Digital or hard copy. Which is best?

I have always subscribed to magazines and purchased photo books. The tactile feel that one receives when holding a well printed publication can be second to none. Yet since I have purchased an iPad I have discovered that digital publications can offer so much more then their print counter parts.

One of the best photo publications I have discovered on line is Photographersi ( http://www.photographersi.com ). Now in it's second issue it takes advantage of all the iPad has to offer and more. It is well laid out and incorporates various scrolling functions and audio and video components. One of the cool things in Vol. 2 is that if you are connected to the Internet it actually will give you a live feed to a web cam that is part of the story. On top of this it features some incredible photographers and photography. I strongly recommend you check it out and subscribe to this great digital magazine.

Another couple to check out are the British Journal of Photography and Scott Kelby's light it. Both also incorporate many of the functions of the iPad. After viewing these you will see how the publishing industry is changing and how photography can benefit from it. Does this mean the death of the printed magazine and book. On this I am not sure. A couple of issues still arise from having digital libraries. Although printed materials take up a lot of room they are a physical presence that you can enjoy. I have even heard some interior designers recommending large table top photo books as decorative items in ones home. The type and style of the book can add to the room and environment. Still when you have hundreds of books and thousands of magazines it can be a lot of clutter of ones home. While digital does not have this clutter I am still not sure about storage and maintaining of one's library. Do things like the iCloud help in this matter. What about storage devices in our home such as separate hard drives. Will we need to have multiple drives to store our libraries thus adding clutter.

The other thing a digital edition does is it eliminates rarity of such items and thus the value as a collectors piece. With printed books being expensive to produce and the cost of purchasing one drastically higher then digital copies it makes the number of the book available finite. Thus artist proofs, first editions and autographed copies become an important commodity and can increase in value as time passes. Digital offers unlimited copies and of course one can not have an author autograph an iPad or digital reader. In its own way digital may increase the value of the printed piece. I can see that monthly publications may shift to the digital realm much quicker then books, but the publishing industry will thrive in other areas.

So I invite and encourage you to explore what the new digital medium can give to our industry and take advantage of it to help promote or show your photography. Yet do not forget the pleasure of a finely printed book and how it can represent your work. Both have a valuable place in the future of our industry.

Here is my Instagram 366 image for today. I had purchased some Mango's and a Pineapple to make a smoothie but before hand I decided to use it for today's photograph. Again I used Snapseed for the entire post processing work, changing the exposure, adding some saturation, softening the edges, cropping and adding the frame.