Saving and Sharing is Caring

I have several relatives who are a bit older, who love to use their digital cameras. Honestly, they think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. You will see them at every single family event, camera in hand, snapping away to capture every single precious moment.

I know this because every so often, I am told about these events. And, these relatives bring out their digital cameras, turn on the LCD display, and proceed to scroll through hundreds of photos they have taken to show me the right ones.

Google Photo's screen

Wow. That’s some risky behavior right there. What would happen if the camera or the storage card got damaged?  What happens should the camera get stolen? And, what happens if they wanted to send that photo to someone else?  Do they cart that camera over to their friend's house to show them on that tiny LCD screen?

Fortunately, the same age that brings us digital cameras also brings us easy ways to save and share those photos with friends and loved ones around the world.

If you take your photos with your cell phone, backing them up couldn’t be easier. Both Google Photos and Apple Photos can be configured to automatically take the shots from your camera and upload them to cloud storage. If something happens to your phone, don’t worry, the photos will still be there.

Don't ask me how I know this ...

There are free and fee-based services, but on my Galaxy S9, Google Photo has yet to cost me a dime, and I can go way back to photos from five or six years ago with no problem.

The photo app on my home computer

If you are using a digital camera that isn't your cell phone, it’s a great idea to transfer your photos to your computer as soon as is feasible. Most models allow you to connect a USB cable between your camera and your computer. From there, you can import all of the photos to your computer’s photo file. Most computers running relatively new operating systems also sort the images by the month and year they were shot, and have other cool features such as facial recognition. This way, if you want to see all of the photos of your crazy Aunt Louise, you can do so in a flash.

Backing up your computer isn’t a bad idea either. Terabyte-sized drives can be had for a song these days at big box stores or online. Simply plugging the drive into your computer will allow all of the data – photos included – to be backed up in case anything happens to your main drive. This way, you can restore everything on your new drive, or on a new computer, without any hassle.

If you want to back up to the cloud on your computer, you are in luck, too. Services such as Google Photos and iCloud Photos also work from your computer – PC or Mac – or you can go with a different service such as Shutterfly. There, not only can you back up enormous numbers of photos, you can also create virtual photo albums to share with others. You can order prints or enlargements of images that catch your eye. In my living room, I have decorated with about a dozen photos I have taken from different landmarks, and they look great. Plus, each is its own personal story, so you can not only impress your guests with your skills, but the tales of how you managed to get the shot in the first place. 

When you really want to share your images far and wide, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest can do the job admirably. The real king of photo sharing, however, has to be Instagram. It is set up where you can post photos and put brief captions under each. Because each of these platforms is so flexible, you can post to your account, and have it populate across the others. This is a great way to share your photos with groups from within your family, around the block or across the world.

That’s a whole lot easier than looking at a small, vulnerable LCD screen held in someone’s hands.