You’ve transferred scores of pictures from your digital camera to the computer, but have you shared them? You taught your kids to share their toys; now it’s your turn to share your pictures with friends and family. There are several free ways to do this online. Sharing photographs online is simple and can be done cheaply – no need to pay for prints and postage to share a photo of your child’s first tooth with the relatives.
- Email. Short for electronic mail, this has become the standard method of communication on the Internet. Just a few web-based email providers include Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.
- Pros: Almost everyone knows how to open an email. You can send pictures only to those who you think will want to look at them. Recipients can download the picture to their computer and print it wherever they want. It is more personal for someone to receive an individual email with pictures; you can write a more personal message.
- Cons: Not everyone has figured out how to open attachments. Some people avoid attachments altogether because of the possibility that it might be a virus. And still more people don’t open the pictures because it takes too long to download, especially if they are full-resolution files. When you send a mass email, recipients are less likely to respond.
- Online album. Almost all photo printing sites let users share the pictures they uploaded as albums. An email is sent by the user to family and friends who would want to see the pictures; they click on a link in the email and are sent to the online album. Some of the big photo printing and album-sharing sites include the Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Snapfish, and Shutterfly. Stores like Walgreens, CVS, and Ritz Camera have their own photo sharing and printing sites too.
- Pros: You and the recipients can print from the album. Sometimes the software that is included with digital cameras links directly to an online album site, so loading to the site is simple. Usually, you can send an email from the site that links to the photo album; this email only goes to those whom you want viewing your pictures.
- Cons: Your recipients may prefer a different printing method or site and most free online album sites won’t let users download the full-resolution files. There’s usually not much room for commentary, so the stories that accompany the pictures will have to be sent in an email.
- Blog. This is like an online journal where you have your own web address and friends and relatives can check in on it at their leisure. There are lots of web sites where free blogs can be made: blogger.com, typepad.com, wordpress.com, blog.com, and 360.yahoo.com are just a few of the big ones. Usually, the sites have templates that make building and writing a blog as simple as writing an email.
- Pros: There is plenty of room to write about diaper changes, embarrassing restaurant moments, milestones, and other child-related chatter. You can post as many pictures as you want and readers won’t have to take ten minutes to download them.
- Cons: Full-resolution pictures take forever to upload. The web address is public, so anyone – including stalkers and child molesters – can look at it (this is why bloggers are encouraged to never publish their addresses and full names).
