Friday photos, Picture this post 2- Where I like to buy photo products for gifts and for the home

I wrote a Friday Photo type post earlier in the month about photo gifts when I had but a few photos from the week to share. That post can be read here.

This week was another such mundane week and I have the lack of pictures to prove it 😏. I don't mind these weeks at all as they make special times and events that much more, well. special, but they make showcasing the week via pictures challenging. So I decided to write about the businesses that I use or have used to purchase photo related items like prints, photo calendars, photo books, etc.

First, though, I thought I'd share one of the two photos that I took this week because the colors are so pretty:

I cut up these veggies for a turkey bean soup  that we supped on for two nights.  

Then, later in the week, my aunt sent me a couple of printed pictures from a long time ago. She found them in a drawer and thought I'd like to have them. I actually do have two of them in an album somewhere. The third one I don't recall seeing before. Since I received them this week (and took pictures of the pictures to have on my iphone), I thought I'd include them here:

This was at one of the musicals in college that my sister had a leading role in. She was the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. A group of us went to see her perform. Not sure why my eyes look so small or where my torso is in this picture but the evening wasn't about me so it doesn't really matter, 🤭

Donnie and I at our rehearsal dinner

My mom and I at our rehearsal dinner- This is probably among the last three pictures I have of just the two of us. I spy with my little eyes my fingernails all professionally done with a fancy French manicure. Oui Oui!  That manicure (that my sister treated me to) was the one and only time I've had acrylic nails (I'm not a nail girl (obviously!)).

The prints that I received this week from my aunt reminded me of the good old pre digital camera days of film and waiting to get pictures processed. How nice it is to not wait anymore to see the images even if they only exist digitally! When I want to print pictures from my phone or Nikon camera, I usually use Wal-mart. I say usually because if I want the prints to be of exceptional quality, I use a different service (which I'll talk about later). But Wal-mart's prints are generally of good enough quality for every day print needs. At $0.11 a print, the price is undeniably good. You can upload the pictures to Wal-mart's site from home or anywhere that you have access it that you want printed or use kiosks at the store and select items to be printed while in the store. 

Besides Wal-mart, here are some other photo related service providers that I use or have used:

Shutterfly is a site that I've used for thirteen years now for a variety of photo services from ordering prints to canvases to photo books to ornaments to puzzles. The reason that I know how long I've used the service is because all of my past saved projects are displayed with the date that I created the project. The projects are editable and of course, available to purchase again or purchase for the first time (I have some projects saved that I've not purchased). Holly mentioned that she does a Shutterfly photo book every year. I wish I had been that disciplined over the years; what a great, consistent way to document pictures in a book. I tend to do photo books for a specific event like a vacation or a kid's sport season. Shutterfly has a huge assortment of photo items to purchase from traditional decor to unique items like candles, pillows, phone cases and many others. 

My 85 Shutterfly projects all in one spot ;)

According to my saved products, the first project for which I used Shutterfly was in late 2010.

Mpix is a site that I heard about from someone who used to be a professional photographer. She used Mpix's photo printing service when her clients ordered prints from her. From the site, you can also order a variety of products though its products line isn't as extensive as Shutterfly's.

I've only used the service for ordering prints. Specifically prints that I want to display on walls of the house or prints that are more special like the kids' senior pictures.  The quality is superb with Mpix and what I like about Mpix's printing is that prints can be printed with unique finishing effects like metallic or a linen look. I recently ordered some metallic finished prints. I loved the color saturated/ unique look of the prints. 

A picture of a picture doesn't reveal the metallic effect super well but I'll try:

Mpix costs more than Wal-mart does for prints so I wouldn't use Mpix for a replacement photo in a photo album; I would use Wal-Mart for that. But for a print on display, I would use Mpix. The company cycles through sales regularly so for instance photo books may be on sale for a week and then the next week there may be a a print sale and the next week a 25% off entire site, etc. I am now on their email list so I am aware of the various sales running. 

Exposures- Many years ago when I was more into purchasing photo frames, ordering photo albums, and other physical "things" in which to hold prints, I ordered many of these products from a company called Exposures. The quality of the products was good. I mean, they were made in China like just about any product is that isn't exorbitantly priced. But, I liked that the items were less ubiquitous since the company was not a chain store and many personalized options were available. I stopped needing physical photo objects as much as I had at one time so I don't think I've ordered anything from Exposures in ten years. I was curious as to whether the company was still around. With its reliance on products like photo storage options, photo frames and the like rather that products for which images can be uploaded and products made that way (like the service Shutterfly provides), I didn't know if the company was still around. A google search revealed that its offerings have been subsumed by a company called Miles Kimball. So you can order Exposures products but through the Miles Kimball site. The selection is way less robust than it used to be when Exposures had its own site. Well, in its heyday, Exposures was a company that I enjoyed supporting by purchasing products from it. 

Here are a few of the products I purchased from Exposures:

These frames (that need to be rehung!)

All of my photo ornaments for the photo Christmas tree

Year frames

Personalized frames

I am framing and printing way less than I did in the past. However, receiving the print of Donnie and me from our rehearsal dinner has me thinking that maybe I should frame it. I love that options about photos: you can squirrel them away or put them on display ;).