I’ve Gone to the Dark Side
As many of you know, Joe bought me my first mac awhile ago. He decided that since I wasn’t as open minded to the transition as he was, he’d buy a refurbished mac and monitor for a trial run and then upgrade me if I actually got rid of my bad attitude and jumped in with both feet.
Now that I’ve had more time on a mac I don’t have as many issues and I actually find myself missing my home computer when I’m at work. Joe and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary this year and what better than to celebrate with new computers? For two geeks like us…it is a great way to show our love and devotion for one another. Maybe you wouldn’t understand…
In addition to my new mac mini, Joe also purchased a beautiful 20″ flat screen monitor. What a crisp clear picture and I love all of the room I have now…not only is it a widescreen, it takes up less desk real estate! Things just look better on a new monitor, don’t they? Thanks to Margaret for letting us abuse her discount and for introducing me to Joe in the first place!
While working on my new computer to get the picture wall in the master bedroom started, I happened upon a little app called iPhoto. (Joe and I don’t use this app really…we much prefer a different one for organizing our photographs, but I digress.) Since we don’t use this app often, I thought I’d take a look around. (I’m starting to be more adventurous on my mac now that I know how to use it.) I was giddy with excitement about a particular feature I found while browsing in iPhoto.
You can actually make a book of photos. No…I’m not talking about a photo album…I mean an actual bound book of your photos! This is just so neat, you have no idea. In about an hour, I put together a book starring our three nieces. I was able to choose a theme and a size for the book and further customize it by designing the layout of the page with templates depending on the number of pictures I wanted on each page. For $9.99 I ordered a medium sized book with 20-pages of memories that Joe and I have with our nieces Ireland, Erin, and Corinne. It’s a brag book, for a very proud auntie and uncle. I’m expecting it to be delivered any day now!
For those of you that don’t use a mac, I believe that you can create something similar on kodakgallery.com. I would say that it won’t be as simple to do as it is on my mac…but I may be a little biased now.
I’m curious to know what the quality of the finished product is like. Heavy pages, well bound, etc.
I envy you your new setup.
Wed May 18, 2005 at 7:55 pmJust got the email saying that it shipped at 9am this morning. I’ll let you know what I think of the quality of both the photos and the binding. I have high hopes.
The Mini is ten times better now that Joe gave me more memory. It was painful until the memory arrived.
Wed May 18, 2005 at 10:56 pmYou’re welcome and you’re welcome!
Thu May 19, 2005 at 8:39 amHey!…long time no amazing race..
I was going to do a book through shutterfly for our China pictures, let me know how it turns out..I was trying to find out what company ofoto or shutterfly…has better books..
Thu May 19, 2005 at 9:28 amA long time ago I saw something on TechTV about the quality of pictures produced by both Shutterfly and Ofoto. They said that the interface was better on Shutterfly but the quality of images with Ofoto was the best. Since that was awhile ago, I’m not sure who is better now. I do know that Ofoto was purchased by Kodak and is now called The Gallery (www.kodakgallery.com). There’s something to be said about the Kodak name but if you like to keep your pictures on Shutterfly, I’m sure they’re fine. I think my sister-in-law purchased a book from them and was happy with it.
Thu May 19, 2005 at 10:18 amI am going to check out Kodak. Lee - I did a calendar for Tim for Christmas through Shutterfly and the quality of pictures were excellent and the paper was very heavy. I haven’t done a book, but I’ve been curious!
Fri May 20, 2005 at 9:45 amI was wondering also how all that worked with the bound photo books. With less and less time to scrapbook these days, I am thinking about becoming a convert to the online thing. I would like to see the finished product also!
Sun May 22, 2005 at 7:35 amI actually purchased about 3 photo albums with the intent to print our digital photos or order them through a service like Shutterfly when I found the photo book option. Joe and I did a little math and figured that this would not only be a great gift for family but it was cost effective and might take the place of scrapbooking.
We just received the finished product in the mail and really like the finished product. The book I ordered is “medium” sized and has a soft cover. The pages inside are thicker than a magazine page. I haven’t ordered any of the hard bound books but imagine the pages to be similar in those.
I’d say that the quality is good for showing off snapshots but they wouldn’t win any awards. Meaning that the photos are a tad grainy, which is true for any picture that I’ve ordered through one of the online companies. It’s the difference between printing a picture and actual film development. The average person wouldn’t notice and this is the quality we’d get if we purchased the pictures or printed them ourselves and put them in an album. I like the package as a whole and would recommend this book option…especially if you’re into digital photography now.
You’re welcome to see the finished product at any time! It will become a proud fixture on our coffee table, I’m certain, as will the other books I plan to order. Next I think I’ll make a before/after book detailing the work we’ve done on our townhome and then a family one.
Sun May 22, 2005 at 10:50 amThat is good to know. I just ordered some Shutterfly cards. But I wanted to get an album for my sister-in-law. I took a bunch of pictures at her party and thought it would be fun!
Mon May 23, 2005 at 10:49 amI bet she’ll love it. What a wonderful keepsake!
Mon May 23, 2005 at 2:43 pmI still like having old fashioned albums. I never got in to scrapbooking - I’m too lazy!!! But the last album I completed was for 2003! I need to get my act together.
Mon May 23, 2005 at 3:39 pmThere’s just something about “real” photos. A lot of people who are getting married these days are getting their photos in the magazine/book option as opposed to a more traditional photo album. Can’t say I’d make the same choice if I were recently married.
Mon May 23, 2005 at 4:57 pmHappy Anniversary - I saw it on Joe’s blog!
Tue May 24, 2005 at 9:02 am