Where do pictures go to die?

Where do pictures go to die? 

Before the age of digital cameras it was likely a shoe box filled with dusty negatives on the top shelf of your mother’s closet.  There they sat, just hoping someday someone would sift through them, looking for that picture of Uncle Pat shooting milk out his nose at the family reunion.  Today, forgotten Kodak moments suffer an even worse fate because those behind the lens don’t realize their options.

Unlike their film brothers and sisters, digital negatives don’t sit in shoeboxes.  Most likely they take up space in some random folder on your hard drive, or worse yet stay on the already-full camera memory card, waiting their turn to be deleted and replaced by another doomed snap shot.

Most digital negatives will only be viewed on the inch-high screen on the back of the camera.  They will be squinted at and told how good they look even though postage stamps have more detail.

At least pictures taken with film saw their day in print.  Whether it was 3x5, 4x6 or that occasional drugstore photo counter 5x7 special, they all saw their day.  So, why not let your digital negatives see the light of day?  You don’t have the time? You’re no good with computers? Maybe you’re not crazy about color ink cartridge refills costing more than the printer did in the first place?

The most important thing to remember about printing and sharing digital photos is that you have options.  No matter what all the software that came with your camera tells you, nothing will blow up if you don’t use their “super-online-we’ll send it to you in three weeks-printing service.”  Your camera or card, when plugged into your computer, will show up as an external device.  Click on it and go through the folders until you find your pictures.  Then just copy and paste them onto your computer.  It’s that easy.

If you want prints and you want them now, burn a CD, jump in the car and take them to your local photo mat.  Wal-Mart has a kiosk you stick your CD in, push a couple of buttons and your pictures are ready in an hour.  Instead of shelling out the cash for your own printer, paper and ink, you should be able to get 4x6 prints in an hour for around 20 cents a piece.

Another option is to take advantage of online photo-sharing communities such as flickr.com.  This may sound daunting and technical, but if you can send an e-mail you can probably figure out how to use these sites. You can even set up your account to accept pictures sent by a camera phone.  The nice thing about sites like this is that you can make any size of your photo available, so you no longer need to have doubles of your prints made.  If someone wants a copy of one of your photos just send them to the site and they can print it themselves.

You’re the Governor.   Call in those reprieves, and get Uncle Pat’s glamour shots off electronic death row.