Photo books: Apple, and others

Published July 19, 2012

These days digital cameras are becoming less expensive to purchase and more user-friendly as well. You can purchase a digital camera in a size that will fit inside your bag and take it everywhere you go. These little cameras are useful tools for sending a quick photo electronically to a destination and they are wonderful for transferring your holiday photos to a CD. No more bulky photo albums to dust off and store.

There is something lost, however, in having all your great photos sitting on a CD in a cupboard. It’s not so easy to show your pictures to friends and family when you have to load up the CD all the time.

There are a few ways around this problem. The first are the wonderful digital photo album frames that you can purchase at many retail stores. These photo frames display your digital photos in any order you wish all the time. This is a great way for visitors to see all the pictures.

Another alternative is to download your photos into a program that allows you to create your own hard cover photo book. If you own a Macintosh computer there is a program that is built in most models that you can make your own book or calendar. PC users have many websites to choose from that allow you to download your pictures and design a hard cover book.

If you are not the creative kind but love the idea of a hard cover book for your digital photos there are websites out there like MonkeyRed Designs (www.monkeyred.com) that will make your book for you in any style you wish. Greg Thorpe started up Monkey Red when he became a stay at home Dad and the company has since thrived and continues to grow. Monkey Red creates beautiful, hardcover photo books using your digital photos and makes them into many different stylebooks including ones for weddings, graduation, anniversaries and baby’s first year. Thorpe has much experience in layout, colour and general design to help you create a book of everlasting memories. You simply provide a CD of your images or send them electronically to his website. MonkeyRed will do the rest.

Having your images presented in a hardcover fashion with beautiful 8 x 10” and 5 x 7” sizes is impressive and the book can be left on a coffee table for guests to view anytime.