After the week from hell, and six months of packaging and printing, I bought myself a treat. I canceled my account with Verizon / Blackberry and bought an iPhone / AT&T. I’ve only made a few calls – but at least the numbers are BIG and it makes nice noises and in my apartment I get all the bars. So looks good. There are wi-fi connections all over the place, but I’ll set my own up again… need to look for that router / wi-fi thing.
Once again, they say a big snow storm is coming. I’ve gotten out the last of the prints that had to be done quickly; I’ve had a nice chat with WCI and we’ll see what comes from that in terms of turnaround time, but frankly, you really can’t spit out art the way you can spit out run-of-the-mill prints no matter who you are. And it’s no accident that I inform, or try to inform customers to expect a two week turnaround, and WCI lets you know that for inkjet printing it will be 10 business days, though it can be less than that depending on the work load, and that’s exactly what I say.
Other than going back to the darkroom, there really isn’t any magical way to produce reasonably priced b&w prints. None of the Chromogenic (sp?) processes are going to do the trick. And Lambda on Fiber Paper – which really will be as good as any darkroom fiber print, maybe better, is very expensive. In fact, it may cost more than hiring a darkroom worker. Over the years, I have had people say that such and such a paper with Chromogenics works well, and even had samples sent to me, and it just isn’t the same as a good b&w inkjet or darkroom print. Color is a whole different story, or at least that’s what I’ve been told.
I recently followed a huge thread somewhere about what the meaning of a C Print was. It used to mean this, then it meant that – and now people use it to mean a color print.
The one thing I did learn is that you can define a Lambda print, because it was done on a Durst Lambda machine. Though they can also be churning out RC prints as opposed to fiber prints (Ilfobroom). I switched from RC to Fiber about 20 years ago, and I don’t expect to go back.
I think the i-phone will be on the cards for my next phone when my current plan expires. My daughter has one and they just seem so intuitive to use. And yes, the big buttons are quite nice…
Phill
8 Feb 10 at 5:39 pm
I like it a lot. I bought it before my verizon plan expired… was really tired of the tiny keys on the BB, and the lack of decent browsing experience. As everyone knows, the iPhone is a new wonder. I’ve only had it a few hours. Have ported my itunes to it; my contacts, and am even learning how to browse… but the best thing is the number pad for punching in phone numbers… i can finally do it with my thumbs… I even approved your comment on it without a problem.
What happened was that the trackball got messed up again and I went back to Verizon store thinking that I’d just get a Droid – but they wanted to sell it at list price because my contract wasn’t up. So I just went across the street and bought the iphone. They canceled my Verizon contract, switched my number to the iPhone and I was in business.
My first call was to WCI in California. No problems.
It’ll be nice to load some of my work on it so I have a bit of a portfolio to show people.
dave
8 Feb 10 at 6:26 pm
Dave,
I’m sure you will love the iPhone! I love being able to carry my portfolio around with me – it’s come in handy several times. I recently gave my wife and iPhone and she has fallen in love with it as well.
Thanks for the info on WCI, i’m going to give them a try. I’ve been using MPix with their true black and white prints. I like them, but I’m wondering if I’m missing something with the inkjet prints.
Thanks again,
James
James Taylor
8 Feb 10 at 6:50 pm
Up until last week we didn’t own a cell phone. Then our land line stopped working. So I called the phone company and they said they don’t repair land lines anymore. I was fine with that, but my wife wasn’t. Apparently she has one friend left who still wants to talk to her. So I browsed the net and found this incredible cell phone made in Germany called the X-Phone. Check this out:
http://gizmodo.com/5422354/sorry-apple-im-buying-me-one-of-those-xphones
Lester
8 Feb 10 at 7:47 pm