Very quietly we let it launch - our free photo scanning service - under the highly predictable name of freephotoscanning.com so now we're up and away.
We've even had some clients, which was a surprise. Being focussed on getting business via search engines it takes time to get a site up above the noise and into the top 10, but we came in instantly at number 9 and from that a few brave souls have dipped a toe in the water. What's been nice is to get some feedback from these early folk, and I've been surprised.
We went with the free online photoalbum as a delivery method for scanned images. We thought the scanning service, the free element, would be the attraction but for these early clients the attraction has been getting the album and the slideshow.
So there we are, proof of how much people appreciate online photoalbums.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Free Photo Scanning
Over the last couple of months we've been working to bring together an idea that started bubbling over a year ago. Free photo scanning.
I'm pleased to say its now come together and freephotoscanning.com is live and running. In essence what we're doing is creating an online photoalbum for each of our clients. This was a key element of the service so a lot of work was done to find the best way to deliver these albums. Finally we settled on Zenfolio. They offer not just online albums but they are a gateway to a great range of photo gifts.
We scan our clients photos or even kids paintings / drawings, anything up to A4 size. For this we're using our trusty Kodak s1220 scanner. The results are great, it handles colour or monochrome, in any variety of sizes. The Kodak software is also good at restoring faded colours, often a problem with old photos. We then upload the photos to each clients personal album, then send a link to the client explaining how they can access the album. this includes details of the account password.
Take a look at our new website - www.freephotoscanning.com - let us know what you think.
I'm pleased to say its now come together and freephotoscanning.com is live and running. In essence what we're doing is creating an online photoalbum for each of our clients. This was a key element of the service so a lot of work was done to find the best way to deliver these albums. Finally we settled on Zenfolio. They offer not just online albums but they are a gateway to a great range of photo gifts.
We scan our clients photos or even kids paintings / drawings, anything up to A4 size. For this we're using our trusty Kodak s1220 scanner. The results are great, it handles colour or monochrome, in any variety of sizes. The Kodak software is also good at restoring faded colours, often a problem with old photos. We then upload the photos to each clients personal album, then send a link to the client explaining how they can access the album. this includes details of the account password.
Take a look at our new website - www.freephotoscanning.com - let us know what you think.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Free Photo Scanning
We're in the final stages of introducing a new and radically different photo scanning service. What's the difference?
Simply this - it will be free.
Yes, it's a free photo scanning service. If you'd like to register your interest in using our new service visit www.freephotoscanning.com
Simply this - it will be free.
Yes, it's a free photo scanning service. If you'd like to register your interest in using our new service visit www.freephotoscanning.com
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
5 Reasons to Scan Your Photos
These days, many people believe that everything about photography is digitised. But we tend to forget about those photos that were taken with a regular camera or those taken before the rise of digital photography. For those people that have prints of photos that they want to protect and preserve, it’s worth considering getting your photos professionally scanned, and here’s 5 reasons why we think you should:
ONE: Send & Share Them
Sharing your happiest memories with others is a wonderful way to stay connected, even from across the globe. When you scan your photos onto a disc, you can easily send them to your friends and family around the world. You can choose to send them by disc or via email, because once you’ve scanned your photographs, there are no limits on how you share your memories with others, you can send as few or as many as you like!
TWO: Protect & Preserve Them
Over the years, the technology involved in developing negatives into prints has changed dramatically. Photos hold their colour and contrast better than ever, but in time, they too will fade just like older photographs. If you want to prevent losing your precious memories, then scanning your photos will protect and preserve them forever. Preserve the past for future generations by scanning your photographs.
THREE: Surprise Them
There’s nothing like surprising a loved one with a book of memories. These days, you can easily and inexpensively create a photo-book online using digitised photos that are then professionally printed in a presentation book. Scan all your photos onto a disc, create the book, have it professionally printed and you’ve got a really unique gift to surprise them on that special occasion.
FOUR: Upload Them
Genealogy has never been as popular as it is today. People all over the world are spending a great deal of time researching their family history and creating online family trees. If you’re interested in the past, then imagine the impact of using period photos as part of your family tree website. Create a visual family tree using your photos by scanning them and uploading them onto your website, allowing family members all over the world to view your very special family tree.
FIVE: Remember Them
It’s a sad reminder of our mortality when someone we love passes away. However, if you want to remember someone special, there’s no more fitting tribute than to include some favourite photos of the departed at the funeral or wake. Choose a selection of the best photographs, get them professionally scanned and then have them reprinted in various sizes. Often, family members will wish to retain a special keepsake of their loved one and once you’ve scanned the photos, you can help with the grieving process by easily providing them with copies of those photographs.
Get your precious memories digitised to preserve and share them, with scanning from as little 10p per photo and snappy turnaround times, make 1Scan your first stop.
ONE: Send & Share Them
Sharing your happiest memories with others is a wonderful way to stay connected, even from across the globe. When you scan your photos onto a disc, you can easily send them to your friends and family around the world. You can choose to send them by disc or via email, because once you’ve scanned your photographs, there are no limits on how you share your memories with others, you can send as few or as many as you like!
TWO: Protect & Preserve Them
Over the years, the technology involved in developing negatives into prints has changed dramatically. Photos hold their colour and contrast better than ever, but in time, they too will fade just like older photographs. If you want to prevent losing your precious memories, then scanning your photos will protect and preserve them forever. Preserve the past for future generations by scanning your photographs.
THREE: Surprise Them
There’s nothing like surprising a loved one with a book of memories. These days, you can easily and inexpensively create a photo-book online using digitised photos that are then professionally printed in a presentation book. Scan all your photos onto a disc, create the book, have it professionally printed and you’ve got a really unique gift to surprise them on that special occasion.
FOUR: Upload Them
Genealogy has never been as popular as it is today. People all over the world are spending a great deal of time researching their family history and creating online family trees. If you’re interested in the past, then imagine the impact of using period photos as part of your family tree website. Create a visual family tree using your photos by scanning them and uploading them onto your website, allowing family members all over the world to view your very special family tree.
FIVE: Remember Them
It’s a sad reminder of our mortality when someone we love passes away. However, if you want to remember someone special, there’s no more fitting tribute than to include some favourite photos of the departed at the funeral or wake. Choose a selection of the best photographs, get them professionally scanned and then have them reprinted in various sizes. Often, family members will wish to retain a special keepsake of their loved one and once you’ve scanned the photos, you can help with the grieving process by easily providing them with copies of those photographs.
Get your precious memories digitised to preserve and share them, with scanning from as little 10p per photo and snappy turnaround times, make 1Scan your first stop.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
There's more ...
We had a few days in New York, of course I took hundreds of photos. Trying to put them into an album, mainly to show my daughter who at the moment is in Switzerland.
Looking at the photos they needed some sort of "punctuation", some images that clearly marked the end of one section and the beginning of the next. After a little head scratching I went back to my day job (www.1scan.co.uk) and dug around at the bottom of my rucksack. I found the programme for the basketball game we'd seen, the entry tickets to the Rockefeller Tower (one of the best attractions in NY), the MTA ticket vouchers, a compliments slip from the hotel, a restaurant receipt and some odd bits. So I scanned the sensible stuff and slotted it in.
So, the cover of the basketball programme clearly tells when and where of our evening, the MTA card marks the end of that and signals the beginning of a days sightseeing, and so on.
Maybe you have some odds and ends that could work as markers in your albums? All it takes is a few minutes with even the most basic scanner (300 dpi is adequate).
Looking at the photos they needed some sort of "punctuation", some images that clearly marked the end of one section and the beginning of the next. After a little head scratching I went back to my day job (www.1scan.co.uk) and dug around at the bottom of my rucksack. I found the programme for the basketball game we'd seen, the entry tickets to the Rockefeller Tower (one of the best attractions in NY), the MTA ticket vouchers, a compliments slip from the hotel, a restaurant receipt and some odd bits. So I scanned the sensible stuff and slotted it in.
So, the cover of the basketball programme clearly tells when and where of our evening, the MTA card marks the end of that and signals the beginning of a days sightseeing, and so on.
Maybe you have some odds and ends that could work as markers in your albums? All it takes is a few minutes with even the most basic scanner (300 dpi is adequate).
Friday, April 3, 2009
President Obama Endorses Personalised Photo Album for Queen
Here in London we've been playing host to the G20 Summit so our papers have been packed with the good and great - Barack Obama being in the lead by a long way. Although it wasn't an official State Visit the President and his wife were invited to Buckingham Palace to meet our Queen and Prince Philip.
It's polite and customary to give a small gift when people visit Her Majesty. So what do you buy the woman who has everything? Well the richest woman in the world was given an iPod. Not bad, but this iPod was special and not just because it was given by President Obama to the Queen.
No, this iPod contained photos of the Queen on her last visit to America. Yes it was a fancy personalised photoalbum. Her Majesty, the palace has said, was greatly appreciative of the President's kindness.
It's polite and customary to give a small gift when people visit Her Majesty. So what do you buy the woman who has everything? Well the richest woman in the world was given an iPod. Not bad, but this iPod was special and not just because it was given by President Obama to the Queen.
No, this iPod contained photos of the Queen on her last visit to America. Yes it was a fancy personalised photoalbum. Her Majesty, the palace has said, was greatly appreciative of the President's kindness.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Photoframe Compared With DVD
Sometimes the easiest questions turn out to be the hardest to answer, so when a client asked the difference between a DVD with a slideshow and a photoframe I was a bit floored. Where do you start ....
Well, a photoframe shows digital image data files, typically jpgs. Not so with a slideshow DVD, that may start with a jpg but the burn process converts it into a format compatible with a TV screen.
Menu structure? Transitions? Running order? All of this is user defined and controlled when you set up your slideshow. You can achieve many of these features on your photoframe by accessing controls from a main menu. You might feel it gives you greater flexibility.
Music? Every TV will play a slideshow soundtrack but this is available on few photoframes. Personally, I think music lifts a slideshow significantly.
Personalisation? Not via a cheap plastic DVD, but the price of photoframe food including USB memory sticks is falling. Think of each dinky memory card as a digital photoalbum. As with traditional photo albums remember to label it, after a while they all look the same and it's annoying to have to put five or six into the photoframe to find the set of photos you want.
Well, a photoframe shows digital image data files, typically jpgs. Not so with a slideshow DVD, that may start with a jpg but the burn process converts it into a format compatible with a TV screen.
Menu structure? Transitions? Running order? All of this is user defined and controlled when you set up your slideshow. You can achieve many of these features on your photoframe by accessing controls from a main menu. You might feel it gives you greater flexibility.
Music? Every TV will play a slideshow soundtrack but this is available on few photoframes. Personally, I think music lifts a slideshow significantly.
Personalisation? Not via a cheap plastic DVD, but the price of photoframe food including USB memory sticks is falling. Think of each dinky memory card as a digital photoalbum. As with traditional photo albums remember to label it, after a while they all look the same and it's annoying to have to put five or six into the photoframe to find the set of photos you want.
Friday, March 20, 2009
1Scan uses Kodak Scanner
One of my commercial interests is a photo scanning service called 1Scan. Towards the end of last year we decided to expand our service from slides and negatives plus some prints, to cover high volume photo scanning. Having scoured the market for a good, high speed scanner we went with Kodak's s1220.
And I'm very glad we did, it's just great. Not only do we love it but so too do our clients. I was pleased when the chance came up for us to do a press release with our new best friends at Kodak. Yesterday the release went out and I was pleased to find out via Google Alerts that it had been picked up by various electronic press release services.
You can see first that came to my attention here.
And I'm very glad we did, it's just great. Not only do we love it but so too do our clients. I was pleased when the chance came up for us to do a press release with our new best friends at Kodak. Yesterday the release went out and I was pleased to find out via Google Alerts that it had been picked up by various electronic press release services.
You can see first that came to my attention here.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Ecademy Cold Turkey
For nearly three years I was a paid up member of social networking site ecademy.com. But no longer, today is the first day of the rest of my life.
OK, that's overstating it but I cancelled my membership. Why? Well, nothing against ecademy but it stopped being helpful. When I began I was mainly interested in getting a good Google ranking and ecademy helped. Lately Google have significantly marked down the effectiveness of social network sites such as ecademy and the weighting they give for backlinks.
My personal and business interests drifted towards images, scanning, photo albums etc and that's a very minor area of ecademy which is mainly populated by marketing gurus, personal development coaches, SEO experts (rapidly leaving) and the usual cast of oddballs. Ecademy just stopped being relevant.
And I felt I was becoming addicted. I had the page open in Safari and I found myself commenting on ecademy blog posts in which I really had no great expertise, and not a lot to add.
I'm concentrating on photo, slide and negative scanning via 1Scan.co.uk and also personalised-photoalbums.com (which should be self explanatory).
OK, that's overstating it but I cancelled my membership. Why? Well, nothing against ecademy but it stopped being helpful. When I began I was mainly interested in getting a good Google ranking and ecademy helped. Lately Google have significantly marked down the effectiveness of social network sites such as ecademy and the weighting they give for backlinks.
My personal and business interests drifted towards images, scanning, photo albums etc and that's a very minor area of ecademy which is mainly populated by marketing gurus, personal development coaches, SEO experts (rapidly leaving) and the usual cast of oddballs. Ecademy just stopped being relevant.
And I felt I was becoming addicted. I had the page open in Safari and I found myself commenting on ecademy blog posts in which I really had no great expertise, and not a lot to add.
I'm concentrating on photo, slide and negative scanning via 1Scan.co.uk and also personalised-photoalbums.com (which should be self explanatory).
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Affinity Groups
Had a call today at 1Scan.co.uk, from a young lady with a clever fund raising idea. She runs a youth group and needs to raise funds. She's putting out a call for photos from past members which will be scanned (by us) then put into a personalised photo album, a multi yearbook.
Having spoken to a few ex-members she thinks she can see each book for twice the production cost, and has a target of 150 copies.
It's a great idea, I think she'll do well with this one.
Having spoken to a few ex-members she thinks she can see each book for twice the production cost, and has a target of 150 copies.
It's a great idea, I think she'll do well with this one.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Welcome
Some years ago I started a photo scanning service called 1Scan. It took a while to get going but now I'm pleased to say 1Scan is a thriving business converting photos, slides and negatives into great digital photos.
At the beginning I thought that was it, that going from an old print or 35mm slide to a digital jpg or tiff was enough. Then I got talking to my clients and found out why they came to 1Scan. The scanning, for them, is just the first step. They were taking their digital images and doing something else, or at least they wanted. What they wanted to achieve was a personalised photo album.
Often, they didn't know how. So here I am, four years later, looking to carry the message beyond the narrow realm of just making images digital, into creating the end product, the digital photo album. The hows as well as the whys.
Any comments?
At the beginning I thought that was it, that going from an old print or 35mm slide to a digital jpg or tiff was enough. Then I got talking to my clients and found out why they came to 1Scan. The scanning, for them, is just the first step. They were taking their digital images and doing something else, or at least they wanted. What they wanted to achieve was a personalised photo album.
Often, they didn't know how. So here I am, four years later, looking to carry the message beyond the narrow realm of just making images digital, into creating the end product, the digital photo album. The hows as well as the whys.
Any comments?
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