I found a new Friend

Garvan Gardens
Originally uploaded by CameronMagee

About a month ago, Aubrey and I visited Garvan Gardens in Hot Springs. Ever been there? It's kind of like the yellow Monopoly property, Marvin Gardens, but not as pricy, and way prettier. Aubrey gets the credit for the find, it was one of the top 20 most beautiful things I've seen in my lifetime. The place is normally just a colorful garden in the springtime, but in the dead of winter, they resort to Christmas light decor. They go as far as zip-tieing lights to individual branches of trees, instead of just draping the strands.

Anyway, in the lobby of the complex, there was some photography on display. It was good, like, really good. The most unique thing about it though was not the photos, it was the printing technique. The photographer had done all the printing himself, and chosen a really unique way to do it. I usually just send my stuff to good old Wal-Mart, something this guy is obviously way above. The photos were printed on canvas. Maybe you've seen this before, I suppose it's not out of reality, but it blew my mind. I had no idea you could do that. Canvas, hand stretched over wooden frames, printed in nice big 11"x14" prints.

Well, the guy was smart and taped a business card next to each photo. I emailed him, just to pat him on the back about how COOL I thought he was with his canvas photo printing. He responded quickly, and politely, offering to do some prints for me. Nice guy.

I thought, "oh sure, what-ee-ya charge, $6,000?". Well, let me just tell you, it was way less than that. Way less. I took him up on the offer immediately. Tim was really quick about emails, informing me that he received my emailed photo, and replying two days later that it was DONE!

Let's review. We found a guy in Conway, AR, who prints photographs on canvas, does it at very fair rates, and has a quality 2-day turnaround? And we're talking like, less than $50 here, by the way. Tim Donar, you are the man.

He mailed it to me, and I gave it to my dad for Christmas. He did such a nice job (the photo looks incredible) that I had him do me another one, and bigger. Again, fast turnaround, 1-day shipping from Conway, and a COOL product. This one was a print for my grandparents. My mom and I ran it over to Hobby Lobby for them to frame it a few days ago.

If you have a photo you really like, you should look into having Tim run a print for you. He could print it up nice and big, and make it look like a piece of art. The guy does fine work, plus he's super nice, and super fast at returning emails. I wish I could show you these prints. Anyway, end my plug for Tim. If you want his contact information, leave a comment and I'll get it to you.