I made the trip of a lifetime to New York City to see my son’s photograph up in the big lights, and it all happened in less than 72 hours. But let me back up and share how this all came to be.

You may recall the great contest sponsored by Kodak where they wanted to hear from us folks at the Corner on why we would want an easy to use, solid printer with quality pigment based ink at half the cost that produced prints that last a lifetime. When I saw the contest I immediately thought of the many photographs of my son taken through his short life, and with a great printer that would scan and produce solid prints at a price I could afford, I would be able to share his photographs with my family and friends.

Well, Sayambhu and I were chosen the lucky winners! While I won the Kodak EasyShare 5300 (I love this printer!!!!), both Sayambhu and I were honored to have one of our photographs featured as the Kodak Picture of the Day up in Times Square.

Call it a coincidence if you like, but when one of the dates Marianna O’Brien, Editor for Kodak Picture of the Day wrote and suggested my son’s birthday for the display, I was amazed, and was overwhelmed with joy that the night would be a true celebration of Cedric’s life in a very grand fashion. My sister in Michigan agreed, and flew me to New York to share the moment together with my niece, Lindsey.

The trip to New York was a whirlwind and I believe we conquered a big part of the City in record time. From one end of town to another we trekked about, pausing only a moment to grab a shot here and there to remember it all.

We got to Times Square to grab a few shots of Sayambhu’s photograph. It looked absolutely fantastic up on the Kodak board! The warm tones were inviting in the cool night air, and his photograph and credits proudly displayed for all of Times Square to look up and admire.

On Saturday night we rushed back right at midnight as the photographs changed up, and there he was, my beautiful son looking at me and everyone else in Times Square. It struck me that no matter where I stood, whenever I looked up, my son’s eyes sought mine, and with his smile he was saying “I am alright mom.” It was such a magical moment that I was spellbound and lost for words. All I could say was a whispered “Happy Birthday Cedric.”

And this is where I want to send out a thank you to some very special people. First, thank you Tim, you are the best and we all appreciate your hard work for us here at PhotographyCorner. To Thomas Hoehn, Director, Brand Communications and New Media at Kodak, thank you for selecting my entry, and thank you for your several personal notes relating to this special moment. Marianna O’Brien, Editor for Kodak Picture of the Day, you really do rock! I cannot tell you thank you enough for your compassion and for the superb arrangements you made to put this magic together for us, you are an angel. And finally to my sister Barb, thank you so much for making the moment a first hand celebration and dream come true by bringing me to New York to share it with you and your beautiful daughter Lindsey.

All I can say is “WOW”!!! I am extremely impressed with Kodak’s EasyShare 5300 printer. It is easy to set up and the prints truly are of lab quality. In combination with Kodak’s Ultimate photo paper, you are unable to tell the difference between a photo fresh off the printer from a print from a professional lab.

What’s nice about the scanner is that you can load up multiple photos to scan at once and the printer saves each photo individually speeding up the process of saving and preserving photographs.

Kodak’s EasyShare 5300 features include:

• High definition CCD scanner for brilliant, vivid photos and sharp, crisp documents
• Durable 100-sheet main tray plus 20-sheet 4x6 in. photo tray
• Prints borderless photos up to 8.5 x 11 in. and documents up to 8.5 x 14 in.
• Scans up to 8.5 x 11.7 in documents
• Copies with 10-500% scaling fit to page, and up to 99 copies at a time
• On-printer photo cropping using large high-resolution 3.0 in. LCD display
• Two sided document printing with optional duplex attachment (optional accessory required)
• Bluetooth wireless technology enabled (optional accessory required)

It has a powerful performance as well:

• Print up to 32 ppm black and 22 ppm color
• Lab quality 4 x 6 in. borderless photos in as little as 28 seconds
• High density 3840 nozzle permanent print head
• Large high-resolution 3.0 in. color display
• PC free photo printing from memory cards (CompactFlash I, II and Microdrive; Secure Digital; Multimedia; xD-Picture Card; Memory Stick & Memory Stick Pro.), PictBridge enabled cameras and USB drives
• Also compatible with Memory Stick Duo, miniSD & microSD with a required adapter (sold separately)

It is wonderful to be able to scan, print, and copy with pigmented inks at half the cost compared to other consumer inkjet printers. With instant dry papers, this affordable high speed printing system generates brilliant, crisp photographs that last a lifetime.

I highly recommend the Kodak EasyShare 5300 printer. It delivers durable, smudge, fade and water resistant photos that look great and last a lifetime.

I have retired my other photo printer. The Kodak EasyShare 5300 blows it away.