Get Cards Printed and Share Photos Online
December 17, 2009
If you are one of those people who are well organized you will have already had Christmas cards printed and sent out weeks ago… but if like me and many others Christmas has crept up on you and you’ve suddenly realized that it’s too late to get your own personalized photo cards printed in time to send out, what can you do? Well there may not be time to print out Christmas cards, but you can still upload them to a photo sharing site with a special greeting message and share your Christmas photos online or by e-mail for friends to enjoy.
Many photo sharing sites offer a lot of other services too, including Photoworks who offer a huge range of photo cards in all sorts of designs. It may be too late to get personalized Christmas cards printed, but what about sending New Year’s greetings cards instead. Or making a personalized set of thank you cards to send out to family and friends who have sent you gifts this Christmas.
The great thing about sending late non-Christmas cards, is that you can use some of your best festive photos from Christmas to put on the card, so they still have a seasonal feel, but you don’t have to be in such a hurry to get them sent out. You can take your time writing individual thoughtful messages in each card, instead of just hurriedly signing your name. It may be more traditional to get all your cards to the recipient before Christmas Day, but they’ll have more time to read and appreciate your thoughtful greetings after the Christmas rush is over.
I suggest a combination of e-mail cards or photo sharing and a printed personalized photo card as a solution to last minute Christmas greetings. An e-mail shows you re thinking about the person, but once looked at it will be lost in the e-mail inbox and maybe never looked at again. A printed card with a photo of your kids may take pride of place on grandma’s dresser for months to come, or smile down from the refrigerator for the rest of the year. You could even have a set of cards printed especially for your children to write their own thank you letters to grandparents and family.
A personalized photo card is much more meaningful and lasting than an e-mail, even if it does come late. Plus there is something about handwritten messages, especially in this day and age of typed e-mails, that is so much more personal and special.
Mum and Photographer
Archival Photo Storage Supplies
December 16, 2009
No matter what your photo storage needs, they can be met with the numerous kinds of archival photo storage supplies. There are storage systems for those who want to use boxes, albums, scrapbooks, or hang your pictures like file folders. There is a national standard for having a product be deemed archival safe. The American National Standards have given the recommendations on film and print storage.
Photo Boxes
Photo storage boxes come in a variety of sizes. Will you be storing your photos permanently in boxes or do you need a place to store them temporarily until you can store them differently? Do you need a place to store unfinished scrapbook pages without them getting messed up? Look into scrapbook size photo boxes. The photo storage boxes allow you to file your photos in a variety of manner, so they can be easily customized to your personal taste.
Albums and Scrapbooks
You can still have your photos in an album without have to scrapbook them. The album should not be the magnetic page style if you want your albums preserved for future generations. The adhesive on the pages will lead to yellowing and premature aging of the photos. You can make your own album placing archival grade pages in a three style binder that is archival grade. Scrapbooking is a fun way to tell the story of your photos. You will need storage for your photos that you are not currently using in the theme of your scrapbook. When shopping for scrapbook supplies make sure that they do mention that they are archival safe. True quality scrapbook supplies will be archival safe.
File Folders
You can put your photos in archive quality folders that can hang in your filing cabinet. Wondering where you should put all those negatives that you have floating around? There are specifically designed archive quality folders to store them, where they can be enjoyed for years to come. You can place slides you might have in these types of file folders.
Some exciting things have come out of the mass public is looking to store their photos long term. The scrapbooking world has become so large to accommodate all their fans. The supplies have come down in price. They are also offering more colors to match your décor. The supplies are easier to find and
there are more supplies to choose. Now that the general public knows how to preserve their photos, we just need to remember to identify the people in the pictures.
Capture The Joy And Share Your Christmas Photo Album Online
December 15, 2009
When you have kids, the magic of Christmas comes back into your life again. Seeing the awe on their faces as they gaze at the myriad of sparkling lights on the Christmas tree, enjoying the ninety fifth rendition of Away in the Manger just as much as the first, loving all the secrecy and suspended excitement over the wrapping of presents, going wild with the glitter glue to create Christmas cards for everyone they know, all these moments are ones that you want to capture to create a special Christmas photo album that you can share online with your family, so they too can share your kids joy at rediscovering Christmas.
Make sure that you take enough time out of the adult stress and rush of Christmas preparations to share this innocent joy with your children. Camera in hand you can rediscover that childhood awareness of Christmas as a special time and step out of the stress of crazy malls and too much to do in too little time.
Make time to photograph the quiet moments as well as the big events: your child patiently drawing a special card, or working hard on making an angel out of silver foil and string, helping make cookies with flour all over them, hanging the first ornament on the tree or secretly feeling the presents to try and guess what is in each one. All these things have a place in your photo album, alongside all the bigger events like the nativity play and carol concerts. Even babies get some feeling of Christmas as a special time, as they lie watching twinkling lights or crawl into a mass of wrapping paper to enjoy the rustling sounds.
Now is the time to concentrate on capturing the moments, both special and ordinary. Take lots of photos of all the preparations for Christmas. We all know that the day itself goes by in a flash, but the excitement is here already with every breath of frosty air, every scent of cinnamon wafting from the kitchen.
No-one expects you to find the time to make albums in the midst of all the Christmas preparations. But by taking all these photos now you will have all the material you need to create a gorgeous photo album when Christmas is over and things start to feel a bit flat. You’ll be able to relive all those special moments, which you hardly had time to enjoy at the time, as you work on putting together an album that you can send out to family as part of a Christmas thank you e-mail, or you can just put your album online for invited friends and family to view.
Mum and Photographer
Cool Photo Gifts
December 13, 2009
Giving the perfect gift is such a satisfying feeling. Can you imagine the feeling you will receive when they are opening up the cool photo gifts? Now that most people have gone digital, giving a photo gift is easier than ever. There are so many cool items that you can have a photo placed on. It does not matter who you are shopping for you can find something for everyone.
Gifts for Her
By giving her a purse or tote with brag pockets, she can switch the photos she is displaying as often as she wants. Photos can be turned in 3D sculptures; can be life size or small enough to stick on the fridge. Looking for something in the sparkling line up, give her jewelry with her favorite people incorporated in the design. You can find different styles of earrings, watches, bracelets and necklaces.
Gifts for Him
Dress up his desk by giving him a pen set or business card holder with a photo of a loved one. Do you have a basketball fan in your live? Have the backboard of a mini basketball set decorated with his favorite picture. A dart board customized with a photo is a excellent way to relieve stress. You can place his photo on the cover of a magazine and have the cover tailored to him.
Gifts for the Kids
Every kid likes to hear about themselves, they can be a star in their own book. You can have their picture or pictures of individual family members included in the book. Paper dolls are on a whole new level when the child’s picture helps create the doll. Jigsaw puzzles are a lot of fun for all ages and now you can take a favorite picture turned into a jigsaw puzzle. Another toy item the Rubik’s cube, you can accommodate six pictures on the cube.
For the Home
Need a space heater but would love something that can go with your decor a little better? You can have a photo turned into a heater. The photo is framed with an electric heating unit behind it. A little light shows that the heater is turned on. Have a favorite photo turned into bedding, pillows or even a dog bed. Need a hostess gift? Customize a bottle of wine that you select and then have photo placed on the label you can design. You can customize a wine cooler or other pieces of furniture with a photo of your choice. Do you ever feel that people walk all over you? Now your friends can literally walk all over you when you put your photo on a door mat.
Photo gifts are extremely personalized and very hard to forget who gave you the present. Take the time to have fun with photo and the gift you choose. Your gift will be enjoyed for years to come.
Last Minute Gifts for the Keen Photographer – Photo Storage Supplies
December 10, 2009
So we’re running out of time to do the Christmas shopping and there are still gifts to buy for important people in our lives. If we haven’t already ordered them it’s getting a bit late to create a personalized gift with special photos, but there are still gifts that we can get and make a little bit special for the keen photographer in our life.
One thing a photographer always needs more of is photo storage supplies. However many albums, boxes and memory cards they have, if they take a lot of photos they use up the space in no time. Now it may not sound like a very romantic or personal gift, but if it is something that your partner will really use, they’ll appreciate it far more than a conventionally romantic gift. To make a gift like this more personal there are plenty of things you can do.
Perhaps what your photographer partner most needs is more secure computer storage space for his or her photographic data. An external hard drive would be incredibly useful for that. They can use it as a back up, unplug it and keep it in a safe or other secure place, so that they always have spare copies of their precious photos no matter what happens to the computer. To give a personal touch to a gift like this, one idea would be, to plug the hard drive in secretly before you wrap it and save a special file on it to surprise your partner when they first use it. You could put on a photo that has precious memories for you both, a poem, a letter or just a loving message.
Does your partner only have one memory card for their camera? Why not get them a spare one, so that they never run out of space, even when you’re away on vacation. Small in size, this would make a thoughtful gift to put in a stocking or it can be tucked inside a hand-made Christmas card. Just make sure that you know the exact make and model of their camera before you go shopping, so that you get the right size of memory card.
If the photographer in your life prints out all their photos they are bound to need more photo albums. Take a look at the way they store their prints. Do they spend ages creating scrapbook style photo albums, or do they prefer to slot prints into pocket pages for speed and ease of storage? Buy them an archival quality photo album with plenty of pages and personalize it by tucking a special picture or poem into the first page.
All these gifts can be bought at the last minute at a photographic store, or there may just be time to order them online before Christmas, but check delivery dates before you order.
Mum and Photographer
Purchase Back-Up Batteries for Your Digital Cameras So You Don’t Miss A Shot
December 8, 2009
Picture the scenario: it’s Christmas Day. You have all the family gathered together from far flung states for this one day. You grab your trusty digital camera to take a group photo of everyone to remember this special time. You set up the shot carefully, test the flash and look at your camera. There is a warning light. The batteries need replacing. You search your camera bag, but you know that you forgot to put camera batteries on your Christmas shopping list. There were so many other things to remember. If you’re lucky, someone else has spares for you to use. But otherwise your chance of a special family photo is lost.
To save yourself from this unthinkable fate for a keen photographer it makes sense to always purchase a back-up set of batteries, or even two for your digital cameras. The more advanced the camera, the more it uses up battery power, especially if you are using the camera flash. You can go through a set of batteries in no time, especially on festive occasions when you are trying to record every moment and get portraits of everyone present.
The best way to solve the problem of fading batteries is to invest in several sets of rechargeable batteries and a good quality battery charger. They don’t cost too much and it really is a worthwhile investment as it will save you a lot of money over time. Look for battery chargers that charge rapidly, as well as ones that can select two or four battery charging settings. They should also take various battery sizes for versatility. You can even get chargers that plug into the car cigarette lighter for when you are traveling.
On days when you will be taking a lot of photos you can have one set of batteries waiting fully charged in your camera bag, another set in your camera and a third set charging, so that you will never run out of power and miss an important shot. Make a habit of checking your batteries before you set out for a day of photography and double checking that you have a spare set with you.
Another useful gadget is a multimeter or voltmeter, so that you can check that the batteries are fully charged. Rechargeable batteries don’t last forever and if just one loses its charge it can stop the whole set functioning properly. By checking the batteries regularly you can save yourself a lot of lost photo opportunities on special occasions.
Mum and Photographer
Organizing Your Pictures
December 5, 2009
Photo storage and display essentials from Betty Muscott
Last weekend in my blog we discussed organizing hard copy or printed pictures; this weekend we will discuss organizing & storing your digital pictures in an archival format.
Burn Your Pictures To A CD
After you download your pictures to your computer, I recommend that before you start any work on them, that you burn them to a CD or DVD & preferably in the RAW. This will give you the maximum flexibility to both have a back up to your hard drive on your computer & to be able to work on them should your hard drive crash on you. Some of you have who more than one drive on your computer can make a copy to that drive, but drives are mechanical and can fail. Anything that can fail, someday will fail.
The Best CDs and DVDs For Storing Photos
I have consulted a computer technical expert about the kinds of CD’s & DVD’s are the best to use for storing pictures. I was advised that I should the CD- or DVD- because they will work on most machines, even the older ones. Try to avoid the CD+ or DVD+ or the RW’s.
CDs Don’t Last Forever
Did you know that CD’s & DVD’s corrode & rust? I didn’t until recently. Normally, they last from only 2-20 years depending upon how they are stored. The best recommendation is to store your digital material where you live, not in the basement or the attic of your home.
My Recommendations
Archival Photo Storage Albums
Archival Photo Storage CDs
Make Extra Copies
Archival Storage Boxes
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
- Sign up for our FREE eBook and discover how to take wonderful and interesting photographs of your children:
