I was told about a great service the other day that combines so many things that I love (internet technologies, personalization) while allowing you to pay tribute to people you love. The site is called MuchLoved and on it you can create and post tribute websites to loved ones who have passed away. They can include photos, life stories, timelines, journals, and ways that the grieving can share their thoughts and pictures, as well as donate to relevant causes. The sites can either be public or you can invite a selected audience. MuchLoved is a registered charity and they accept donations. There are for-profit companies doing similar things, like VirtualMemorials.com or PartingWishes.com, but I like the interface and feeling of MuchLoved much better. I could see how this service would be great for those extended networks of family and friends who are not physically about to participate in memorial services.

Shifting gears a bit, as I often do, I wonder if a similar set-up would work for other occassions.

• Weddings (TheKnot.com features some features like this and it would be a great addition to the services provided by Bella Pictures).


• Retirement roasts (a completely underserved market, it would seem).


• Milestone birthdays.


• Baby dedication/blessings.

As a parent to young children, I could see setting up a website to commemorate a baby's one year old birthday, allowing people to leave their well-wishes, photographs, and the like. It could live on in the form of a website, and perhaps the template could also feed a print-on-demand scrapbook to help commemorate the day!

In fact, the book could become part of the event it is commemorating, in the case of a wedding. The guest comments, stories, and advice submitted before the wedding, engagement photos, and the like could be combined with a guest book for the big day!

Over the holiday break, I did a little research and created my first photo book. This got me on a quest for things that people (like you) can do with their photos of general appeal, beyond ordering prints or your own gift items, emailing them to friends, or posting them to a Flickr album. I trust you will be able to use some of the ideas here.

Publish your own photo book, for fun and profit: On www.lulu.com you can layout a photobook and then make it available for sale and pocket whatever profit you specify. Would make a great fund raiser for a non-profit after an event. Note: There are other places where you can self-publish, but generally the royalty rates are set, there are up-front costs, and you have to do your own layout and submit PDF files. These companies include www.xlibris.com and www.booksurge.com. The advantages that these guys bring is the assignment of an ISBN number and distribution through regular channels like Amazon. However, if you know who you target market is and can reach them directly, then something like Lulu would work great.

Sell/license your photos: Used to be that when you wanted high-quality stock photography, you had to go to a limited number of places and those stock photo houses worked with a select group of photographers. Not anymore. Have an eye for great landscapes, shots of people in work environments, or the like? Post them to istockphoto.com and you can earn royalties for each use. Or you could log-on to www.spymedia.com and sell your photographs or respond to their requests for photo bounty hunters. Get the shot, you get the dough.

Publish your photos in a magazine: Outside of the periodic photo contest, most amateurs don't have the opportunity see their photos in a glossy magazine. Introducing, JPG Magazine. They post a theme, you upload your submissions, readers vote, the winners get published in the magazine, get $100, and a free subscription. You can vote without submitting, so check it out at www.jpgmag.com.

Print Blog or Flickr gallery: Although the web is an awesome way to distribute content, it isn't quite as emotive (or permanent-feeling) as a book. Since starting a family blog a few years ago, religiously posting photographs and stories along the way, I always wished there was a "print this blog" button that I could push. Now there is. The folks from Qoop are offering a service of blog printing. If you have WordPress, TypePad, Flickr, or other blog or gallery (sadly not Blogger yet) you can easily order up a printed, bound copy of your entries. Note: I have been told you can convert your Blogger postings to a WordPress account and print from there. The layouts are pretty basic, but they seem to have options for you making them available for sale, as well as buying one yourself. I'd like to see this evolve a little more in style and customization, and then I could see giving up scrapbooking all together!

I can't post on the subject of photography without links to some of my favorite amateur (or not so amateur) photographers:
Jason Hill
Allan White or Allan White
Juanita Martus
Kristi White
John Thomas

I have ran across several interesting photo manipulation services online recently and wanted to share them with you. Enjoy!

Turn yourself into a comic book:
Artist Lina Chen turns your photo into a black and white drawing at www.Digi-Portaits.com. The before image on the left becomes the illustration on the right for around $100.