Free Photo Book from Walgreens

For those of you who are on Facebook, you can get a FREE 5x7 photo book from Walgreens.com if you become a Walgreens fan on Facebook by October 2nd.  You'll need to pay a small shipping fee, but it's still a great price.  What a perfect way to enjoy the photos you took on that last vacation during the summer!

How Much Time is Needed to Create a Photo Book?

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I often get asked how long it takes to make a photo book.  It's hard for me to answer that question.  When I get involved in a photo book project, it becomes an engrossing labor of love for me and I end up staying up late at night working on it.  I'm so energized that the time flies by.  I also slip into being a bit of a perfectionist and I check and double check and triple check a book before I order it.  I'm probably not a typical example of how long it really takes to make a photo book.

In a recent issue of Digital Scrapbooking, an article discusses how to make fast photo albums.  One example the article describes is a dad who is not a scrapbooker and had never made a photo book before. He made a 12x12 book with 20 pages in just 7.5 hours on Shutterfly.  The breakdown of his time was 2 hours for selecting photos, 1.5 hours for uploading photos, 2 hours for placing and cropping photos, and 2 hours for journaling.  He found that Shutterfly's drag-and-drop photo templates were easy to use for a novice.

The nice thing about making photo books is that you don't need a 7.5 hour stretch of uninterrupted time to make one.  If that was required, I would never finish any photo books.  All it takes is logging onto a computer for several short periods of time.  In just 15 minutes, you can get a few pages done.  I managed to make an 85 page photo book in 1 week.  I worked on my photo book for 15 or 30 minute segments all throughout the week.  I used less time uploading photos (I set my computer to upload overnight) and I didn't do a lot of journaling.  It's surprising how quickly you can make a photo book, which is great for those of us who don't have a lot of time.

Get Free Prints AND Share All the End of School Year Photos

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It's the end of the school year (I can't believe it's here already!) and it's a great time to collect all the great photos from the past year. Here's an easy and free way to combine everybody's photos from all the field trips, class parties, and performances and make them available: set up a share site at Shutterfly. I found it was easier than setting up a Facebook page. After you set it up, let the other parents know about it and they can upload their photos to it. Before you know it, you'll have a complete set of the year's photos and any of you can download your favorites to your computer or to your Shutterfly account. Right now, Shutterfly is offering a deal where you get free prints for creating a new Share site, for adding photos to a share site, or for adding a photo book to a share site. Enjoy the memories!

End of School Memorial Day Share Offer - Earn 30 free prints for creating a Share Site; 10 free prints for adding photos to your site; 10 free prints for posting a photo book. Redeem prints by 6-26-09.

**Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak Gallery, Camera Coupons

• Today's Deals in Camera, Photo & Video at Amazon.com

• Save $5 or get a free poster when you spend $30 at Shutterfly.com. Use Promo Code: AF86-SAVE.
• Get Free shipping when you make a purchase of $30 or more. Use promo code: SHIP30. See site wide deals for more information.New Member offer, 25 free prints, see site
• Get free shipping on photo books. See site for more details. Expires 08.12.09.
• A Special Gift when you join Shutterfly: $10 reward, use code BR13-8DZ0-G7H6-9DAE4M
  
• Other deals are specific to your account, check your "My Shutterfly" page for your special deals
  

Snapfish:

• 50 FREE 4x6 prints to new customers!
• Summer Free Days from HP Snapfish! Get your FREE product of the day!
  

Kodak Gallery:

• Get Free Shipping on Prints at Kodak Gallery!
• Save 25%, use Coupon Code DADDYO
• Current Promotions at Kodak Gallery!
• Get 20 Free 4x6 prints when you join the Kodak Gallery!

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Great Time to Buy Cameras and Media Cards

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It is amazing how inexpensive digital cameras and media cards have been getting! Since I'm enjoying taking more short movies with my small, point and shoot digital camera that is always in my purse, I'm finding it would be nice to have a media card that can hold more.

I found an 8 gig media card that's selling for around 50% off right now.Transcend 8 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS8GSDHC6


Here's a great little digital camera for a great price. It's perfect to tuck in your purse and always have with you.
Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Blue)

A Quickly Created Photo Book

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I only had an hour and a half to make a 20 page photo book before some great price discounts expired.  I already had the photos uploaded to Shutterfly.  I was motivated, focused and determined to make a birthday present for my daughter.  Here's the fastest photo book I've ever made -- not bad for ninety minutes of my time and a great price.

Click here to view this photo book.

How to Get a Great Waterproof Camera!

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My favorite camera is at a great low price at Amazon right now. I love this camera. It's small enough to carry with you all the time. It takes beautiful photos and videos.

A great accessory I've come to really appreciate is a waterproof case that's made specifically for this camera. You can use this case to protect your camera in so many different situations and still have access to all the controls. I have used it at the beach and the swimming pool. With the case on, the camera can take great photos or videos underwater. I also used it while kayaking and was able to take great photos without fearing that my camera would be damaged. I really wish I had the waterproof camera case on last year's trip to Maui when we went snorkelling!

Canon PowerShot SD770IS 10MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)
Canon WP-DC23 Waterproof Case for Canon Powershot SD770IS Digital Cameras

How to Make a Digital Photo Album

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If you're brand new to making digital photo albums or photo books, here's an idea for you. Go to Shutterfly Gallery and look at the photo albums. You might get inspired with an idea of your own. You might also see a shared photo album that you would like to use as a format for your own photo album. All you have to do is select the button on the right that says "Make One Like This" and you'll be on your way.

MAKE ONE LIKE THIS - Shutterfly Gallery a destination for inspiration.

Photo Books are a Good Thing!

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You've seen a photo book, haven't you? Photo books are the new photo albums and are perfect for this age of digital photos. With a few point, click, and drags, you can create a beautiful hardbound, professional looking book with all your favorite photographs. You can even type in captions, stories and written memories. I'm addicted to creating photo books, but I know I'm in good company when even Martha Stewart says they're a "good thing." In this short video, Martha shows off some photo books she made on Kodak Gallery. Right now, Kodak Gallery has some great deals like 75 free prints when you open a new account, (until 2/13), Save $5 on Shipping when you spend $20 or more at Kodak Gallery with coupon code SHARELOVE! (until 2/16), Save $10 on Classic Photo Books and Personalized Cover Photo Books with coupon code 10OFFBOOKS (until 2/16), Save 20% on all photo merchandise, including Cards, Calendars and Photo Books with coupon code LOVE20. (until 2/16)

What Service Makes the Best Online Photo Books?

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A recent news story showed a comparison of photo books made on Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Kodak Gallery. These are the three largest custom photo book services that don’t require you to download software on your computer. To watch the competition, click here. The bottom line, for those of you who don’t want to wait until the end of the 4 and 1/2 minute video, is that Shutterfly won hands down.  The reviewers liked Shutterfly for the number of design options and for the quality of the printed photos and the book. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve never been disappointed in the quality of my Shutterfly photo books.

Shutterfly Coupons for a "Year in Review" Photo Book

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I've been thinking it's time for me to put together my 2008 Year in Review Photobook, but there's nothing like some good Shutterfly coupons to give me a kick start!  If I can create and order my photo book by Feb. 2nd, I can get 20% off my photo book plus free shipping (with code SHIP50 at checkout).  In addition, I can stack more coupons by using a "private offer" for my account for up to 25% off with the code "SHOPANDSAVE" (expires 2/4).  I also have a mail offer for $10 off a photo book with the code "PK01-0GN3-3XZK-343DM5" good through 2/15.  All of this adds up to a great deal on a beautiful, hard bound collection of all of our family's photos for the past year.  The expiration date is coming up soon, but I seem to work best with a deadline.

How to Organize Digital Photos

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Digital photography is a wonderful thing and it has revolutionized our photo taking, but it’s also brought its own set of challenges. If you’re like me, you take a ton of photos because it’s free. However, after a while, your computer is filled with photo files making it hard to find and enjoy the photos you really love. How can you organize and enjoy your precious photos?

Here are some ideas to enjoy the quality of your photos as well as the quantity:
1. DOWNLOAD: Download your photos to your computer and put them in a folder. I usually use a title like “2009 January.” When the computer organizes the folders alphabetically, it will keep all the folders beginning with “2009” together. If I have a lot of photos for a particular event, I’ll put them in a folder titled with the year and then the event, like “2009 Halloween”.
2. FIRST PASS EDITING: Right after downloading, go through your photos and make a first pass at editing. If you see a blurry photo, delete it. There’s not much you can do to fix a blurry photo. If you see red eyes, fix them. If you took multiple shots of the same thing, choose your favorite and delete the rest. If you see photos that you really love, star them. I use Picasa (free downloadable photo editing software) and iPhoto, which are both great.
3. BACK-UP: Regularly back-up your photos to an on-site back-up and an off-site back-up.  Click here to read more about backing up photos.
4. ENJOY: Do something with your photos so you can enjoy and share them, whether it’s putting them on your screen saver, uploading to Facebook, putting them on a Shutterfly Share site (which is also an off-site back-up), or creating a Year in Review photo book.

Click here to view this photo book.

2009 Resolutions

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I have all sorts of goals for health, exercise, and getting my kids to do chores regularly, but I also have some photo resolutions for 2009.

Resolutions made in 2008 to continue to 2009
1. Make a “Year in Review” photo book for the past year.
2. Carry a small camera in my purse so I’ll always have it with me.
3. Back up my photos on an external hard drive and on Shutterfly.

New Resolutions for 2009
4. Use the movie feature on my camera more. I’ve been watching old camcorder movies and realizing what an amazing medium this is for capturing what my family was like in earlier years.
5. Edit my old camcorder movies and burn them to a DVD for easy watching.
6. Get my old film negatives scanned and catch up with historical photo books from my non-scrapping years.

I'd love to hear your photo resolutions for 2009!

A New Year's Resolution to Avoid a Heartbreaking Loss

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I'll never forget that day even though it was 17 years ago.  I was in my home.  Looking out my window I could see flames coming over the hill.  I could feel the heat of the firestorm and could tell that oxygen was low.  Nobody needed to tell me to evacuate - I could sense the danger.  I had about 30 seconds to look around my home and save something before it all burned up.  What did I save?  You know what I saved.  I grabbed my photos and ran for my life.

It was the October 1991 Oakland Firestorm that burned 3000 homes.  I was lucky.  The wind changed the direction of the fire and my home was saved, however I have several friends who lost everything and never even had the chance to rescue something before evacuating.  When you talk to them, even today, about what they still miss, they'll usually talk about their photos.

Now we all have digital photos stored on our computers.  The odds are low that we'll lose our computers in a fire, but we could.  Even more likely is the possibility of losing our photos due to theft or a hard drive crash.  We all need to protect ourselves from a heartbreaking loss by backing up our photos.  It's best to have 2 backup copies -- one on-site and one off-site.

How should you back up your photos?  For on-site back-ups, you can use CD's/DVD's or external hard drives, which seem to be getting cheaper.  After I make a "Year in Review" photo book, I like to copy all of the past year's photos onto a disk and put it in a pocket that I've adhered to the inside back cover.  For off-site back-ups, you can copy the same disks and store them somewhere other than your home.  You can also use Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Kodak Gallery for free, unlimited storage.  Another option is to use a service like Smugmug for a fee.  There are also other services that charge a monthly fee and automatically back up your hard drive every night.

If you don't have a regular system for backing up your photos, make a resolution to do it now before something happens to your precious memories.

**Shutterfly Coupons**

1. Save 25% on New Year’s cards
2. Buy 8x8 photo book, get 30 Free Prints, AF73-SAVE , expires Jan 6, 2009
3. New Member offer, 25 free prints, see site
4. Free shipping on order of $50+, code SHIP50
5. Save 30% on additional calendars

6. Save 50% on note cards

7. Create or add photos to a share site and get free prints

8. Save 20% on archive DVDs

9. Save up to 25% on other photo gifts

**Snapfish, Kodak Gallery, and Other Photo Coupons **

Here is a list of current Kodak Gallery coupons, Snapfish coupons, and Picaboo coupons:

• Snapfish 30 FREE 4x6 prints to new customers!
• Snapfish: save 20% off calendars with coupon 20CAL08 by 1/4
• Snapfish: free shipping on note cards, use coupon code SHIPTHANKYOU at checkout
• Snapfish: get 75 prints for $9.99 with free shipping, use coupon code GOPRINT by 1/4

• Kodak Gallery: Save 20% on photo cards with coupon code 2009CARDS
  
• Kodak Gallery: Save 35% on calendars, coupon code 2009CAL
• Kodak Gallery: Save 25% on Classic photo books, coupon code 25CLASSIC
• Kodak Gallery: Get 9cent 4x6 prints with coupon code NEWYEARPRINTS
• Kodak Gallery: Save up to 30% on photo gifts
• Kodak Gallery: New Members get 75 free prints

• Picaboo Photo Books - Buy 1 get 1 free coupon: 1PB1GF-CB