The Yellow winner, capturing kids for Mother's Day, plus other news

Monthly newsletter.

April 2011

Photographic News

Greetings!

Happy New Year (financial year, that is, for all those small business owners reading this).

The Japanese triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami & nuclear) have created uncertainty in the electronics industry but with the severe loss of life and terrible destruction in Japan it seems heartless to worry about potential shortages. If you find yourself unable to upgrade to a newer camera as soon as you had planned then "Pimp" your existing camera instead - add a flash or flash accessories, buy a new lens, buy a better bag - we can help you.

"Anything Yellow" : the winners are...

Jill presents Leanne with her prize..

Thanks to all of you who took up the challenge - we had heaps of entries which we posted to our Facebook page every few days - yellow certainly made our page glow. Some people don't like Facebook but it's a great way to share the photos as they arrived and let people make positive comments. It also inspired others to try something different. It's the modern version of sticking them on a board in the shop, and you can view them without leaving home!
We invited the kind folks who donated the Kata Backpack to judge the photos.
We sent them a print of each and here are the results: the winner was Leanne Haddock (yellow birds), and the runners-up were Dominic Cameron (splash) & Jestickles Brebner (The Lonely Surfer). Congratulations to you three and thanks to all competitors.

Mothers Day is coming up fast !
Give your Mum a gift she'll cherish.

Chocolates and flowers have a very short life but a gift created with photos will be cherished for a long time. Here are some suggestions:

Your photos printed and placed inside one of our instant gift products

Glass coaster
Glass placemat
Key ring
Mousepad
Ball-point Pen
Magnetic fridge frame
Self-adhesive photo blocks
Acrylic photo blocks

Photo calendar - ours start any month and year you like, so make one commencing May or June - it will still have 12 months of life and every month Mum will have a new page of photos to look at.
PhotoBook - created instore with our easy to use software, and printed within 30 minutes.
Collage Poster. Get all the children into one picture! It's easier than you think with our Photo Collage software. Bring in your digital images (and old photographs if necessary as these can be scanned with the kiosk scanner). We'll then show you how easy it is to make a collage - printed while you wait.

Check out our SPECIAL COLLAGE POSTER OFFER later.

Start planning now - capture some great photos of the kids using the tips in the following article.

Photo Tip : photographing children!

Shoot at eye level... Try sitting on the ground and snapping some photos from the child's perspective !
Take candid pictures... Ignore the impulse to force your subjects to always pose staring at the camera. Take candid pictures to show them playing, chatting, or relaxing.
Get close... Get in close or use your camera's zoom to emphasise what is important and exclude the rest. You may need to switch to macro for babies.
Blur the background...The PORTRAIT mode is intended to focus on the person and defocus the background. However a picture of two people can come out blurry because most auto-focus cameras focus on the area in the center of the viewfinder - the tree in the background will be in perfect focus, and your people blurry. To remedy this, lock the focus on one person. Usually you do this by centering one of the people in the viewfinder and then pressing the shutter button halfway down. Continue holding the button halfway down while you move the camera until both people are where you want them in the viewfinder. When you are satisfied, press the button all the way down to take the picture.

Quotes from the famous:

"A good photograph is knowing where to stand"

Ansel Adams

Organising PhotoBooks images on our kiosks just got easier.

If you've created a PhotoBook with our kiosks you'll be pleased to know our recent software upgrade has made organising your photos much easier.

Many of you would "organise" your photos at home thinking the order would remain the same when loaded onto our kiosks but Windows decides otherwise.

Now you can load those photos and when you get to "organise" you can still use the "by filename" and "by date" but photos that are out of sequence can be manually moved to the correct place using the touch-screen before you preview the layout.
If you want to change or add a photo in the preview screen each photo already placed in the PhotoBook is now labelled with the page it has been placed on.
The last page is no longer blank - now you can put photos on it meaning you now get 11 pages of photos, instead of 10, all for the same price ! Unfortunately there's no place for our logo now :-(

Feel free to share this email with friends using the "forward email" link at the bottom of this email. We look forward to seeing you again soon and helping you with your camera and photo memories.

Regards

Jill & the team

In This Issue

"Anything Yellow" winners

What are doing for your Mum?

Photo Tip - Children

PhotoBook software upgrade

DSLR class update

NEW postal service

Canon EYEcon

Sounds of hard-drives failing

Contact Details

DSLR CLASS update

Planning has been delayed after I broke my wrist early in March.

Thanks to those of you who have provided feedback via e-mail or the Facebook Poll.

· 1/3 prefer a 3hr evening session

· 2/3 prefer the all-day (Sunday) version with theory in the morning and a practical session in the afternoon.

· Some people liked the idea of a full day but not on Sunday. However, our staff work every day except Sunday and the store is open every day except Sunday. This means that to run a full day event on any day other than Sunday would be a much more expensive option as it would involve hiring a room and additional staff.

You can send parcels from our store to any door!

If you want to send something to somewhere in NZ but don't feel like queuing at the postal counter then send it through us.

Buy the bag or box from us - the price of the pack includes postage with tracking for a fixed price anywhere in NZ. Pack it and label it then we'll send it on it's way. It's called CROXLEY PREPAID - there are no other hidden costs.

P.S. There are a few things you can't send... read more here...

Are you a talented budding photographer?

The search is on for 2011's most talented budding photographers in the Canon EYEcon photographic competition.
This competition is open to all tertiary students currently studying photography and assistant photographers within New Zealand.
This is the ultimate photo opportunity to inspire and be inspired. Explore your creative directions, pitch yourself against the best in your field, and boost your career in photography.

There are some very attractive Canon prizes to be won including the unique opportunity to spend three days gaining invaluable experience with three of New Zealand's most prominent photographers.