Okay, normally I don't advert other people's contests...

...but this is a pretty nice one. Powell's Books, a local new/used bookstore that I very much adore, is holding a contest. The winner gets a credit for 10 free books (up to $25 per book, free shipping via Economy Mail to US addresses or via US Postal Service Surface mail to international addresses, and also a 5-book credit to give to a friend. (They even explicitly state that if you want a more expensive book or better shipping, you can pay just the difference.) Books may be collected all at once or one at a time and are chosen by the winner.

The cost is, of course, agreeing to be put on their newsletter. I already get their newsletter (it's where I learned of this), and I like it a lot, but the lovely thing is that you can request to be removed after the first email, if you want. Their Security and Privacy Policy commits that your information will not be given to third parties in any way, at any time, for any reason. I have never had cause to doubt that they live up to it.

The contest is here, if you want to enter:

http://www.powells.com/contest.html

My photos came!!!!

I ordered photos from Shutterfly and Kodak's Ofoto mostly to see how those services performed. Since each was luring new customers in with either free shipping or free prints, I ordered a number of 4x6 (to compare handling of different colors) and that very difficult but nice sun-through-trees shot I took in 5x7 and 8x10 as well, both to test the services and to confirm that my digital camera can print nicely in those (in theory, I could get a 10x20 from it, but with the compression I'm not sure - and those cost a bit much to play around testing with...).

Both sets of prints showed up today, the same exact selection from each site. I'd read reviews, of course, but that's not the same as seeing for yourself. If I look through one stack of prints, then the other, my gut response is that they are equal in quality in the 4x6 and 5x7 set. The Shutterfly print of the 8x10 wasn't color-accurate; it was close, but they seemed to want to pull the colors out more than in the original photograph. When I compare the photos side-by-side, then pull up the original images, I can see that in several of them. In a couple cases, it produces a better photo, but honestly, I want to know what my photo will look like - and that doesn't look like my photo.

Paper quality's about the same. Ofoto botched my 8x10. It's a mostly-good pic with a yellowed/discolored band through it about an inch above the water glare on the paper. Because that area is mostly very dark, and the things in it are yellow when not dark, it's hard to see from more than a couple feet away, but it is a botch. I may test out their customer service. As far as the rest of them they're superior but that sort of thing isn't good, even if I did deliberately pick one of the more stunning-but-difficult pictures I've got.

So far, it's leaning strongly in favor of Ofoto, but I need to go contact them now about that 8x10.