A Calendar

In the past I have made calendars to send out as Christmas gifts. If I am going to bother taking thousands of photos every year, it makes sense for me to do something with them besides let them sit in digital file form on a computer’s hard drive. So, I try to make things like books, prints for the wall, or calendars so that this work takes on physical form and has more meaning. I didn’t make a calendar last year because I didn’t think it made much of an impression on anyone and it is a time-consuming and somewhat expensive effort. But this year I got feedback that people had been expecting a calendar and wondered what happened, so I set about making one and decided that the theme would be Svalbard. So, I booked trip to Svalbard in August of this year just to take photos in order to make a calendar.

Proof Page of Front Cover (the pink circle is where the hole is punched)

At first I ordered from a print shop that I had used before. I didn’t entirely have confidence in them so I ordered one calendar as a sample. When I received it, I immediately found defects all over the calendar with cutting tool scrapes along the sides of pages, missing ink, a torn page. I called them and talked to them but they were not very responsive. So, I selected another print shop that seemed to have good reviews and tried them out. I got a much better product from them so they got my business for the large order.

August gets my favorite photo from the trip

I got the box in the mail earlier this week and it looks pretty good. I now have Christmas gifts for the family and have most of that sorted out before November even arrives this year. The great thing about this gift is if they don’t really love it, it’ll be gone in a year and won’t stick around to bother them into the distant future.

The calendars still wrapped in plastic

I did have to make a bulk order and will probably have several left over. My family isn’t that huge. If anyone wants an extra calendar and would help pay for postage, reach out to me using the contact me link up at the top of the page.

Thanks.

The back cover of the calendar on my desk next to the camera that took the photos

11 thoughts on “A Calendar”

  1. What an awesome and personal gift! Our family makes one for my 94 year old dad with everyone’s birthday, anniversary and other important dates with pics of the family. Despite the popularity of digital calendars, everyone clamors for this paper version sand has become such a welcomed gift-bravo to you for creating what will no doubt be a big hit this holiday season. I keep mine to look back over the years, especially at the younger members to see how we’ve changed.

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  2. Looks like a beautiful calendar, and I hope your family appreciates all the trouble you went through, traveling to Svalbard, just so they could get a nice calendar like this for Christmas.

    I did the same thing a few years ago with photos from Yosemite National Park. And, like you, I got very little feedback from my family members. So I figured maybe the calendar was a pain in the ass to them, and haven’t done one since. However, last month when I visited my brother, I noticed that my sister-in-law had cut out some of the photos from the calendar, framed them, and hung them up on the wall of their den, in a fancy arrangement. So maybe these calendars are appreciated, after all.

    Liked by 4 people

  3. A beautiful gift to give. My cell phone calendar has never replaced real calendars for me.
    Is there anything special about the month of August that you picked it for your favorite photo?
    Love December’s photo. 😊

    Liked by 2 people

  5. I have used Printing Center USA twice for calendars, in years past. Can I ask … did you set them up in a page layout program like Adobe InDesign? That’s how I did it but no longer have access to InDesign. I’d like to find a place that has an online creator or just send hi res jpegs. Anyway good luck with your calendar … I bet it’s beautiful but I ordered one from another blogging friend!

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