Canada – The Writing Life of a Tadpole

I’m considering going with metal prints in Canada to hang some photos

June 14 2020

I’ve seen the ads for so-called “metal prints” on lots of sites, and I’ve always thought, “Why?”. And then a woman on one of the astronomy groups showed what she’s doing with them — basically noting that they are “ultra thin”, she can use the adhesive hangers, get rounded corners, and they don’t stick out from the walls.

She’s hanging her astro photos in high traffic areas and they almost sit flush to the wall. Plus no frames to buy or put them in. Hmm…maybe that’s worth considering, see if I like them.

It’s the era of Covid, so everyone is advocating buying local, whereas for photo books, I’ve pretty much stuck with Shutterfly. The prices for these prints is not cheap, so there’s definitely going to be a quality factor bisecting the price factor. Let’s see what’s out there somewhere around the 8×10 size.

PosterJack.ca ~ $37

Like almost all online sites, their initial prices go one of two ways. » Read the rest

Open Access – Global Open Access Portal and Canada

May 27 2018

Continuing down the Open Access rabbithole, I found the UNESCO-led site, the Global Open Access Portal. You can even narrow it down to just Canadian access sites. Which I did. And then went further down the rabbit hole with some of the following highlights:

Not just a rabbit hole, a full-size warren!

#50by50 #29 – Make a photobook – Update

May 16 2018

A little over three weeks ago, I blogged about doing a Year-in-Review book on Shutterfly and submitting, then waiting. The book arrived, and as with a previous book by them, there are some parts that underwhelm. There are a few places where I feel like the printer colour ran a bit. Not enough in this case to send it back (I had the previous one reprinted), just enough to mildly notice.

I was also looking to do a Trip Book for the family trip to B.C. back in 2010. These ones are similar in size to the Year in Review ones, I like the 8.5×11 inches size in landscape mode, but they didn’t have to be identical. And after checking out a bunch of sites, I decided at the end of the post to go with one of Shoppers / Loblaws / Uniprix (they have the same interface software).

Except then I didn’t. » Read the rest

#50by50 #29 – Make a photobook

April 26 2018

I like using our digital photos for different things — the website, a digital photo frame, some prints around the office, custom calendars, etc. And annual photobooks — a Year-In-Review style that goes month-by-month. Except I’m a bit behind on them, having only completed three or so of the last 13 years worth of organized digital photos that are in my digital gallery. So when I added “Make a Photobook” to my #50by50 list, it wasn’t a specific commitment like “Make a photobook of (someone’s) wedding” or “Make a photobook of a specific trip or year”, it was “knock one off the long list of photobooks you want to do” i.e. get back into making them.

Starting with a Year-In-Review book

Just over two years ago, I took a look at several websites that offer do-it-yourself photobooks, and I gave a bunch a try. Some of them failed for software limitations, others for their variable quality. » Read the rest

Trip to Newfoundland

March 24 2018

I’ve been to Newfoundland three times in my life…once for an APEC meeting (1997), once for some HR recruitment meetings, and once for a larger vacation with my family. Back in ’07, it was the HR recruitment meetings, my second trip to the province. I was participating in some broader recruitment, and I volunteered to be the one to go to St. John’s in November. Andrea joined me for the short trip (free hotel room for her!), and we added a couple of days of vacation to the end. With only two days, we didn’t go too far from St. John’s.

We were staying at a nice hotel near the one end of the downtown, with a view of the harbour and Signal Hill in the distance.

The reverse view from Signal Hill is kind of cool too.

Of course, like all good little tourists, we had to go Cape Spear. » Read the rest

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