Free Shipping on Personalized Photo Calendars

While it might be a little early to look ahead to next year, it’s never too early to start working on a personalized photo calendar. At 19×13.5 inches, the Super Big Calendar can hold more than 100 of your favorite photos. We have updated templates for 2010 so you can get a jump on making one of the most popular holiday gifts of the season.

Make your Super Big Calendar by October 31, 2009 and enjoy complimentary standard ground shipping to U.S. addresses (or $8.99 off any other shipping method). Just enter code SHIPCAL10 during checkout. (Code may be used once per customer. Not valid with any other offer or promotion).

Celebrate the 1st Week of Summer with 25% Off Photo Books

Summer is here and it’s time to have some fun! Don’t let it pass you by without capturing the memories in a gorgeous photo book or two. Now is the time to get summer started right. Turn those photos from Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, graduations and the kids games into a lasting summer photo book keepsake.

Order your book by Sunday, June 28, 2009 using coupon code SUMMER09 and get 25% off.

Offer cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion. Coupon code may be used one time per customer. Good for one photo book.

Celebrate Your Grad with BOGO Half-off Photo Books

They did it! You did it! And you couldn’t be more proud. There are few moments in life that make us more proud than watching our kids, family or friends graduate. Show your pride in a photo book gift featuring graduation day photos or make a memory book with all those old school pictures from kindergarten to the senior prom. You will love making it and your grad will cherish it for years to come. Choose from hundreds of stylish backgrounds, including our new graduation photo book theme or upload your own custom pages. Your books will arrive in 7-10 business days.

Order your book at regular price by Friday, June 5, 2009 using the coupon code INKUGRAD09 and get a second copy of the same book for 50% off.

*Offer cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion. Coupon code may be used one time per customer.

Photo Book Tips: Making the Most of Fall Photography

Some time ago I confessed that I have a secret desire to learn to take really impressive pictures that would look wonderful in a photo book. So when I saw Bob Ross’s Inkubook Serene Moments: The Photography of Bob Ross, I was more than a little jealous.

Bob has been a serious amateur photographer for about 40 years, and now that he’s retired and doesn’t have the demands of raising a young family he has more time available to devote to photography. Before he retired he spent a lot of time traveling by car on business trips, and he found that his love of photography gave him a greater appreciation for his surroundings than he otherwise would have had. Now he takes pictures on a monthly basis, and he sees it as some people see fishing: It’s great when he comes home with something nice, but it’s just as great when he doesn’t.

Bob was kind enough to share some tips that he feels contribute to his ability to take fantastic photos, so we’re sharing them with you today. This weekend, get out in the fresh air to try your hand with some of these suggestions. The change of seasons is a perfect opportunity to take photos of your surroundings. After all, practice makes perfect!

Photography Tips
1. Use a tripod whenever possible.
2. If your camera accepts filters, use a polarizing filter. It reduces glare and increases the color saturation, as well as darkens blue skies. Caution: Look through the viewfinder and rotate the polarizer to see the effect you want or it could have the opposite effect from what you’re seeking.
3. The first hour after dawn and the last hour before sunset are the best times for shooting. The low light models objects better and increases color saturation. Sun directly overhead is the poorest light, but if you like the scene and it’s midday, shoot it anyway. An overcast day is also great for fall photography.
4. Backlighting of fall leaves is wonderful. Backlighting is where the sun is coming from behind the object you’re shooting and lighting up translucent objects such as leaves. Be careful, however, to avoid the sun shining directly on the front of the camera lens.
5. When composing the scene, try to place objects of the greatest interest (such as a lone tree in a field or a church steeple set against a hillside) anywhere other than dead center in the picture. Moving objects of interest to the upper right, lower right, upper left, or lower left is more attractive placement than having them in the center. Try it. You’ll see the difference.
6. If there is a horizon in your picture, it is best to NOT place it right in the center. Move it up if you’re emphasizing the foreground or down if you want to emphasize the sky. Having the horizon in the center is static unless you’re shooting something with a reflection of itself in a pond or lake.
7. Close-ups are always a good idea. A few leaves on the ground or berries are appealing subjects for close-ups if your camera allows.

Tips for Digital Processing
Most digital cameras default to a setting that yields softer and less colorful pictures. That’s because so many shots are taken of people. When working with nature photography, you overcome this by using the software that came with your camera to process the photos on your PC. Experiment with increasing color saturation, contrast, and sharpness. Always sharpen a photo LAST, after having made all other changes. You’ll find that you can double the impact of a digital photo by careful use of the adjustment options that come with the software. After you’ve made your adjustments, you’ll want to click on File then Save As. Rename the picture, and when you finally save it you’ll be making a clone of the original with all your changes while saving the original so that you can go back to it if you don’t like the results or want to experiment more.

General Suggestions
Consider these scenes for your fall photography: waterfalls, decrepit old barns with colorful trees beside them, lovely old homes, or any kind of water such as a stream, a pond, or a lake. You can photograph property without permission from a public position, but always ask permission before going onto private property.

Weekend Project: Geocaching

A trail through the woods

This weekend’s project is a bit outside the norm, but in many ways, that is the point. It is intended to get you off the beaten path and to explore some parts of your neighborhood or city that you might not be all that familiar with.

If you don’t know about geocaching, it is most easily explained as a geek scavenger hunt. It revolves around “caches,” which are hidden treasures that have been placed by other geocachers. The goal is to uncover a cache using a Global Positioning System or GPS (you can even use your iPhone) based on clues and geographical data that can be found online at geocaching.com. Once you locate the cache, you sign a logbook as evidence of your discovery, and either swap some loot or find additional information about another cache. There are variations on the theme such as serial caches, where one leads to another, and another type that feature puzzles.

The number of global caches is astounding. A quick search of my neighborhood shows 19 within a radius of a few blocks.

As with any scavenger hunt, the bulk of the reward is in the search. I set out a few weeks ago with a few neighbors and my camera. I discovered a number of hidden areas in Indianapolis, and got some great photos.

If you are looking to mix up your photography, explore your neighborhood, or just need a fun new family-friendly activity, you should give geocaching a try.

Weekend Project: Put an LO in a Drop-Dead Gorgeous Book

Here at Inkubook, “We want to improve” is our middle name. Sure, it’s virtually impossible to fit on a standardized form, but getting better is important to us so we live with the inconvenience.

Getting better at what we do means taking the feedback we receive seriously. One thing that has come up often, both in responses to surveys we’ve done and in conversations you’ve had with our support staff, is that the full-page bleed layouts necessary to upload your very own scrapbook designs aren’t easily found. We plan to rectify that as best we can as soon as we can by making sure that the full-page bleed layout is available by default in the Layouts gallery. In the meantime, though, we’d like to give you some tips that might help you find it when you’re looking for it.

Currently the full-page layout for the 8.5″ x 8.5″ book is not in the Layouts gallery when you start a book. But we do have one. You just need to add it to your gallery so that you can place it on your pages. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Make sure you’re on a page of the book (not one of the covers) and click the Layouts tab.
2. Click More at the left end of the gallery. This will show you all the available layout options for this size book, and it looks like this: 
3. The full-page bleed layout that you’re looking for (one without any other photo or text continers) is in the second row, second from the left. See the picture below for the exact location. We’ve included a shockingly pink arrow and callout so you can’t miss it.
4. Click the layout then click Apply. It’ll be added to your Layouts gallery and will be placed on the active page.

Here’s where to find the full-page bleed layout in the 8.5″ x 8.5″ book.

In the 11″ x 8.5″ landscape book and the 8.5″ x 11″ portrait book, the full-page bleed layouts are a little easier to locate because they’re already in your Layouts gallery. There are two pictures below to show you exactly what you’re looking for.

This is where the full-page bleed layout is in gallery of the landscape book…

…and this is the location in the gallery of your portrait book.

You are now properly armed with the information you need to put your digital LOs (or scans of your traditional scrapbook pages) into a drop-dead gorgeous book.

Just so you know, one of the other bits of feedback we’ve received is the suggestion that we should create a feature that allows you to apply the same layout to every page. We think that’s a great idea. We don’t want anyone to get repetitive stress injury from having to drag the same layout onto every page of a book. This is a feature that we definitely plan to implement. In the meantime, we hope you’ll bear with us as we work through the list of all the things we want to do.

We’re standing by to hear more of your feedback, so please use our Feedback form to send us a note. Otherwise, we encourage you to get started on your book. If you make one that you’re really proud of and you’d like to share it with us, use the Invite Friends feature to send an invitation to ckughen at Inkubook dot com. If you give us permission to use it, your book might end up in one of our sample galleries!

Weekend Project: Turn Your Photos into a Free Photo Book

So, you’ve found your way here, which probably means you’re at least a little curious about creating photo books. Boy, are you ever going to be glad that you stopped by today because we have some good news for you!

For a limited time, new members can get a free book from Inkubook just for signing up. Don’t believe it? Does it sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not. Full details of what you need to do are below. We do ask one thing, and that is that we want you to share this good news with a friend. In order to get a free book, you need to use the Invite Friends feature to ask someone to check out your book. The upside is that your friend can get a free book, too, so we’re making sure to spread the love around.

Here’s how it works:

1. Join Inkubook. Start your book.

2. Using the Invite Friends feature, invite someone to join Inkubook to submit a few photos to include in your book, or just to see what you’re working on. We’ll send your friend a promotion code to use for a free book.

3. Finish your book then order it using this promotion code: BLOGFREE.

That’s all there is to it. Not so hard really, is it? It’s a great way to use all those digital photos that are just hanging out on your computer or memory card. You can get some great ideas for books here.

Weekend Project: The Ball Game

Over the Labor Day weekend, my husband and I got together with extended family and took in a Detroit Tigers game. My husband, like many other baseball fans, wants to visit every Major League (and Minor League) park. I’m all for him achieving this goal as I also enjoy baseball, traveling and soft pretzels – I try one at every park. Of course as part of his quest, he saves his ticket stub and a plastic tumbler from each visit. For my part, I take photos at every park. The pictures and scans of the tickets will make a great photo book once we’ve rounded all the bases – something he doesn’t know I am going to for him, unless he reads this post.

If you or your significant other have the desire to attend all (or even just one) of America or Canada’s great ball parks, consider taking these shots during the next game you take in:

Main Gate of Detroit’s Comerica Park

• Main gate (see photo to right).
• You and your game mates below the main marquee.
• Mascot or park activities. Did you know Detroit’s Comerica Park has a Fly Ball Ferris Wheel?
• A shot of the grass, before the players take the field. Each park cuts their grass differently.
• Photo of the most crazily dressed fan. Look for face-painting and clown wigs.
• Long-view shot of you and your game mates in row of seats.

Baseball season is nearly over, so if you plan to get to a game, do so soon! Oh, and if you’re a football fan, too, plan a long weekend where both the football and baseball team are playing at home and catch both games.

Inspiration: A Weekend at the Lake

A Sailboat

I have a secret. Deep down inside I long to develop the talent for taking truly magnificent pictures. Privately I’m not happy with the occasional lucky shot that looks really good. I want the majority of my pictures to look great, so when I have a few minutes here and there I try to practice.
I have a point-and-shoot camera, but I’ve discovered that most models offer a lot of the kinds of features you find on a dSLR camera. The thing is, most of us just pull the camera out of the box and start firing away. So I’ve thoroughly read my camera’s user manual and I’ve bought a couple photography books. I try out the tips I read when I have a chance,  and this often happens on weekends we spend at the lake. You see, when we get away from home for a short break, I can forget that there are bathrooms to be cleaned and clothes to be ironed, so I don’t feel guilty for goofing off with the camera for awhile.

Kids Tubing

Besides, the lake offers lots of opportunities for photos. First, there’s lots of different kinds of boats on the lake, from tiny little fishing boats to sailboats to a cabin cruiser or two. There’s also lots of activity going on at the lake, what with all the skiiers and tubers. Lastly, there are animals and plants galore, which gives me a chance to really try to figure out how photographers do “fancy stuff,” such as get the background of a picture to be fuzzy while the foreground is sharp and clear (an effect called bokeh). For this post, I would have liked to have shared a picture of Roger, the five-legged grasshopper who hitched a ride on our boat last week, but my photographic skills failed me when I tried to get a picture of him. Fortunately, I managed to get a few other good photos, and at the end of the summer we’ll have enough to make a nice photo book about the time we spent at the lake.

An Attempt at Bokeh

Weekend Project: Fairs & Farmers’ Market

The end of summer and start of autumn provide many opportunities to venture out to your state or county fair or festival or farmer’s market. Many are free to attend and the hours spent there are fun for the whole family. Best of all, there are many photo ops to be found among the food and foliage, music and rides.

Milking an artificial cow at the state fair.

Preserve the look on your little one’s face the first time he or she saw an eggplant or rode a pony or milked an artificial cow. Consider a nice panoramic photo of the mile-long row of concession stands or the midway lights dazzling in the night sky. One trip to your local Oktoberfest or town hospital’s health and safety fair might not provide a book’s worth of images, but the photos you take will make a great addition to the year’s family photo book.