Make Personalized Photo Christmas Cards For An Affordable and Unique Gift
September 15, 2009
Sometimes the simplest ideas are best. When you’re looking for creative ways to use those gorgeous pictures of your kids, to make unique and personalized photo gifts, you can get carried away by all the brilliant ideas that are available online. It would be wonderful to order canvas prints for all the family, or have that picture printed onto photo blankets or pillows, but if you have a big family and a limited budget, sometimes it’s unrealistic. What you can do with that stunning photo of your kids, which is just crying out for special treatment, is make it into Christmas cards.
It’s very easy to make personalized Christmas cards out of your photos. Online you’ll find hundreds of options to order a pack of photo cards with envelopes included. Some of them incorporate your photos into a traditional Christmas card design, so that the photos of your children will be peeking out from Christmas tree baubles or be surrounded by a choir of angels. Others use a simple graphic design and allow you to print your own personalized message.
The advantage of these simpler photo cards is that your family is more likely to keep the photo on display all year round. Also if you have taken a great picture of your baby or kids, you often want to be able to show it off without the distraction of holly, mistletoe and robins draped all around it.
Perhaps September is a little early to start thinking about Christmas, but by ordering your Christmas photo cards now you’ll be ahead of the game and won’t have to worry about last minute delays with the holiday rush.
Don’t feel you have to dress your kids up in Santa Claus hats for a special photo shoot. Choose any gorgeous photo you’ve taken of them recently. Often a simple close-up portrait is most effective. The most important thing is that the photo is up to date, so that you give family and friends an idea of how your family looks now another year has passed.
If your kids love dressing up though, think of some different outfits they could wear to make an original picture especially for your Christmas card. Fairies, princesses and ballerinas would look great on a Christmas card and so would firemen and pirates! Get out some strands of tinsel and baubles and have your kids decorate a tree in the garden for a backdrop to your photo, or just snap away as they decorate and see what you get. You can have great fun taking photos of your kids getting festive in September in the spirit of Let’s Pretend and you’ll have all the satisfaction of being way ahead on the holiday season too!
There Is An Easy Website For Every Type Of Online Picture Sharing That You Desire.
September 14, 2009
Everyone online and many who aren’t are taking advantage of picture sharing. With family and friends all over the world, it’s strange that staying in touch is easier than ever. Letters, phone calls and emails have taken a backseat to mass communication. Twitters might be less personal, but they certainly get the job done quickly.
I use a variety of websites to keep the people in my life updated on the important things going on, like my son happily ringing in his first birthday. Each has its specific advantages and uses and I utilize them to stay connected.
Aiden excitedly turns 1!
My father’s side of the family has their own website where I post photos of family that they know, while recent pictures of my in-laws visit got posted onto my husband’s Facebook page. It helps to keep things organized and everyone able to take a quick peek at the pictures that interest them.
I like to post my more artistic photos on a site with a gorgeous black background where other photographers can critique them. And when I need prints quickly I load them onto Wal-mart’s site and pick them up when I get my groceries. I also use that site to have pictures printed at my Nana’s local store since she doesn’t have a computer and it is much faster than mail.
That photo sharing has become mainstream amongst blogs and chatting applications is another bonus. Using a photo to illustrate a posting, or telling the tale that surrounds the picture has taken sharing to a new level. Whether you want to share your baby’s first smile or an old prom picture there is are easy applications to make it available to everyone you want to share that memory with.
You can use one website or a variety, depending on what you want to share with whom. If your community website is frequented by the majority of those you care to share with then make the most of their photo applications. If your family and friends are wide spread and have never met you may want to target your audience by using a variety of sites.
There are more photo sharing websites available than ever. Uploading takes seconds rather than minutes or hours, and nearly everyone that you want to share your precious memories with has some sort of internet access. It is easier than ever to give your child access to every member of his family and vice versa, with a camera and a computer no one has to miss milestones or everyday entertainment.
Photograph Your Pets Too – A Different Dog Story
September 12, 2009
Our family has owned a few different dogs over the years. After growing up and leaving the farm to live in the suburbs, we have had some very nice dogs. The first one was a collie, and the last two have both been golden retrievers. They have all been very loving animals and very nice companions for our family.
My Dog
Only the last one named Shadow did I ever consider really being “my dog.” I thought that it was because he spent so much of his time as a puppy with me.
Growing Up On A Dairy Farm
When I was growing up on a dairy farm, pets were a different matter. They had work to do just as we did. The first dog that I even remember was a little black puppy with white tipped paws that my mother named “Tippy.” Tippy didn’t live long because he was run over accidentally by my grandfather who felt so bad about the accident that he gave us his own dog. His dog was a German Shepard named “Nip” and you can guess as to why he was given that name!
However, Nip was a one man dog as are most German Shepards, and he never accepted anybody in our family to be the special one other than my Grandfather. Because my grandfather worked with us on our family farms, he came to our home on most week days from spring through the fall. So, Nip was delighted at his arrival. But when my father would go work at my grandfathers farm, and return home late in the day to do the milking, Nip would smell the running boards of the truck for my grandfathers scent.
Never Tease A Dog
I learned early in life not to tease a dog. One day Nip had caught a pheasant and was standing at the lane entrance from the barnyard. I was across the barnyard from him in the gateway between the horse barn and the milk house. I thought that I would make fun of him like a silly kid. I put my thumbs in my ears and waved my fingers at him saying Na! Na! Na! Na! Na! That was the wrong thing to do, because Nip put his pheasant down and ran across the barn yard and bit me in the face! I never teased him again, but years later, when he was dying, I went into the hay mow where he was and with tears in my eyes, I talked to him.
My father was never one to let an animal suffer, and I remember the next day playing in the farm house while knowing that my father had taken his shotgun out to shoot Nip outside. I put my hands over my ears as I tried to accept something that I didn’t understand. Later, that night I rode with my father on our little Ferguson tractor, and we took Nip in the front end loader down the lane and back to the woods to bury him. On a farm, you learn the realities of life very young.
Our Next Dog
Sport The Farm Dog
Our next dog was a little black puppy that my father named “Sport.” I still remember Sport as a black furry ball trying to navigate the deep snow as he followed me from barn to barn doing my chores that January. Later, that summer, Sport was killed in the road by a large truck. Then a white and black collie named Shep came to live with us as a puppy. Sheppy really became my baby sister’s dog. Shep also had a pension to wander to other farms & one of our neighbors had sheep and he shot any dog that came onto his property.
One time Shep was missing for several days, and my little sister felt for certain that he was dead. Shep had been hurt badly somehow, and had made his way home where my sister found him about halfway from the back of our farm trying to drag himself home. She went back to the house and got her radio flyer red wagon and took it back to where Shep was and very gently lifted him into the wagon and pulled him up the lane to the house where she took care of him. Since, I had left home by then, I didn’t know just what happened to Shep after that.
Shep and my baby sister Ruth
Be Sure To Photograph Your Pets
The moral of the story is this: Be sure to photograph your pets (all of them) with members of your family. For all of the love & devotion that they give you, you certainly owe them this remembrance.
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
Re-capture Your Summer With A Photo Printed On To Canvas
September 10, 2009
Summer is drawing to a close and the kids are back at school. Now is a great time to look through all the photos you’ve taken of your kids this summer and pick out the best ones to get them printed. You could put together a whole series to make a photo album of your vacation or just pick out one photo that really captures the joyous feeling of your family vacation and get it printed on to canvas so that the memory will last you forever.
Canvas prints are a fantastic way of preserving and displaying your very best photos and building up a gallery of gorgeous memories of your children. Good canvas prints are printed on archival quality canvas, which will last for over a hundred years and are coated with a special UV protective spray to stop them fading. They are the equivalent of the ancestral oil paintings hanging on the walls of stately homes, except that these days they are affordable for all of us and much more fun!
You don’t need to choose solemn portraits for your canvas prints. Any informal moment that captures your kids with happy laughing smiles has the makings of a wonderful picture for your family gallery. Vacations are great times to grab these moments when you are relaxed and have more time to spend with your kids and just play with them and with your camera.
Make a selection of all the pictures of your kids that you like from your summer and then view them large on your computer screen in a slideshow. Look through it several times, stand back and see how the pictures look from a distance. You should begin to get a feel of which photos will translate into prints that you’ll enjoying looking at on the wall for the years to come. Of course no-one is saying that you just have to choose one photo to print. A whole series of photos from one vacation can make a very effective display on your wall. You are only limited by the space that you have available on your walls and by your budget for printing.
Remember too that when you send your photos off to be printed on canvas you can ask for some re-touching to be done, so if there is a picture that you love which is spoiled by an unsightly background or a splash of chocolate ice-cream down the front of a pretty summer dress, then you can still have it printed with the help of a little digital magic.
So get sorting through your summer photos and re-capture your vacation with a beautiful canvas print of your kids having the time of their lives.
Will You Buy The Newest Canon Rebel Camera?
September 10, 2009
The newest Canon Rebel Camera was announced to the public on March of 2009. The Canon EOS Rebel T1i has impressive features that are difficult to beat in the entry-level, under $1,000 SLR category. Just imagine the detailed color rich pictures you will be taking with this 15.1-megapixel digital SLR camera.
The Canon EOS Rebel T1i body is essentially the same as the Rebel XSi. They both weigh 1.2 pounds, and you can use the same optional handgrip/battery pack. The T1i also uses a SD or SDHC memory card, so you will not find the same problem that might occur with a compact flash. The compact flash pins sometimes are bent because they are installed sideways and no longer can be used. The large 3 inch LCD screen has continued with the T1i. You will be able to find the same 9 point Autofocus (AF). A feature I appreciate is that most of the buttons are grouped on the right side and have their own feel, so you can use them without looking. As with the XSi, the T1i is compatible with the 60 plus lenses that Canon offers.
Live View Mode
The Live view mode has three different AF modes, Quick, Live and Face detection mode. The face detection mode can focus on faces within 35 feet. Quick mode allows you to use one of the 9 point AF points to focus on and shoot. The live mode also includes a grid or blocks to allow you to line up your image so that it is straight.
HD Movie Mode
Two new modes appear on the dial of the new T1i. The first mode is the HD movie mode. The right-hand side of the body contains a microphone for recording your HD Movie. This mode does not work quite like a camcorder that we are use to using. The camera does not auto focus continuously and needs to AF-Lock button activated. The best comparison I have heard is that it is video snapshots. You will be focusing as you are recording but you can edit your video on the computer.
The Creative Auto Mode
The second is creative auto mode allows photographers to make adjustments such as shutter speed on the LCD screen. Simple wording such as blurred background and exposure level can be controlled by a slide bar. This allows for easier and more confident adjustments for beginning photographers.
As technology progress, the digital camera options are becoming more competitive as well as more consumer friendly. The Rebel T1i was introduced in less than two years from the last Xs and XSi models. The T1i builds on their foundation while keeping up with consumer demands.
The Canon EOS Rebel XS digital SLR camera, is it the next step for you?
September 8, 2009
Why the XS?
The Canon EOS Rebel XS digital SLR camera introduced to the public in July, 2008. The XS is considered an entry level dSLR with high-end functions. Great for the consumer who wants to switch from a point and shoot camera to a dSLR. This camera has such flexibility that even experienced photographers will enjoy.
What are the basics?
The XS has 10.1 megapixels for clear detailed pictures. While, the EF-s 18-55mm lens comes with the camera it can support all Canon EOS series lenses. Currently, there are over 60 lenses in the Canon EOS line up. Optical Image Stabilizer lenses, that Canon does make, help you obtain clear, blurry-free precious memories. You have a wide range of automatic or manual modes to improve your picture taking. Reading the owner’s manual is an ideal place to start. I think trying out the functions is the fun part of picture taking. The large 2.5” LCD monitor makes viewing easier, so you can choose to save or remove the pictures. The XS uses a SDHC or SD memory card that needs to be purchased to keep your images before downloading to your computer.
Are you ready for distinctive features?
The XS has excellent distinctive features that can be difficult to find for the under $1,000 camera category. One such feature is Live View mode which has two focusing modes, Quick and Live. Live View modes are as the title states, pictures in real time. The pictures are viewed on the LCD Screen instead of using the viewfinder. These modes require you to hold the camera away from you as with a point and shoot camera. The stability needed for these modes would be easier accomplished by using a tripod instead of holding the camera yourself. If you are looking for continuous shots for that just right picture of a moving subject, the Rebel XS is the first in Canon’s EOS products. You can shoot until your memory card is full. Continuous Shooting mode, according to Canon, captures as many as 54 images as fast as 3 frames per second. The built in retractable flash with red-eye reduction has a topside shoe for an external flash. A fabulous option for those of us who forget to charge our batteries is the external hand grip/battery pack. Place six AA batteries will get you going again. The hand grip besides adding 1.5” of height to the camera offers additional secondary controls. The USB cable that comes with the XS offers 2.0 connectivity with TWAIN driver for the PC and Adobe Photoshop plug-in for Macintosh.
The Canon Rebel XS has a wide range of functions at an exceptional price point. If you are ready to take the next step into the world of SLR, then this camera would make an excellent fit.
A Cute Baby Photo Contest Could End Up In The Movies
September 8, 2009
Have you ever wondered where they find the cute kids who feature in movies and advertising? Are they related to the director or the adult actors? Well the truth is it could just as easily be your cute kid in that movie, if you are prepared to put in the work and take some really great photos of your baby. A cute baby photo contest is a brilliant entrée into the showbiz world, if that is what you’re after for your child. Start by entering one of the monthly cute kid contests and you could find your child called up for a casting in New York for a nationwide advertising campaign.
If you’ve got twins and triplets, you know how much hard work goes into raising them. But if you’re tempted by the movie business that hard work and love could pay off in a big way, because identical twins or triplets are in huge demand for photo shoots and movies. You can keep an eye on all the latest casting calls on www.thecutekid.com and send in your kids’ photos to the casting agents, as well as to the photo contests and give your kids a chance to be discovered.
There are a few things to bear in mind before your dreams of fame and fortune for your kids start you planning out your big night at the Oscars!
• First of all, most castings take place in the major cities, with New York and LA top favorites, so it helps a lot if you live within easy distance.
• Second, your child needs to have an out-going temperament to enjoy this sort of activity. Kids only look good in photos when they’re having fun, so if your child doesn’t like bright lights and talking to strangers, then they are unlikely to shine on the casting circuit.
• Doing the rounds of the castings can be time-consuming for you as well as your child. You may have to wait all day to be seen and end up being disappointed, as only one child will be chosen at the end, and it may not be yours. Go for fun and be prepared to enjoy it as a day out and a chance to meet other Moms and kids. Let your child think that it is a fun day out, and don’t weigh him down with too much expectation.
• The starting point for these all-important castings is a set of great photos of your children that really show their personality. Even if you don’t end up on the casting circuit those photos could win you prizes in the monthly and annual photo contests, so it’s worth spending plenty of time photographing your child with that in mind.
There have been some amazing success stories of kids who have started off winning a cute kid photo contest and gone on to featuring in movies. So indulge your dreams a little and start taking pictures of your kids. You never know what might happen and in the mean time you can have the fun of the photos themselves. After all you already know that your child is the star of the show!
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