Cheerz Photo Printing

Photographs are something I take a lot of, as you would expect being a blogger, but never print them, in fact I can't even remember when I last printed any, so when Cheerz got in touch saying they would love to print my photos, I jumped at the chance. I am sure we all have photos that we treasure, those that just sit in our phones or are shared on social media, but are never printed.

Using Cheerz is really easy and it allows you to print photos from your Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox or even from your Camera Roll. Cheerz have both an app and a website and all you need to do is select your favourites, upload them and pick how you want them printed from a nice array of little designs such as a Cheez Box which filled with 30-45 Polaroid-style Prints, photo booth-style Strips, magnets, posters, and more. I opted for the Love Cheerz Box £13) and the photo booth-style strips (£6.50) and if you 'do' Valentines Day, this could be an amazing gift.

The Love Cheerz Box contains 30 photographs (though you can add more)and not only is the delivery super quick, the quality is just amazing.  I have 5 nephews and 4 nieces, not to mention 3 cats and wedding photos that have never been printed, so I had a lot to work with and decide what I wanted to have printed.  I did part of my choosing via my phone and part via web so I could have all my favourite photos.  You are also told if the pictures you want are not brilliant quality which is really helpful.  

Once you have added your photos, you will be able to crop them, add text, change their look and opt for Colour Block, Vintage style or have an all black or all white background. Once you have completed all these steps, you simply add to the cart and you are good to go.

The Photo Booth Style Strips, of which you will need to select 20 photographs and they are in strips of 4.  The process is again the same with the selection, upload your favourite photos, decide whether you want the strips to be horizontal or vertical, add some text and again choose your background if you wish to change the colour. Then again simply add to the cart and you are done.

This time I used some of my favourite photos and quotes, so I can either keep them in my purse, stick them to the fridge or give them to others.

What I love about this app/site is how easy it is to use, play around with and it is such good value for money. I created both of my options within less than an hour, the hardest part was deciding which photographs I wanted to print.  The quality is just superb and it is nice to finally have some photos of people and quotes that mean a lot to me, something I can display or carry with me, without having to rely on social media for those reminders.

If you like the sound of Cheerz and fancy having a go yourself, then I have a great offer for you below.

Have you every used Cheerz before? 

Do you have a bunch of photos just waiting to be printed?

Blogging Essentials worth Investing in - Lighting!

When I was asked by the amazing people at Joebloggers "What are the things worth investing in" as part of a Legal and General campaign, I took some time to think about it. It was quite a gloomy day and I had been attempting to take some blog photos for hours, the light being horrid, I downed my camera and quickly had a strop, grunted and sighed alot - then the answer came to me - Lighting!

So having made my decision I did a bit of research, read a few blogs that gave hints and tips and decided that a portable Camera Photo Studio Box Light Lighting Cube Tent Kit with Tripod would be brilliant and the kit I had seen came with four backdrops at a cost of £35.  Now to some people, this might not seem like a lot, but I have little room to spread myself about, I live in a one bed flat, affectionately referred to as 'the shoebox' and there are three cats who also live here and like to be actively involved in everthing, so this for me is the perfect solution.

When my package arrived, I was far too excited, the box was huge and I momentarily forgot what it was, then came a squeal of delight.  Inside my box I had the following:

• Studio box size: 50x50x50cm
• Double warm white LED spot light
• Light cable length: 150m (each)
• Backdrop color: Black, Blue, White, Red
• Tripod and stand

Now to be, this is the best bit of kit, besides my Canon EOS1000D camera that I own and it most definitely makes taking pictures a lot easier, especially when it is dark outside!

Described as being a complete photo studio kit, I was delighted to find that it folds away into a neat carry case which takes up absolutely no room at all and I can put it neatly away in my wardrobe or under the bed out of the way. Setting the whole thing up was also incredibly easy too, much more so than I thought it would be and everything is fully adjustable, the tripod which fits my camera perfectly, allows for me to take a really nice close up without getting my hands, camera strap and anything else in the way. Once set up, it is made of both aluminium and steel and is really sturdy, the height is fully adjustable as well going from 25cm to 45cm, though I am yet to change it from the original settings.

The box itself is made is 100% pure white nylon fabric with a stainless steel frame photographic light tent and given it's size, everything that I need to photograph, including any of the cats, fits in there nicely. If I decide to change the background to either blue, red, or black, I can easily do so and each one fits snugly using a velcro fastening.

The final important item within the box are the two LED Lights/Lamps which also fold away and again you can adjust the light angle using a simple click of a button.

I am chuffed to bits with this piece of kit and whilst I am still getting to grips with how it works properly, I hope some of you will begin to notice the changes to my photographs.

If this sounds like something you fancy trying out, you can find it HERE.

Do you use lighting to take photos? is there something you would recommend?

A Camera for the Iphone

When the beautiful Louise mentioned she had bought a Macro Lense for her iPhone I was intrigued, you can read her post HERE, but so impressed that I was straight on Amazon to order my own version.  After looking around I settled on the XCSource 180 Degree set which cost me just £6.79 - an absolute bargain!

I have mentioned a few times on my blog that the one thing that gets to me is my useless photos, mainly all taken with my iPhone because I always have it within my grasp and it is simple and easy to use.  So one of my aims was to improve my photography and this is just the start.

It features a detachable and portable clip which you attach to your phone and then place one of the three lenses in, a pouch to store all of your lenses and two lense covers.  The three lenses are as follows:

• Fish Eye Lense  - has a magnification of up to 180 degrees
• Wide Angle Lense
• Macro Lense

The photograph below shows two photographs, the first is taken using the Macro and Wide Angle lense together and the one below is taken just using my iPhone with no lense and the difference to me is quite amazing.

Once the clip is attached to the phone, all you need to do is twist the lenses into place and then you can twist them too and fro to get the right angle and ensure there is no blurring and then snap away.  The clip, which you can see below, is similar to a bulldog clip and once it is on your phone, it stays in place and doesn't move about, unless you move it.

As you can see from the photos above, the lenses fit really nicely into the clip and are easy to add and remove, which again is a bonus.

I have been using these lenses for a good month or so now, getting used to them, trying out new things and I think I have almost mastered the art, some of the photos that have appeared on my blog over the past few weeks have contained images taken using the camera, not sure whether any of you noticed or not - now there is a quiz to be had!

If you are looking for something like this, then it is compatible with the iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 5C and the Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 and S4 to name a few of them.  Everything else they are compatible with is listed on Amazon.

Now obviously this is a quick fix solution and not as good as having a proper camera, but for a novice like me it has been a brilliant addition to my iPhone and something which gives me just that little bit more confidence when taking photos.

Have you got anything like this?