Photobox, bringing digital photos to life and a giveaway!

I’m sure no one will disagree with me when I say taking photos in this day and age is as easy as pie. With digital cameras and camera enabled mobile phones highly accessible and affordable, anyone can be a great photographer. I for example, took over 6000 photos during 2 weeks of travels in Japan alone as all I had to do was go ‘click click click’. There’s obvious benefits to taking digital photos such as being able to store and edit photos on computers, however, not many people have thought about its downsides.

Printed photos are definitely being done less than before the digital era, but there is a certain happiness about being able to see and feel the photos in front of you. Having taken almost 1 terabyte of photos (that’s a lot of photos I can assure you) and not having printed a single one of them made me realise just how much I’ve been missing out on.

I was very happy and lucky when Photobox.com.au contacted me about writing a blog post for them as it made me realise just how important printing photos actually is.

Photobox is a Europe based online photo printing and sharing company that serves over 24 million users. They not only offer high quality photo prints but also canvas, photobooks, calendars, mugs and even ipad and iphone covers to materialise those precious moments in life.

I was provided with a product of my choice and since most of my photos are portrait, I decided on one of the A4 portrait photobooks.

After agonising over which photos to include as I wanted to make an Ichigo Shortcake Portfolio, it took an equally agonising many hours of uploading them to the server. Each photo was well over 10 megabytes mind you so of course it took that long. I didn’t want to compromise on the print quality though as the FAQ page said a minimum of 4 megabytes per photo is required for optimal quality.

That was the only agonising part of the whole process though. The interface on the website was so easy to use and had many useful and beautiful layouts already in place. I could choose from classic styles and colours to weddings, parties, travels and babies with each page all planned for you if you choose. Or if you’re feeling a bit more adventurous and creative, you can do the layout of each page yourself like I did. As my book was just a simple portfolio, I stuck with the classic style with a slick black cover.

This particular book starts at $49.95 plus shipping with 26 included pages and each additional double page costing $2.90 more. You also have the choice of adding better quality paper and/or matt laminating (which I had done).

At the time of making this book, Photobox just happened to be doing a 2 for 1 deal so I was even more lucky to get a book done for my Grandma’s 100th birthday. You should have seen the looks on my parents’ faces when I showed it to them.

What impressed me the most though wasn’t even the quality of the prints but at how fast delivery was. It took them a mere 2 days to get it to me. Most online shopping doesn’t even arrive that fast without having to print things.

Okay, enough of me rambling about how good Photobox is. The main point of this post is a giveaway to a lucky Ichigo Shortcake reader! Yes, I know you like giveaways.

Note: There has been a change to the following giveaway for those of you who read the post before the change as there has been miscommunication regarding the products. The updated items to be given away is as follows.

The lucky reader can choose one (not all) of the following:

1x Free A4 classic
1x Free 30×20 Canvas classic
1x 250 Free prints
1x Free photo mugs
1x A4 Wall Calendars

All you have to do is tell me as a comment below what photos you will print if you win, would it be travel photos, your child’s birthday or your wedding perhaps?

This competition is only open to Australian residents so please indicate this in your comment. The competition will end at 11:59pm EST 23 September 2013. Please also leave a valid email address as the winner will be contacted here and via email.

Remember the print quality is only as good as the photos you upload so make sure the size and quality of the photos are sufficient. Good luck!

Visit http://www.photobox.com.au for information about their products.

Note: Ichigoshortcake received 2 photobooks with thanks to Photobox

18 comments… add one

  • Yiying September 16, 2013, 11:08 pm

    OMG! Your photos look amazing printed! Well done!! :D
    I’d love to have one photobook of my travel photos and of my family and friends! But my photos don’t look as good as urs… better work on them!

    Reply
  • sally September 16, 2013, 11:45 pm

    I think I would print out a portfolio of all my cakes and creations :3
    And possibly a photobook for my parents of all the family photos over the years!
    and yup resident here!

    Reply
  • Jia September 17, 2013, 10:22 am

    I love how you made a photobook for your grandma’s 100th!
    Really adds so much more meaning and love behind it :)

    If it’s me… I would make a photobook for my graduation ceremony/trip to NZ at the end of this year! Finally, I’m at the end of my 6-year of my medical course it’s definitely worth celebrating the end of this chapter and the start of a new chapter.. :)

    (or I might also give it as a present for my brother who is obsessed with his photography/OM-D too)

    Reply
  • AmberB September 17, 2013, 9:13 pm

    I’d love to create a photo book for my brother and sister-in-law. My gorgeous niece is their first born and their pride and joy and she would make the perfect photography subject for them.

    Reply
  • rabbits September 19, 2013, 7:13 am

    Dear ichigo shortcake, just wondering if you were still going to post the review/photos on Piatella cafe?
    Thankyou :)
    p.s, simply delightful blog :D

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake September 25, 2013, 11:35 am

      Of course I am! Pretty busy lately though and still have to take photos of those crepes! Will write it up soon. :)

      Reply
  • Georgia September 19, 2013, 10:31 am

    I’ve just come back to Australia after nearly a month in Japan and Vietnam, so it’s a no brainer for me – travel photos!

    Reply
  • Daisy@Nevertoosweet September 19, 2013, 1:36 pm

    Wow what a great giveaway! I would love the chance to win and print photos of food, dessert but more importantly of my family and my little nephew and niece :)

    Hope you’ve been well too lovely and we’ve gotta catch up soon!!! xox

    Reply
  • GourmetGetaways September 19, 2013, 3:57 pm

    Oh I absolutely love photobooks!! This one seems really reasonable, I have used other far more expensive services!

    I would choose the A4 classic and I would use it to create a book of our recent family holidays.

    Reply
  • cubie September 19, 2013, 7:04 pm

    Lovely photos!
    Would love to have it to create travels photos with my family ^^
    Thanks! and yup, am a resident.

    Reply
  • Iron Chef Shellie September 19, 2013, 7:32 pm

    I’d print one of my photos from my latest trip to the Great Ocean Road. They are all moody and black and white, and because I haven’t really hung anything up in my new place, I think a nice canvas print would be great, or perhaps lots of little ones and make a photo wall!

    Reply
  • Karen (Back Road Journal) September 21, 2013, 9:37 pm

    Not a resident but congratulations to whoever the lucky winner is. Your books turned out absolutely beautiful. Your grandmother had to be thrilled.

    Reply
  • cquek September 24, 2013, 6:16 pm

    wow! gorgeous shots!

    Reply
  • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake September 25, 2013, 12:21 pm

    Thanks for entering this competition everyone! I’ve just drawn the winner and it goes to Georgia! Congratulations! Please check your email for more details. For those of you who didn’t win, not to worry as there’s more exciting giveaways lined up so watch this space. ;)

    Reply
    • Georgia September 25, 2013, 1:45 pm

      YAY! Thanks, Jenny – I’ll be in touch :)

      Reply
  • Hotly Spiced September 30, 2013, 8:47 am

    Oh dear. I’m too late for the competition but thanks for letting me know about this company. I really need to put some albums together and I’ve been dithering for far too long and it’s getting out of control! I love the image of the blood oranges xx

    Reply
  • Nami | Just One Cookbook November 10, 2013, 5:20 pm

    I just saw this post. OMG. I want YOUR photobook!!!!!!!!! So gorgeous. It’s a great coffee table book that EVERYONE will enjoy. Have you ever thought of selling? You should!!!! ;) I always love your photos. :)

    Reply
    • Jenny @ Ichigo Shortcake November 13, 2013, 11:58 pm

      Thanks a lot Nami :P Haven’t thought about selling it haha…it still looks quite amateur and if I wanted to sell it, I guess I’d make it a bit thicker as at 100 pages it still seems thin. :P Thanks for the suggestion though!

      Reply

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