There’s a video floating around the net.
A photographer films himself, a pre-schooler and toddler going through the family album.
Of course, because he’s a photographer, the album is actually a work of art.
Each professionally laid out page is filled with perfectly imperfect shots of his kids.
You can’t see anyone’s face in the video. But you can see grown up hands and chubby little arms pointing out with glee when they see themselves.
Apparently the photographer realised that, because all our photos are digital these days, no one bothers to print pictures and create an album. He reckons kids miss out on seeing the pictures, and so does the family.
The thing is, it’s not that we don’t share photos with our families. There are millions of social media pages dedicated to photographing our lives.
And even though my kids are too young for a social media account, they see my digital photos all the time.
My two kids can think of nothing better than looking at the thousands of photos on my phone. Most of the photos are of them anyway.
Personally, I think sharing social media pics — aside from the ongoing privacy and ownership issues — is one of the best ideas ever.
I mean, how often do you rock up to someone’s house and say, ‘While I’m here I’m going to flick through ALL of your albums? I’d love to see the ten pics of you pretending to hold up the leaning tower of Pisa.’ No. You never say that.
Thanks to social media sites, people make sure you only see the one ‘best’ image. And that’s fine by me.
In saying that, I still like to have some photos around my place. But I don’t use digital frames.
Remember when digital photo frames launched almost a decade ago? They seemed like too much work to me. They may have seemed like a good idea at the time. But they were quite limited — the constant need for power, the limited storage space, the poor display quality and the $100+ price tag. That, and they were darn ugly.
I never bothered with them.
My parents overcame the digital photo album idea in the most genius way.
Napster, and then a more legal means, iTunes, prompted my dad to finally invest in a home theatre. He didn’t want to listen to his digital music on his poxy PC speakers. He wanted quality sound (at the highest possible decibel) throughout the house.
So when photos were about pixel quality rather than paper quality, dad reckoned the next step was to turn the TV into a photo frame.
After all, thanks to his obsession with iTunes, the TV was already connected to the PC.
As digital photos became big, Dad decided this was the reason to splurge on a decent TV.
All of our digital photos became a screen saver on the TV. And when anyone walked into my folks’ place, our family history was on display in 42 glorious inches…42 inches was a big deal in 2004.
You know something…it’s like watching fish. You can tune it out. Or get completely sucked in watching the memories.
Different ways to share your memories
I don’t know if the photographer I spoke about earlier owns an online album printing business. But I get his point. We aren’t sharing the physical photos anymore.
This is for two reasons.
It’s part laziness. To create most digital photo albums, you have to upload them into that company’s software. Now given that most photos are already stored in the cloud somewhere, this feels pointless.
It’s a hassle. And partly why I still don’t have a wedding album or baby books for either of my kids. Loading and sharing files twice just feels like wasted time to me.
I mean, if you’ve already got them on Facebook, Instagram and Dropbox, why should you have to upload them again?
In saying that, it’s really nice to have some pictures scattered around your house. But most people don’t realise that you can do more than just enlarge a print and frame it.
After all, standard photobooks are so 2007. And canvas as personal wall art? Yawn, it’s not 2011.
I love having physical pictures around my house. I’m also a big user of Instagram, and other vintage style photo apps. I print out my favourite snaps regularly.
However, I know many people don’t know what to do with all their digital images.
After some digging around, I’ve found some handy, some brilliant and some just plain novel ideas for what to do with all your pics stored on the web.
And you’ll never have to upload again. Everything I suggest uses your Instagram, Facebook or Dropbox logins.
In addition, all the sites I mention ship to Australia, do gift vouchers or gift wrapping. Because sometimes all Nana wants is a picture.
Our first contenders today are some Aussie sites.
Origrami turns pictures into postcards. Plus it has the option to print out useful information on the back, like when and where it was taken. Also the pictures come in a handy cardboard box. Trust me, this is much better for storage than those old paper envelopes.
Another quirky product is the mini 5cm by 5cm fridge magnets from Origrami.
Photify and Postercandy offer similar services. I’ve used both of these companies before. The picture quality is pretty good. If you’re using filters outside the Instagram offerings the quality can be a little sketchy.
American company Sticky9 also does fridge magnets but in a larger size.
Little kids love the 90 stickers in the sticker book Instagoodies make. Even better is that it’s under $15.
For the eco minded folks, there’s Hatch Craft. Here you can have your Insta pics printed out and framed in a top quality, environmentally sustainable bamboo square shadow box frame.
For a little style to your office desk, Artifact Uprising prints out 12 of your favourite pictures and sends you a block of wood to display them. It’s much nicer than it sounds. This site also turns your digital pics into flat Christmas and thank you cards. Perfect if you’ve got to find a way to thank 200 odd wedding guests.
Alternatively, if you believe your photos are works of art and don’t want to go the boring canvas route, check out Printstagr.am.
This company does a really cool 365 day picture calendar. Also, their mosaic poster is neat. As is the super funky framed collection of several square pictures in one frame.
While you’re being dazzled by the options available on Printstagr.am, get any little kids in your life a teeny tiny book with only pics of them. You can fill three tiny books with roughly 70 photos for US$10. I haven’t met a kid that doesn’t like looking at themselves. I promise you’ll make their day.
Art loving hipsters convinced of their own ability to produce art — really it’s just filters to disguise a bad photo — will prefer the ceramic tiles from Imagesnap. They are achingly cool. Remember, the more you miss-match the tile sizes, the more hipster you are.
If the someone has an issue with anything marking the walls, Castify is what you need. Here you can turn your Insta roll into a funky smartphone or iPad cover.
Nana says the only present she wants is a photo of the family. That what she tells you, right? But, it’s impossible to get the whole family together. I know many parents break out in a cold sweat trying to get all the grandkids together for one photo.
Getting a bunch of young kids in one room, looking at the camera, with no fingers in noses or food on the face is about as much fun as herding cats. Stitchagram solves this problem. Use the existing pics you have on social media and Stitchagram will turn it into a printed photo patchwork cushion.
Another quirky one is Instawink. You select two image and it becomes a lenticular printed fridge magnet. Lenticular? You know, the ones where the image changes depending on the angle you look at it.
If you’re not into smartwatches, your favourite picture can be printed onto a watch face.
And finally, just to prove there’s nothing you can’t print on…Coastermatic turns your memories into drink coasters. Boomf in the UK prints out your pictures on marshmallows and Cocograph prints out your photo’s onto chocolate bars.
That’s exactly what you need in your life. Edible pictures of yourself.
Have a great weekend.
Shae Smith +
Editor, Weekend Tech Insider
The post How to get your Digital Photos off the Cloud and into your Home appeared first on Sam Volkering's Tech Insider.