Printing photos on metal is something I have wanted to try, as I have seen some great examples in one of my local photography labs. Metal prints have appealed to me because of the vivid colour representation, the sharpness, and the robustness of something made of metal.

When Will from ShinyPrints contacted me, asking if I was interested in doing a product review of their prints, I jumped at the chance.

I provided a high-resolution photo to Will, and received the metal print in the mail just under three weeks later, shipped from Florida, USA, to me in Western Australia.

I can't comment on ShinyPrints' web-based image submission system, as I didn't use it, but emailed the photo instead.

Shipping details were emailed to me, so I could track the location of the print while it was in transit.

The photo I selected is of a blue and yellow macaw, photographed at the Bali Safari and Marine Park last year.
I chose this photo because it has some bright colours, contrast, areas with detail, and some interesting bokeh in the background. This would provide an opportunity to get a good indication of the colour and contrast rendition of the photo on a metal print.

I was impressed with the packaging - the metal print was encased in bubble wrap, then in a solid cardboard wrap, and then in a larger box with padding. The robust packaging ensured the metal print arrived in pristine condition.

visitors viewing the photos

Last night we had a photo exhibition and dinner for New Hope West Timor, show-casing photos taken by myself and Alex, both members of the Wings To Work 2014 team who travelled to West Timor in September. During this trip, we spent time at the New Hope Orphanage in Kupang, West Timor, and at the nearby Elpida school.

We selected about 30 photos for display, and had them printed as A4 prints and mounted on gator board by the photo lab I use and recommend, Fitzgeralds Photo Imaging.
We were also selling some small photo books, printed through Blurb (I have previously written about lessons learnt from printing a Blurb photo book), containing a selection of photos from the Wings To Work trip, as well as some information about the New Hope Orphanage.

Earlier this year I read an interesting post on The Online Photographer blog about doing a photo print each day as an exercise in improving your post-processing skills specifically in relation to achieving good photo prints.

It is something that appealed to me, but I put it off at the time, as I had been travelling for work, and have been very busy. However, as I have a few weeks holidays at the moment, I thought I would give it a try during my break from work.



I am using a Canon Pixma iP4300 inkjet printer that is a few years old, with genuine Canon ink on 6x4" Canon glossy photo paper.

Previous experience has shown the colour rendition of my printer is very close to that of my calibrated monitors, so the complexities of printer calibration is something I don't have to concern myself with.



Rather than printing photos I have previously spent time post-processing, I am selecting a variety of photos from my archives that I have never post-processed, interspersing landscapes, macro and portraits.

Only photos that particularly appeal to me are being chosen. Some photos were taken a while ago, and I haven't got around to post-processing them. Others photos are more recent - with today's print being a photo that I took earlier today.



I started last week Saturday, so today is day six, and I have six prints hanging on the cupboard door in my home office, as shown in the photo above.

In a couple of weeks I'll post a followup on this print a day project, with some comments on what worked for me, what didn't work, and what I learnt from the project.



Today's print is one of the photos I took earlier today. As I'm currently on holidays from work, I was able to attend an excursion with the year three class that my 8 year old son is in. We spent the morning at Cohuna Wildlife Park, and the afternoon at the Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Centre.

Both locations provided a very hands-on experience for the kids, with a wide variety of animals. It was a great day, and I managed to get some great photos of the animals, the kids, and the kids interacting with the animals.

Three Lizards

top: unknown; middle: Pygmy Spiny Tailed Skink; bottom: Western Bearded Dragon

Armadale Reptile and Wildlife Centre, Armadale, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @70mm, 1/25 sec, f/4.5, ISO1000

RedBubble.com are taking 15% off framed and canvas prints for 7 days. The sale ends on 27 August, so if you've been considering a canvas print or a framed print, now is the time to order one (or more)!

Eternal Flame and State War Memorial, King Park

Perth City Skyline in Duotone

I've previously written a detailed review of a canvas print, and I can definitely recommend the RedBubble.com prints, as they are very good quality.

Note that RedBubble introduced a larger sized canvas print earlier this year. The largest size used to be 610mm on the longest side, but they now have an extra large size at 762mm long.

Have a look through the many canvas prints and framed prints available on RedBubble, and see if there's anything you would like to hang on your wall.

Many of my photos are also available as canvas prints and framed prints from RedBubble, and can be viewed in my RedBubble site.

red gerbera petals

RedBubble.com are having a great canvas print sale, with prices on all canvas prints reduced by 20%. This sale will only last until Sunday night, so if you've been considering a canvas print, now is the time to order one (or more)!

I've previously written a detailed review of a canvas print, and I can definitely recommend the RedBubble.com canvas prints, as they are very good quality.

Note that RedBubble recently introduced a larger sized canvas print. The largest size used to be 610mm on the longest side, but they now have an extra large size at 762mm long.

Have a look through the many canvas prints available on RedBubble, and be sure to have a look through my own prints on redbubble too.

I've previously written a detailed review of a canvas print from RedBubble.com, and I recently obtained another canvas print from RedBubble. This time, it was a canvas print of a photo called "Grazing", taken during our holiday in Tasmania a few months ago.

Just like the previous canvas print I ordered from RedBubble, this is again the largest canvas print size available from RedBubble, measuring 610mm along its longest side.

canvas print of "Grazing" hanging on the wall

I recently ordered a canvas print of one of my photos from RedBubble.com, an Australian-based company that provides print-on-demand services. You can buy prints of your own photos from RedBubble, or you can buy prints of any of the many high quality photos uploaded by other RedBubble users.

I've previously ordered greeting cards from them (great quality!), but this was the first canvas print I've bought through RedBubble, and I decided to write this review to allow people to see what a canvas print from RedBubble looks like.

I ordered the large canvas version of this image, which works out at a size of 610x311mm. The completed canvas print was delivered about 8 business days after being ordered online (published times for standard delivery are 10-15 business days), and was securely packaged in cardboard, bubblewrap and plastic.

After unpacking the canvas print, I took a closer look at it, and was surprised at how much detail had been retained in the image. Some canvas prints lose a lot of details due to the texture of the canvas, but the texture of the canvas used by redubble is subtle enough to ensure detail is preserved.

folded canvas on the corner

solid wooden frame