Scattered Thoughts . . .

E very now and then, I have prints made of some of my photos.  I've been wanting to see how images shot with my little classic Fuji camera look in print so I had a few of those images printed as you can see in the photo, below.    Since my health has been exceptionally lousy this year and it was a consistently rainy and smoky summer, I haven't had much of a chance to shoot with this camera as often as I would like.  Actually, I haven't been able to do much beyond things I absolutely had to do, rain or not.  That being said, I have captured a few photos with this camera that I really like so I had these images printed professionally. The prints are looking nice!  I feel that the paper the printer used could be heavier but the prints do look nice.  This particular printer recently made some changes to how they print their high end prints so maybe I'll need to find a new printer. Having prints made of photos I view on a backlit monitor is tough.  The monitor must be calibr

A s I am laid up with a bad knee...  oh yeah...  I don't think I wrote that I have a pair of crutches now.  I got tired of being set back to Day 1 of recovery every time we went grocery shopping or if I walked across our lawn so I broke down and ordered a pair of crutches so I can keep most of my weight off my right knee.   I don't use the crutches around the house but I do need them whenever we leave the house.  Leaving the house means a lot more walking than I do inside our house.  I haven't cut the lawn in about a month now because the last time I cut the lawn, I was set back to Day 1 again.  I definitely do not want to be set back to Day 1 of recovery yet again so it was time to be a bit more careful and allow my knee more time to heal before testing it.  The year is actually coming to a close and I started this year with an ankle injury which lead to this knee injury on the opposite leg.   This has been one of the most miserable years in my life already as far as my he

We ordered a few prints this past week so we can hang some nice photos in Sheila's home office.   Lately, we've been ordering prints mounted on wood called Gallery Mounts and we've been happy with them.  Since the wood that the prints are mounted on have beveled edges, these Gallery Mounts don't really need any frames so it is nice no-fuss option.  They look nice and the quality is high.   I keep saying I'm going to put together a few photo books...  in coffee table size...  but I just never seem to get around to starting a project this large.  With the number of good photos that I have, I could easily create an entire bookcase of photo books.  At this point, the idea of this project is a bit overwhelming but if I never start, I'll never get anything done.  

The prints arrived packaged beautifully and safely... I recently ordered some prints of my photography and one print of a piece of art I created. I always order my prints through professional printing services because I prefer a very high quality and this last order was no exception. This order arrived just yesterday and I wanted to make a few positive comments about this latest print job. The first thing I should mention is that this order arrived packaged beautifully and safely. It actually took me twenty minutes to unwrap all the prints! I ordered a finished product which I have never ordered before... a product called 'Mini Mounts'. These are 5"x7" prints (Kodak, if I remember correctly) mounted on a fiberboard/wood backing. This backing is painted black with beveled edges for a beautiful finished look. As you can see in the photos below, these prints really look great. I also ordered one of my pieces of artwork printed on an 8"x12" canvas. Th

I sent my two compositions of this week's lunar eclipse to the printer this evening.  I have all my prints done professionally so when I say I sent images to a printer, I am referring to a professional shop and not my own printer connected to my computer. For the final version of the prints, I added text on each. I wanted to make it easy to figure out the date, time and location of this event without having to go digging into the EXIF info (file properties). I wanted this info to be visible on the print itself. Although I feel text on photos adds a distraction, having this added information works in this situation. I'm looking forward to getting the high quality, Fuji Pearl Paper prints (Fuji Crystal Archive Digital Pearl Paper is glossy surface, silver halide color paper with a unique pearl-like, silvery iridescent appearance. The embedded pearl-like crystals give a high gloss effect reflectance) ... I order prints printed on this paper regularly and I have to say that t

The left side of the photo is what my LCD monitor showed... the right side is what it looked like printed. I recently decided to have some of my photos and artwork printed by a professional lab.  The quality of prints from these pro labs just cannot be matched on your home printer.  Additionally, the quality of these prints and their durability/longevity far surpasses those cheapo prints from local kiosks like at Walmart or online economy prints like at Snapfish.  There is just no comparison in quality.   I should also point out that printing photos or artwork on your own printer is exceedingly expensive when compared to having prints professionally printed. The cost of ink is very high. The cost of quality paper is very high. And, to be honest, a Professional Lab will actually print photos at a level of quality that is just not possible on any home printer. Regardless of where you have your photos printed, you must ensure your computer monitor (or your camera if the photos