So I’m swamped with work and I go to put in a quickie Wallets order for my first-ever Senior Portrait Client! It needed to get done TONIGHT because the official deadline for the photos was several days before we even scheduled the session. Knowing this, I had been giving the clients a high priority in terms of scheduling, turnaround and expedited service all together.

But I digress! Deadline for order tonight, check. So I upload one of the following senior portraits the client was interested in…

Then, all of a sudden I see this thick gray bar labeled “approximate die cut,” roughly indicating the parts of my photo that would be cut off. I do a little research and find out that the fancy schmancy printing company I use is more with the times than me and maybe kids these days like the rounded corners they can pop out and give to their friends (at least this is what I THINK it is)? I think, oh, cool, but how do I do it? The photo wouldn’t budge, I can’t manipulate it in any way and important information is being cut out with their cropping line, which is a full 1/8th of an inch thick btw! (that’s a lot for a little 2.5 by 3.5).

So I have NO IDEA. Does it crop toward the inside of the gray line, in the middle of the gray line, or toward the outside??? This is make or break for any image with information close to the edges. Refusing to give up on the die cut, I spend hours creating new Photoshop files that provide a little white frame that minimize as much as possible the amount of cropping. So confident and proud of myself to have finally figured this out, I place my order!

Before placing it I noticed there was an option to “don’t die cut images.” I figured I had done all the work for the cute rounded corners, might as well stick with the plan. I do order another sheet of no-die cut versions for myself to see the difference. Then I realize the $12 minimum order, ack! Canceled that.

A few hours later, yes, I’m STILL THINKING ABOUT THIS. The thought occurred to me that I was pretty sure the client needed this photo for the yearbook, which (unless I’ve gotten really old REALLY fast) still requires a regular square cut corner. So I CANCEL YET ANOTHER ORDER and place a new one, at this point fully expecting to get an email saying I have screwed up this order too many times, and am not allowed to place another one for at least 24 hours… like when you mess up your password for something and get locked out for too many attempts! Fortunately, the order went through, and in spite of all my attempts to mess it up, my senior will have her photos as soon as the UPS truck can bring them! Now if I could just figure out how to get my night back …

BTW, Nicole is absolutely GORGEOUS and she want’s to become a vet! Congrats Nicole!