secrets revealed (FINALLY)

Oh my goodness, this may be the longest I have ever kept a secret from you, internet.  I wanted to clue you in, really I did, but my mom reads this blog, and since she was the one I was most concerned would find out, I held my tongue.  But, OH, it was hard to do.  So here's the deal:

Back in October, I won a contest on one of my favourite blogs, Whatever.  The prize was a free canvas-wrapped print, up to 20 x 24 inches, from Color Incorporated Digital Pro Labs.  I've thought for a long time about getting high-quality prints made of some of my favourite of my photos, so I immediately started looking through my files for the perfect one.  It was hard, and I'm crap at making decisions besides (seriously, come with me to a 7 Eleven sometime and watch me spend a year in the candy aisle).  During this decision-making process, it dawned on me that this FREE thing would make a great gift that I wouldn't have to pay for.  Who do I know who likes to hang things on walls?  Well, my darling mother, of course.  So I returned to my files with her in mind.  This, as it turned out, was even harder.  Weeks went by, with no decision in sight.

Then I had a thought.  When I was in 8th grade, we won in a contest (at Bingo Night or something along those lines) a free portrait from a painter/photographer.  From that session, there's a print of my brother and me with our two dogs at the time, Patch and Mariah.  What if, I thought, I updated that photograph?  In our grand tradition of getting portraits for free.  And the idea stuck.  I prevailed upon my good (and mucho talented) friend Marley to take pity on me, and she totally did.  So on a sunny day in November, Marley and I drove down to a little town called Remington, VA, dogs in tow, to meet my brother (who drove up from UVA) and have ourselves a photo shoot.

Marley took some fabulous photos, but in end, Casey and I agreed upon this one for the big print:

I played around with ColorInc's ROES software until I found a size that fit the photo best, and here's the finished product:

On Christmas morning, I could hardly contain my excitement.  Casey's big present to the parents was opened first, and then I finally got to see what they thought.  I won't go into detail, but the reaction was a moment I will treasure for the rest of my life.

As for the print, I am 110% satisfied with it.  The colors are deep and rich, especially the blue on that door.  Keep in mind that this is a print on canvas, so the quality on other materials might be different, but I nevertheless highly recommend ColorInc Pro Lab for photographers looking for a good printing lab.  The software is easy-to-use, the ordering process is simple, and the turnaround time was unbelievably fast.  This was wrapped up and under the tree long before we even had a tree!

So, thank you Marley, Meg, and ColorInc for giving me a perfect Christmas memory.