Ways to Share Photos

www.picasa.com by Google. I have used this for about 3 years now. You download your pictures from your camera and can make folders and edit pictures. They have an easy option for uploading to a web album which you can choose to be public or private. (Private allows you to choose who can see the photos) The other great feature is you can choose where to have your pictures printed from. (Wal-mart, snapfish, etc) All this for FREE.

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This isn't a response to your specific question- but to your goal ( to show your children that you can be a great Mom and an active person, too) My Mother was born in 1917 and grew up believing that women - though perhaps politically and sociall active - and certainly being active in volunteer positions - did NOT have the choice to work.
My mother had no such choice- she worked all my childhood- and it hurt her that she couldn't do some of the things for us or with us that she wished-. But I am SOOOOO proud of her.- and I always knew how hard she worked to make our lives wonderful.

One Christmas eve the 4 of us ( older brother, Mom, Dad and me) were walking home late- 11 pm - after my folks closed up the little cafe they ran - jus the two of them-- in Albany, Oregon in the 50-s=== and my mother recited the lovely story ''' Why the Chimes Rang'' - it is one of my most precious memories - and she must have been so exhausted- we would get home by midnight- and two tired children ( we were about 8 and 10) would be awake BRIGHT and early- so she had final preparations to help Santa with-- Bless her -

You'll do just fine
Old Mom
aka- J.

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I have been very happy with my www.flickr.com account. I like it because you can direct people to your account and they don't need to login or anything to see your pictures. Uploading is a snap, I like the "basic uploadr" function and you just drag pics from your computer files and hit upload. Then you can title and provide comments once they load. It's very quick.

You do need to keep your pictures "public" in order for non-Flickr people to see them, but I have never had an issue with this feature. You can monitor how many "views" a picture have had, and if it seems like too much, you can choose to set it to "private" where only your flickr friends/family can see it. I just follow the rule of no last names and I think something like 4,000 pictures per minute are uploaded to the site so the odds of some creep looking at my pictures/videos are pretty low.

They have a free version (limited # of MB per month) and a membership version ($30/year unlimited uploads) It's very easy to title and provide commentary on your pictures. You can also upload videos too, which is a bonus!

If you check out their partners section, you can order prints and cards, gifts, etc., but you aren't constantly bombarded with those options like on shutterfly and snapfish. I personally find it annoying when my friends send me pictures through their shutterfly and snapfish accounts and I have to be reminded constantly that I can purchse these photos for $.X a piece. What I like about flickr is the option to download an image and make prints yourself. I did this with some pictures from my brother's wedding since their photographer gave them the rights to their pictures. That way I didn't have to bug them (in the midst of being newlyweds and celebrating their first married holiday season) for pictures.

I also used a great program I found on flickr (on their "partners" page), called Blurb, to make a beautiful book of my family's trip to Napa this summer. Very professional looking, lots of room for pics and words and easy to use. It is hardcover and has a library flap around it and it only cost $25 +S/H. It's a wonderful memento of our trip.

Facebook is also a free alternative, although I agree it's not as intuitive, and the program itself can suck up your system's resources and be quite slow at times. I don't think there is a video option either.

Picasa is great, but their video resolution is crummy. It's also a computer to web based program, so it also can slow your system down somewhat if it's constantly running in the background. It's a nice program to organize all the pictures on your computer by month/year, which is what I use it for at this point.

Congrats on getting your masters!! I'll be making that endeavor soon enough (with two little ones as well)!

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this is so weird..the email i opened before this was the coolest slide show my friend sent me from www.roxio.com. i've used it myself for Halloween pics. it's so fun and easy. you can pick a song to play along with it. and it's all free. super cool. you can also purchase a cd if you want which might be fun for your family far away. good luck.

A.

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smilebox.com is the BEST.. You can upload your pictures to different themes along with music.. It's free or $2.99 if you want a lot of customization and I send out pics to all my family and friends.. around 50, and it's Awesome!! Check it out, I think you'll like it!

Hello -

I currently use www.KodakGallery.com and love it. Have been using it for years. They make it very easy to upload pictures (drag and drop even if you want!) and their layouts are about as easy as it gets. It does cost money (about $2.49 a month is their monthly option) - but it gives you some great options for your pictures.

You get your own website - that you can name (provided the name you want isn't taken) - www.kodakgallery.com/whateveryouchoose and you can set it up so people need to enter a password or not. Another nice feature is if you add your friends/family e-mail addresses to your address book with them - Kodak Gallery will automatically send everyone in your address book an e-mail when you have published a new album or added photos to an existing published album. (Elminiating one more thing to have to remember!) :)

After you upload pictures to their site - you can either just publish them as is - or edit them if you have time to play! You can edit by cropping, zooming, fixing red eye, add borders, captions, etc. It is really fun! Also - each album you create lets you title it with a date and a description.

Another really great feature is their store - it allows you (or your friends/family) to have them print any of your pics for you as just about anything from snapshots (for a real photo album) to poster size to just about any personalized item you can think of and have it sent directly to you or to someone else. I have had a few pictures of my son enlarged, matted and framed and sent directly to my mom (who lives in another state) as gifts and she always raves about how great they are! (Another great time saver!)

I started using their site a long time ago - as a single mom working full time living two states away from my mom and three siblings. I got tired of attaching pictures to e-mails and hoping they would all come through for everyone. Then having to try to explain all the pictures...got to be a pain! I found this as a GREAT alternative allowing everyone to look at the pictures at their convenience - and allowing them to bring up the pictures whenever they want!

And now, I am married, still working full time and still as busy as ever - and having family spread out all over the country - makes it so nice and easy to share everyday pics! With all this recent snow - I was updating pictures daily! It was great!

Good luck - and hope you find the right site for you!

I have 2 ways I do this - both are totally free! First, I have a blog - just go to www.blogspot.com or you can look at mine for ideas (www.goffsix.blogspot.com). I started it as my way of journaling...so when I go to scrapbook (i do it digitally), I can literally just copy & past the info!

My 2nd way is through Heritage Makers. You can go to www.BindingHeritage.com for a free account. There is free photo storage, & it's totally private & online, so anyone from anywhere in the world can upload pics & from there you can scrapbook, or make books, or posters, or other things. You don't have to make anything if you don't want to. I am a consultant for them, but I was a customer first.... No stress if you want to just use the photo storage, there is no obligation to buy anything.

Good luck! It is sooo fun doing both -I'm up right now adding to my blog! Have fun!

A great and FREE site is www.babysite.com The best part it is safe and secure. You can set it up so no one can access without a password and it tracks the ip addresses. Good Luck!
S.

PS It may be www.babysites.com ? Not sure if there was an "s" or not

my sister uses www.totsites.com

works great!

You can make albums at kodak.com and walmart.com and share them with your familiy via email. Then they can even use those places to make prints. I think Shutterfly does the same.

If you would like a blog that does an easy upload of pictures...I would go to www.blogspot.com and it has a really easy interface.

there are soooo many options out there though...

J. Van Riper
Director of Operations
Portland CityMommy Forums
http://portland.citymommy.com
Are you a CityMommy yet?

We use Picasa. It has a program that works really well on PC's that not only allows you to upload your images to the web, but also allows you to edit and organize. It doesn't work so well with MAC so I am a little frustrated now. Also with Picasa it is super easy to set up a blog where you can add notes and postings.

Our Blog is theabbotts7511.blogspot.com if you want to check it out. You can set up different backgrounds really easy, and determine the layout that you would like. For example having the slideshow on the left, etc...

If you look at the Christmas Tree posting there is a link to our picasa gallery. You can see just the web albums that we have set as public, but you can also set albums to be private, and then only those that you invite should be able to see them.

The other thing I really like about Blogspot is that you don't need to know the html. To format MySpace you need to know HTML or download the HTML code from another site. With Blog Spot you have a toolbar similar to Word and can edit the layout of your posting using the toolbar. I also know that our two tween nieces have been able to use this site with a little help from their parents so it can't be too complicated.

If you want help setting up please let me know. I am a computer teacher so I am used to working with students that may not be too familiar with some terminology.

Good Luck.

Try facebook :) it also has an IMing feature which is nice :)

I have a website for my family that I post photos and blog, I have a photobucket account for photos, and I have a myspace account for sharing. But honestly, the easiest one I have is a facebook account. I know if sounds dumb, but I and all of my family signed up for facebook accounts. We can now share photos, blog, and even share tiny comments about what's going on each day. It has been the BEST way to keep Grandma involved in our lives. Also, it is very private if you set the settings that way.

Picasa is a great photo organizer. You can download the program onto your home computer (it is a Google product) and it is good for storing all your pics. Then you can create web albums that your family and friends can access. They can set reminders so the program alerts them when new postings come up or you can send email invitations to view particular albums.

I use snapfish.com to keep in touch with my family and friends. Snapfish makes it easy to upload and when you "share" the site remembers your addresses so that next time you start to type them in, it autofills. It makes it easy to organize - group pictures by date and event and email them all at once! From there you can also make photocards, calendars and such. Great for thank yous after a birthday or holiday, Valentine cards, etc!
I have also used shutterfly.com for bigger projects like flipbooks and memory books (when I am really motivated:)Good luck with your resolution!

I've set up a blog using blogspot by gmail. It is so easy. they have templates and you just choose the colors. If you want to get more elaborate, you can. All of my husband's family and mine live far away. Everyone loves the blog and being able to keep up with us. You can even post videos! It's super easy!

I use Shutterfly. It used to be a little easier, but it has great tools and really nice for sharing. You can even start a family blog there if you like. Also, if ever someone would like a copy of a print you took, they can order. Plus, there are so many fun things you can do with your pictures like books, gifts, etc.

Hi!

The simpliest site to use would probably be Kodakgallery.com but if you want more options, try Shutterfly.com

Happy photo-sharing! :)

J.
button-style link

There are lots of free sites: blogger, facebook, kodak, etc. But the site we've used and loved since our little girl was a few weeks old is babysites.com. In fact, a friend told us about it, and we now have MANY friends and family members also using it. You can start with a free site (which gives you 5mb of storage) so you can try it out. If you like it, it's $34.95 per year for 50mb. We've used it for over 3 years now and have continued to add storage space (which you can buy at anytime for a 1 time fee).

It's great, it allows photos, different albums, videos, journals, growth chart, guest book and even sound clips. You can set it up as one site for your entire family or set it up so each child has their own page/look (separating their albums, videos, journals, etc). The best features (which are much better than all the free sites) are the added security features and the email lists. You can make your site password protected if you wish. That way, only your friends and family can access the site. Personally, I won't put many photos of our little girl on facebook because I don't like the fact that I have little control over who can view her photos (there are tons of creeps out there). The email list is great, whenever you have updates, you can just send one email to the entire list you have on the site.

Other great perks are the fact that you can buy backup CD's (which has all your photos organized the same way). Also, anyone who views the photos have options to save or purchase (through Shutterfly) full-sized versions of your photos. Not something you can do with most of the free sites.

As you can tell, we love our babysite! We use it all the time and they just keep adding features. They even have bulk uploaders to save a ton of time.

I do use blogger for blogging with my friends - the photo uploading works sometimes and most of the time it's a pain in the butt. I use facebook, but have quickly found that even though you have your photos set to private, friends of your friends sometimes have access to your photos. I will only put photos on MySpace with my profile set to private (which means, everyone who views the photos have to join MySpace). Kodak makes you join and you can only view the photos - can't download them to save, you have to purchase them. Many of the other photo printing sites are the same way.

I hope this helps. Have fun! :-D

I've been using snapfish.com for years now. It's free except that once a year you have to purchase at least ten or eleven cents worth of photos or merchandise which is always very easy to do. It's a great place to keep your photos and also to create wonderful gifts, including calendars, for a very reasonable price.

if you are looking for easy and no frills. I have been enjoying Facebook.com I can post photos and write captions. Each group can have a different title to the album like weekend at the beach or christmas 08. Your friends and family can post comments to your photos or share stories that go with it.

My husband and I use www.smugmug.com

the nice thing about this is that they act as an archival area as well. So if you 'lose' a photo they will have a copy and can send it to you. The only down side is there is an annual fee. But we find the fee to be worth everything we get. You can create albums with different themes, lock albums if you don't want people to be able to access them, do polls...

Good luck

S.

My sister lives a long ways away and they have started a family blog to share the pictures of their new baby. It is so nice because she only has to upload pictures to her blog website and everyone in her family can visit the web page and see the new pictures. It is fun because you can add you own notes and commentary to keep everyone up to date. I think she uses blogspot.com

I think Flickr is perfect for your needs. It's easy to upload photos, comment on them, allow others to comment and categorize them. Most importantly, though, it doesn't require that your friends and family login to view them. You can send them the link and they can see photos - just that simply. http://flickr.com/

We use Snap Fish. I don't know if anyone mentioned that to you yet or not.

If your goal is to share information and photos, Blogspot or Facebook would be great options. If you goal is to share photos that others can view/download/print, I would highly recommend Phanfare.com. It allows you to organize and share your photos at the highest quality you can store them and the viewer can download them for his/her own use and print them using any service they like. Being able to use any printing service might be particularly helpful for those overseas. Kodakgallery, Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc. all require that you use their printing service and loose some resolution quality in their storage methods.

Another option if you want to distribute hard-copies of your photos is Costco's online photocenter. 4x6 prints cost 17 cents each, there are no shipping charges, and no minimum number of prints. Every so often, I'll pick a group of 5-10 photos to upload and have Costco print to send to grandparents that aren't computer savvy.

I sent some photos this winter with a website called smilebox.com and it was great and easy. I tried the free version which worked very well. I have a friend who uses smugmug.com and her site is also very cool. With both you simply send an e-mail letting your loved ones know you've updated photos and they can view. On smug mug they can even purchase pictures they'd like.
Good Luck

Took me about 10 hours to do my first book project in Shutterfly.com, to learn all the zoom-in and cropping techniques, page layouts, background changes, etc. Now it's fast to put something together, especially starting with their suggested templates. Photo album files are fast, just download your photos to their files. I don't think that allows comments and grouping, though, so the book was more ideal for me. One friend I sent the link to said it required her to join Shutterfly to view the project, but I tested it and didn't get that, so am not sure. I ordered the book project and am very happy with the fished product both on paper and online!

My favorite projects received from others are from MusicBox.com and Kodak.com. Don't know if Kodak requires you to join because I'm already a member (free), but MusicBox doesn't.

Happy Boxing Day!

The nice thing about facebook is that you can allow only your friends (who have to sign up too) to see the pictures. Make sure you choose a site with protections like that. You don't want creepy people looking at your kids!

Hello!
A friend turned me on to babysites.com (I think it's the same gig as totsites.com). Super easy to upload pictures, they have really cute little website backgrounds to choose from. Family members just have to type in your little ones' names and they can look at pics, read updated journal entries and growth charts and they can even order pictures off of it. I like it because the upkeep is so simple.
Good luck!

I personally like Costco.com As long as everyone has a Costco membership, you can download the pictures to one site and then send one email to everyone. They can then print the pictures if they'd like. It's inexpensive too (13 cents per 4x6).

:)

That's easy...Shutterfly has what they call "share sites" which makes it very simple to upload photos, create albums, and even journal about what's been going on in your busy life. I hope you find something that works for you. By the way, did I mention that it's free?

We have been using shutterfly - I like it because people don't have to register to see the photos. It's a great place to share. Also they don't have to pay money to download the photos so then they can use it for their cards and stuff. They now have a share site which you can put more text on.

I've heard about Facebook but that would require family to register and set up their own - if your family is willing then do so but my 70 and 80 year old aunts and uncle won't do that.

I am sure someone already mentioned this but I am too lazy today to look thru all the replies :-)

We upload our pics to Costco.com. You can organize and label the pics. I prefer to organize them by month. I find it easy to do and when I set up the account, which I think is still free, I used a password that I dont mind sharing with family - something easy, like "home" or "pictures" or your last name. That way, they can log in to the account and view the pics. If they have a Costco location near them, they can even choose photos to order and have them printed at their local store to pick up themselves. I know that Walgreens.com also has this service available but I like Costco since it is down the street from me (If I need to order photo's as well).

Also, another idea is a birthday or holiday gift - a calendar. Costco has them available to creat - just upload the photos and attach them to the calendar. Order it and mail it directly to the person or to you. I give one to my Hubby (for his office), for my mom, for my MIL and for my FIL each year. They love it and love to see the pics of the kids/family all year long. I like to use a picture that was taken in that month for the prior year (eg, I used a picture taken in January 08 and attached it to the January 09 page. This way, they can see how the kids grew up over the entire year.

Good luck and have fun!

I use myspace and like it.

I love smilebox.com. You can email pictures and videos for free. Good luck!.

We have flickr.com and love it! You can sign up for the free version which allows you to upload 10gb/month have about 100 pictures at a time up, or you can pay about $25/year and have as many pictures as you want. I'd recommend signing up for the free version and then you can try it, see if it's easy enough for people and then you can upgrade if you like it. I use the picture captions to tell about what we've been doing lately and I normally upload 10-30 pictures/week.

The other one we just signed up for is free right now and it's wee-web.com. It's slightly harder to get video and pics up, but it's super easy to post commentary or messages.

I'm adding a FACEBOOK.com vote. It great, others can download your pictures, but only people that you add as friends. You can also put up quick updates about you and the family and others can read it whenever they want.

I second everyone's votes for kodakgallery, facebook, shutterfly, etc. and though you said you dont have time for anything elaborate, I just wanted to share one more option if you ever do want to do something really cute and unique with pictures and/or videos, and it is relatively easy and quick--smilebox.com
I decided this year to send a holiday e-card instead of mailing one, and just happened to find this site--it is awesome, and free, unless you want some of the other features you have to pay for--you can do online photo albums and virtual scrapbooks to music and they are super cute! Everyone I sent ours to loved it, and it was fun to do! In any case, it is a good idea for next year's holiday card! Have fun!

I have a couple suggestions. Our son and his family live Qatar. We use http://picasa.google.com/. It is free. It is very easy to upload both photos and videos. You can control privacy easier than on facebook or youtube. Directions are simple also.
My other suggestion is to download skype. it is a free computer to computer web cam and talk. Go to www.skype.com. we use the web cam. It is clear and does not freeze like it does on msn and yahoo messengers. My daughter has used the phone on international calls. She found it inexpensive and the voice was very clear. If you don't have a web cam, you can get very inexpensive ones which will work and give overseas family an opportunity to interact with the children and see them doing the cute things they are learning.
Have fun. Mary Anne Gallew

I have been using facebook.com and blogger.com to share photos. Blogger.com allows you to set up a journal on line. You can post photos and videos at any time. I've been blogging since my 1st pregnancy & my friends & family love going to the site to find out what we've been up to lately. For example, I posted the delivery details & my son's video of walking. I love it!

I also use Facebook and limit access to only those friends that I confirm. It's fun and easy. And it is very widely used outside of US so it's a familiar platform.

Also, a friend just told me about this new website - a friend of his created it. It allows people with internet connections and webcams too to see and enjoy video and audio. You can webcam with friends and family around the world; and you can have everyone in "the room" at one time.
Its free, you can make your own "room". Just email the link to your friends, and if they have a webcam thats great, if not they can just see you!

to see and make your own go here:
http://ourspace.moonfall.com/

myfamily.com. This is an amazing website that you can load photos, videos, and have a running "news" segment that works a bit like a blog. This is a great website for keeping in touch. My husband's family lives all over, and it has been priceless.

I'd check out www.geni.com. The main point of it is a family tree, but you can add photos and videos and birthday greetings, etc and it's free. My whole extended family and inlaws love it!

if you decide to blog and want some help setting it up I recently did a blog make over with a great person who for a small fee will help you theme it up and get it ready for your family photos. You can check her out at www.3littleflowers.com and you can see what she did for me at www.laurynho.blogspot.com.

I recommend opening up a Flickr account (at www.flickr.com). I had a free account with them for years before finally upgrading, which allows you to have more flexibility in creating sets and collections, etc. If you're interested in providing family and friends with updates of the written variety, I would recommend creating a blog. A couple popular platforms for this include Blogger (www.blogger.com), Typepad (www.typepad.com), and Wordpress (www.wordpress.com). I use Blogger and have been very happy with their product. Also, you can add a Flickr badge to your blog so people have a link from the blog to the photos.

Facebook and MySpace aren't as intuitive and easy to use as Flickr or one of the other photos sites like Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc.

Hi,

Getting photos organized is a great New Year's resolution! For simply storing and sharing photos on the web I like Picasa web, a free photo storage service offered by Google.
However, I prefer a service where I can create beautiful keepsakes with my photos on top of simply sharing them digitally. This online service and company is called Heritage Makers and the website to visit is: www.MyLifeInStorybooks.com. It means so much more to have a beautiful book for the coffee table or a poster to hang up! Both my husband's and my families live in different parts of the world and they LOVE the books, cards, calendars, posters, even card games I create for them. Here is an example of a calendar I just made. Copy and paste this URL: http://www.heritagemakers.com/index.cfm?event=projectBrow...
and a Christmas card: http://www.heritagemakers.com/index.cfm?event=projectBrow...

I am a stay-at-home mom and a consultant for Heritage Makers. I have an ad on Mamasource: “Digital Storybooking with Heritage Makers”, www.MyLifeInStorybooks.com. You can simply open a free account on my website www.MyLifeinStorybooks.com and check it out for yourself. Or simply contact me if you have questions or want to know how to get started and how to get great specials that are not on my website.
Hope this helps,
C.
____@____.com

Most of my friends use Picasa. I'm switching to a Mac soon though, and Picasa doesn't work with Macs...so I'll be checking back here to see if anyone raves about any programs that are.

Another option, of course, is to have a Super Restricted Facebook account.

ie Set up the security so that ONLY your "friends" can see your page. I know some people go one step further & allow friends of friends to see their account, but the six degrees of separation makes that dicey. Personally while I trust all of MY friends, and I'm sure most of THEIRS, all of THEIR friends AND THEIRS ad nauseum?? Not so much.

Hi there,

I've found that Facebook.com is a really easy networking site to use to stay in touch with friends, family, etc. and post pictures.... and I'm not a computer genius! Good luck!

T.

One word: Facebook. It's easy to access, takes minutes to set-up pics on it... it's not super fancy, but it's easy, and you can put tons of photos on it.

But I know there are a lot of other sites that work well, too. Facebook is just one of them.