Go Paperless with Paperless Post

While I was cleaning my room and de-cluttering its mess a week ago, I discovered a stack of invitations I got from my friends who turned 18 in the year 2015 and 2016, covered with dust, forgotten. Here in Philippines, turning 18 is a big thing for the Filipino ladies because it somehow marks the start of their womanhood. When and why this tradition has come to existence, I don't know. One I thing I know is that a number of my friends were into it, and luckily I was invited to them. It was an honor to be invited plus if you receive a 'hard copy' invitation, it's really uplifting because it means you're a valuable guest that they have to spend that much for a piece of paper to formally invite you. 

Now that I think of it, that piece of paper, if you have the intention to keep it as a memoir, it wouldn't last that long especially if you'll forget about it and leave them in the back of your cabinet, dusty and brittle and crumpled. I still even had a number of invitations of the same event with me when the host asked me to disseminate them-- invitations, now worthless, yet to be passed on to their rightful and unreachable owners.

Paperless Post

When I was introduced to Paperless Post few days ago, I realized how most people are in front of their gadgets all the time and yet not taking advantage with the power that's in their hands. Technology is constantly developing, evolving into something worthwhile in every second, and yet most Homo sapiens stayed stagnant. Of course, we can avoid all these stacks of paper that accumulate in time by going DIGITAL. That's what Paperless Post has been doing and achieving since 2009.

Paperless Post would be a very great assistance to all event organizers because in just few clicks, you can already achieve the perfect invitation for your most awaited event, made easy by the ready-made templates prepared by the platform. You wouldn't even regret using their templates because they are simply minimalist and aesthetic. Paperless Post even provides lots of design you can choose from which you can also customize with.

Going Paperless

I had always been into photography, started with my phone camera, but just lately, I bought my own first entry-level DSLR camera that really takes me up to a next level of photography. It opened my mind to a lot of concepts plus I want my photos to have a sense of purpose, and to be of some use by other people. I want my photos to be shared.

With the help and in partnership with Paperless Post, I had somehow achieved this goal of mine.

Yesterday, I had some spontaneous photoshoot of my brother which can be a practice in shooting portraits. Using Nikon D3300 and with some post-processing in Adobe Lightroom, the following photos are the produced results:

I am satisfied with the performance of Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8n, producing fine though not-so-clear bokeh, emphasizing the subject and the background, adding dramatic effect to the photo. These were post processed in Lightroom, and I wanted the effect to be related to what the model is trying to portray. You don't want to put a happy and cheerful pose in a very dim and heavy vignetted photo, right? It has to have a bright and warm filter. That's what I was trying to show in these two pictures, the contrast.

So, after having the photoshoot, I was thinking what's the use of these photos? After I've used some of my shutter counts, how can I maximize the use of my portraits? That's where Paperless Post comes in, giving a purpose to my photographs. I decided to design a birthday card that would feature my brother, using the portraits I took, for his upcoming 21st birthday on August.

That template I used above is just one of the hundreds they offer, and I had the power to customize the color and accents of the invitation. For more ideas on birthday invitations, check it out on their site: https://www.paperlesspost.com/cards/group/birthday_invitations .

Actually, I have a lot of things in mind on what to do with Paperless Post. My cousin's graduation is nearly approaching and Paperless Post would be really helpful in making an invitation for her graduation party. The platform offers a lot of categories of events you can choose from. It ranges from baby showers to weddings to organization activities. Find them here: https://www.paperlesspost.com/cards/section/invitations. If you can't find a particular event, you can always start in a blank document and customize it on your own.

Using Paperless Post was easy. You'll be done in a few minutes. Their postcards too don't cost too much. Once you've registered to Paperless Post, they'll fund you with a start of 25 coins so that you can explore the platform. It really costs you less money because you don't need a graphic designer anymore, you don't need to pay for his talent fee. And most importantly, it costs you less time because everything you need to do in achieving a perfect event esp in the invitation part e.g. inviting the guests and delivering the invitation to them, Paperless Post does it for you.

I am really glad to be working with Paperless Post in this blogpost. It was really an eye opener for me and realized that things can be made more practical than they usually are. This should be a start of the revolution of going paperless, of de-cluttering, of remaking our tradition of keeping our memories by improving the memoir itself.