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The first night of our trip to Yosemite, the weather was all over the place.  It was sunny, then cloudy, then raining, then sunny.  In the evening, we decided to take a chance and drive up Glacier Point Road – a 16 miles road that eventually gives a spectacular view of the valley rim, including Half Dome, a landmark made famous by the Ansel Adams print called  Monolith, The Face of Half Dome taken in 1927.  The road is closed from early November into late May, and we were fortunate that we were able to drive it.  However, we hit massive fog and rain and wondered if we should turn back.  Instead we kept going.  Around one of the many winding turns, the sky started to change again, with the sun peaking through while dark clouds and rain remained.  Then I saw it — a rainbow!  “Pull over, PULL OVER.”  Luckily there are many turn outs, areas where you can pull your car over to either let someone pass you (it’s a 35 mph, one lane road) or to gaze at the scenery. Here are some of the rainbow pictures I took prior to arriving at Glacier Point.

This is Half Dome.  Because we drove up this road nightly, I have many pictures of Half Dome and the valley in different lighting.  Stay tuned, more images will be coming.

Last night I had the pleasure of being the first guest in a telecast hosted by The Professional Quilter magazine. The topic was digital-related and it covered a few of the topics in my book. I was looking forward to taking questions.  However, the format of the telecast didn’t allow for me to hear questions from participants but rather to take them through email.  The following is one of the questions I received.  I’m sharing it and my answer in the hopes that it will be helpful to someone else in this situation.

The question:
I am trying to sell hand-dyed fabrics and am concerned about my potential customers being concerned that the color on their monitor will be the same as the fabric they receive. I was thinking of adding a swatch of white to each photo? Will this help.

Answer:

It won’t hurt, and it may give a point of reference knowing that the swatch should read white. Thus if the white fabric reads darker than it should, chance are the hand-dyed fabric would also be darker.

The main question is can you match what your customer sees on his/her monitor to the actual fabric they receive. The answer is you generally cannot guarantee what your customer sees.  Why?  There are several factors that are outside of your control.  They include:

• how the person’s monitor is calibrated (if it’s even calibrated);
• what the age of the monitor is;
• where the person views the monitor — is it in direct sunlight? shade? a room with brightly colored wall? and so on;
• is there is a busy, colorful background pattern surrounding the displayed website;
• even the person’s vision and color perception will come into play.

To alert your customers, consider including a statement on your fabric page that the color being displayed may vary from the actual color of the fabric. If color is critical, the person should contact you for more information. Something like ..

“I have made every effort to photographically represent that fabric as best as possible. However, because of the wide variations in monitor quality and color settings, I cannot guarantee that what you see on your monitor will exactly match the actual fabric color. If color is critical and you have any questions about the fabric, please contact me and I will be happy to help.”

If you have a digital-related question that you’d like to ask me, please drop me a line and I’ll try to help.