Exciting New Paper

Well, it has been a long time - my last post was in May. It has been a busy summer. My job heated up and we took a nice trip to Italy. Here's a picture to prove it!



This photo was taken in the beautiful Val D'Orcia in Tuscany. More on this to follow.

There were a lot of exciting photo announcements over the summer and into the early fall. The Japanese product designers were just humming along with huge product announcements from Canon, Nikon and Sony.

However, my eye was caught by an announcement from Hahnemuhle, the paper folks. They have developed a new Baryta coated paper on a cotton rag base - combining the look of a traditional gloss print with the long life and lovely feel of cotton.

This summer, I've been printing some photos from our Italy trip in photo books from Innova and just love the way they look and feel. I've also been printing out some photos on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl - a semi-gloss paper with a fibre base. The latter pictures look wonderful under glass, but I just don't like the tactile feel of the fibre (cardboard) backing and I'm suspicious about the longevity of the paper.

I'm itching to try the new Hahnemuhle paper. Here is a link to the announcement.

Neil Snape has written an excellent review that concludes: "This is one sweet paper that you really must try. It's grows on you as you use it, always leaving that very satisfied feeling, delighted but not overwhelmed. You become aware of your prints being united with your goals quietly assuring deserved recognition for print excellence leaving imagery the most powerful statement in what you are showing. It is the first paper that covers it's bases for those wanting to make gallery prints both colour and B&W without reservation.
Verdict: until something else tops this in brightness without OBA there isn't a finer paper today. Highly recommended."