probably is within three years.

A lot of my friends moved from their commercial studios, and in most cases all stated the move was hard but after about a year , they adapted to their new skin.

Bob

Yeah the NYC overhead was always on my mind, from the time I was 21 until I was 44, it affected every decision I made. It was all I knew. I could tell you my exact and current receivables and payables any time of the day, and up dated in my head and a spreadsheet with every new job. The overhead was that omnipresent. And the first month that i didn't have to write that rent check was like getting out of jail. I bet you can't remember what it's like to not have to worry about two overheads. And at 60, it's going to be easier for you to make a move than it will be at 65 or 70.

For me the hardest part was pulling the trigger even after I was certain it was the right thing. It's just that it's such a serious change that even with logic and reason stating that it's the thing to do, there's still fear.

The thing is that if you have the land, you could build the dream set up you always wanted. There could be many ways to achieve your goal. Maybe your "head guy" buys you out of the Toronto location, or buys a partnership in it, and runs that part, while you work on a newly formed business, doing fine art printing, from the farm. it could be an exciting time for you. Possibilities.

[bob carnie]

Brian

I have a couple of young photographer friends/clients in New York and LA who do the mental calculations you speak of, I too know exactly where we are with every day , some nights I sleep well and others I keep the whole house up.
Luckily my wife is totally behind me and she puts up with 7 day a week nonsense of running a brick and motar business

Thanks for your encouraging words,

A good friend of mine keeps telling me that I am in an urban business, rather than a rural business, actually he has been saying this to me for over 15 years.
He was right for years, but now with the world shrinking, and good clients , I think the rural thing will happen, if not rural , a move to a small town.
We are actively looking for a young person to buy into the company and spell me off , or at least take the responsibility of keeping the doors open.

A client of mine, dumped his studio, Sold a few Penn prints, and just bought a place in Florida to kick back.
He was dead in the water for a few years, bitching every day, now he is happy and actually being sought out for the kind of work he is really good at.
When you dumped the studio did you move out of town as well?

Bob

[Brian K]

Bob, I got rid of the studio at a time when i was starting to do my personal work. In 1998 I went out and shot my first landscapes in over 20 years. For a few years from 1998 to 2000, I managed to spend only a few weeks each year on landscape the rest on my commercial work. I married in 1999 and moved to a house outside of NYC in a town that had about 8 galleries. My wife suggested I join one of the co-op galleries and show the landscape work I had done, so in 2001 I did so. The 3 weeks that my solo show ran I sold about 19 prints. I made a fair amount of money at it and a light bulb went off in my and my wife's head. I didn't need a Manhattan photo studio to make a living in photography. I took my work around, got a bunch of galleries, sold work regularly and the next year closed my studio. The wait in closing my studio was partly due to the need to build an addition at home.

If you are making a fair amount of income from work coming in over a wire or negatives coming via fedex then location becomes less critical. I get LVT negatives made for me. All I do is send them a file via FTP and a few days later fedex drops off an 8x10 film negative. As a customer that means I don't have to get in a car and drive into Manhattan, pay $10 in tolls, $35 in parking, and lose half a day. Maybe your clients might consider your lack of a Toronto facility to be quite fine. You're going to have to spend some time doing some analysis. How much business is really dependent on the Toronto facility and what does that business cost you to support, that is rent, employees, etc. You may find that if a lot of the business is not walk in, that you might actually make more money net, by not having a facility. There may even be tax benefits to working that way. Or maybe all you need is to rent a desk or counter at someone else's business as a drop off location for walk in jobs. Given the changes in business and photography it might pay to think anew about your business model.

[Asher Kelman]

How high would one need to project 80x50 and with what lens?

Thanks,

Asher

[ic-racer]

How high would one need to project 80x50 and with what lens?

Thanks,

Asher

Bob C. may have additional insight, but it seems most of the big enlargers I am familiar with project right to the edges of the baseboard with a 'normal' lens and the head all the way up (and baseboard all the way down). So, I don't think that enlarger will enlarge that big in vertical setup.