Great Personalised Gift Choices

If you're looking for the right way to commemorate a special occasion, then consider giving personalised gifts. It seems the more gift choices we have, the harder it is to find exactly the right gift for someone you work with or a member of your family. If the gift is for someone you don't know well, there's even more chance of getting it wrong. There's nothing worse than knowing that you've given the wrong gift. Luckily you can avoid that by giving photo gifts. How will this help? Read on to find out.

People have always commemorated big events with pictures. Cavemen drew on walls, families commissioned paintings, and we take digital photos. It's all about capturing a special moment so that you can share it with others later. That's why we love taking and looking at photos. People enjoy seeing that hairstyle you had when you were 16 or the huge camel that spat at you when you visited Egypt.

Digital photos give us the chance to use our photos in a different way. Instead of storing your photos on your computer's hard drive and loading them up for the occasional slideshow, you can use them in a way that everyone can enjoy by creating personalised gifts. It's much easier to see your photos on personalised photo gifts than to browse through them on the small screen of your digital camera. Here are some ideas for personalised gifts with photos.

Photo Gift Choices

One way to enjoy your photos is to use them on items that are in everyday use, such as mugs. When you have your daily fix of tea or coffee, why not drink from a photo mug with a treasured photo on it? You can use personalised gifts all around the home, with photo cushions, photo coasters, photo pet mats and photo roller blinds. If you're going shopping, then consider putting your favourite photos on the side of a photo tote bag.

You can also give great personalised gifts which are works of art. Your digital photo can be imprinted on canvas, which is made of the same woven material as the art that hangs in galleries. It is stretched in the same way too, and is treated in a way that resists sunlight and dust damage. This is a truly unique gift which anyone will be happy to receive. The photo canvases can be as large as Old Masters or as small as a hardback book. It's up to you. You can even create a collage of your favourite photos on canvas if you find it hard to pick just one.

When you are selecting the photo for your personalised gifts, make sure you pick a photo that suits the item. A landscape photo might look great on canvas or a tote bag, but might be wrong for hot water bottle or a square cushion. Consider how the company uses your photo. Some create postcard effect by placing your photo on the side of the item, while others give a more polished look by wrapping the photo around your photo gift. It's important to get it right when giving personalised gifts.

by: Mark Beevers

Capture Perfect Digital Sports and Action Shots

What gets you all excited about your favourite sport? ... the thrill of the chase in horse racing or maybe the atmosphere and tension of a ball game, maybe your favourite player? ... Well if you were to capture some of these scenes how would you do it best? For some digital photography tips, let’s take a look at a few ideas right now to capture that realism ...

Get Familiar

It’s worth getting familiar with the sport before you start shooting, for example, how points are scored, what causes penalties etc, as this will give you an advantage over others … you will learn to expect where the best action is likely to be, and you can then capture those glorious moments.

Another great tip, as well as aiming to catch the action, capture the ‘emotion’ too. Be ready to shoot players’ faces on triumph of a goal, or any other emotive action in the game and you will bring your photos alive!

Be Prepared

Cold and bad weather conditions can quickly rob the life of your digital camera’s battery, so it’s important to always carry an extra charged battery especially for outdoor sports.

Action Techniques

Stop Action … you’ll very quickly be able to shoot an action shot and ‘freeze’ your subject practically in mid air. Imagine the wheels of a drag car on a dirt road, bouncing off the many bumps … for those few seconds while the car is in mid air, snap away to capture the action.

Lighting is not too much of an issue if you’re outside on a sunny or partially sunny day say at a car race, dog track, or horse race etc, but you’ll maybe need to make adjustments if you’re inside a gymnasium shooting a basketball game, for example. If the lighting is bright, then you’ll probably be okay, but depending on the type of lighting, you may need to activate your fill flash if you shoot players in action and you find your photo colorisation shifting to ‘yellow’.

Also bear in mind the distance, as your flash will not carry too far … it might be worth sitting near the basket hoop to catch the action!

Blurred Action … a couple of ideas behind blurred action is, firstly … if you look back at your photos you have taken using Stop Action, you may find one or two shots that did not freeze the action, which means your camera did not catch the action at the right moment … so you end up with an interestingly blurry effect to your subject.

Secondly, if you’re shooting a ball game, for example, you may get blurring if your player moves just as you click your shutter. If you did not intend for this to happen, you might be pleasantly surprised with the effect!

Panned Action … the most difficult to accomplish, but probably the most effective shooting technique, once mastered. The advantage using your digital camera is that you can delete unwanted frames and start again, so here’s how panning basically works...

Using your digital camera in automatic mode press the shutter half way down to focus on your subject, moving your camera sideways following the action, then pressing the shutter fully while still moving your camera. The effect created is the front of your subject should remain in fairly strong focus, while the back of your subject should start to blur, and as it blurs a long trail should appear, giving a feeling of movement like no other effect could possibly achieve.

Experiment

By knowing what your digital camera can do, experiment with different methods to get the best shots. You could try shooting in continuous mode, then try panning the camera along with your subject, whilst he/she or it is in motion.

I hope these digital photography tips are helpful. If you can get to grips with panning, as I have described above, you’re on a winner!

by: Yvonne Grubb