Spring Break is winding down (cue kids booing here). If you traveled during the week, chances are you have some photos of the good times. Before digital photography became the standard, we'd come home, drop off the rolls of film at the store and have an envelope full of 4x6 prints. To get the most out of our digital files, we at least have to get them off the camera. Sometimes they'll languish untouched on the computer until we forget about them. I urge you ... break the cycle!
My wife has a lengthy slideshow of her favorite images on her computer at work (and her work laptop). That's a great way to enjoy the photos, for sure. She also has some on her cell phone (me, too), and that allows us to see vacation pics at the touch of a button. The problem with leaving precious memories solely to electronic devices is that they all fail eventually. Besides backing up photos you care about to disc, consider these options:
• Have a favorite photo blown up and framed to use as wall art. The photograph of the sandals was an impromptu moment almost seven years ago when we took our oldest son to the beach for the first time. It was taken with my film SLR and enlarged from a 35 mm negative. I consider it an alternative family portrait, and it reminds us of the time and place every time we look at it. With effective algorithm interpolation programs (software that enlarges digital photos by boosting pixel size mathematically), even shots from small-sensor point-and-shoot cameras can be brought to poster size.
• Print out photos in a normal size and put them in a collage frame. The montage pictured above comprises images from several trips and vacations. The frame is actually the front of my wife's jewelry box, so she sees the images every day. We'll swap them out over time as we collect updated pictures, saving the prints in an album to view at other times.
• Build a photo album. If you're into scrapbooking, turning your vacation photos and souvenirs into a fun book is a no-brainer. For the rest of us, there are myriad options in uploading photos, using a quick and easy service and creating a printed album of photos worthy of any bookshelf.
• Use the image on personalized greeting cards. Like photo albums, there are a ton of services out there for easy creation of postcards and greeting cards. Not only does that let you enjoy a special photo, but you can share it with friends and family via snail-mail. Uploading to a social networking site such as Facebook is a good start, but Aunt Hilda can't put those on her refrigerator. In addition, many services offer you the chance to add your photo to gift products (think T-shirts, mugs, calendars, jigsaw puzzles).
• Create a DVD slideshow of images set to music. This keeps the files on electronic media for posterity and easy viewing on a DVD player. Downside: it hearkens to the days when Grandma would pull out the slide projector and show off 3,000 images from her cruise to Italy. Or worse: the same number of slides of random, ho-hum family moments. Upside: your DVD of images can be viewed by large groups at one time and, most likely, won't have 3,000 images in it.
These are just a few possibilities to what you can do with vacation (or any favorite) photos. The sky is the limit, as new and innovative products become available often. Some exciting examples are available only to professional photographers, however. If you'd like to learn more about those, give me a shout at todd@toddovermanphoto.com.
2 comments:
I have given much thought to our era of digital photos.
As a family historian and genealogist, I know that old printed photos are priceless. Some eras in terms of longevity are better than others, but all are treasured.
So many digital images now are not going to make it down to that great great grandchild - or as least that is my opinion.
On the other hand, people take tons more photographs now.
Yes, but most of those photographs are horrible! Forget whether or not they will survive, the images have no thought to composition, exposure and content.
Printing favorite images, even if in a press-printed album, is a great way to preserve them over time. Even now, victims of house fires – as long as nobody is physically hurt – lament the loss of the irreplaceable items such as the family photo album.
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