Shutter Mike Photography

When digital photography started to take off and almost everyone started to have a digital camera an off-shoot industry started to take root as well;  the photo printing industry.  Today it is a huge business and you can have your photographs printed on almost anything.  Canvas prints are very popular but they are just the beginning.  If it can be printed on, someone is undoubtedly offering to print your photos on it.  I have tried and reviewed several of the canvas printers and was generally happy with the results of all of them.  But I had never tried printing on any of the other media that is available until recently.

ZaZa Gallery, known for their high quality canvas prints – see my review of their prints – has expanded to include tile coasters printed with your photographs.  So I figured I would give it a try, selected 4 of my favorite photographs and ordered a set of 4.  They arrived the other day so I figured I’d share my thoughts.

• Shipping Time:  No complaints here on the shipping time.  We’re not talking Amazon fast where you have it almost before you ordered it, but completely reasonable time frame.  It took a few days to process the order and I had it 2 days after I got notification that it had shipped.  So about a week from ordering to having it in hand is not too bad.
• Packaging:   Everything arrived safe and sound.  The tiles were in bubble wrap bags and securely taped to cardboard to avoid movement during shipment.  It is obvious thought went into the packaging process to make sure the product got to the end destination without incident. So I think you can be confident you won’t receive a box of tile dust.
• Image Quality:   Image quality is directly related to the quality of the image you submit to be printed.  I submitted 4 sunset scenes that I had taken around the country.  Three of the four tiles turned out amazing.  Great color and detail.  I was very happy with the results.  The fourth tile was a victim of my image quality.  It was a darker image and had more noise than I initially realized.  So although it came out perfectly acceptable it doesn’t look as nice as the others.  Lesson learned (and passed on to you) – make sure you are sending your best quality, high resolution, low noise images.  The end results can be fantastic, but you have to start out with quality image files.
• Overall Product Quality:  The 4″ x 4″ tile coaster from ZaZa Gallery is a high quality product.  The tiles are marble and coated with a shinny surface to protect the image and make it perfect for a sweating ice tea on a summer day.  They are also backed in cork to protect your table tops (the purpose of a coaster of course).  You get a really quality product that with the right photographs can look like something you would pick up in a gift shop or department store.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
• Final Rating:   the end result is I think these tile coasters are worth the 5 out of 5 cameras rating.  Shipping time is perfectly reasonable for a custom order item such as these.  They are securely packed for safe shipping to your door.  And most important, the quality of the tiles and the printing are high.  You can definitely get photo coasters cheaper.  But they are usually not on tiles and you do risk the quality issue.  So for something built to last and that can be something you display on your end table, not hide in the drawer until the drinks come out, these are a great choice.