Shutterfly Announces “Shutterfly Gallery,” Featuring a New Social Network

I’m a big fan of on-demand book printing, and I’ve written about and tested the quality of a number of on-demand printing companies. In my tests, which you can find here in an article on PDNonline, I found the quality of Shutterfly’s books (hard and softcover) to be excellent. On Feb. 20, Shutterfly launched Shutterfly Gallery, a new community platform for sharing and connecting with others.

Below are the some of the highlights of the new Shutterfly Gallery. To begin with, members can now do the following on the site:

-Post their photo book creations, offering inspiration and tips to others;
-Add others’ books they like to a “favorites” list, or “email a friend;”
-Introduce themselves by personalizing an online profile with their favorite picture, unique username and a personal description; and
-Embed virtual photo books (like YouTube videos) into a personal webpage or blog. This makes the site useful as a kind of “flip book creation tool.”

One of the unique features that I found very interesting is the “Make One Like This,” that allows customers to “copy” posted photo books and use the designs as templates for their own personal creations. Customers can select a book they like and choose the “Make One Like This” feature, which will preserve the look and feel of the book design while removing the original photos and text. Customers can then add their own text and photos. This is a lot like using a template, but the advantage is that you will have many more designs from which to choose. I can see this service used by all levels of photographers and scrapbookers. When browsing through the site, I also noticed that Shutterfly offers the ability to share projects with friends and family, including full-screen slide shows of Shutterfly albums, calendars, scrapbook pages and collage posters (even if they are not members). You can find out more about those options on this page.

I looked through a number of the albums, and I’m really impressed. They remind me of some of the Scrapbooking magazines I’ve seen, with great detail taken to make the images and text look great together while telling a story of a trip, or a family event, like a child’s birthday. Their are a wide range of book options that can be used as wedding books, baby books, books for graduating seniors, or fine-art/commercial photography or art portfolios.

A suggestion I have when browsing albums is to click on “Options” above the albums and then drag the slider to the fastest setting. Otherwise, you will probably not be happy with the page turn speed. Also, even though it says to drag the page to see the next page (like turning a real page), that can be a bit tricky, so instead, I recommend just clicking on the right page of any album to go to the next page. I wish that I could turn off the page flip feature and just have the next page quickly appear. I’ll submit that as a feature request soon.

To learn more about the Shutterfly Gallery, visit https://community.shutterfly.com.

A Few Reasons to Subscribe to Imaging-Resource.com’s Excellent Newsletter

For a number of years I’ve been reading “Imaging Resource News” published by the folks at Imaging-Resource.com. It is a fantastic resource filled with photo industry news, reviews, answers to reader questions, special offers and much more. Apart from the excellent content, in the next issue, I’ll be offering two signed copies of my book, 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques, which will be drawn randomly from the newsletter member list.

The Feb 1, 2008 issue (available in the newsletter archives) has some great info about the Nikon D300, sensor cleaning, and image sharpening. You can read past issues and  subscribe to Imaging Resource’s IR news newsletter at this link.

I’m Exhibiting at the Super Pet Expo 2/8-2/10, 2008

Many people who know me know that I’ve done a lot of animal and pet photography over the years. I’ve licensed images to companies for posters and editorial use, and I created a line of greeting cards which include some dogs. I’ve also photographed hundreds of dogs and cats for private sittings with and without their “people friends.” For some examples, visit candidcanine.com. From Friday to Sunday 2/8-2/10 I’ll be exhibiting at the Super Pet Expo in Edison, NJ (Booth number 337). I’ll be answering questions about digital photography and printing, setting up consulting sessions for people who want to learn more, and I’ll have cards, posters, matted photographs and some mini-pet photo books of my work available for sale. Elwood, the world’s ugliest dog (though I think he looks quite charming!) will also be there. Leashed pets are also welcome, which makes it quite an amazing event. Hope to see you there!

To find out more about the Super Pet Expo, visit superpetexpo.com.