A Reminder that you get what you pay for...

So as of late, I have been on a hunt for the best deals. Mostly this is for groceries as I have been paying attention to flyers and sales and even comparing US and Canadian prices as I shop in Lynden. However my hunting has also migrated to getting photos printed and I have been using Shutterfly to print my photos and because I'm a customer, and I get their emails, I get lots of promo codes for free prints and free photobooks. AND because they sent me one free photobook, it has myself, and much of my family hooked on doing these books up for eachother! It's a fantastic gift for people who don't need anything, like grandparents and great grandparents, especially when there is finally a (great) grandchild to photograph! Landon will have no shortage of photos of himself through the years, the first ((great)grand) child is so spoiled!! 

Anyhow, not to knock Shutterfly as I have been quite pleased with their product, but I came across a post on the Paint the Moon blog (in my list over there ---> ) that talked about how it is important to choose your photo lab carefully. Now it doesn't matter too much, if the quality of your photos doesn't matter too much to you. But now that I am spending WAY more time editing my photos than I ever did before, I do not want all that time to go to waste. I want my photos to print the way I see them on my screen. And I found out that you have to PAY MORE for this, and frankly, I DON"T WANT TO PAY MORE! I want a good deal! 

The blog shows the same photo sent to Target, Walmart, Costco, MPIX and Simply Color Lab. It didn't show Shutterfly so I'm definitely curious as to how Shutterfly would compare. I may email the blog writer to find out.

So I'm torn.

The blog recommends Simply Color Lab for professional photographers and prints and MPIX for non-professionals.

Again, I'm torn even between these two.  Because while I'm not professional in any sense of the word, I AIM to be. 

Then I read a little further and she talks about calibrating your monitor. Again, something that costs approx $250 from what I could find from her links... or you can do it for free, but you're eyeing it yourself (I did it...and it's totally unreliable). Yet another expense, I'm not professional, but I want to be...what step do you take first? I guess I have a pretty good idea that the first steps are learning to use the camera, and taking good pics and then learning to edit, but then I think this calibration has to come in. 

Anyhow, there's my thoughts for the day, if you feel so inclined, please answer a question for me.

Where do you get your prints developed?

And since I like photos, here's one for today