As most parents know, getting a photo of your children that you can proudly display on your desk at work can sometimes feel like an impossible feat.

Before you give up on trying, consider these few tips to enable you to capture your little bundles of joy without inducing tears or tantrums.

Tip 1: Camera Casual

If your children seem to freeze or strike ridiculous poses every time you take out a camera then start by making them feel more comfortable around your camera.  Try carrying your camera around always or better yet ask your child to carry it for you (shock proof cameras are good for this).  As your camera becomes a normal part of you and your children’s lives, start taking a few shots a day.  You can increase the number of shots per day as they become more used to being photographed.

Tip 2: Let them decide

A child’s discomfort in a photo can ruin an otherwise great shot.  One of the best ways to ensure that you have their whole-hearted cooperation is to negotiate with them.  Agree that if they follow your instructions for some “fancy” photos (desk-worthy) you’ll shoot some just the way they want.  Let them choose exactly what they want to wear and do.

While allowing your kids to choose how they want some of their photos to be taken may seem like a silly idea, they can occasionally yield some truly heart-warming shots.  At the very least they provide some dynamite photos to show at their wedding someday. Either way, compromising with kids when taking their picture is a win-win situation.

Tip 3: Make it a fun experience

Photo taking does not need to seem like a chore for your kids. Depending on the ages of your kids, taking turns as the photographer is a great way for them to have fun while you get exactly what you want.  Snap photos of them and in turn show them what to do when it’s their turn. Children also learn a lot about following instructions through this.

Once you’ve shot an agreed number of photos, hand them the camera and remind them what to do.  Don’t forget to act as compliant with your photographer as you’d like them to be for you. Children often exaggerate the tone or attitude of their photographer when it’s their turn. In the process you may even learn a thing or two about how they perceive you.   Allowing children to take a turn as the photographer will usually make them more willing to take direction when it’s your turn to photograph.

Tip 4: Natural is the way to go

If your children often get fussy when being photographed, then this may be because they are doing or wearing something that makes them feel uncomfortable (could be a frilly dress or a contrived pose). Children do not like being fake and let’s face it, forced posed photos are less appealing. Snap photos of them when they are in their natural and comfortable state. It is the self-awareness that can actually induce the tantrums and panic.

 

 

Tip 5: Capture the Little Moments

Many parents get discouraged when they can’t get their kids to look and act like perfect little people.  If you’re one of these parents then we’ve got news for you. Savour their spirit, and capture it (muddy faces, angry pouts, those are the things you’ll miss).  One of the reasons we want to capture our children’s lives in photos more than our own is because they make us laugh and drive us crazy all at once.  These are the pictures that portray who they really are and this is what you should be trying to capture.

KoodibooK is about sharing your memories and making inspiring designs while giving you the best possible experience with photobook creation.  The Free photobook software allows you to access your photos at amazing speed from wherever they are stored and use them to create photobooks that can be published anywhere.

Photo credit: ALANIS by Mailgomad, Dustin & Makayla by xCrimsonregret and Kids by lAliusl

 

A is for Apple

…because all A-Z’s start with Apple?  KoodibooKs can be viewed and bought online on Apple computers but you currently need a PC to create them.

A is also for…AutoFill – Getting started can always be daunting so AutoFill gets your photos into a KoodibooK in no time and then you can tweak it to suit your own tastes.

Author – That’s you! It’s nice to be associated with something special, so go on… let everyone know this is your hard work!

B

Books – KoodibooK is all about books, books and more books – yours, your family’s, your friend’s, and even other people’s who simply like what you like.

Buy – Buy your photo books from the biggest and best photobook manufacturers via KoodibooK.

Borders – Sometimes a border on your photo can make the world of difference so give our range of borders a try.

Backgrounds – We’ve got a range of backgrounds for your pages with lots more in the pipeline. You can always use your own images as a background if you prefer.

Bookshelf – This is the home of all your books. Just click on the bookshelf to start another KoodibooK or load up one you’ve worked on before.

C

Choice – KoodibooK is all about giving you the widest choice – from where your photos are, to where you can publish, to who you want to print them.

CeWe – KoodibooK allows you to create some great CeWe photo books. CeWe is Europe’s largest photobook manufacturer with 15 factories.

Categories – KoodibooKs that are made public are categorised to make it easy for others to find your work… Just select the one which comes closest to describing yours.

Community – The community of KoodibooK users are the most important people to us. We love to hear from everyone so please tune into our blog and twitter feeds!

D

3D – KoodibooK brings a unique 3^rd Dimension to the world of self-publishing. This is nothing like page-flippers you may have seen before so be sure to see it for yourself!

Designers – Calling all Designers… if you have some great layouts and designs, why not make them available for others to use? We have a KoodibooK design marketplace coming soon!

Decorations – We have a few already and great plans for decorations and embellishments which you can add to your KoodibooKs to make it special.

Description – Every KoodibooK should have a description which will appear alongside the title so people can find out what it’s all about

E
Effects – KoodibooK has some amazing effects (like blur, sepia, black and white, sharpen, etc.) which can be used with your photos to get that extra special look

Enhanced – In the future we’ll be extending the FREE photobook software with a paid-for ‘Enhanced’ version which has some extra special bells and whistles. Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to use the Standard version for FREE and we’ll keep investing in developing it!

F

FREE – You can create amazing photobooks and publish them for all to see for absolutely nothing! Yes, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Facebook – KoodibooK’s facebook integration is simply amazing, allowing you to build books from your own albums and those your friends have given you access to.

Facebook Application – You can easily share your KoodibooKs with your friends on Facebook using our unique Facebook App

Feedback – We welcome your feedback on all things KoodibooK. The feedback button on the website give easy access to get in touch, to share your ideas, frustrations, issues or praise.

G

Google, Bing and Yahoo – All the major search engines can be used to find images (but be careful! Do make sure you have rights to use them)

H

Hours and hours of enjoyment can be had with KoodibooK – all for FREE!

Happiness –You’ll have trouble not smiling when you flick through that KoodibooK you published and relive the memories.

I

iPhone – Our iPhone application is nearly ready and will allow you to take your KoodibooKs with you anywhere.

iPrinciples – iPrinciples are our development partner (www.iprinciples.com) who specialise in the ‘magic of software’ (they make cool software like KoodibooK).

J

Jpg – KoodibooK reads most of the common formats of images including JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, etc.

K

KoodibooK – The KoodibooK name is a palindrome (which makes our transparent business cards really cool!) and the name came from reversing ibook – imagine a mirror going down through the letter ‘i’.

L

Library – The KoodibooK Library is the area of the web site where you can view public books

Logo – The inverted capital K at the end of the logo is because most companies start with a capital letter and the reflection around the letter ‘i’ would be an inverted K.

Long Tale – Whatever your niche market, you can make regular KoodibooKs to serve it well. Why not create a regular fanzine or magazine for your hobby and get others who are interested to contribute with content and stories?

M

Memories – Capturing your memories on your camera is only the first step. KoodibooK allows you to take them much further by letting them tell a story.

Microsoft Office – If you use Word, Powerpoint, Excel or Publisher you’ll soon be able to publish straight to KoodibooK.com from inside Office.

N

New – KoodibooK is brand-sparkling new and is still carrying a “Beta” label. We know KoodibooK isn’t perfect yet. Nevertheless, we’re working to improve it day-by-day and welcome your thoughts on how to get it “just right” for you.

O

Open – KoodibooK is open for business after two years of development and we’re so excited we could burst!

P

Publishing – “Publishing yourself” is what KoodibooK is all about. Tell the world your life story… tell your family how much you love them… whatever it is, publish it with KoodibooK!

Photo Finder – your computer, pen drives, cameras, Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug, Bebo, MySpace, Photobox, Pikeo, Google, Bing, Yahoo with many more to come.

Print On Demand – PoD is simply about printing one-off copies as and when you want them. There are no “print runs” with KoodibooK; you just print what you want, when you want.

Privacy – At KoodibooK we are absolutely committed to our privacy policy and to ensuring the information you give us is kept as securely as we can.

Public or Private – Your publication can be just for you or for the world to see. And we have some more options up our sleeve as we roll out more capabilities.

Portfolio-Yes KoodibooK can be used to make excellent portfolios!

Q

Quality – Everything in KoodibooK is about high quality from the user experience of the application to the final book in your hands. Please let us know if you see anything that isn’t top notch!

Quick – We’ve tried to make using KoodibooK as easy as possible so you can finish your book incredibly quickly if you want to. Feel free to take as long as you like and enjoy the experience of making your KoodibooK if you prefer!

Questions? We have a range of frequently asked questions on the web site which may help you in the first instance

R

Register – While you don’t need to register to make and view KoodibooKs, you may want to in order to publish, rate or comment on books. The good news is it’s really easy and we promise to respect the information you provide.

Recipe books Do you have a long-standing family recipe? Why not make a personalised cookery book with scrumptious menus and tempting pictures to share with your friends and family? If Jamie can do it so can we!

Rating – KoodibooK.com allows any registered user to rate your public KoodibooKs so the quality can be recognised and the best of the best surfaced for others to view. You can rate other’s books too!

Rectangles – Rectangles can be added to your book pages to outline images in many interesting ways, especially if you combine it with a mask – well worth a play to see the possibilities.

S

Spreads – Spreads are mentioned a lot in KoodibooK, so what are they? They’re essentially two side-by-side pages which, when opened flat, can have an image placed across them both.

Sharing – Sharing your KoodibooK is what it’s all about! In the living room, on your phone, on the internet – whoever and wherever you are, we have a way to let your family, friends, colleagues or customers share in your creations

System requirements – KoodibooK will run nicely on most recent PCs which run Windows7, XP or Vista. Our download page on the web site has more details.

T

Templates – KoodibooK offers a good selection of page templates which can give you a professional result with little effort. And you’ll soon be able to create templates yourself.

Themes – Various themes are included in KoodibooK to make it easy to get a common feel to your book. Examples include comics, seasons and special occasions with lots more on their way to you.

Text – Image-only photobooks are nice, but why not add captions and paragraphs of text to describe the people and places on each page? You can choose from loads of fonts, colours, sizes and spacing to tweak it to perfection

Title – Every KoodibooK needs a title that captures the essence of your book and tempts your readers to pick it up and get flicking through those pages.

Twitter – It seems like everyone is tweeting these days and KoodibooK is no different. Why not tweet with us. Go on follow @koodibook

U

Up-to-speed – We’ve designed KoodibooK to be easy to use but you can get up-to-speed even quicker by reading the Getting Started tutorial.

Undo – Even the best make mistakes so don’t worry, you can always get back to where you were before by using the undo (and redo) features.

V

Viewing – Whether it’s the perfect 3D preview mode or our internet browser-based viewers or the iPhone, you can always see your work wherever you are.

W

Weddings – Weddings are great occasions and a KoodibooK can be the perfect way of remembering them. Whether you’re a professional photographer or a friend who is ‘good at taking photos’, KoodibooK is going to help you create an outstanding wedding photo book.

Wow! – This is the reaction we often get when we show KoodibooK to people rather than telling them about it. You have to see it for yourself and make your own mind up if “Wow!” is for you!

X

eXpress Yourself – whether it’s eXtreme sports or amazing eXpeditions there’s a KoodibooK for that! And what’s more you can take it with you on an ipod Touch or iphone to show your friends next time.

Y

Yearbooks – Whether it’s a graduation, the end of a hard school year, your local kids football team or company annual report, there are always special memories to keep forever, and KoodibooK has a great answer with personalised yearbooks.

Z

Zooming – If you need to zoom in to get the detail right or zoom out to see the bigger picture you have complete control in KoodibooK.

Zoo – Like A for Apple, Z is always for Zoo!  All those animal snaps will make such a great photo book that the Zoo may even want to buy some of your KoodibooKs for their customers!

Photo credits:

The Apple by Arkivbild,  3D by Sssamantha, Bangkok food by meendee & Zebra by Vincent3fx

 

Last week I ‘liked’ a new Facebook group; it resonated with how I felt about UK politics (still do) and the name made me laugh.  For the all important ‘join-in’ moment, I felt like I was part of a community of like-minds.  But within days I’d hidden it from my status updates – not because I’d changed my affinity, but because every time I logged on my page was clogged with messages.

We’ve all been there – we know what they mean, we don’t need to be reminded 12 times a day.

But some get it right and, at KoodibooK, we want to be one of those.  We’re promoting the KoodibooK service through social media channels for lots of reasons; our audience is connected (in both senses of the word); it gives us lots of scope to be creative and – let’s be honest – for a brand new business it’s a low-cost way of reaching audiences around the world.

According to Technorati there are about 900,000 blogs published every day and we could spend the day debating how to accurately estimate how many social networking posts enter the world in a 24 hour period, but one thing we’ll totally agree on – it’s lots.

KoodibooK has been around for about 2 weeks now and we’ve published a couple of blogs, posted a handful of Facebook updates and tweeted a bit.  So – to mix metaphors – in terms of the noise out there, we’re a drop in the ocean; but we are going to try and make the content engaging and interesting: to help you enjoy your photos more, to get the most out of the things we do and – hopefully someday – to make you smile a bit.

But we can’t tell what you like unless you tell us, so we’ll be happy to hear about what didn’t hit the spot as much as we want to hear about what you liked.  We’ll try and do more of the latter.  If we should be following any individual or company who communicates really well via social media, then please tell us too, we’d like to be inspired by their ideas.

KoodibooK is about sharing your memories and making inspiring designs while giving you the best possible experience with photobook creation.  The KoodibooK software allows you to access your photos at amazing speed from wherever they are and use them to create photobooks that can be published anywhere.