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The individual photo pages have a Java script enabled toolbar to provide access to the site favorites list, slide show, and decoration features. The Add to Album link adds the photo to your favorites list. The My Album button transfers you to the "Manage My Favorites" page, while the Slide Show link will transfer you to the slide show page (note that the slide show pre-loader will run first.) If the Enlarge link is visible, you can enlarge the photo on your screen to view the photo in more detail. You can click on Enlarge up to 2 times, depending on the photo. After you click Enlarge, the Reduce link will be available for you to reduce the photo back to its original display size. If the Enlarge link is not viewable, then the photo cannot be enlarged on your screen. The Decorate link passes the photo information and control to the "Decorate with Photos" page. The Add to Cart link passes the photo information and control to an ordering page, where you can select various options and place the photo in your shopping cart. The View Cart allows you to look at your shopping cart and then return to the photo page, or optionally check out.
Q: Why do I need to have Java script and cookies enabled to see the image bar?
A: We use the techniques to store your favorites and pass data among the decorate and purchase pages. If you're concerned about cookies, please read our privacy policy.
Q: I don't have Java script and/or cookies enabled, or a supported browser.
A: You can still enjoy our photos and utilize the ordering functionality for a set of our most popular photos. Since many sites utilize the same technology we do, you might want to consider upgrading your capabilities if possible so you can utilize more of what the internet has to offer.
Q: Why is the enlarge button grayed out on some photos?
A: Every photo on our site has different dimensions. To fit in your browser window, the photo's size is adjusted prior to display. Some photos are already at full size when displayed on your screen.
Q: Why is there a limit of 2 clicks on the enlarge button?
A: The first click should provide an image that still fits within your browser's dimensions. The second click enlarges the photo to the size of the photo file stored on our web site.
Q: Is the upper limit the actual size of the photo if it's printed?
A: We resize the photos to fit on a variety of browsers and screen resolutions. This size is unrelated to the prints that we sell.
Q: Is the on-screen quality what I can expect in a print?
A: In addition to resizing the photos for display we optimize them using compression techniques. This substantially decreases download time. The print quality is better than what you see on your screen.
Q: Why do you disable right-click functionality?
A: These are our copyrighted images. Please consider purchasing a print - they start at just $13, with free shipping. We also provide free desktop images ("wallpaper") on our wallpaper page. If you need an on-line image, please contact us.
The favorites collection enables you to create a customize list of your favorite photos. You can use this to create a slide show of favorite places or, if you have a high speed internet connection, your own on-line, customizable screen saver (read more about the slide show capability in that page's section.) You can also use this page to create a list of photos that you're considering for purchase.
Your favorites collection is kept in a cookie on your system. See our privacy policy for more information about how we use cookies. The expiration date is set for one year from the time you create or update your favorites list. This enables you to create a favorites list now and save it for holiday or vacation shopping, for instance.
Manage My Favorites Page
Use this page to review and manage your album favorites. If you've reached the limit of 12 photos in your album, you can make room for more photos by deleting one or more of your existing favorites.
Q: When I hover the mouse over the decorate, purchase, or delete links, the number shown in the script function on the status bar is one less than the photo number displayed to the left of thumbnail. Why?
A: The arrays we use for this capability start with element 0, even though the photo numbers start at 1. For example, the information for photo number 5 is stored at location 4, while the information for photo number 12 is stored at location 11.
Q: Why a limit of 11 photos?
A: This seems like a reasonable compromise between the limitations of cookies, resource utilization, and photo load times. If you have a different idea or want to store more favorites we'd love to hear from you.
Q: Why do I need to have Java script and Cookies enabled?
A: We use cookies to store your favorites. Manipulating cookies requires Java script. If you're concerned about cookies, please read our privacy policy.
Q: What do you mean by Modern Browser?
A: Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, Netscape 6.0 or later, or another recent generation browser. Older browsers (Netscape V4 or earlier, IE 4.0 or earlier, or other browsers of similar generation) have buggy Cascading Style Sheet implementations or vary in their Document Object Model support, increasing development time and complexity. Less than 2% of our visitors use older browsers.
Thumbnail View Page
Use this page to view all of your favorites on one screen - like a photographer's "contact sheet".
Q: Why are the thumbnails different sizes?
A: The stored thumbnails on our site vary in size due to cropping and the angle of the photograph. To fit on one page, they are all standardized to about 100 pixels high. This automatically adjusts the width to maintain the photo's aspect ratio, avoiding distortion.
The slide show capability enables you to view your favorite photos, manually or automatically. You can use this site feature to view a series of possible purchases, or to simply sit back and enjoy the beauty of our photos. If you have a high speed internet connection you can use the loop function to create your own on-line, customizable screen saver (note that this "screen saver" runs on the server, unlike a conventional screen saver that runs on your PC.) You can change the photos on the screen saver by changing your list of favorites.
My Favorites Slide Show Page
To advance manually, click on the thumbnail on the bottom right; to view your favorites in reverse, click on the thumbnail to the lower right. To advance automatically click on Loop. The photo shown in the lower right thumbnail will be displayed every 4 seconds. You can terminate the loop anytime by clicking on the "manage favorites" link or the "thumbnail view" link".
Q: Why do you pre-load the photos?
A: Internet connection speeds vary worldwide. To ensure reasonable performance of the slide show, we pre-load the photos instead of fetching them as they are required.
Q: I got a message that an image or thumbnail didn't load.
A: Usually this is caused by a photo or thumbnail that's missing or is in the wrong directory. We extensively test our site to ensure this doesn't happen, but sometimes things fall through the cracks. We appreciate your notifying us of the problem so we can fix it.
Q: I went right to my slide show page and got a message that the images needed to be pre-loaded first.
A: Usually this happens if you've flushed your temporary internet files cache. In this case the slide images need to be pre-loaded to improve the slide shows performance.
Q: I got a message that the slide show functions best with at least 3 images. Why?
A: There's room for three photos (the displayed image and two thumbnails) on the slide show page. The functionality will still work with less than 3 photos.
The Decorate and Color Selection pages are designed to provide you with an idea of how a matted and framed photo would look hanging on a wall in your home or the home of a gift recipient. Most decorating experts suggest that you find a photo you like and then select mats and a frame that complement the picture and your home decor. Since wall covering, frame, and mat color choices vary considerably, each of the four color selection pages (wall, frame, outer mat, and inner mat) provides an easy-to-use 4,096-color wheel as well 48 pre-selected color swatches. You can create your own decor file with up to 6 color choices for each page, and manage your color choices for each of the four decorating elements. Your decor choices will be saved on your system. You can access the "Decorate with Photos" page from the image toolbar on individual photo pages or from your Album Favorites page. Note that you must select a photo to use prior to accessing the "Decorate with Photos" page for the first time.
Decorate with Photos Page
This is the main decorating page. The first time you access this page, you'll notice a white wall cover behind your selected photo, a black frame, a white outer mat, and a black inner mat. These are default choices that will be replaced with the selections you make on the individual color pages. The photo's dimensions are scaled to a rough compromise between 5x7 and 8x10.
We suggest that you match your wall colors first. After you return to this page from the wall color selections page (or any color selections page), the selected colors will be displayed in swatches next to the select wall cover link, and the wall cover color will be the color in the upper left swatch. You can change the wall cover color instantly by clicking on any of the swatches that represent your pre-selected colors.
Select frame, outer mat, and inner mat colors in a similar way. The "narrow frame" and "wide frame" links correspond to a frame of roughly 1/2" and 1.5", respectively. You can alter any of your color selections, as often as you want, by returning to the appropriate color selections page and modifying your choices.
Q: The room I want to hang the picture has papered walls, not painted.
A: We're looking into providing some type of wallpaper matching capability, but since there are tens of thousands of wallpaper choices, it's a daunting task. We suggest that you select colors that match the most dominant colors in the wallpaper and then look at various frame and mat color combinations, switching among the selected wallpaper colors.
Q: The room I want to hang the picture has wooden walls, not painted.
A: We're looking at how to handle this, but in the meantime we suggest that you find a color that approximates that of the wood you use.
Q: The photo is displayed without any wall cover, frame, or mat colors. Why?
A: We've seen this behavior with Mozilla and Netscape browsers, when the Decorate with Photos page has been accessed directly and the desired thumbnail is not held in cache. Unlike IE, fetching the photo with these browsers seems to be asynchronous to the execution of the code. The result is that the picture's dimensions aren't available when the frame and mat sizes are computed. Simply refresh the page and the photo should display normally.
Wall, Frame, Outer Mat, and Inner Mat Color Selections Pages
These pages provide an easy to use 4,096 color wheel, a center selections column, and 48 pre-selected color swatches. To use the wheel, simply move your mouse over it - the color represented by that point on the wheel will be displayed in the box below the wheel. To move the color to the selections column, simply click with your left mouse button. Likewise, click on a swatch to move that color to the selections column. To delete a color, simply click on "Delete" below the color you wish to remove. You can select up to 6 colors for use at any one time.
The color selections for each color page form your decor file. Please note that to us a color for decorating, you must add it to the center color selections column before it can be used.
You can use this page to see pricing, select print sizes and mat options, and optional mat colors by using the pull down boxes.
Q: Why do you use Pay Pal for on-line payment?
A: Pay Pal is one of the largest on-line payment systems on the Internet, and has an excellent record of reliability, safety, and security for buyers and sellers. Pay Pal acts as an intermediary between you and us - in fact your credit card information is never shared with us. Instead, when you make a purchase with PayPal, PayPal completes the transaction and then credits our PayPal account with the amount of the purchase (in the event of a return, PayPal credits your card and debits our account.) Pay Pal is an e-Bay company, which enhances its stability and security. Finally, since many on-line shoppers are familiar with Pay Pal and already have a Pay Pal account, it seems like a natural choice.
Q: Why does it take up to 7 days to receive my order?
A: Although we have a small inventory, most pictures are custom printed and matted after an order is placed. Since we're working professionals, we need a few days to get your shipment ready. In most cases you'll receive it sooner - we're thrilled when you place an order.
Q: Why do you have only two shipping choices?
A: We know you want your pictures quickly. USPS Priority Mail and UPS Second Day provides the right balance between cost and shipment time for most people in the US. If these two choices don't meet your needs, e-mail us and we'll work something out.
Q: What's your return policy?
A: Your satisfaction means everything to us. You can return all or part of a shipment up to 30 days after delivery, at our expense. Before you ship back to us, please e-mail us so we can work out shipping details, refunds, etc.
Q: What's your privacy policy?
A: You can view our privacy policy here.
Q: Can I download the photos from your website to my PC?
A: Our pictures are protected by copyright. We ask that you consider ordering high quality prints, as the photos on the web site are optimized and compressed for speed. Usually a compressed photo's file size is only 10-20% of the actual picture image file. Printing a compressed file yields poor results.
Q: Why don't you make originals available for purchase and download?
A: We're looking into this complex issue. We'd like to offer this service, but we also need to protect our copyright and future revenues by limiting the number of times a downloaded photo can be replicated.