Ctein Print Offer

Ctein, Frozen Azure Cascades, 2014

Our old friend Ctein returns with some recent prints.

(For those of you who might be new here, Ctein, pronounced "kuh-TINE," wrote more than 300 columns for TOP in the years up to 2016, when he departed for a new career as a science fiction novelist. He wore many hats, being the site's resident technical expert, computer expert, and tea and parrot aficionado among many other things.)

We're offering three beautiful inkjet prints on premium 17x22" paper for $169 each, along with a free bonus print for people who buy three or more.

You can see large JPEGs of all the prints at the order page. Best seen on calibrated screens.

 

[UPDATE: Sale ended 2 p.m. EST Saturday, March
9th, 2019. Thanks to all who participated!]

 

Ctein, Golden Honey Xmas, 2017

If you're not familiar with our print sales, we open the order period for only a short time—in this case, three days. This sale ends on Saturday at 11 a.m. California time (PST), which is 2 p.m. in New York and Montreal (EST), 7 p.m. in London, and 6 a.m. Sunday in Sydney. Then the prints that have already been ordered and paid for are made and shipped. PLEASE NOTE! We do not accept orders after the deadline. Once the sales period closes, it's too late. Packing and shipping is $28 per package to anywhere in the world, regardless of the number of prints you order, and all prints  are both self-insured by Ctein (he'll send you a replacement if it gets lost or damaged in transit) and guaranteed (you can return it for a full refund if you're not satisfied once you see what you bought).

Twenty percent of the proceeds go to The Online Photographer, so every print sold benefits this site.

Ctein, Green Auroral Drapes, 2016

These prints represent three longtime motifs in Ctein's personal photography: natural patterns, Christmas lights, and skies. The latter includes all sorts of atmospheric phenomena and celestial bodies, everything from moonbows to nighttime rocket launches to stunning photographs of full solar eclipses. I personally think this last-mentioned motif is his biggest strength. One of Ctein's famous quotes is "nobody cares how hard you worked," but people certainly do care about what results you end up with! And this may be the single most outstanding print of an aurora borealis photograph I've ever laid eyes on—it has an eerie presence and great beauty. The JPEG does not do it justice. It's frankly entrancing. As it happens he worked exceedingly hard on the print, but we don't care. What we care about is that it is an utterly stellar print (oh, you must forgive me for that).

If you order three or more prints (in any combination), you'll get a bonus print for free— it's an infrared picture from 2016 which Ctein tells me is one of the most popular pictures he's made in recent years. You can see the bonus print on the order page.

 

[UPDATE: Sale ended 2 p.m. EST Saturday, March
9th, 2019. Thanks to all who participated!]

 

Nice to have Ctein back for a visit! Hope you like TOP's first Print Offer of 2019.

Mike

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Comments

[Richard Man]

I see Ctein occasionally, usually at SF cons, or at parties. I have no inside knowledge of this sales as nothing brought it up when I saw him last month, but I was almost certain that this would be a Ctein print offer, just by the ways you were talking about it. Good choice and good luck!

[Michael]

Looks great, I can't wait to see it in person. Glad to have another Ctein picture at a great price!

[Chip McDaniel]

It's great to see that Ctein is still working in photography. His writing shooting and printing talent has been a real pleasure over the years. I hope we'll see a follow-up to Saturn Run, which I enjoyed.

[mao]

It's nice to see friends get back together.

[Aashish Sharma]

Good to see Ctein back! This might be really pushing it, but how about a little guest post too. I have always enjoyed his writing.

[Andy Munro]

I'm glad to see Ctein back.

[Chester Williams]

Great images! If I only could....

[-et-]

Two Questions:

First - The only payment option mentioned is PayPal. In the past I have bought from Ctein using a personal check, which I prefer because he gets 100% of the money instead of losing a portion for the PayPal service. Is payment by check no longer an option, or is its omission just an inadvertent oversight?

Second - Is there any chance that the "bonus print" might be obtainable as a fourth option for purchase? For multiple reasons, the maximum number of prints I am in a position to purchase is two, and the "bonus offer" print is close on the heels of the auroral print in its appeal to me.

- Tom -

[Ctein]

Dear Tom,

1) I left off sending a personal check as an option because it didn't seem worth the bother for this modest a sale. If that's really the way you'd prefer to pay me I can accept a check; note that in your order email.

2) The meta-rule for TOP sales has always been, "Don't change the rules in the middle of the sale." I have recollections that we have made changes midstream when something has been massively screwed up; e.g., extending the closing date of the sale. But it requires exceptional circumstances.

I'm afraid this isn't one of those. The point of offering a really appealing photograph as a bonus print was to encourage people to buy all three (which several people have done).

The Prince Albert Memorial photograph is available for purchase at my normal price, but that's $425.

- pax \ Ctein
[ Please excuse any word-salad. Dragon Dictate in training! ]
======================================
-- Ctein's Online Gallery. http://ctein.com 
-- Digital Restorations. http://photo-repair.com 
======================================

[Andrew]

There are several of the prints that I would have liked to have purchased, but three days isn't enough time for my 3-kid household, between work, dinner, bedtime, etc. I look forward to future print sales, but I'll probably never be able to take advantage of one if they're always gone before I even get a chance.