Acorns

I've been taking digital photos for a long time, but until last week, I never felt the need to make a print.

After lots of assurance about the convenience of printing at home and the low cost of getting prints at Costco, I proceeded to do neither. Instead I took my CD to the local photography shop, Kaufmann's. Well, my wife did anyways.

Later that day I realized that our 4:3 aspect ratio photo was supposed to be printed at 5x3.5 inches, an unnatural fit for a photo so carefully framed by my father. Cropping could only degrade it. And yes, it was just one photo. 100 prints. 100 poorly cropped prints just wouldn't do.

I called the shop and spoke the actual person, Bridget, who would be printing the photographs. She offered to print at 5x3.75 on 4x6 paper, and trim it for a modest cutting fee. That was after a complementary color rebalancing. I hadn't noticed problems with the color at home, but I don't have a carefully tuned monitor.

Had I not called, my photo still would have been cropped by a human, I was told. In contrast, Costco cannot print custom sizes near 4x6, and doesn't crop intelligently, says their photo lab.

I was very pleased with the quality, price, and dimension of the prints, and very glad that I didn't drop my photo off at a big box store. The personal touch of the local photography store saved my prints!