Sunday, June 8, 2008

fotoflōts

The thing about taking a photo-a-day is that you quickly start to accumulate a lot of photos. What can be done to see and share these shots away from the screen? A few months ago, I started to research a way to display my pictures in the analog world.

I decided to give fotoflōt a try and ordered two 15 x 10 wall mount prints to give to my wife for her birthday. The ordering process was fairly easy, and the prints were shipped more quickly than I expected. Because of this I received them a week before her actual birthday. When I opened the box and saw how awesome they looked, I was too excited to wait a week to give them to her, so she wound up getting an early birthday present. Here is a shot of her fotoflōts on the wall:

fotoflot5

We liked these fotoflōts so much that we quickly ordered a bunch more. Here are the three 15 x 10's that now hang in my office:

fotoflot1

And here is the 22.5 x 15 in the bedroom:

fotoflot3

So what is it that makes fotoflōts so friggin' great?
1) High quality prints - they must have some really nice printers there, because the quality of the prints is just amazing. In every shot I've seen details that I did not know were present. I had no idea how good these pictures were until I saw them as fotoflōts.

2) These fantastic prints are then mounted to acrylic and laser trimmed to the right size. That means no glass, and no glass means no reflections. With nothing to stand between your eyes and the pictures, the shots seem to jump off the wall.

3) Since it would be bad if the fotoflōts actually did jump off the wall, they provide a very clever mounting system that involves magnets and brackets. Now one really cool thing about the brackets is that they allow the print to float (flōt?) up to an inch or so off the wall. This combined with the two factors above makes fotoflōts extremely dynamic and inviting. Here is a sideview that shows the flaot:

fotoflot2

- The other cool thing about the brackets is that by using magnets it is an easy matter to pop the picture off the wall exchange them with other fotoflōts in the house. The fact that I can easily rearrange my fotoflōt collection is wonderful for someone with a short attention span, like me. Here you can see the metal cups on the back of the fotoflōt which attach to the magnets in the bracket:

fotoflot4

As you can tell, I am extremely pleased with fotoflōt. My only two quibbles are minor:
- Navigating their site is a bit slow - probably because they overdid a bit with the Flash
- Just after I received the 22.5 x 15 fotoflōt, the introduced a bigger size: 20 x 30, which would have been much better for where the picture is displayed. If they had let me know at the time I ordered, I definitely would have waited and got the bigger size.

So, if you are in the market for a new way to display your pictures, definitely give fotoflōt a try. Here is a tip: If you are a SmugMugger, you get a nice discount and easy access to your photos. The discount can easily could cover your SmugMug membership, so you could save money and become part of a great photosharing community. You can also save $5 on a SmugMug membership by using code: cQbi3SrbzJ4Pc

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