Welcome to the wonderful world of Touchnote cards

Be a better photographer - digital camera tips

December 29, 2009 by Raam

We’re always on the lookout for top photography tips - especially now in the run up to confirming our new year’s resolutiuons. Mark Anderson’s blog is great if you’re trying to find the perfect digital camera in the sales, or if it’s time to indulge your own need for a bigger and better camera.

How about checking out his London photos on Touchnote.com, while you’re there, to inspire your own creativity? Or just search ‘Mark Anderson’ in our gallery to view all available photos at Touchnote.com

Here’s one of our “not-at-all-seasonal” favourites…

Ah, London by black and white

The big freeze bites

December 18, 2009 by Raam

Well, the weather outside is definitely frightful. But here at Touchnote our little elves keep on merrily packing Christmas cards to make sure everyone gets their greetings before the holidays officially start! Well all except for one little worker, Alix who failed to turn up for work today as she (allegedly) got snowed in. A wonderful excuse to spend the day making snowmen and judging by the pictures she sent us - she did just that!

On a more serious note however, it seems London may actually come to a standstill if the snow gets any heavier seeing as trains and busses are being cancelled here, there and everywhere. In fact, forty years ago there was a similar situation in London when two feet of snow caused chaos in the city and lasting for two whole two months! Let’s hope this freeze doesn’t repeat history. Check out London 40 years ago!

 

Anybody remember hearing stories about winter fairs on the River Thames?

Back to school - postcard 101

December 14, 2009 by Sara

In honour of our newly released photo postcards, time to learn a little about postcards.

The image below is of a postcard from the 1870’s.

 


To some this may look like a piece of a brown paper bag. It is plain, washed of colour, there is no picture and the ink is brown. The main reason for this blandness is because postcards were never actually about self-expression, visual or verbal. They were intended as a cheap way to a non-confidential message. Interestingly, when picture-postcards eventually did appear on the market, legal issues were immediately raised as to what images printed on them were considered appropriate. A postcard image in one country for example was not always considered appropriate in the destination country or in the country it needed to pass through.

Some images such as those relating to the Islamic prophet Muhammad for example, were banned from being sent in 1900 by the Ottoman Empire. And apparently ‘banned’ post cards such as these that managed to be sent before 1900 are now considered to be valuable to collectors.

So all you collectors out there get checking

Go pro with your mobile phone

November 10, 2009 by RA

 

As you know we were a launch partner for Nokia’s Ovi Store back in May this year. We’ve just been exploring their site to see if we can find any advice on how to take fantastic pictures with your camera phone (we know, those ‘captured moments’ on your phone don’t always turn out to be photographic masterpieces). Anyway we came across this nice collection of tips & tricks from Nokia

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It gives good, straight forward definitions of the types of effect you can create with your camera phone. If you look really carefully you’ll even see Touchnote stamp in the blog post!

They also claim that this shot was taken on a Nokia N86 - what d’ya think?

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Create postcards with fun effects!

by Elwood

 

Darwin - wanted dead or alive?!

We’ve been partners with Photofunia for a while now, and we love the image effects they have - people have used photofunia to put themselves on billboards, on the mona lisa, even drawn on a blackboard!

It’s such a great way to personalise your card and make someone smile.

Now, you can use photofunia effects directly on touchnote.com:

See www.touchnote.com/make-postcard

How do I use the effects?

Just go to www.touchnote.com/make-postcard, and click the browse button to upload a photo.

When it appears, click on some of the effects on the right to see your picture in a new way.

 

What effects can I use for my postcard?

Darwin meets modern art

We’ve provided fifteen of our favourite effects for you to play with.

As a model, I’ve chosen this image of  Darwin - I hope he would see it as the compliment it was intended to be!

Some of my favourite effects are:

Be a work of art in a gallery…

have your face, or a friends face, plastered all over an art gallery - a great card for an arty sister or girlfriend perhaps?

…On a wanted poster

A great one for birthdays, or just to make someone smile - put them in a wanted poster!

Great to send to mates with a sense of humour, as an unusual birthday surprise, to fans of old westerns, or anyone a bit nefarious ;)

And loads more to choose from

We’ve only just touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to great cards you can send with these effects - fashion magazine cover cards, jigsaw effect cards, or on the mona lisa!

Touchnote is 1 today!

November 3, 2009 by RA

 

It’s our 1st birthday today andistock_000007679914xsmall we wanted to say thank you to all our customers that have helped us reach this milestone.

 

And to celebrate, we’re giving you 50% off your Touchnote cards for the whole week. Just use this discount code in the basket:

Code: TN-BIRTHDAY

 

 

 

 

Mobile photography

October 30, 2009 by RA

 

I saw this lovely piece in the Metro this morning on iPhone photography - or “iPhoneography” as it’s called. iPhone users snapping away on their phones to create beautiful photographs

iphoneography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one was created by Valerie Ardini

Here’s some of the iPhone apps she uses to enhance her photos: TiltShift, CameraBagFocalLab

 

And here’s a Flickr group we’ve found dedicated to mobile phone photography

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Happy snapping

 

 

Gordon Brown makes a Touchnote appearance

October 29, 2009 by RA

 

It seems that we have Touchnote customers that are friends with the PM … look who turned up on a Touchnote card…

 

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PM on a TN we call it :-)

 

 

 

We’re helping websites make money

October 21, 2009 by RA

 

So, you have a website that hosts photos and other images - wouldn’t it be great to let people coming to your website send any of those pics as a real printed postcard .. to anywhere in the world?

Well now you can. You add a tiny piece of code to your website and a little “send as a postcard” button appears next to the pictures you choose.

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If you’re feeling creative, then you can design your own button, like some of our partners:

 

Photofunia & FACEinHOLE screenshots

 

Now the making money part. For every postcard that’s made using one of your images, we give you a royalty payment. Yes, that’s for every card - so if someone decides to use a single picture from your site on 50 cards, we’ll give you a payment for each of those 50 cards. We think it’s only fair.

We’re also being extra generous - offering a payment of 30% for the next six months. But please sign up before 30th November 2009.

Interested? Here’s some more info about the programme and here’s where you sign-up

Now how about seeing some cards in action…

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(as reviewed on the Radio 2 Chris Evans drive time show)

Want to find out more: http://www.touchnote.com/image_api

Touchnote at Photofair in Spitalfields

October 12, 2009 by RA

So Touchnote made a little trip down to the Photofair in Spitalfields market this weekend - some great photography exhibitions and photo-related services (I’m definitely going to try out the Shoot Experience treasure hunt at some point)

 

photofair

What were your best moments of the fair?