Publish A Quality Photo Book With Your Digital Pictures
Most of us know how much fun it is to take hundreds of pictures with our great digital cameras. Gone are the days that you had to send your roll of film out for processing (film? what’s that?) and then wait a week or two to get them back to finally see what they actually look like! Am I a photographer or just an amateur? Well, either way, when it comes to capturing those special moments with whatever is behind the shutter we are all pros. There is just nothing like remembering those great times, be it the birth of a child, or the first bike ride, a graduation, a once in a lifetime vacation, or that night goofing around with friends. Whatever it was that brought real meaning and fulfillment to our lives it is captured for us in those pictures. And when we dig them out and take a look, the reliving and the story telling is just as much fun!
Now, thanks to some new technology there are new and fun ways to save those precious memories and even make some pretty unique gifts out of them as well; the kind of gifts that are really special for those we love. I’m talking about photo expression software or digital photo publishing and it is a great way to create your own special gifts and mementos that are about as personal as it gets. Think how cool it would be to take all those pictures from your family vacation and have them sorted and organized into a beautifully bound book with your own captions and comments set with a theme that you choose and create yourself on your own computer. These types of “photo books” are not your ordinary photo album where you stick a picture on a page and replace the transparent plastic sheet over it to hold the photo in place. These are quality books like the books you buy in bookstores. Only these photo books have your photos and captions printed right on the high quality pages and bound just for you. You can have them bound in soft cover or hard cover with or without a dust jacket, even with premium leather – a great choice for a photo book you want to have as a family heirloom. They really are nice as a keepsake for your family or given as a gift. Of course with these photo books the pricing will vary depending on the amount of pages and the binding selected. Because you do all of the design and picture selections, you can keep it at whatever price range you want.
Not only can you create custom photo books but some other really fun and unique items for gifts and keepsakes too, like key chains and luggage tags with your picture on them. Spotting your luggage on the carousel at baggage claim just got a little easier! There is, of course, the old stand by coffee mug with pictures of the kids for the Grandparents, and t-shirts, mouse pads, drink coasters, even jigsaw puzzles! How about a calendar with pictures of last year’s family vacation, or a refrigerator magnet with a picture of the family pet? Wow, just when you thought taking digital pictures was starting to get old hat!
So, where do you go to get started? There are several options out there. But buyers beware; not all photo development sites are created equal! The most visible have been CVS, Kodak Easy Share Gallery, Shutterfly and Snapfish. They all have a wide variety of products from quality single prints to photo books and gifts. All of these will require you to set up an account and login each time you want to use their sites, and then you have to upload all of your pictures before you can get started. That can take some time. But there is another that has come into the picture called RocketLife and they have made some significant improvements over the others.
RocketLife has won two prestigious DIMA (the Digital Imaging Marketing Association) 2009 Innovative Digital Product Awards for RocketLife Touch™ and RocketLife Mobile™ at the PMA convention held recently in Las Vegas. PCMag.com, October 2008 wrote, "What sets (RocketLife) apart is its ability to add more than a handful (even hundreds) of photos at a time from your computer or Phanfare account." After testing by InfoTrends, RocketLife proved to have a lot more going for it and overall was just easier, faster and more fun to use that all the others.
RocketLife’s technology allows you to do all of the fun stuff from your computer and select websites that have the software. After the free download, you launch the software and work on your computer with your photos saved on your computer. The software has a host of powerful creative and editing tools ready for you to play with. Only after you are done designing your photo book and personal creations are your pictures uploaded with your order. With RocketLife stores there is no login and you work with the software on your computer, not on the web server. This makes for a faster, carefree and fun experience. And, it is all free to use for as long as you want. You only pay for the products you order.
Well, I hope that this article has given you some new ideas for what to do with all those digital pictures you have stored on your computer and discs. You owe it to yourself to look into this fun way of saving your memories for your family and friends. You’ve taken all those great photos, now isn’t it time to publish them? Even your business could make some very affordable promotional items such as a photo book of your projects or drink coasters for your clients with your logo and their name on it. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination! By the way, all of this is quite affordable; multi-image coffee mugs are about $15.00, t-shirts are around $16.00 and photo books start at around $20.00 and go upward of $175.00 and more, depending on the number of pages and the type of binding. Now, go have some fun!
About the Author
Don Graniero is a minister and small business owner. He would like you to experience the fun of RocketLife's photo expression software at www.RocketLifeGifts.com
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