Photos By Wire

So, my Uncle and Aunt have been bugging me to send them pictures of Mom and me...

But I've been so busy, and it is just such a hassle to go buy film for the camera, then take the film to the store to get developed, then have to get triple prints (one for Mom, one each for each of her brothers), then have to hassle with returning the prints that aren't so good, then finding envelopes big enough to hold the prints, and cardboard to put in the envelopes to help prevent the prints from getting bent, then paying postage, and taking them to the post office.

Hmm, I thought... I've had a digital camera for a while now. Surely there must be an electronic solution.

Well, there is, and I didn't even have to pay for the prints!

I signed up at Shutterfly.com for their free 15 print trial. The process is very intuitive. After selecting a user name and password, I was led right to a page from which I could create my first album. I was prompted to install a small weblet which only took a few moments to download, and was then presented with a cool little applet that allowed me to select the folder which contained the pictures I wanted to upload, then select the individual pictures, then do a batch upload. After uploading the pictures, I was taken to a page which allowed me to enter and store the names and addresses of Mom and her brothers. I then clicked on the order page and selected which pictures I wanted prints of (funny thing, there were exactly five - go figure), and to whom I wanted them sent (again, strangely enough, three people - let's see, that's five pictures times three people... 15 pictures. Gee, wasn't that the number I got for free?). All very quick and easy, and very cool. The only thing I had to pay for was the shipping, which was less than $2 per shipment, so for less than $6 total, I now have one less to-do on my list.

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Posted by David at August 14, 2005 08:21 AM