THE BEST
The following businesses, services, and products have thus far proven to me that they are of the highest qualilty.

BEST FINE ART LAB

COLORFOLIO used to do our fine art digital printing before we bought our Epson 9800 printer. Now, I use them occasionally for drum scanning jobs. What I like most are their very high standards and one-on-one, personal approach to printmaking. Call them toll-free at 888-212-7060. Ask to speak with Bob Cornelis. He's the mastermind.

BEST WEBSITE HOSTING

LFC HOSTING hosts our website. Loosefoot Hosting (aka LFC Hosting) is a top-notch outfit that offers great personal service and a trememdous number of hosting options that you actually control yourself using an easy-to-use control panel. Their philosophy is "If I succeed, then they succeed." Need I say more.

BEST SOFTWARE

FOCALBLADE is easily the most advanced sharpening software available—yes, including Photokit Sharpener. FocalBlade's most important feature is the ability to independently control the amount of edge and surface sharpening. And because FocalBlade is a Photoshop plug-in, you'll no longer need to do "smart sharpening" or use complicated Photoshop actions to perform edge sharpening. Available in both PC and MAC versions, Focalblade provides a tremendous amount of control including halo reduction to reduce the amount of white and black halos that naturally form as a result of the sharpening process. Automated controls are also available to speed up the process. Simply answer three questions about the image the program will automatically calculate the sharpening numbers for you. Then, you can go with those numbers or tweak them. It's up to you. And, best of all, FocalBlade costs just $49.95 (as of 1/25/06).

HEAVENLY-OPPORTUNITY is software that calculates the rising and settng times of the sun and the moon, their positions on the horizon, moon phases. Because sun and moon information is a function of where you are, the software offers a comprehensive list of over 30,000 U.S. locations! The program also offers many convenient features.

BEST COLOR MANAGEMENT

COLOREYES DISPLAY monitor calibration software from Integrated Color Corporation is arguably the finest monitor calibration software available. It is very detailed and provides extremely accurate calibration and monitor profiles for both CRT and LCD displays. My prints are almost a perfect match to my monitor and it never ceases to amaze me. If you're someone who will never be satisfied with "pleasing color," then this is the product for you.

REAL WORLD COLOR MANAGEMENT by Bruce Fraser is one book that is worth reading to help you understand how color management works. You'll learn so much and, with a little experience, you'll be playing in a different league altogether.

BEST HARD DRIVES & DATA STORAGE

WESTERN DIGITAL is a company whose hard drives I've been using for years without consequence. Their Caviar series is extremely reliable and so is their 10,000 rpm Raptor drives. I was once warned by my computer builder to only buy Western Digital because they rarely see them come in for repair. Unfortunately, I strayed to Maxtor (see below under the Worst Computer Hardware) and I eternally regret that mistake. Always buy drives with a 3 to 5-year warrantly and you'll be much better off.

BEST NATIVE LANDSCAPING & GARDENING

ART & LINDA'S WILDFLOWERS creates beautiful gardens using native plants and grasses from the Chicago area. Art personally helped us grow a native prairie garden in our backyard.

THE WORST
The following businesses, services, and products have provided me with the worst experiences that I have ever had.

WORST PHOTO LABS

PRECISION IMAGING in Chicago represents the WORST LAB experience that I have ever had. They not only do a poor job with E6 processing, but they are terrible at following instructions, preventing errors, and correcting their mistakes. This included forgetting to sleeve medium format transparencies and mounting 35mm ones. Robert, the owner, did everything in his power to avoid fixing the problems, including avoiding my telephone calls. Ultimately, Robert declined to fix their mistakes and told me on 2/5/08 to fix the problem myself. No kidding!
Began using them in mid 2007 and stopped on February 5, 2008.

WORST HARD DRIVES & DATA STORAGE

MAXTOR / SEAGATE) has a proven track record of unreliability:
(1) In 2005, I installed a Maxtor 250GB internal hard drive and it went bad after 6 months. They replaced it and then that one also went bad in 6 months. Luckily I didn't lose any data. They finally upgraded to a higher level (possibly enterprise) drive that then worked.

(2) In 2006, I lost of 60 gigabytes of data using Maxtor's 1 Terabyte One Touch Turbo (dual 500MB) external hard drive unit. Both drives contained the same data (Raid 1 mirroring), but BOTH DRIVES CRASHED at the same time!! This is not rare as people say. If the fan goes bad, you're done for.

To further add insult to injury, Maxtor technical support had me jumping through hoops. They had ME disassemble the unit. Then they made me wait over a month to receive a controller card, which I then had to install into the unit while giving giving me instructions over the telephone. I honestly felt like I was in an episode of "24" and I was the some guy on the street who was unwittingly drawn into disarming a nuclear warhead as he was being given instructions over the phone.

Ultimately, Maxtor did nothing except provide me with another unit with no data. They refused to help me restore any data and they did not even express concern or act like they were sorry.

(3)In January of 2008, I plugged in a Maxtor 250 GB external drive that I hardly use and it didn't even work.

Additionally, Maxtor makes drives for other manufacturers (possibly for LaCie). So, you need to look under the hood before buying such an important piece of equipment.

Conclusion: Buy WESTERN DIGITAL hard drive units, many of which don't even use a cooling fan. Get their drives that have at least a 3-year warranty. They are the most reliable drives available. See BEST HARD DRIVES & STORAGE above.

WORST CANVAS MEDIA

BULLDOG PRODUCTS represents the WORST CANVAS MEDIA and customer service that I have experienced in the world of fine art media. I purchased a 44" x 40' roll of Bulldog Purple Dot canvas for more than $200. The product experienced weird color shifts and banding while using Bulldog's profile and media settings. Furthermore, the canvas had several imperfections embedded in the canvas. For instance, it had "seeds" (from cotton seeds that were not properly removed) and little black specks and anomolies throughout. These anomolies showed through the ink and ruin my prints. Last, but not least, one of my stretched canvas print exhibited severe wrinkling and puckering, only 6 months after it was stretched.

When I originally approached Bulldog they asked me to send them some samples of the defective canvas, which I took the time to do. Over a year went by and they never got back to me. So finally, in Febrary of 2008, I called them up to follow up. After a long conversation with "Ernie," he blamed me for being inexperienced with his product. Yes, this makes sense, if I were an expert with the product then the seeds and defects would have magically disappeared. The Bulldog Fairy would have miraculously removed the wrinkles and puckering from the stretched canvas print. Since that time, I used "PremierArt Water Resistant Canvas for Epson" and I NEVER had a problem with that from the moment I received it. The profiles were perfect and the canvas provided a wide color gamut and a clean, blemish-free, surface. I suppose if you have an inferior product, it's much easier to blame your customers than taking responsibility for your products. I'm not the only one who vouches for Bulldog's lack of quailty. A major media supplier told me that they stopped carrying Bulldog products for this reason.

Ernie generously offered me a "free" sample roll of their other canvas products (which I'm not interested in using anyway), if I would "pick up the $10 in shipping." Paying another $10 to get another bad product was Ernie's idea of reconcilation for the $200 that I lost. Of course, I declined his magnanimous offer and placed them on this list.