Not only are digital photographs easy to take and keep, whilst combining this ease of use with the kind of quality which would once have been the preserve of professional photographers, but they are also hugely flexible. Once you’ve taken and stored your images, you can use them to create a dazzlingly wide range of photo gifts, from smaller tokens such as fridge magnets and key rings to high impact gifts along the lines of full sized canvas or acrylic prints.

It’s not all about creating gifts, however. The flexibility offered by digital photography means that you’ll never again be put in the position of having to send people close to you greeting cards which are off the shelf, run of the mill and frankly boring. If there’s ever a time of year, for example, when it’s vital to be able to send a card which is truly personal and meaningful, then that’s valentine’s day, since sending a card to someone then is a way of showing them how much they mean to you

There’s no getting round the fact, however, that most valentine greeting cards are based around the same old tired, clichéd images. Hearts, cupids and the like may be widely accepted as images which coincide with the day, but, when you hand over your card, you’ll know that hundreds of other people are handing over exactly the same card, and what could be less personal and heartfelt than that? The answer is to create your own valentine greeting cards using images which are especially meaningful to both you and the recipient. It could be a picture of the restaurant where you had your first date, a beach which is a favourite place for you to walk hand in hand, or just a favourite shot of the two of you together. Whatever you choose, the result will be valentine photo cards which convey the message of love in the most heartfelt manner possible.

If you’re looking for a suitable gift, however, rather than just a card, then photo books perform the same task but on a much larger scale. Whether you wish to celebrate the first few months of your relationship, or put together a volume which brings together images from many happy years together, the process of putting together a volume which will showcase both emotion and technical excellence is incredibly simple. Making photo books merely involves choosing the images you wish to use – either digital photographs or older prints scanned onto the computer and stored in the digital format - and then manipulating the incredibly intuitive software in order to design the layout and form of your pages. Everything is there for you to alter, from the size and shape of the book and the number of pages, to the type and appearance of the cover and the presence or otherwise of any explanatory text. Once you’ve had the pleasure of designing your book it will be put together to the highest possible standards, creating an object which is more than a match for anything available in the shops whilst also being a luxurious artefact of the most personal kind.