A Photo Guest Book is a great way to remember a special party or gathering such as a rehearsal dinner, house warming party, costume party, baby shower, etc. The result is a wonderful memory book - it's like real-time scrapbooking where the scrapbook is complete by the end of the party!

Here are some basic archive-quality materials you will need:

• Photo book
• Photos
• Pens

Optional items include the following:

• Paper for writing notes on
• Glue sticks
• Other embellishments (e.g., stickers, scrapbooking cutouts)

It's great if you can easily print pictures at the party. Using a portable printer makes printing digital pictures at parties pretty simple. Many full-size printers also allow you to connect your camera via USB cable and then print directly from the camera, without the need for a computer. If you don't have a way to print digital pictures at the party, here are some other options to consider:

• Use a Polaroid camera;
• Have guests leave a blank page for their picture and then write their note on the facing page. You can add pictures after the party, when you have a chance to print them.

I like to have guests write their note on a separate piece of paper rather than directly in the book. This allows multiple guests to write notes at the same time. It also gives guests an easy "second chance" if they feel like they made a goof on their note. Cutting 8.5" x 11" paper into quarters makes a great size for notes to include in a compact photo book (e.g., one designed to include one 4"x6" photo per page). Glue sticks will be needed to paste both pictures and notes into the photo guest book. Using repositional glue sticks vs. permanent glue sticks allows guests to easily move things around.

Here are some pictures from my wedding photo guest book, using photos that were taken the night before at a luau.

We had double prints made - using one print for the photo guest book and one print to be used as a photo favor. For the photo favor, we put each photo in a paper novelty photo frame. It may sound a little hokey, but my mom still has her photo favors in her room - with the paper frames and all! When my husband and I flip through our photo guest book, it reminds us of the special time we spent with friends and family, celebrating our big event.

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One of the things that I love about digital photography is the ease in taking closer close-ups and the ability to zoom in on some of the wonders of nature. Most digital cameras today have a "macro" mode, which enables you to take those closer close-ups. You may or may not have noticed that the 1000words blog has a link in the left-hand column to Kodak's tips on Taking Great Pictures. Under the "More Advanced Techniques," you can find tips on Creating Close-Up Pictures, including tips on Close-ups With Close-Up Mode (also known as "macro" mode). You can also get some related tips on Photographing Flowers. Once you know the basics, the fun part is practicing taking close-ups, seeing the larger than life results on your computer screen, discovering some of the things you didn't even realize you captured, and being creative with the results!

The other day, I walked around the garden to capture a few macro shots. I love passion flowers for their multiple layers of texture and interest. From far away, they look like a pretty flower. Up close, you can see their intricate details. There are multiple varieties of passion flowers and this purple one is just one example.

This pink flower is guara, which is sometimes referred to as "pink butterfly" or "whirling butterflies" because the flowers resemble small butterflies. In this picture, I was focusing on a bloom, but if you look at a crop taken from the same picture, I actually captured some bugs crawling on a nearby stem! I didn't even notice the bugs until I was looking at the picture on my computer screen.

In the picture of this green succulant, as in the picture of the passion flower, I not only got close in distance to the subject of my photo, but I also zoomed in so that the subject filled the frame - even cropping part of the subject at the edges. To me, the photos start to look like art when captured in this way.

When I capture a picture I really like, I love creating things with it. Here are some things that I've done and created with pictures like these:

• Personalization: print a copy of the picture and glue it to the outside of a notebook. This makes it easy to identify the notebook as yours and allows you to enjoy the picture whenever you use your notebook.
• Greeting cards: create a custom greeting card. You can print the picture at home and attach it to the front of some card stock for a one-of-a-kind card. Calendar page: I like to print a new calendar page each month, selecting a recent favorite picture at the beginning of each month.
• Art: Print one photo or a series of similar photos and frame them to hang on the wall as art. Higher resolution photos can be printed in larger sizes (poster-size prints, prints on canvas) for greater impact.

Do you have a cool close-up, close-up tips, or close-up creations to share? Let us know through the comments section!

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