Discusson Group Notes December 11, 2009
The holidays are taking their toll and we were down to three intrepid photographers.
Terri brought in a beautiful coffee-table type book filled with photos and good stuff about their Panama Canal cruise a few years back. She had created the book using Creative Memories, Storybook Creator, which allowed her to insert photos in both standard and wierd-shaped croppings, scanned photos of the cruise agenda, text, and lots of decorative thing-a-ma-bobs that gave it real character. The book was printed by Creative Memories and used stitching as well as hard cover to make it last longer. Terri said that it normally runs $111 but she had a $40 discount coupon. If you're going to buy someone else's book that might seem like a lot but for a 1-of-a-kind photo book your own memories, permanently recorded to be passed down through generations, that's not too bad. No one else in the world has that book, and it looks very professional. I have to say that the lines between digital scrapbooking, photo albums, and book publishing are becoming very blurred. http://www.creativememories.com/
Terri went on to explain that Creative Memories can print three hardback sizes and several softbound sizes. The books can be 50 to 100 pages (25 to 50 sheets, double sided printing). You can also create your pages with their software, save the pages as JPGs, then send them to Costco (or other location) for printing and make your own book. This isn't an advertisement for Creative Memories or Costco, just an example of what's offered by so many fine companies that I couldn't even begin to try to list them all. Even King's Photo now has an in-store link to a company that provides prints and gift-type photographic products.
We talked about the gift ideas I learned at the China Lake Photographic Society meeting I went to. Terri said that Photoshop elements can do slideshows also. I bought PSE8 for Julia a while back but haven't had time to play with it yet.
Lee showed off his new toy. It's a diffuser that attaches to his Canon flash and helps spread and soften the flash. He took a couple of photos of us showing the difference between with and without the diffuser and it made quite a bit of difference. He also tried the warming cup but that seemed to be a bit too warm. Lee called it a Loomis Sphere (or something like that) and it looked like the Prolight diffuser. But it might also have been the Cloud Lightsphere, which looks similar but much more expensive. There may be other similar brands as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Prolight-Inverted-Diffuser-System-Olympus/dp/B001L0XTYC
With only three people there was lots of conversation but not that much to write up. Still, what I learned about scrapbook printing plus the great company made it a very memorable evening.
If you can, please join us each Friday evening at Denny's at the corner of Ave K and 20th West. We begin about 6:30 PM and usually go to at least 8:30 PM. You can drop by at anytime and stay for as long as you like (you don't even have to buy anything). Denny's has graciously provided us a section to ourselves and the service is great.
All photography related subjects are fair game and there's never a planned agenda. You can bring in your questions, your stories, your equipment, your photos (paper or digital), or even just yourself to sit, listen, and/or talk.
I would again like to extend a special invitation to both new members and the more expert members who would like to participate in these informal discussions.
Glenn Olson
Coordinator and Moderator
glenn@glenn-olson.com
816-8278
