Stamford Photo Express Weblog

Hi readers and belated “Happy New Year” from all of us at SPE.

Its now the middle of January and at bit late for new years greetings, but hey I have good news for all of you blog readers out there…..

If you read the blog before Christmas you will have seen the 10% off promotion that we had for all of our subscribers that came into store and mentioned the discount offer to us when ordering their photos, enlargements or canvas prints.

Well because that promotion was a success we have decided that you guys deserve an incentive to stay subscribed, or just to keep reading the blog. So I am pleased to announce that we are going to make the discount available to blog readers all year round, this promotion will also run in conjunction with any others that we currently have in store.

Right now that means you could get 30% off our selection of Gold or Silver Curved Glass Framesand 20% off Canvas Prints.

The Price Is Right ~ Come on Down

Just pop in and mention that you are an SPE ( Stamford Photo Express ) blog reader and we will do the rest. As I said before Christmas “easy”.

Bah for now.
Andy

Hi SPE web-bloggers, Andy here with a special announcement just for you select few.

We have decided to offer a 10% discount off any in-store services and purchases in the run up to Christmas. This offer is only going to be available to our Web-Blog readers as only they will know about it.

To qualify for your discount just pop in and quote “Web-blog Offer” when making your purchases.
Simple as that.
No vouchers.
No swipe cards just “I’ve read your web-blog and would like to take my 10% discount”.

Easy, so if you are in the Stamford area or even if you’re not as they say on a well known T.V show - “Come On Down”

Here it is at last, SPE has an exiting new experience for both you our valued customers and your pets.

Karen has now moved in a fun new direction with her studio photography here at Stamford Photo Express in the run up to the festive period.

Why not book yourself in for a portrait sitting with your dog, we feel sure man’s best friend would definitely enjoy the experience.
Take a look at the examples on both the portraits and photos sections of our website and if you are in town drop in and either ask for more details or book a sitting straight away. Its great fun!!

Your dog is part of the family get them in on the action or book them in for their very own shoot.
If you wish to bring along an animal other than your dog, please contact us first with the details. I’m not sure Karen’s opinion on Lizards or Spiders yet.

Hope to see you soon with those pets.
Andy

So you have your images captured on your digital camera, they cannot escape. Problem is, now how do I print them?

Well, lets presume that this is your first digital camera and this will be the first time you have printed anything. We advise getting into the following routine.

1. View all of your images and delete any that you feel are unsuccessful or you do not wish to save. It is best to carry out this process on the computer rather than on the camera itself. Using the screen on the camera for prolonged periods is a surefire way of using up your battery power in a hurry!!

2. The next step is to back up your images onto an external source either a CD, DVD or better still an external Hard-Drive. If you do not know how to do this, or wish us to do it for you, that is no problem, we can take care of this stage in store for you at the same time as printing your photos.

3. Once you have your images backed up you can either bring them in to us on the CD or DVD you have created, or you can utilize a USB Memory Stick (temporary storage device) to transport the pictures on.

4. For those of us who are a little intimidated by computers and therefore like to keep their distance from these kind of technical procedures there is an alternative. Quite simply bring your camera in to the store and we can go through the entire procedure with you on our APM Kiosk order point.

5. Now we have your images on our system you can pick up your disks and photos in under an hour. Easy!!

6. From this point you are now free to delete your images or format your memory card. Working to this routine will ensure that you have all your precious memories saved and printed without having to worry about the computer crashing. Also you will avoid any of the potential memory card data corruption we talked about in our previous blog. Nothing like piece of mind where photos are concerned.

Image Transfer services available at SPE: CD/DVD range in price from £3.00 to £5.00 per card depending on the number of images or amount data to be transfered.

For more information don’t hesitate to get in touch via any of the methods in the Contact section of our website or alternatively if you are local pop in for a chat and some advice.

Until the next informative post, this is Andy signing off.
Bye for now.

Just imagine - you’ve just come back from that holiday of a lifetime/wedding of your best mate/leaving do for a colleague. You sit down at night and browse through them all and decide that, despite the fact you’ve had perhaps one too many alcopops, you should sort out the good ones from the not-so-good ones. And, inevitably, you get the good and the bad muddled up and accidentally delete the best shot of the night. Lost forever.

Well, maybe not. If you come to see us we may be able to recover the image from your memory card for you.

Additionally, if you should somehow have a corrupted memory card and cannot access your images, it may be that we can find them for you.

Priceless!

One of the most frequent requests I have comes from customers clasping their precious black-and-white or sepia photograph of a loved one who has passed on, an ancestor in military uniform or even an event from days gone by. ‘Can you reproduce this for me? It’s the only photo I have of my husband/great-grandfather/wedding’.

Of course, the answer is invariably ‘yes’. Whether it’s a straightforward scan and reproduction, or an image requiring some manipulation due to irreparable damage to the photo, we can often duplicate the oldest and most delicate of pictures for you. The photos are then treated to the most ostentatious of frames and mounted in pride of place: after all, aren’t historical photographs fantastic to look at? Interestlingy, I find that the majority of people with such a query have either got a digital camera or they are perhaps thinking of swapping over to digital in the not-too-distant future.

So, why is this relevant to the beginning of the story you may ask? Quite ironically I find that, while people are reluctant to lose touch with their relatives from years gone by, they very rarely print any of their present photographs!

With the advancement of computer technology (and we’re not immune in the photo industry - just try to buy a film-based camera in any of the major electrical retailers!), it is imperative to commit your favourite shots to print. Keeping them on your hard drive, or even backed up to CD/DVD/memory card may not be enough to protect you from the absolute certainty that your computer will be out of date in less than a year (unless you spend more money bringing it back in line with current technology).

It is likely that, in as little as ten years’ time - maybe less - you will not be able to view the photographs you have stored away to ‘look at later’. There are methods available now to convert, for example, VHS to DVD, but they are not inexpensive. My point is, why risk to chance? Spend a few pence printing each of your most treasured memories from today, and you will be able to look at them once a year for the next 50 or even 100 years if you want to!

But the most important thing is that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have a paper copy of history - and the chances are that they WILL be able to continue to have them reproduced at a relatively low cost.

Do it now, before it’s TOO LATE!

With the capabilities of the current models of digital camera – 7 or 8 mp (megapixels) – it becomes possible to crop into areas of photographs without losing too much image quality when the subject matter is reprinted at a larger size. However, we would advise that this practice should be undertaken at the APM (kiosk) in store. Problems arise from time-to-time when images are cropped with no regard to the paper size that may be used during the printing process. For example, cropping into a square shape will mean that a 7” x 5” (18cm x 13cm) print is not possible. Image crops need to retain similar physical shapes to those required at the final print stage and, although non-standard sizes are available, this should be made quite clear to us at the counter when placing your order.

Unless you are experienced with software such as Photoshop or iPhoto (there are others, too), it is usually best to leave the image in its original format and enquire when you call in – we are happy to help you, and this will save a lot of disappointment later if we are unable to reproduce your images exactly as you would wish.

We would like to take this opportunity, too, to thank all of our new subscribers to the SPE Weblog – we hope you enjoy the bulletins, and please feel free to send us feedback!

Linda from Milton Keynes is officially our first visitor to upload images onto the SPE photostream – keep those treasured pictures coming to us – we really do want to share them with you!!

So it’s official - we’ve moved into the techno zone! With kind assistance from my international pal TC from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and my ever-suffering partner in life Karon, we are now available for your viewing online.

This is a very exciting development for our business and one that has been a long time coming. I am glad to have had the help putting this site together from people more skilled in these areas than myself. Over the forthcoming weeks and months I will to be able to offer you information on great deals available instore both on processing and studio portrait photography.

I will also be offering insight into my opinions on the digital revolution, how to go about transferring, storing and printing your images, and also some facts and details on how we get the best quality from your images.

So for now, thank you for taking the time to view our site and drop by soon for my next instalment on the SPE Weblog.

Today the Stamford Photo Express website is officially launched! Thanks for visiting our site and this blog. You can find plenty of information about photo develop and printing, your complete digital photo life, tips and tricks and all you need to know to be sure of the best photo prints! More information? Please contact us via phone (+44 01780 763659) or e-mail (info@stamfordphotoexpress.co.uk)

Bookmark our weblog or subscribe to the RSS feed in your browser. We recommend Mozilla Firefox or Safari, both 100% free for download. Internet Explorer users: we advise and suggest you switch to another browser for your own fun and safety.

Take care,
SPE staff

Based in the rural town of Stamford in Lincolnshire, Stamford Photo Express has been established for almost ten years: a true testament to the extremely high quality work offered by us (Andy Stretton and staff).

As the only independent outlet in Stamford, we pride ourselves on the range and quality of the photo work we produce and the high level of customer service we offer. These are unrivalled by our local competitors.

Our customers are generally local to Stamford and the surrounding area, although we have visitors from all over the UK (and sometimes overseas) who have been recommended to use our services by local residents. We welcome both users of digital media and traditional film.

We are especially attractive to customers who require a high standard of work and customer service, since we are confident that no other photographic outlet in Stamford can match us in these areas. We have more than twenty years’ experience in an industry that has sadly become totally deskilled in the High Street outlets and this deskilling is evident in the reduced number of services available to the customer.

Please have a look at our website or visit our shop in Stamford for more details. Looking forward meeting you!