Create personalized gifts using your favorite
shots with the help of a photo lab
By Ibarionex R. Perello
The
holidays offer us the opportunity to spend time
with the people who mean the most to us. But if
you’re anything like me, the idea of braving
the local malls doesn’t fill you with anything
remotely resembling yuletide cheer.
As photographers, we have the ability to deliver
personalized gifts using our own photographs. Images
of family and friends can be reproduced on a wide
variety of products that are fun and useful. Whether
you go to a local lab or use an online service,
you can find some creative uses for your best shots.
Special
Prints
If you’re always carrying your camera during
family gatherings, you’re familiar with this
statement, “Oh, send me a copy of that picture.”
Although e-mail has made it a little easier to satisfy
those requests, there’s something special about
getting a traditional photographic print.
Online services, such as Dale Laboratories and Imagexperts,
make it easy to obtain prints without stepping out
the front door. By using a computer and the Inter-net,
we can quickly upload pictures to share online and
also order prints and special items.
Rather than just handing over a print as a gift,
how about delivering it complete with a matte and
frame? Kodak Gallery, for example, not only produces
a quality enlargement of a photograph, but also
offers a matte using photo-friendly materials and
a frame of your choice at a modest additional cost.
Greeting Cards
Of course, holidays are a big time for sending greeting
cards. Instead of purchasing them at your local
store, use an online lab like Mpix to create them
using your own photographs. This can be as simple
as a group photo of your family or you can be more
creative. Besides trying to get the cat to hold
still wearing a stocking (mine was never very cooperative),
you can enhance your images using your favorite
image-editing software to create an interesting
collage.
I personally like sending what I consider to be
the best picture that I took during the past year.
What’s the point of a great photograph if you’re
the only one who gets to appreciate it? I’ve
often received responses from people who said they
kept the card displayed long after the holiday was
over.
Holiday cards aren’t the only kind of cards,
however. If you have someone who has become involved
in the poker craze, you could order a set of playing
cards from Kodak Gallery imprinted with one of your
photographs, be it a portrait, scenic or close-up
image, providing both a standard deck and a great
topic of conversation. A sports fan might love to
receive a personalized trading card with a picture
of himself or herself or a favorite family member.
And while we’re on the topic of cards, you
might want to mail them with a post-age stamp displaying
one of your images. PhotoStamps.com
creates personalized stamps using your images that
are genuine licensed postage for use on any letter.
Much like the personalized photo books, the service
provides simple online software to create a stamp
using an assortment of templates.
Photo
Books and Calendars
If you want to give more than a single print, many
labs now offer fully bound photo books. Services
such as MyPublisher produce custom hardcover or
softcover books with images specifically chosen
by you. These can include captions and comments.
With a little creativity, you can make the book
reflect the activities of your family during the
past year or focus on a newborn child’s first
days.
With easy-to-use software, you lay out the images
on flexible templates created by the service, offering
a fun and exciting way to create a personalized
photo book and a memorable gift.
Labs such as PhotoWorks offer a traditional yearlong
calendar, which can help keep you and your family
in each other’s thoughts throughout the year.
Each month features a unique, personalized image.
I have a friend who sends me a calendar every year
with photographs reflecting a particular theme.
Last year, the theme was affection, and the photos
were of people and animals displaying affection.
I look forward to seeing this year’s theme.
Useful Items
Other everyday items can be imprinted with photographs.
For the person on your list who enjoys a cup of
joe in the morning, provide him
or her with a personalized coffee mug from Snapfish
or Shutterfly. Someone who enjoys spending time
in the kitchen baking might enjoy having an apron
with a picture of you and others enjoying one of
his or her treats.
You can go even further. Services such as Shooters
print your images on a wall clock or even a wristwatch.
That way you’re never far from your loved ones’
thoughts as they get to look at you whenever they
check the time.
Refrigerator magnets, napkin holders, T-shirts,
buttons and even tote bags with your photographs
are all possible from a variety of online and walk-in
labs.
Making
the Most of It
All these products are possible using cameras with
even a modest resolution of 3 megapixels. If you
use an online service, the process obviously will
go faster with a speedier Internet connection; for
those with dial-up, it will simply take longer to
upload images.
It’s easy to choose a favorite snapshot to
imprint on these gifts, but it’s also a wonderful
time to think creatively. Playing with your image-editing
application, you can make your photographs look
like paintings or convert them to black-and-white.
After converting an image to black-and-white, it’s
also fun and easy to use a paint tool and color
palette to give your photograph a special look.
By combining your passion for photography with these
services, you’ll be able to give a memorable
gift to that special someone without the stress
of the holiday rush. That’s because these gifts
can be sent directly to them, with some services
offering the option of gift wrapping. More importantly,
you’ll be using your creativity to produce
a lot of joy, which is what the holidays are all
about.
