Lots of Little Prints

I live on the Flathead Reservation, with the town of Pablo, Montana, being the government seat of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT, aka "the tribes"). In honor of International Migratory Bird Day, which was a couple of weeks ago, the tribes are hosting a bird festival this week in Pablo. A couple of months ago I was invited to display some photos. As this is the first of these festivals to be held here, I've no way to know in advance what sort of venue this might be for fine-art photography. While I suspected it would have more of a craft fair sort of atmosphere as opposed to a true art show, I decided rather than participate as a vendor, I'd simply attend, have a look around, and then decide if it was something I'd like to do next year.

Then the local Audubon chapter (Mission Mountain Audubon Society, or MMAS) invited me to share booth space with them. Sharing a space would somewhat reduce the work involved in setting up, so I agreed to participate.

I plan to set up a couple of bins for small, matted pieces. My bird photos in this inexpensive format have been very popular in local galleries. I ordered two dozen mats and mounts (foam core), selected the photos, and made the prints. These will supplement the inventory of small matted prints I have on-hand.

As I've mentioned several times in this blog, I didn't buy the 7900 to make small prints. But they sell quite well; my cost to produce them is low, so they're profitable. I often print them on luster paper, which I sometimes salvage from the "scrap" paper cut off the 24-inch roll when I print wide panorama work for clients. I cut these remainder strips into letter-size sheets and store them until needed.

This photo shows the first of two groups of prints I made for this show. These are attached to my magnetic viewing board, lit by 5000° K LED lights. The board is large and the lights don't quite provide full coverage, hence the darkened areas. I printed the second group yesterday.

I set up for printing as usual. The nozzle check was fine, and since I'd printed only a couple of days before, I didn't see the need to wait and print a second nozzle check (see my previous post for an explanation of that issue). I optimized the image files in a large group, so printing was quick and painless. The 7900 prints one of these small images in well under a minute. No problems at all with either of these print jobs.

Whether anyone stops for a look during the festival, and whether any of these sell remain to be seen. But I have the summer show season coming up, for which I'd have printed many of these photos anyway. If nothing else, I'll also have a good time with my MMAS friends during the festival!

  --Jay

When Things Don't "Just Work"

My 7900 had been idle for a bit less than three weeks when I received an order from a client to print five of his panoramic images. To start, I printed a nozzle check, as usual. It was perfect. Based on past experience (see my 4 April 2013 posting for an example), and the experiences of others as related on various forums, I waited about ten minutes and then printed another nozzle check. This showed some missing nozzles at the top and bottom of the LLK pattern.

I did a standard cleaning of the LLK/Y pair and then printed another nozzle check. This time, nearly the entire LLK channel was missing. Lovely when a cleaning makes things worse. I did a second LLK/Y standard cleaning, printed another nozzle check, and found no improvement. Finally, after a "powerful" cleaning of that pair, the nozzle check print was perfect.

After that wasted half hour, I printed the client's panoramas, finishing off a 24 inch roll of luster. (By the way, if you've not finished many rolls of paper while printing, here's what to expect: I was standing in front of the printer. The last image had nearly finished printing. Because the printer's roll cover was closed, I could not see the roll. I was startled by a loud "FWOP" sound from the printer, not a noise I normally associate with printing. The print finished as usual, and was cut from the roll. After my heart rate returned to normal I realized what had happened. The end of the paper had come off the roll and whipped against the inside of the roll cover. I knew the roll had just a little more paper left than necessary to finish this print, but hadn't expected the loud noise. No harm done.)

Three days later I made two large prints and several smaller ones of my own work for an exhibit we'll hang next week. I made the nozzle check print, found no problems, and then proceeded to set up and print as usual. There were no problems at all with this print run.

Bottom line: It seems if the 7900 is idle for "a while" (intentionally vague, as I suspect "a while" is quite variable), the first nozzle check may be 100% OK. However, it may be that this uses ink readily available at the nozzles, within the head, very nearby in the ink lines, or otherwise close to the nozzles, and consumes most of that tiny reserve. If a print is then made right away, it won't be acceptable; you'll have wasted time and a sheet of paper. If, instead, a second nozzle check is printed, it will point to the channel(s) which aren't receiving ink. I think this points to an ink delivery problem, rather than nozzle clogs. Perhaps it's air in the lines, as some have speculated. Nobody really knows, of course, leading to lots of guessing and misinformation. In any case, cleanings do eventually clear the problem.

When the printer is used more frequently it seems this issue is avoided. Friend Dean, with his 7900, has reported exactly the issue described above, with the same ink channel (LLK) being problematic. Similar stories abound in the forums.

This has led people to invent test files, designed to print from every channel, which they run periodically (often daily). Some have gone so far as to automate the process. Doing this works for some, doesn't for others, leaving us exactly nowhere with a solution.

Mine is to print a nozzle check, wait several minutes, and then print another, if I think my printer has been idle for "a while". I can then deal with missing nozzles, or get on with printing if there's none.

  --Jay