Free Your Photos!

Was it Hewlett Packard that had the advertising campaign showing family photographs trapped on the memory card inside a camera? Epson? No matter. Back when we used our Canon SLR film camera, we would send our exposed rolls off to be developed and request the free double prints. But that was also a time when a week’s vacation might only generate 36 photos because film was expensive and developing was really expensive. The Christmas photos might share the same roll as Easter. Now, with my beloved Canon PowerShot S2 IS digital camera (and a decent sized memory card), I can snap away without limit. It’s been great for my photography skills. It’s been great for capturing life’s little moments. It’s even been great because I can view the photos anytime on my laptop or my iPod. But it wasn’t all that great for motivating me to print off photos.

Enter digital scrapbooking. Instead of printing off individual photographs, I could take a group of photos from an event, create a layout and print out one piece of paper. I could also e-mail the layout to family members so that they could download them in their computers and print them out. That’s also worked in reverse a few times, such as when a niece e-mailed some photos of her daughter’s school promotion. I was able to turn it into a simple layout and share it with the family. Because my Mom doesn’t have (and doesn’t want!) a computer, I can print layouts out for her. Which brings me to the point of this post: What’s the best paper to print on? I love “Staples Photo Supreme Double-Sided Matte Paper”. It takes the ink from our Canon and HP inkjet printers beautifully, dries quickly, cuts cleanly and has a wonderful weight. Because it is double-sided, if you goof up (and it’s destined for an album or a frame) you can get a second shot on the reverse. It also works well for postcards - 4 to a sheet - and gift tags and bookmarks! You can buy it in packages as large as 100 sheets and Staples often has it on sale or with a rebate.

I have to admit, that while it’s fun to see your photographs and layouts on the computer screen, it’s an even bigger thrill to hold them in your hands or pass them on to folks.