Calendar

It's about time to start thinking about calendars for next year. Calendars are a great, functional way to get your work printed and hanging on the wall. My wife and I typically do a "family" calendar with photos of us and our family/friends throughout the year. It's nice to have some family photos up on the wall/fridge that otherwise just sit on the internet or in a photobook on the shelf. We usually get these printed through Shutterfly, and they're not that expensive (around $20 plus shipping). The print quality is pretty decent, comparable to their books, and turn around is usually pretty quick.

I'm also going to throw together a "fine art" calendar with some of my favorite photos from the year. I did one this past year for myself and it was nice to have it hanging in the office - sort of like an 8x10 print that changes every month. I'm also planning on giving a few away as gifts, and might even run some sort of contest for one here on the blog. I'm going to give Mpix a try and see how they stack up to Shutterfly. The prices are actually basically the same (until Shutterfly runs a sale on theirs), so if the quality turns out to be better that may be the way we go for calendars from now on. I'm guessing it won't differ too much, but it never hurts to try.

If you're going for full-bleed photos (images covering the entire page with no border), do yourself a favor and crop them ahead of time. Even if I'm using a vertical image or two on a page, I'll be laying it all out to 11"x8.5" (landscape) in Photoshop and filling any blank space so that I won't have to mess with the online layout and cropping tools. Probably not necessary, but it gives me more control over formatting without being locked into one of their templates.

As usual, I don't get paid for my recommendations or reviews (but wouldn't that be nice?), so no pressure to use Shutterfly or Mpix. If you have another printer that you like feel free to share it in the comments.

~S

[title of blog] on flickr