Mats and Mounts

With the Camera Club annual competition at the beginning of May and being away on holiday before then, It was time today to try mounting some prints for the first time.

Fortunately, during one of our club evenings we had a demonstration on how to select and cut out a mat before mounting a print. I could remember most of it, but did look at a few videos on Utube as I was a bit nervous about taking sharp blades to the mat boards. I was also fortunate in that I could borrow the club's cutting equipment, which is a bit expensive to buy if you are only mounting prints once a year.

I had sent the shots I had selected (mostly previous blips") to Photobox and I must say I was very pleased with the service and quality of prints that arrived today. I probably took about an hour doing the first one as I kept double checking my measurements and making sure I was cutting the mats at the right angle. However, I got faster as I grew in confidence. By the eighth mount it was only taking about 20 minutes, although I did manage to cut my finger and get a bit of blood on the mat! Fortunately it was a brick red colour and was not too obvious.

Not surprisingly, most of the prints mounted are of sunrises. I found grey mats worked well with most of them, although I also tried an orange one to try and pick out the sun itself. Not sure if it really works, but I will mull it over for a few days before deciding. I can only pick 4 of the 8 prints for the competition and that will be a hard decision - a bit like reviewing your blips at the end of the day!

The actual process was very enjoyable and quite therapeutic. Also very refreshing to be able to hold up one of your blips and decide on the best colour of mat for it. Once complete, it was wonderful to stand back and study the mounted prints. It brought a whole new dimension to blipping and once the competition and Summer exhibition are over, one or two may even find themselves on the walls of our house!