Happy 2nd birthday to Paperie Boutique!
Visit PaperieBirthday.com for all events!

Winner announcements started on Monday, July 25th…

The digital edition of the August 2011 Professional Photographer Magazine is now online for digital subscribers.

For this month’s article I reviewed frames by The Organic Bloom, American Frame, CPQ, MPixPro, The Savvy Photographer Store, Simply Color Lab, Obrien & Schridde Designs, WHCC, and Photojojo.

Click the magazine pages above for a larger .pdf version. You can find the article on page 50, page 52, and page 54 of the print-version when it hits mailboxes. And you can also download the digital edition now if you’re a PPA member or digital subscriber.




Thanks again to our vendors and readers for making our 2nd birthday party such a big success! Stay tuned for more winner announcements soon!
-Robyn & Todd

Last August in one of my “favorite things” posts, I listed the Photojojo lens mug. At the time they were only available in Canon lenses.

But Photojojo recently made my day and surprised me with the new Nikon lens mug. The Nikon mug actually ZOOMS when you twist the grip! As you can see, it makes the perfect hot cocoa container!

So when you have extra Christmas cash lying around, you know you want one!

Thank you, Photojojo!
-Robyn

P.S. I’ll be posting more “business packaging / holiday packaging contest“ entries as I can individually. Please make sure you scroll to the previous entry each time you visit so you don’t miss anything!

I’m excited to announce the winner of the Jo Totes camera bag…Heather Mann:

Heather gets her choice of bag / color / style! Congrats Heather, thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to Jo Totes for the amazing giveaway!

Don’t forget there’s still a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Denny Manufacturing Company through midnight tonight (Thursday) — and also to win a copy of the “Photographers SEO Book” and “Photography Blog SEO Zen” from Zach Prez until the end of the day Saturday.

P.S. If you are interested in advertising with Paperie Boutique, please contact todd @ this domain. If you are a photographer and are interested in having your packaging featured – or are a vendor and are interested in having your business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured – please contact robyn @ this domain to be added to the posting schedule.

First up before the big giveaway (yes I said “big giveaway” so read ’til the end), I have a freebie download. To celebrate surviving the year being half-over I recently made mini-calendars for my clients. I had them printed as folded bookmarks from ProDPI, and they look fantastic if I do say so myself.

You’ll have to come up with the front and back design (I used a business card front/back for mine), but I’ve attached a download for the inside-spread that includes the calendar. I have included the crop-guide layer. You’ll have to add your logo if desired and the month names, calendar dates, and month box background colors are not customizable (unless you delete the layers and add your own in their places) – but the background color and bar-stripe are easily changed with the click of the mouse.

The white background color can be changed with one click as shown in the Photoshop background color fill layer in the Layers Palette. The text for the month names, the date text, and the box backgrounds for each month cannot be changed. However, the top stripe CAN be changed and your logo can be added using the included lab crop-guide for ProDPI.

→ download link ← (please note this file was designed in CS2 and you must have Photoshop or Elements and know how to edit a .psd layered file — I do not provide technical support for this download)

And now as promised…the big giveaway by Heather Green of The Drop Shoppe! Heather has stopped by for today’s guest post…

The Drop Shoppe (thedropshoppe.com) sells thick, matte, high quality vinyl backdrops in large sizes that are affordable for photographers. You can use these with studio lighting or natural light. Each image is created in Photoshop or Illustrator to be the absolute sharpest possible when it’s printed in large format. Currently we sell two sizes; 5 feet by 8 feet and 10 feet by 8 feet. The 5′x8′ drops are $90.00 and the 10′x8′ drops are $150.00 All prices include free shipping to the continental United States. If you are out of the country you do have to pay shipping, but we work hard to find you the fastest and most affordable shipping solution. Each backdrop has an extra 1/2″ white border around the outside, which is perfect for you to clamp to your backdrop stand. This way you’re not clamping directly onto the backdrop image.

Here we have a simple set up of hooks screwed into the wall, a metal pole and three large clamps holding the backdrop.

There’s a variety of ways to hang these backdrops. You can just clamp them to your horizontal pole on your backdrop stand (with large clamps you can purchase at a hardware store), or you can hang hooks on your wall with a pole and clamp to that. We used the hooks/wall method in our small office since we couldn’t fit my larger backdrop stand in there. A quick Google search will also turn up quite a few do it yourself backdrop stands that you’re able to make at home for very little cash.

We have all sorts of patterns and styles for you to choose from. There’s plenty of grunge, messy paint, realistic background photos, wallpaper, doors, floors and much more. The possibilities for these backdrops are endless. Use them in your studio, use one for the popular ‘photo booth’ set ups at weddings, even hang them outside for big parties or family get togethers. The backdrops arrive in a shipping tube, which we ask you to keep so that you can store your backdrop in it when not in use. The best ways to store these are either rolled up, hanging or laying flat. If you should wrinkle them, usually laying them flat in a hot room or outside in the shade will remove the wrinkles. These also wipe clean with mild soap and water. No worries about that baby or toddler making a mess, just wipe it up!

I’ve also included a size chart for the 5′x8′ drops, showing the size of an adult woman and the size of our backdrops – a good way to show how big these drops really are:

Here’s an example of our backdrops in use! The following photo was taken by Holly McCaig with our Aged Red Doors backdrop.

Another backdrop photo by Chrissy Avila.

The backdrop I want to give away here on Paperie Boutique today is our Aged Copper Wall, sized 5′x8′. It’s one of my favorites and works well when shooting just about any subject…from kids to women to men.

Here’s a few sample photos taken with that Aged Copper Wall backdrop – first by Chrissy Avila Photography:

And one by me using more of a cross processed/vintage technique:

Winner will receive one Aged Copper Wall size 5 feet by 8 feet backdrop with additional 1/2″ white border around it. Backdrops do not come with any kind of rods, clamps or pockets to hang them – you must supply your own way to hang it up. Backdrop will be shipped to the winner 3-7 days after the contest ends.

There are three different ways to enter between now and 11:59 p.m. on Friday, July 9th – each entry requires its own separate comment:

1. ‘like’ The Drop Shoppe on Facebook, come back and post here that you did so

2. post on Twitter (then leave the link here):
I entered to win an Aged Copper Wall backdrop at paperieboutique.com by @shutterblog from The Drop Shoppe/ thedropshoppe.com/store

3. leave a comment here on the blog about what your favorite backdrop is from the shop (thedropshoppe.com/store)

UPDATE The winner has now been posted here – check it out!

And last but not least…everyone gets $5 off their purchase from The Drop Shoppe by using the code paperie at checkout!

Huge thanks to Heather and The Drop Shoppe for such a fantastic prize giveaway! Head to Facebook and tell them thanks ‘in person’!

And to wrap things up for today, I’ve been posting photos of my new office setup over at Flickr as things progress (including info on how to create the wrap station yourself, and the Photojojo poster). Here are a couple of teasers for now.

Stay tuned this week. More fun ahead!
-Robyn

P.S. If you are interested in advertising with Paperie Boutique, please contact todd @ this domain. If you are a photographer and are interested in having your packaging featured – or are a vendor and are interested in having your business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured – please contact robyn @ this domain to be added to the posting schedule.

Last fall after purchasing the Bad-Ass Bowler Camera Bag from Photojojo’s Store, I reviewed it here on Paperie Boutique. That review was such a success, Photojojo recently contacted me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing the Fuji Instax Mini Instant Camera. (Don’t miss the coupon code later in the post!)

I believe it took me all of 0.02 seconds to say, “YES! Please!”

It arrived earlier this week and I’ve had an absolute blast playing with it!

Assembly was very easy. Basically you take it out of the box, pop the batteries in, pop the film in, and go. (The Photojojo site has a great animated image that shows you how to load the film into the camera, so don’t miss it!) Honestly the most confusing part was that in my excitement I failed to RTFM and couldn’t figure out where the “power button” was. Turns out, there is no power button. You pull the lens out, “voilà!”, and you’re good to go…

The first day I took a few shots inside and then headed out back. I was amazed you could even see detail in the blades of grass. For an instant camera, it had very good clarity.

My boys were impressed with the “now you don’t see it, now you do” aspect of the photos. It was like handing over a little slice of my childhood to them.

For those of you want all the fine details, I’m more than happy to oblige. The Instax has a wide-angle Fujinon Lens (f=60mm) with a 1/60 second electronic shutter. (Its old-skool Polaroid Spectra counterpart has a 100mm lens.) The focus range is 0.6m to ∞.

It has a built-in auto flash in low light with auto-adjust and manual exposure compensation. There are individual exposure settings for indoor/dark, cloudy/shady, fine, and clear. You can check the LED exposure indicator and press the shutter.

The INSTAX Mini Film comes in cartridges and develops instantly. Each cartridge contains 10 prints – 2 cartridges, 20 prints per box. The prints are about the size of a credit card (2.13″ x 3.4″), making them very easy to take-and-go on a night out since they’ll fit right in a wallet photo holder. The image color is very vivid and bold, as you would expect with Fuji film. You can see here in the comparison shots I took first with my Polaroid Spectra Blitz, then with the Instax, just how much of a difference a few decades of technology can make.

The Polaroid images look so yellow, dull, and and washed out by comparison. Whereas the Fuji Instax images are bright and clear.

Don’t get me wrong – the images are not all tack-sharp. But for an instant camera, they are the best I’ve ever seen and this camera allows you so much control over the settings unlike its predecessors. Yet even with the color-pop the Instax provides, it still retains its roots and the images look remarkably ‘retro’.

Pros:
• very fast point-and-shoot capability
• can be shared by family members
• the instant-film is still in production
• unlike my Polaroid, the batteries are separate from the Fujfiilm Instax film (so if the 4 AA batteries die on the Instax, you don’t lose an entire pack of film in the process like you do with the Polaroid Spectra)

Cons:
• the price of the film (but you can’t really put a price on instant gratification now can you?)
• lack of a macro lens (DSLR shooting has really spoiled me all these years – this camera does not do very well in extreme close-ups)
• getting used to the lens-finder being on the right and the shutter-button located on the front (I’m a natural blonde and I have issues)
• figuring out how to convince my boys that it’s MOMMY’s camera

Now if you’re sitting there thinking, “This is all well and good but the expense doesn’t apply to my business…” Well think again! The photo below is the original reason I bought my Polaroid. You can do a lot of fun, creative shots mixing instant and digital / film. My clients absolutely adored this photo and had it blown up large for their wedding guestbook table.

So what are you waiting for? Not only is there an amazingly fun camera out there to be had, but the fact Photojojo is providing Paperie Boutique readers with a discount is just icing! So enter the code PAPERJOJO at checkout for 10% off the Instax cam until the end of March. You can’t beat that!

And with the money you save, you might even be able to justify getting one of the Bad-Ass Bowler Camera Bags for yourself to carry it in!

Thank you so much Photojojo! It’s been a long time since I actually had an excuse to “play” with a camera! And I have a feeling I’ll be making a lot more excuses in the future.

The first WPPI 2010 Las Vegas recap went live late last night. So don’t miss it! The post includes links to several incredible vendor discounts, only available for a limited time!

Camera mini-strap on the Instax courtesy of My Funky Camera who was featured on Paperie earlier this month.

If you’re interested in having your own business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured please contact me (my e-mail is in the sidebar and is robyn @ this domain – or you can leave a comment).

It’s no secret that I love my two jill-e bags. (I have the small leather and the large suede rolling.) I sing their praises quite often, not only for how much they carry, but also how protected they carry the cargo.

But for the upcoming weekend I wanted something “tiny” – something “camera only”. Tiny is usually not a luxury afforded to DSLR users. I also didn’t want it to scream “please steal my camera / bag”. And of course I wanted it to protect my camera and lens. Oh yeah, and be cute. No problem, right?

Thankfully my needs were met the instant I hunted around the Photojojo store and found their Bad-Ass Bowler Camera Bag.

The inside view in the photo above shows my Nikon D200 (sans grip) with a Nikon 12-24mm f/4G lens attached. The bag also comes with a removable divider (more photos at Photojojo) just in case you should require such a thing. Oh yeah, and it also comes with a cute plastic dinosaur (and is conveniently designed in OU’s school colors). Can’t forget that!

(Camera wristlet strap courtesy of My Funky Camera. Check the comments to see a size-comparison of the new bowler bag and the jill-e small bag.)

Nothing like a little shiny patent leather to make a girl all happy and smiley. Let’s bowl, let’s bowl, let’s rock-’n'-roll!