It's time to say goodbye my phair, phaithphul, phuntography phriends. Phuntography too must come to an end and today is that sad, sad day *insert dramatic sigh*. However in an attempt to distract you from the sadness that is goodbye, today's episode will be set to the tune of "Ooh La la" (please right click and save as or NO MORE PHUNTOGRAPHY FOR YOU!... er, wait...). If a little la la la love isn't your thing then I highly suggest setting today's episode to the tune of Grrrrrrrrr or maybe Mmmmmmm. This won't be a terribly long post, but I wanted to wrap up the series with a few pointers in the general direction of GO! I've shared, now it's only fair for you to do the same.
Quick recap:
1) Clarity Infusion, Serve Chilled
2) Saving Like the Big Dogs
3) Black and White Aversion Diversion
4) Make Lomo Your Bitch
5) You are a Superhero
6) Afterglow
7) A Curve, A Dodge, and a Running Man
I'm sure you're all total pros now when it comes to the art of digital photography, but, what are you supposed to do with your burgeoning collection of photography goodness? Print it out? Door stop? Wall art? Photoblog? Collect dust? ALL OF THE ABOVE, is my answer.
Thing #1: Archive your 35mm photos.
Take all the photos around your house and find 1, 2, or even 10 boxes to keep them in. This might be a serious no-brainer for many of you unless you're my mom. Who keeps her photos stashed in the computer room, in the laundry room, in the kitchen next to the mail slots, on the bulletin board next to her grand children, and probably several other places my father grumbles about under his breath. I bought 6 linen covered boxes at Target at around $3.99 each. They match my bookshelves, they're pretty, and everything is neatly organized and easy to find. w00t!
Thing #2: Print your photos.
Digital photos are becomming increasingly easy to print. We've talked about Qoop almost every day this week, which is extraordinarily fabulous if you have a flickr account. They print books, posters, and have all kinds of other fabulous services to come from what I hear. There's also Ofoto (aka, Kodak Gallery). Print your pictures up to 20x30. Print on a mousepad, mug, or t-shirt. Or just buy 800 cards with your favorite picture of your cat in a santa hat on the front and send them out every Christmas for the next 20 years. Shutterfly is another place to buy prints. For all the above services, 4x6 prints usually run somewhere between .19 and .25 cents per. Not bad at all, I say. Not bad. Upload your image, click, and have them sent to your front door. Something I'm looking in to is printing on canvas, which is increasingly hard to find, but the point is you can print your photos on pretty much anything. Technology is all cool 'n stuff.
Thing #3: Doorstop.
I was sooo just kidding about this one. Don't use your photos as a doorstop. Please.
Thing #4: Share your photos online.
If you're developing 35mm film most developers offer the option of developing to a CD or online gallery. Very, very cool I say. Useful for sharing with friends, family, and the world at large (the crazed stalker Vladimir in Russia).
There's Flickr, which I'm putting at the top of the list for so many reasons. So easy my mom could use it, so accessible even my dad could get to it, and so fabulous I've already made a whole new circle of friends on it. Everyone can do flickr (yes, EVERYONE!), it's free, and it's high time you high-tailed it over there to sign up for a free account.
If you're a little more ambitious you could do a photoblog. Photoblogs are for the snobby who want to present their photos "their way". I, of course, am one of those people and never, for even a moment suggested I was anything but self-centered. I mean obviously. Custom design, custom navigation, custom EVERYTHING, with the ability to drop in an about page, a contact page, the option of purchasing prints, or incorporating it in to another of your existing sites. You can pretty much do anything with a photoblog. Shedloads of work, but quite rewarding if you're in to that whole 'maintaining a website' thing.
Then of course there Blogspot, which is a happy in-between for the aforementioned options. Sign up for a free account, drop the images (flickr images, even) in to your blog entries, and away you go. You can customize the design to an extent and best of all, IT'S FREE! Still can be shedloads of work though.
If I were you, I would let Flickr do all the heavy lifting. Which of course means a bunch of women must have dreamt it up. After nagging their boyfriends / husbands to 'Put the damn photos online already', they just went ahead and created this cool software.
This concludes Phuntography. Please return your seats to their upright positions and have a nice trip.
Comments
For printing your photos all classy, don't forget iPhoto books for the rest of us!
Ahh I feel much better knowing Phuntography has been concluded.