Celebrate digital photography

I’ve always loved photography, but once digital cameras came on the scene, my passion did back flips!

While I appreciate the fascinating process of watching an image develop in chemical filled-trays, instant gratification is more my style. (And besides, those chemicals can’t be good for anyone!)

Add in the cost savings, the avoidance of negatives or even paper for printing, and it’s the perfect media for me.

While I haven’t printed a picture in years, my family and hobby photos are put to use in books which I layout and design in Photoshop Elements, using purchased elements (like backgrounds and embellisments) or making them myself.

For someone who was an ardent scrapbooker at one time, this new means of preserving photos without the accumulation of “stuff,” is a lot of fun and allows for a tremendous amount of creativity.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to convince a company that makes these books, to print on recycled paper with veggie inks, but I continue to work on it.

Meantime, I have one or two books a year printed. I use a company called (oddly), Arts Cow. I tried some others early on and they were fine, but much more expensive. Arts Cow quality is great and I’ve not had any problems in the five years I’ve been using them.

The only downside is that the Arts Cow online software may be overwhelming and challenging to use for a newcomer. You can always go to their Facebook page and ask for help. And speaking of Facebook, you’ll definitely want to “like” them as they offer amazing special deals all the time.

(This is not a paid announcement, I just like their products. However, if you do decide you’d like to give them a try, please let me know so I can refer you. For that I get a free book or two for which I’m always grateful.)

From a sustainability standpoint, as I said above, the paper and inks are not eco-friendly, and the books are printed in Singapore too. Yikes!

The only thing I can say in my defense (as poor as it is), is that these books bring our grandkids more enjoyment than anything I’ve ever given them. And in fact, I don’t give the books to them. I have several printed each year covering different subjects and keep them at my house.

Corey’s family has been staying here since May and almost not a day goes by when the girls aren’t poring over one of the books. They provide hours—I should say—years, of entertainment. I expect they will last until our grandkiddies are grandparents themselves.

Here’s a link to last year’s book.

And here are some pictures from the book I had made combining poems with drawings I did with the children as a summer project.