Mastercolor Labs Blog

One of my favorite parts of owning a small business is having the chance to work with Friends.  I love having the chance to buy from my friends and I love the opportunity to supply to my friends.  A friendly face can make a difficult business decision that much easier.  My friend Joe Michel built this website 13 years ago.  Well at least he built the original, and since has reconstructed it many times to update our technology through his company, www.itworxonline.com.  He has me "tweeting" on Twitter.com, I'm now on Facebook communicating with old friends and new business relationships, I'm linked in at linkedin.com, and we are ready to start hosting contests and share photo images through Flickr.com.  And you know what? It scares the life out of my chartering into new waters, but I have a friend by my side leading my through it, and that makes me feel better.

I also enjoy the other side of this friend/business relationship.  Every year I see friends scrambling to get their families "perfect card" together for the Holidays.  Everyone has to have the best Holiday Card you know.  Looking at familiar faces growing up on the Christmas Cards in front of me, the cards Mastercolor printed really gives me great joy.  I wish everyone would come in early November rather than December 15th, but hey, take what they give ya.

Most recently I have had the chance to work with some very old friends of mine:

Brian Rightsell and his wife Kelly and their company, www.kellyrightsell.com.  Brian has been a friend of mine since long before our days at Page High School, and I am excited to be a part of his business plan now. We do some printing for Brian and Kelly in various formats, and it is fun to see their creative designs and listen to their ideas.  Heck, Brian is the one who pushed me into developing MastercolorCanvas.com that will be used by those only looking for gallery wrapped canvases, a product that is exploding in our industry.  Kelly's love of children and all their spirit can really  add to your child's room.

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I also get the chance to  produce for Nancy B. Westfall.  There is not much I can say more about "B" other than I have always loved her like a little sister.  From our days at Greensboro Day School, to best friends at the University of Georgia, and then she even followed me to New York City (you know how little sisters follow), and here I am now reproducing her beautiful artwork for her and watching her business grow.  Look at her work at www.squishme.com, her talent and creative spirit can really add some "fun" to your home decor.  Check out her popular print:

Yeah work is not always the best thing in life, but it sure makes it better when you get to experience it with friends.

C. Wright

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I love photography; all of it—digital or film—indoors or outdoors—people or places.    There’s something about hearing the click of the shutter of my Canon D20 that makes me happy.   For years, I have taken photography classes, subscribed to nature photography magazines, joined local photography clubs…you name it, I’ve done it.     I can succinctly state in one sentence what I learned in all that time:   it’s all about the light.      You can follow the light, wait for the light or try to generate the light in Photoshop after the fact.     But if the light is not there, it’s every difficult to get a great photo, right?    It depends.

My friend Jan and I were on our annual photography pilgrimage from Greensboro, NC to the mountains of western North Carolina to find good light and waterfalls.     We had done enough research to know that there were waterfalls in western North Carolina but had no clue which direction they faced or whether they received morning or evening sun.      OK, so maybe we hadn’t done enough research.     Anyway, after a day of hiking and taking waterfall pictures, we thought we’d progress to sunset pictures.     We drove to the top of the mountain along the Blue Ridge Parkway to wait for the sunset—and good light.    We were prepared.    Photo equipment?   Check.     Snacks?   Check.    Wine?   Check.      However, it never occurred to us that when it’s 90 degrees at the bottom of the mountain during the day, it can get darn cold on top of the mountain at sunset.     I have my camera set toward the horizon awaiting my award winning sunset photo, when I look over and see my resourceful friend in her hiking boots and a tablecloth shooting away at the sunset; warm and happy.

Was the light perfect?    Absolutely not.  But to me the photo is.      I would have given up the best sunset ever to get this picture of my friend doing what she does best:   taking great pictures and making me laugh.

While you’re waiting for good light, don’t forget to look around.    You may find your favorite picture has nothing to do with the light.

R Clark

Mastercolor Labs is lucky to have established a nice market share on the internet, and usually the first question we are asked about becoming a customer is how is the best way to send orders to our lab, and the answer is simple: Remote Order Entry Service.  You will not find a faster uploading software on the internet.  It does not matter if you are ordering a 30 x40 digital photograph, or 1,000 8x10 units for school photography, the compression method the software uses is amazing.  After using the easy cropping tool in the ROES software it crops the image as you have selected and sends it to Mastercolor Labs at 300dpi at the size you requested.  No information is lost and the quality is the same as if Mastercolor was printing straight from your disk.

The ROES software also is perfect for creating Digital Wedding Albums, Canvas Gallery Wraps, Greeting Cards, Digital Proofing, or ordering a few simple standard prints.  All of our services are offered within the ROES Software, and since it is quick and easy, we normally are shipping your order within 1-2 business days.

Well Mastercolor and it's 33 year old body is moving in with the new generation.  We recently signed up on Twitter, and joined Facebbok a few months back.  It's hard to see & track where this is helping our business, but we do have people from time to time say the found us through these internet networks.  On Facebook we have run a number of Internet specials on Canvas Gallery Wraps, and we will be offering more on assorted digital prints, so sign up to follow Mastercolor on both Twitter and Facebook.  Let us know your thoughts and what you would like to see as specials.