Teaching Children to Read with Photo Galleries

No that’s not an oxymoron, you really can teach your children to read by using photo galleries. It’s not a secret that we are visual creatures. Images are the first “reading” children are exposed to. They learn to identify facial expressions as a means of communication. They learn that when they see their bed it’s time for sleep. They also use word association with objects. When they hear the word apple, the associate it with a red or green shiny fruit. So, it makes sense that when they begin to learn words, having strong visual cues will aid them in the process.

Picture books are a seminal childhood experience. Children love to look at illustrations and discoverer the story or create their own. But you don’t need to invest buckets of money in purchasing a library of books. Instead why not create your own picture books. Gather several different images that all work together to build a story. Create a web photo album and place them in order. You can access the album on a tablet and share the story with your emerging reader. You may want to start by creating your own story that goes with the pictures. This way children will begin associating the words that you are using with the pictures they are seeing. As they grow or become interested they can create their own stories or edit your versions.

Flashcards, love them or hate them, are a valuable tool for many children. Attaching a word to an image lets children see the picture and the word that matches that image. You may want to highlight sight words that you are targeting or larger words that children may not be familiar with. The repetitive process of seeing an image and associating it with the written version of the word is powerful.

You could create a photo album that focuses on a word or several words. Then help your child search for images that they thing describe or aid that word. While really small children may struggle with this, older children may enjoy the challenge more. If you’re teaching a second language to an older child this could be a great way for them to stretch their learning muscles with a fun activity. They can create their own picture stories based on the words and pictures they have collected.

If your child has a learning disability imagery may have an even greater importance. Not only can you use web photo albums to teach reading but to get across ideas and points on other subjects as well. Describing a historical event may leave them in the dark, however if you can present photo galleries of images of the event, coupled with an audio description or hands on project, the lesson will likely sink in much easier.

All children learn in different ways, and finding what works best for your child can be a struggle. Web photo albums provide endless opportunities for teacher and student-driven learning and should be an integral part of any curriculum or learning setting. 

How Photo Galleries Can Help You Lose Weight

Ok, so maybe they can’t help you actually lose the weight but they can be a powerful aid as you do the hard work to drop the extra pounds! We all have seen before and after pictures of people who have lost dramatic amounts of weight. These are amazing to see, and even more amazing when you’re the subject of the photos. There are several ways that you can use imagery to help you on your weight loss journey.

First, before you begin have someone take a photo of you. This is your starting image, Upload it to a progress gallery ( an online photo gallery) and include information in the comments such as starting weight and your measurements. Do the same thing every month of your journey. When you’re looking at yourself in the mirror it can be hard to see changes, but when the pictures are compared next to each other the results are much more visible. Some months you may not see a big visible change, but rearrange the photos and put it next to your starting image – the change might be much more drastic than you thought!

You can create another online photo gallery that you upload a picture of your meals. Doing this is a way to remain accountable to what you’re eating and how big the portion size is. It also is a good way to remember what you ate and liked for future recall.

Finally, why not create a dream board? It can be loaded with images of inspirational quotes, clothing that you want to wear once you reach your goal size, exercises you want to try, anything really! Pull up this web photo album when you are feeling low or need a little extra push.

The only way to reach your goal weight is to actually do the work but the work can be much easier when you’re using tools like photo galleries to remain accountable and inspire you along the way! 

How Authors Can Use Web Photo Albums

If you’re an author you know that in today’s world simply writing a story or a novel isn’t enough. You need to be an evangelist for your work. From getting a publisher to notice you, to actually making sales there is a lot of work to do! The good news is that in today’s world there are a lot of free and inexpensive tools available to make that work easier. One tool that you can immediately begin using are online photo galleries.

Now you’re wondering how this can help you as an author. It’s pretty simple really! Here are three ideas to begin implementing today.

1. Create a photo gallery of your inspirations. If you’re in the process of writing right now, create a web photo album to gather all of the images that are inspiring you. They might be locations that you are setting your story in, or clothing that you think your characters might be wearing – anything goes! Make sure you label your images well – you’ll want to use this folder later!
2. Character Sketches. Another album can focus on your characters. Find images of other people that they are similar to. Find visual images of their attire, the jobs they might have, what they like to have. Again, taking care to fully label and hash out your ideas as you save the images. 
3. A third folder can be a place to save ideas for cover art, text, and other design details related to the final look of your book. The colors that you like, the images that reflect the overall feeling of the book, even quotes or snippets of text you might want to include. 

These photo galleries will help inspire you as you write but they also will be an invaluable resource when it comes time to market your work. Readers love to gain inside knowledge. They are interested in your process, how you crafted your characters and what you were thinking. This information can sometimes be difficult to recall, especially if it has taken you a good deal of time to put the book together. If you established your characters 12 months before the book was released you probably won’t remember the details of how they came to be. Pulling up the images can help spur the memory.

If you plan to use social media to market your book images are a great tool! Share one image a day that inspired you as you wrote. Giving your readers this kind of visual accompanied by some more of your thoughts is a wonderful way to engage them. You might ask a question like, “this is what I imagined Sylvester looked like, does it match what you thought?”

Online photo galleries are a must-have tool for writers from project inception to final marketing. Keep this in mind when you begin your work so that you can create powerful photo albums to fuel your writing process and power you through an amazing advertising push! 

3 Ways to use photo galleries for trip planning

Whether you love it or hate it, trip planning is an important part of making your vacation great. It can feel overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be! If this is your first trip of your fiftieth, the same steps and ideas can be implemented to ensure you have the best experience.

Many travelers become overwhelmed with all of the information available. Paper lists, digital pinboards, and a dedicated email folder may help organize the information but why not combine all of those ideas into one with an online photo gallery? One way to organize your information is to create three separate web albums and begin compiling information. Let’s use the example of a trip to France and see how web albums can make trip planning easier.

First label three albums with the titles; suggestions, what to eat, and final plan – or something similar to this. Then begin filling the albums.

Suggestions
In this album you will want to put any and all images for things you think you might like to do. If you’re visiting more than one city or region, creating sub-albums can further sort your information. For a trip to France that begins in Paris and will visit Marseille and Bordeaux, you could create an album for each. What sites do you want to see? What museums or historical sites are of interest? Add an image or two of each and include comments on where it is, what the hours are, the cost – really anything that will help you recall why you wanted to visit, at a glance.

What to Eat
If you don’t care much about food, this folder could focus on something else – essentially it’s a single web photo album that includes the very specific details of one genre that’s important to you. If you’re an art lover, this folder could include images of the artwork you’d like to see or architecture. Be very detailed here.

Final Plan
Once you’ve had the time to gather everything you can about what you would possibly like to do it is time to start filtering through the images and information. You may want to draw up a daily plan and sketch out your time. This can help you make more sense of what you actually will have time to do and what might have to wait for next time. You can create sub-albums in this folder that focus on each day. Move over the images to the things you’ll do each day and build your itinerary from there. You can visually see where you have gaps and where you’re overloaded. Don’t forget to add in some images for meals, naps, and other relaxation activities.

When you’re on the road, all you’ll need to do is pull open the online photo galleries and you can view your itinerary in seconds. Rearrange as you go, delete or add in new ideas. No matter how you choose you use your web photo albums during travel, your trip will be organized!

3 Ways Online Photo Galleries Help Keep Your Information Safe

You can’t turn on the news today without hearing about the latest online security breach, and it’s true there are many every single day. But, that doesn’t mean the internet is the new wild, wild west. Technology has made it easier than ever to secure information especially when it relates to providing a safe place to back up important documents and photos. Here are 3 ways online photo galleries can help you keep your information safe.

1. Photographs. People today rarely print images, but they do have thousands if not millions of images saved on digital devices. But, what happens if the thumb drive is lost, or the hard drive becomes corrupted? Sadly, this happens every day. Instead, upload your images to an online album. No matter where you are, you can pull up and have access to your images. 
2. Important Documents. Not all documents belong online, but items like copies of diplomas, transcripts, etc can easily be storied in an online photo gallery. When you’re applying for a new job or need to provide a copy of these documents you’ll know where to look! 
3. Natural Disasters. What happens when a tornado rips through town or your basement is flooded by an encroaching river? All of the paper photographs and documents you had been saving are blown away or destroyed. But, if you had backed them up with an online web photo album you would have a way to recover them. 

Everyone should continue to take precautions and spend time researching the right company to host their galleries. Be sure to find out what their privacy policy is and how often their servers are backed up. If you feel uncomfortable with their answers, then keep looking. Your information is important and any company you work with should feel a responsibility to keep this information protected as well. 

3 Tips to Save Time Creating Web Photo Albums

Remember those shoeboxes full of photographs waiting to be sorted and stuffed into albums? While this is an idea of the past we’ve got a new problem in the technology driven world. Today, we take more pictures than ever, but what do you do with them? For many people they simply sit on memory cards. While no longer taking up the same physical space, they still are not being utilized. The common reasoning for this is, “I just don’t have the time to sort and upload them.” With the ease of online photo galleries there’s no reason to leave those pictures getting covered in virtual dust!

1. Take Fewer Shots. It may seem counterintuitive when it costs almost nothing to take a picture but by taking more time to take very good quality shots you’ll have fewer images to sort through. You don’t have to photograph everything just because you can. Slow down, only take valuable pictures, and you’ll not only have images you want to look at but will have fewer items to deal with later when when you are loading to an online web photo album. 
2. Sort. As soon as you’re home, go through your pictures. Create a file that’s random images, and then group the rest of them together. All birthday party pictures in one area, all photos from your California vacation in another, etc. If you have duplicate or blurry images delete them. If you have pictures you aren’t sure why you took set them aside. 
3. Upload. Upload your sorted pictures. The sooner you do it, the sooner it’s done! Now that you’ve taken fewer shots, and sorted out the bad pictures, you have less to upload. Saving you time!

The time you spend on your images depends on how many you have and what is important to you. However using an online web photo album shouldn’t make your life more complicated! Make it more quick and easy by following these steps.

Tips for Relators to Use Photo Galleries

If you’re in the business of selling homes and property then using photo galleries should be a standard part of your practice. But, having good images and optimizing web photo albums to your advantage is a skill that takes a little more work. In today’s market most people spend a significant amount of time researching potential homes before they decide where to actually visit. If you don’t make a good impression with your pictures than you’ll never see those potential buyers walking into your open house. Here are three tips to get you started;

1. Lighting – Nothing is worse than dimly lit pictures full of shadows. Not only will they make the house appear older than it is, they’re very unattractive. Open all the windows to let in as much natural light as possible. Shoot each room from several different angles. Also take shots that show how the house flows from one room to the next. 
2. Staging – An empty house? No! If at all possible take pictures that show the house with items in it. Having an empty room is difficult for people to envision how they will live in the room. It also is very hard to judge size and proportions even if you provide measurements. People want to be able to see how they will live in the home – use images to help them do this. 
3. Living – Many pictures of properties do not show people. There are plenty of arguments for and against this. But, consider including some everyday living shots like kids playing in the backyard, cooking in the kitchen, etc. This goes back to the idea of showing people how they will be able to fit themselves and their life into the house. 
4. Professionals – If you don’t have a good camera or aren’t the best photographer, investing in a professional to come and take images can be a great way to not only get good pictures but network. Word of mouth advertising is still critical and working with other people in your communities’ business network is a great way to spread the word about your services. You may even be able to work out some type of a barter system so no money actually ever has to change hands. 
5. Be Creative – Put yourself in the shoes of a home buyer. They’ve likely looked at dozens if not hundreds of listings, many of which are identical and follow the same “script”. It can be tempting to do the same thing but be creative! You’ll make your listings stand out and likely pique the interest of buyers. If you can get them to an open house and through the door you can use your charm to make the home appeal to them. 

There are many ways for today’s realtors to use technology in capturing sales. It takes time, creativity, and effort but by using web photo albums to showcase your properties you will be on your way to finalizing the sale!

Tips for Documenting 2nd and 3rd babies

When your first baby arrives there’s a natural tendency to document every “first.” You may have a photo album or scrapbook that’s busting at the seams – full of memories and more. But, when baby number two, three, or more arrives you’ve got double the work and half as much time. Quickly preserving the memories becomes less important than just getting through the moment. Nearly everyone has a phone equipped with a camera so there’s no excuse to stop capturing pictures but what to do with them is the real issue. This is where a web photo album can help.

You may not capture as many pictures of your children after the first one is born but make the pictures count. Try to remember to snap those firsts and then upload them to an online photo gallery. Use the caption area to write down what you remember. If you make it habit to do this once a week or once every other week you’ll keep up to date and have the most vivid memories to record.

Maybe each of your children has a specific sport or activity that they love or excel at, make sure to highlight the unique aspects of each child as well as the standard “first” events. Everyday pictures engaging in simple tasks or adventures also provide great images.

You don’t have to stick to taking pictures of each child alone. Document the sibling bond between your children. You can add the picture to their individual photo galleries with different information. What was each child doing in the picture? What were they saying? What makes it unique from each child’s point of view? It’s amazing how much a single picture offers from each different perspective.

As each of your children grows in age they can help you build their albums. Encourage them to take pictures of things that matter to them. Ask their input when you are creating captions. What were they thinking? What does that picture or event mean to them? These are the things that will make the pictures really stick out. Even if you only capture a few pictures, the information contained in the captions can really be powerful.

Also, ask other family members and friends for their images of your children. Having the ability to quickly upload and send images across the world means there are few boundaries to gathering these documents. You can create photo galleries that are dedicated to each child from the viewpoint of the other image contributors, or join them all together when they are of a single event or period of life.

It can seem like a lot of additional work but in the years to come both you and your children will enjoy looking back and remembering those times. You’ll also feel less stress (and guilt!) when it comes time for graduation or other life commemorations that call for growing up pictures. Web photo albums make capturing and keeping the memories of each of your children easier than ever. 

Tips for Capturing a Great Photo

It used to be that photographers – both professional and amateur – spent a great deal of time composing and creating an image. They had to, as film was expensive to purchase and images were expensive to print. Today, technology has made it easy to snap hundreds of pictures in a few minutes and to erase them as quickly as they were taken. This also means that the art of taking high quality images has deteriorated. Like all art, what makes a good picture is subjective, but you don’t want to fill your photo galleries with junk shots!  Consider some of these tips;

Composition – Spend some time to look at the subject you want to photograph. What is the best angle to capture it based on the light you have available. How can you not only capture the specific image but the ambiance and feel surrounding your subject?

Rule of Thirds – The rule of thirds may be one of the most important in photography. Imagine the image through your viewfinder segmented into three rows vertically and three horizontally. If you place points of interest along the (invisible) lines, you are better able to create a well-balanced and interesting image.

Purpose – What are you trying to accomplish with your image? Maybe it’s just to take a portrait, but dig deeper, what do you want to convey? Every image should have a purpose and a feeling you want to illicit from the viewer. Make sure when you take an image you do just that.

There are many different styles when it comes to photography but there’s no doubt it is a skill and an art. Keeping these ideas in mind will help you not only become a better photographer but provide you with plenty of amazing images for your online photo galleries. 

How to Create an Online Family Recipe Book

Does your grandma make the best apple pie? Or your aunt across the country a casserole you can’t wait to taste as soon as your in her kitchen? Why not create an online family recipe book so that everyone can share their favorite recipes whenever they’d like?

It might seem like online photo galleries are only good for sharing snapshots but they can easily adapt to become an online family recipe book too! Get started by creating a shareable web photo album that has access for those who would like to contribute. You can create multiple photo galleries highlight different types of cuisine or differ ret types of recipes. Some examples are grouping by cuisine or grouping by soups, salads, main dishes etc. With few limitations on space you can be as creative as you would like!

Members then upload an image of the finished dish – or take shots of them preparing complicated dishes that might need more explaining. In the comments the ingredients and directions can be input. Other family members can add comments on the recipe if they make it slightly different or if they have other comments or tips to help recreate it. It may also be interesting to see who includes comments about their memories as it relates to that dish.

You have created not only a cookbook but a family archive to share recipes! Great grandma might have a rolodex of recipes she’s been making over the years or that have been handed down. Get the grandchildren involved in helping her make the dishes and then type up and add them to the web photo album. Take a scan or snap a picture of the original recipe card or cut out from a magazine or newspaper to further enrich the memory archive.

Creative and Free Gifts to Give

There are certain times of the year that seem to see an influx of demands for gift giving. The winter holiday season is one but the spring graduation and wedding season is another. If you’re strapped for cash this year, there are some gifts that you can give that won’t cost anything but time. In fact, you may discover these gifts are more meaningful to the recipient than something you purchased with cash.

Personalized Web Photo Album
We all have hundreds, if not thousands of images floating around online and in our hard drives. Why not compile these images into a web photo album for the gift recipient? They could be meaningful family pictures of recent times or of ancestors long gone. If you include stories and anecdotes with the images you’ve created a powerful artifact to be enjoyed for years to come. If you’re an excellent photographer and the gift recipient is a graphic designer or works online, gifting them with your images that they can then use with their work may have an even bigger financial return for them. They’ll be able to use the pictures to turn a profit and save themselves time and money as they won’t need to purchase stock images.

Clean Out the Clutter
When was the last time you sorted through your attic or basement? It might seem tacky to gift something that’s been used but you may have things that are in perfectly good shape and would be perfectly happy rehomed. Things like antique furniture pieces, jewelry, and artwork are all things that, given to the right person, can be very meaningful.

Books
If you’re a reader, you’ve likely not only taken care of your book but have lots of them lying around. Select several that you think the gift recipient would enjoy. Handwrite a note in the cover or on a separate piece of stationary and tuck it into each book. They’ll not only enjoy reading it but having a note included makes the gift all the more significant. If you’re a traveler and you know your recipient has travel plans too, tuck in your suggestions of things to visit and see in a guidebook. They’ll appreciate the book, but they may appreciate your suggestions even more!

Handmade
Whatever special skill you possess, now is the time to shine. If you can sew, quilt, or craft use your abilities to make something truly unique. If you’ve got a graduation gift to give, who wouldn’t want to receive a handmade quilt? Paintings, embroidered pictures, even crocheted hot pads are more meaningful when they’ve been made instead of purchased.

Whether you put together photo galleries, curate a selection of books, hand make a special present, or present a bracelet you’re no longer fond of, there are plenty of ways to give a gift that has a lot of meaning behind it but doesn’t make you blow your entire budget. With some time, planning, and work you’ll have wonderful gifts to give that make everyone happy!

3 Ways to Use Photo Galleries in Your Homeschool

Today’s homeschooling parents are always looking for new and creative ways to enhance their child’s learning and make the administrative aspect of teaching at home easier. Technology has made much of this possible and using tools like photo galleries is one way both parents and children can accomplish their goals.

Lesson Planning
Everyone has their own unique way to learn and process information. Web photo albums are a tool that parents can use as they plan what information they want to cover with their child. Creating albums for each subject and then dropping in ideas for projects, games, and teaching styles helps keep everything organized and easy to pull up. Filling in the captions with your own ideas as you go, keeps everything in one place and easy to recall.

Interactive Projects
When it comes time for children to dig in and get to work, photo galleries are a fun way to research and build projects. Whether it’s a timeline of the Revolutionary War or a presentation on photosynthesis, children can find images, include captions and other supporting information, and even make presentations using their photo galleries.

Documenting Progress
One of the most critical and sometimes most difficult part of homeschooling is building a portfolio to document a child’s progress. Different regions have different rules regarding how this can be done but an online web photo album is one way to keep track and cut down on clutter. Scan in your child’s projects, worksheets, and even day to day images of them at work. You’ll have a digital archive to pull up and complete any paperwork for authorities.

Homeschooling is a big challenge but by utilizing the wealth of tools available, like web photo albums, you can spend more time learning!

Tips for Creating a Great Senior Slideshow

Graduation time is right around the corner and a touchstone of that experience is creating a senior slideshow for the ceremony or graduate party. In the past physical photo boards were the norm but today more and more graduates and their families are opting for digital photo galleries to show their highlights. Not only is a web photo album a great way to chronicle your graduates life story, it’s easy to share with others who aren’t able to attend the party in person.

The first step to creating a great slideshow is collecting all of the material to put it together. Look through all of your digital photographs and then look back to any print images you might have. Choose the best quality images you have, especially if they’ll need to be scanned as they’ll likely lose some of the quality in transition. If you still have items from their baby days, you might take some photographs of them to be included. Did your child have a favorite TV show, musician, or other interest growing up? Look online to find pictures that you can use to represent that in the slideshow. You want to have enough material to create a comprehensive tale of your graduate.

Choosing a wide variety of images is also important. Pictures with siblings, pets, parents, on family trips, school accomplishments, or sporting feats are all ideas for pictures to include. But shy away from including a lot of images of any one thing. When it’s time to arrange the pictures take some time to think about how you’ll group them. You won’t want to randomly upload images with no thought. The most common way is to put the pictures in chronological order. However you could also group them by family pictures, friend’s pictures, images from sports, etc. There’s no right or wrong way but do put some thought into arranging them in a way that makes sense to those viewing the slideshow.

If you plan to show the images on a large screen, horizontal images appear better than vertical. If you want to include captions to describe the pictures test how this looks on screen. It may make more sense to physically add the captions to the images with a photo editing software than to rely on the captions underneath. Including title slides is an important way to tell viewers what they are about to see. Some of your guests may have only know your graduate as a small child and aren’t familiar with their high school accomplishments. Always keep in mind the viewpoint of those viewing your photo galleries.

Finally, some advanced touches to a slideshow include adding in short video clips or music. This is a nice way to break up the picture and provide more emotion. Not all programs are capable of doing this but they are becoming more and more common. After the slideshow is done you might send guests home with a thank you card including a URL for them to access the web photo album from home. 

Tips for Arranging a Web Photo Album

It’s easy to snap hundreds of pictures on your vacation or from the last family reunion, but what do you do with all of those pictures when it’s over? Having web photo albums are a great way to preserve and document your memories as well as share them with interested friends and family. But, rest assured not even your mom wants to look at hundreds of pictures featuring a glacier or 150 shots of you in front of the Eiffel Tower. With a strategy in place you can create a captivating web photo album to remember and share.

The first and possibly most important step is to sort through your photographs. One way to do this is to set up multiple folders and move all of the similar photographs to their respective folder. So for example if you’ve taken a vacation, create one folder for each destination you visited then group the right photographs in each folder. While you’re sorting, delete any pictures that were blurry or you aren’t sure why you took. If you have the ability to use photo retouching programs like Adobe Photoshop or others you might be able to salvage images that didn’t turn out as you had hoped.

After you’ve sorted all the images, begin to go through each folder. If you’ve taken multiple images of the same thing select a few that are the most interesting. Add the remaining images to a “leftover” folder. You might not use them for your vacation photo galleries but they might be needed down the road. Follow this same process until you’ve sorted all of your images.

The next tip is to think about the stories or experiences behind the photographs. Is there a series of images that tell a story? Do you have a particular memory that you don’t want to forget? If you’ve kept a trip journal, look back and see which memories you can pair with the images. Begin creating your web photo album by uploading your images in a sequence or another format that allows you to share the memories in a clear manner. You may find as you begin creating your album you have a lot of photographs of one area but are short on others. Go back to your image archive to fill in any gaps. Or, you might find in your travel journal a particular story you wrote down and want to remember – go back and see if you can find an image to illustrate that story.

Finally, go into the descriptions and edit them to share your trip history. Use descriptive words and details to share your memories. Keep in mind the viewer. Will your sister know what you’re talking about if she’s never been to this place? In a few years will you remember? Include as much detail as possible. Finally when your album is complete share it far and wide! Your family and friends are sure to enjoy this visual document!

Photo Gifts for Dad

If shopping for dad is difficult for you, and let’s face it, it is for most people, why not consider something personal such as a collection of your favorite images including him? While some dads might like a hard bound photo album to place on their shelf, many might prefer a web photo album that they can view on their computer or tablet.

Creating and sharing an online photo gallery ensures dad can always carry the memories with him. Build an album based around special memories, like a vacation that you have fond memories of, or baby pictures of you and your siblings. There are countless options!

There are plenty of websites and brick and mortar stores that can do image transfers, giving you even more options for photo gifts. You could create a t-shirt with a favorite image and one of dad’s infamous one-liners. Or, a coffee mug featuring a treasured family photo.

If you have a box full of old family pictures in a box stashed in the attic or basement, now is the time to get them out. With today’s technology you can scan the images, or take them to a photo shop that specializes in digital transfer of images.

After the images have been digitally stored, create a web photo album to share with other family members – making sure to surprise dad first! This ensures your family images and legacy are preserved for years to come and you also have created a wonderful digital archive for everyone to enjoy. A fun way to present this gift would be to have one of the images printed and framed for display and then include a card that has information on how to access the rest of the images. What a fun and unique surprise gift! 

History of Photo Albums

Did your grandparents have dozens of photo albums lining their shelves? Or perhaps your mom took scrapbooking your family memories to an extreme? For as long as photographs have been in existence people have looked for ways to hold onto these cherished memories. Today there are more options than ever including online web photo galleries. But how did this idea of creating an album or photo gallery come to be?

Estimates are that the photo album as a concept came about around 1850, making the idea over 150 years old. At one time they served as a historical document – and to some degree they maintain this function today. The first albums were highly treasured, and expensive, artifacts to record family history, often including a genealogy tree in the front and/or back that was updated as new members came into the family or were deceased. It could take decades to fill a single album. Very early albums had highly ornate covers and as the times changed so did the image styles and materials.

As the cost of cameras, film, and developing tools became less expensive more images were produced with a wider range of subjects. At one time images were reserved for the very wealthy, but by the first few decades of the 20th century more middle class people were able to have pictures taken of themselves or their children. While certainly images were not created as they are today, it would have been more common to have a family photograph taken, or to have several pictures of children taken as they grew up. Major life events like weddings, births or christenings, or graduations were the most documented.

Another popular style of photo album in the early years was a combination of photographs, sketches and other clippings, arranged in a much more creative way – and very similar to our idea of a scrapbook today. The mid -20th century brought about the advent of the snapshot, and amateur photographers who wanted to document daily life. With more pictures, meant the need for more places to store them and the advent of multiple albums documenting specific events like family trips began.

It’s safe to say that in the last 20 years photography has transformed dramatically. Few people today rely on actual film instead opting for digital images. We possess the ability to take thousands of pictures in only a few hours on countless devices. The creation of digital photo galleries and web photo albums means we’re able to catalogue and chronicle our lives more than ever before. But, what about those who still long for an album they can hold? One option is a digital web photo album that can be displayed on a tablet or phone. Another option is to create a digital album and then have the book printed. This offers the best of both worlds!

We’ve come a long way with photographic technology and there’s sure to be even more innovation in the years to come. 

Documenting Babies First Year

Your bundle of joy has finally arrived and it’s time to start snapping pictures. You want to capture as much of their little lives as possible but what to do with all those images? Creating accessible online photo galleries is one way to make the images not only available to you but to far away family and friends. While some parents opt for an “off the cuff” approach to taking pictures others prefer a more planned approach.

Some ideas are to take a picture of your child every week, or every month in the same spot. You can even have them wearing the same outfit (just be sure to buy it several sizes larger from the beginning!). You’ll want to make a note to remember what the date was or place a special pin or sign next to your child so that you can be sure to keep the images in order.

Milestone cards are another way to remember what was happening when you snap a picture. You might purchase or create some that say “first time sitting up” or “first tooth”. You likely won’t have the card on hand to capture things like babies first word but you can try. For those on the fly items you want to remember open up a note on your phone or in a notebook to write down what the first word was, or other important things you’d like to remember.

When you have accumulated these items create a web photo album to keep everything together. Some parents prefer to do this weekly or monthly, while others may do it less frequently. Upload the images and pair them with the text to tell the story of babies first year. You can later have a web photo album printed or share the album with friends and family.

3 Ways Photo Galleries Can Help You When You Move

Moving is a big headache for most people. Organizing, sorting, and packing all of your belongings to move across town or across the world is the same struggle. But by creating a web photo album for your move you can save yourself a lot of headaches.

1. Documenting Valuables:
If you’re self-moving, have hired professional packers and movers, or something in between documenting your valuables is a way to make sure you are protected. You can photograph the valuable before, during and after packing and the condition it was in. This way if the item ends up broken or damaged you have photographic proof of its condition before it was touched or handled by someone else.
2. Paperwork:
For large moves, especially international moves, paperwork becomes a big deal. You never know when you’ll need an obscure document that you may have thought was safer in a safe deposit box back home. Scan all of your vital documents, especially those you’ll be leaving behind and upload them to private web photo album. Most of the time a copy of a document will satisfy those requesting it, or will work at least as long as it takes you to get the original.
3. Memories:
If you’re moving with children there can be a lot of emotion involved. Help them create a photo album of the place and people you’re leaving behind. No matter where you are they will be able to pull up their online photo galleries to see their friends, their old school, playground or other important things that they are missing. This might be important for adults too!

Using online photo galleries might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you plan to move but they can be a very helpful tool.

3 Photo Innovations that Changed History

Over 150 years of photography history means there were many inventions and advances that changed the face of photographic history. From the creation of the first image to the advent of web photo albums and everything in between, how we document our lives is amazing. But, there were three major innovations that changed how we viewed images.

Daguerreotype 

Announced in the late 1830’s this was the first photographic process that had widespread use. By using metal plates and a process known as electroplating images were captured onto plates and then transferred to paper with a mix of chemicals. This process was time consuming and took the skill of a trained professional. Long exposures were needed, meaning the subject needed to remain still for long periods of time – up to 10 minutes. This invention had huge changes on society and even with todays’ technological advances the daguerreotype has some aspects that we’re still not able to reproduce – such as the ability to capture fine line resolution and detail.

Snapshot

Daguerreotype’s remained the dominant form of photography until the beginning of the 20th century when Eastman Kodak introduced the brownie box camera and ushered in the era of the snapshot. Photographs at this time were highly posed, because they had to be. But Kodak’s invention sped up the exposure time allowing people to “snap” a picture easily and quickly.

The company encouraged people to capture the everyday moments of life and not just the staged family or individual portrait that was standard until this point. Kodak was able to offer cameras at a much lower price point, which opened up a huge new market of amateur photographers. It was at this point we started to see more images of landmarks, scenic landscapes, and people in the everyday acts of life. It was also at this time photography began to be seen as a fine art rather than just a pastime or commercial pursuit. There were many debates and advancements made in the skills of photography. But it wasn’t until the end of the 20th century that photography really began to see the walls of art museums. This opening up of photography to the masses is what ushered in the status of photography today.

Digital 

The first true digital camera was created in 1988 but unlike film cameras that capture images on a film, digital images are made using light sensors and memory devices. How they work is more closely related to the technology of television than earlier cameras. Digital cameras allow the user to immediately see the image, delete or adjust. The cost to take a picture today is marginal and it’s possible to take dozens in just a few seconds. Nearly everyone has access to some type of digital image recorder via a camera, tablet, or cellphone. Where earlier generations relied on photo albums to save their images, today web photo albums and photo galleries serve a similar purpose.

Photography has come a long way! 

Why photo galleries are a good idea for businesses

With hundreds of thousands of pages of written content available online, and countless more offline it takes something truly unique to stick with a reader. Studies have shown that more and more people are viewing and sharing visual images. One major reason for this is the use of mobile devices to access information. No one wants to read page after page on a small screen, but an image is easily seen, digested, and shared. As a business how can you make use of this? One way is to include photo galleries as a part of your business strategy.

No matter what type of business you own or work for visual images can add to the digital impact of your company. Take for example a car insurance company. What in the world could they possibly visually share? Lots of things! By creating a web photo album titled “Before and After” they could show images of clients vehicles after an accident and then after the car was repaired. They could create another album featuring some of their clients with a short text testimonial superimposed on the image. There’s dozens of possible ideas.

Maybe your business has many remote workers. Having a remote web photo album to upload pictures to takes away one of the issues that occurs with telecommuting or remote workers. If you have a big project that many people are working on and need access to an image pool, all of the images can be uploaded to the online photo galleries. Employees can then access the images when and where they need them without the hassle of sending files over email. Not only can photographs be added by one person but access can also be open to the group. If your company is spread out in several areas or cities, you may want to gather images from across your offices.

Dropping images into an online web photo album makes a lot more sense than having everything sent to an email address that the images then need to be downloaded and saved from. What happens the next time someone needs the files? More time and energy has to be spent finding them and forwarding them to the right person.

If your business already has a digital aspect, perhaps you’re a professional photographer, artist, or performer then having a web photo album makes even more sense. Not only can it serve as a place for you to store all of your negatives – without the fear of losing the SD card, your hard drive crashing, or some other event creating a loss of your work – it also can have a public face. Use some of the albums privately, make others public to serve as a portfolio, while others can have restricted access for clients or the press.

No matter what industry you are in, every business can truly benefit from having a web photo album. How you choose to make it work is limited only by your imagination! 

Why every parent should have an online photo gallery

Remember the days when your parents had boxes and boxes of printed photographs and negative slides. They likely were a jumble of images in boxes, mixed in with half exposed or the random shot someone took on accident. If the images made it to a photo album it was impressive. Today, we take thousands of pictures yearly. But unless you want your camera or phone to look like those cluttered boxes, you need a place to store and organize your images. This is where an online photo gallery comes into play.

As a parent saving the memories of your children growing up is important. Don’t let the memories fade away! Set up photo galleries for each of your children or group them by event. You can add information describing what happened or other memories related to the images that you don’t want to forget. Some people prefer to print out their favorite images and create physical photo albums. Use your photo gallery as a backup to those hard copies. It can serve the same function as those boxes of negatives in your parents’ attic.

Live far from grandparents and other family members who you would like to share images with, but you don’t want to make all your images public? By having online photo galleries you can display and share the images but only allow access to those people you choose.

As your children get older allowing them to contribute to photo galleries is also a great idea. It will bring a completely new twist to the memories that are preserved. While you might have one memory, they are likely to remember something completely different! It can become a very interactive learning experience. However you choose to use it having an online photo gallery is a must for parents!

Tips for Organizing Travel Photos in online photo galleries

You’ve just returned from a week-long vacation and once the dust has settled you’re ready to tackle unpacking your suitcase and maybe more importantly, unpacking the pictures you took during your trip. Maybe you’ve already uploaded some of them to your favorite social media service during your trip, but there’s probably plenty more remaining. Instead of creating photo galleries and dumping everything in, take some time to organize your pictures so that looking back in the future, or sharing with friends and family is easier and more enjoyable.

Sort and Purge

One of the benefits of having digital image technology is the number of pictures that can be taken. When film was still in use people were more selective about the pictures that were taken and because film was expensive didn’t take as many pictures. Not only did you have to buy film, but then you had to pay to have the image developed. Today that’s a relic of the past. Before you try to organize your pictures, go through your files and delete any images that lack meaning, are blurry, or you can’t recall what you were even taking a picture of! This should make your organizing task easier.

Group

Next create several photo galleries that are titled based on the overarching theme of the images. For example if you took a cruise maybe one web photo album would be titled “On the Ship,” while another might be, “Day in Mexico,” and so on. Drop the images into the appropriate folder. If you have leftover images that don’t really fit anywhere, a miscellaneous folder or “trip leftover” folder may be advisable.

Label

After you return from a vacation your memories are still fresh. You’ve taken the time to clean up and sort your images, now it’s time to identify them. Go through each image and leave a description. Think about what someone who was not on the trip viewing would want to know, as well as the memories you want to retain. Be as descriptive as possible. Even if you think you’ll never forget the story captured in the image, you likely will! Just like paper photo albums of the past, digital photo albums will exist after you’re gone so recording those stories serves not only as a reminder to you but as a living history testament for future viewers.

Think Ahead

Today you may just be concerned about getting your pictures somewhere that they are saved and recorded. However in a year or two you may want to create a print album or share your album with friends who are considering a trip to a similar place. These are two things you may want to think about as you arrange and label your images. You also may want to take into consideration any privacy concerns you have. If you don’t want your images viewable to everyone make them private.

Taking time to care for and arrange your images in a web photo album ensures their safe keeping for years to come. 

Organizing Children’s Projects and Artwork with a Web Photo Album

Remember your kindergartener’s first week of school? When all the art projects and worksheets started coming home in their end of the week folder? After a month the papers really started to pile up and by mid-year you were swimming in collages and self-portraits. No parent wants to throw their children’s work away but physically keeping all of that paper can seem like an overwhelming prospect too. What can you do?

Create a web photo album! 

Choose some of your favorite art projects each month, photograph them or scan them and upload them to an album labeled for that child and the current school year. You might ask your child to reflect on that piece of work or accomplishment and share their thoughts. You can record that with the image. Now you not only have a memory of the artwork but the story and insight from the child to go along with it!

If you have family members that live far away you can open up the album to allow them access with a password. What grandparent wouldn’t love to see their grandchild’s artwork on a more frequent basis? Maybe they’ll see one or two that they especially love and you can mail them the physical artwork to frame for their home or fridge. You can then select a few pieces to hold onto while the remaining papers are recycled.

Online photo galleries are an excellent way to preserve all of your child’s artwork and special papers. In the years to come you (and they) will enjoy being able to flip through your web photo albums and relive the memories without the chore of sorting through an endless pile of paper and boxes that have been pushed into the basement corner.

Is a web photo album secure?

One of the biggest fears many people have when it comes to sharing images online is that those images will somehow be used by someone else for nefarious or commercial reasons. This is a reasonable worry. But offline storage options pose their own problems; capacity, losing a hard drive, a computer crash, a natural disaster – there’s so many things that could cause you to lose your images. Many websites offer web photo album services for free or low-cost. There are a plethora of options. You can make your images public, completely private, or password protected.

If you are still concerned there are a few additional ways to secure your information. Avoid using any information in your image description relating to identity or location. Make sensitive photos private and in a password protected folder. If you’re concerned about the privacy of your children avoid sharing images of their faces or other identifying information. Consider keeping your private, family images on an external hard drive, while sharing those images you are more comfortable having online in your photo galleries.

You might be wondering why use external photo galleries when you can use other online services like Facebook which allows private albums? External websites whose primary service is not photo sharing, have their interests vested in other areas. They can change their algorithms or policies at any time and suddenly that album you had made private might become public. If you’re not paying close attention you might not know until it’s too late. Websites whose business is in serving the public’s need for image hosting are less likely to make changes that could possibly violate the trust they’ve established with their customers. Take care and choose a company that is well trusted to house your most precious memories.

Hosting a virtual art show through an online web photo album

Aspiring artists young and old can benefit from using an online web photo album to showcase their art work. In years past, the only way for an artist to be seen was to have their work exhibited in a public place, like an art gallery, museum, or other showcase. Today many people still aspire to have their work shown in such a way but there are more options to be discovered now than ever.

Every artist should have online photo galleries to promote their work. This creates a space for art lovers, aficionados, and others seeking artwork to discover their art. While some artists may decide to only exhibit their work online, others may use web photo albums to highlight a few of their favorite works in hopes galleries or private buyers will contact them for future work or exhibits. Web photo albums can also serve as an online resume, by creating different albums based on different accomplishments. If an artist displayed in a gallery they might choose 3-4 favorite works from that time, images from the event, or photos that show their inspiration. This tells a full visual story.

If an artist is starting out web photo albums can be a means of earning income from their work as well. Artwork can be uploaded along with images attached for digital rights to that image or prices to buy the physical piece of art. This saves an artist money as they don’t need to pay for space to physically hang their artwork and advertising to get people into the door.

There are many ways to make web photo albums help boost an artists’ resume as well as their pocketbook. With a little ingenuity and creativity the results will speak for themselves! 

Highlight Your Resume with Online Photo Galleries

It’s a difficult time to find a job in today’s marketplace. Employers frequently cite that they receive hundreds of applications for a single job application. How can you make your resume stand out from the pack? While it may not work for every job, using online photo galleries is one way that may set you apart.

If you’re submitting an application online, there’s sometimes a place to insert your LinkedIn profile address, website, or other online presence. This is a great place to insert your personal photo gallery resume. Be sure to include the address in your LinkedIn profile as well. Setting up online photo galleries shows a prospective employer visually who you are as a person and potential employee.

What can you include in your web photo albums?

Whatever you think will showcase your skills and be applicable to the types of jobs you’re applying for. If you’re in a very visual field like computer design, graphic design, any type of art, videography etc. employers may expect to see a visual portfolio. Highlight your best work in photo galleries that are clearly titled and have descriptive captions. When creating your albums really put yourself in the shoes of someone potentially viewing them. Will it make sense to them? Are your pictures in a sequential order that is clear? Do you provide enough background information to compliment your resume without detracting from the image? Your images should tell the story.

What if you’re not in a visual field? 

If your career is not in a visual field then employers will be less likely to expect a visual resume – helping you to stand out! You will need to take a little more time and care to tell your story. You probably won’t want to rely only on images, but to use them to complement your written resume. Some items you could consider including are; images of your awards and certificates (to show they actually exist vs simply adding them to a resume), images of you receiving any awards or accolades, images of completed projects that you are especially proud of. Every career field will have accomplishments that are important and meaningful in that field. Take time to carefully cull your resume to choose those items that you really believe set you apart.

Once you’ve decided what’s important the final step is putting everything together. Spend time arranging images in a way that tells your story. Have a friend or an acquaintance who isn’t familiar with your career history or accomplishments review your resume and online photo galleries. Do they understand what your objective is? Are any parts of your career history unclear to them? Take as much constructive criticism as you can get and go back to tweak your web photo album and written resume before using these items to apply for jobs.

This process will take more time than blast applying for open positions however, it may just set you apart and land you the job you’ve been working for!

You Can Save Money Sharing Photos Online

Sharing Photos the Smart way
For the past ten years or more the majority of us have been using digital cameras and phones to take pictures. From the cheapest cell phone to the most expensive digital camera we want our family memories and creative endeavours to be seen. So, how do we share them?
Retail pharmacies, grocery stores and big chains have us bringing in our camera chips, waiting in line, using dated machinery and finally, printing them out. This is not only a hassle, but a huge time buster especially if your memory chip is filled with hundreds of pictures that need editing or sorting. When the cost per picture can exceed 29 cents, this way of organizing and sharing photo galleries is a waste of time and money.

Learning About Online Photo Albums
Don't fool yourself, not everyone uses social media and every photo does not necessarily belong online. Sometimes we just need more personalization when it comes to sharing our pictures. Online photo websites and apps such as Pixily, Flickr and Picasa offer the ease of never leaving your home while creating cool photo albums you design.
These websites and others allow the photographer to create photo galleries without compromising privacy. After all, not everyone needs to see grandmas flower garden, but it may just be the memory booster she needs to inspire her next winter, and it is free.

I'll Take Two Please
The real beauty of online websites that are designed for creating photo creations is not only the ability to make and share as many specific and detailed photo albums as you want, but also the choice to print pictures individually or as a hard cover album.

Lots of people who are getting married are choosing online photo sites to make mini parent or grandparent photo galleries that are geared with the gift receiver in mind. This service is a huge money saver. These options and many more allow choices that no retailor can fully provide. Additionally, one has the simple choice to just share online through these web-based providers.

Taking the time to get familiar with just one online photo site can save you hundreds of dollars over the long haul. With so many online choices on how to share pictures, online photo galleries continue to be the best choice for price, time and creative choices.

Using a Photo Album to Share Landscape Photos

Next time when you want to share some excellent landscape pictures with your friends and family, try creating a web photo album to share. Instead of sending individual snaps via emails, create a photo album and share your pictures easily. Many social media sites, including Facebook allow users to create online photo albums easily. If you are already a member of social media site, then start creating a photo album soon.

The social network like Facebook has the option to add shared photo albums for their users so that each of their friends and family can view photos easily. Making a shared album is easier than you think. If you are creating such album in Facebook, then you will have the option to upload more than 200 photos without any hassle. All you need to do is create a Facebook photo album, add photos or upload photos, and contribute. While adding photos, you will have two options to choose from. You can either add photos by selecting each picture at a time; if not, you have the option of bulk upload. In this case, you can choose all pictures in a folder and upload them quickly.

Once the Facebook photo album is created, you can add up people whom you would want to tag or make them as contributors. Each time, you have the option of adding 50 people as contributors to your album. In case you would like you album to be private, then go to the setting to change the privacy setting. Facebook offers a number of privacy setting options. You can share the album with friends, customize it, or make it public. After all, the choice is yours.

Display options of the Facebook album include two choices. Viewers can see them on full-screen mode or in the regular mode. In case, you want to highlight a few of your landscape pictures, then click on promote and choose some pictures. After choosing this option, some of your pictures will be highlighted on the main page. Social media sites allow users to upload high definition pictures easily. Users can always select some of their best shots to include in their web photo album.

Sharing Your Sports Photos

Photographs are an amazing way to capture memories right when they happen and in sports, memories are occurring all the time. Once you get the pictures taken, it is time to share with friends, family members and team mates. The best and most efficient way to share these photos is by using online photo galleries. You can organize all your favourite photos of your favourite sports enthusiasts and make a web photo album, which can be accessed by all fans of your sports players.

This is a perfect way for the whole team to build a photo gallery that can be enjoyed by players, coaches and parents alike. It is efficient and it is easily accessed by everyone. A web photo album is also a marvelous gift for grandparents or other family members for whatever occasion you see fit. Family members love photos, especially if distance keeps them from making all the games that they would like to see in person.

A web photo album is a great gift, especially if it is made up of candid shots of all players on a team. In this format, it is a fabulous gift for a coach or other team staff. For a more personalized variety of web album, a parent could make a web photo album of just their child, also known as their personal star player, full of all types of poses and active shots. It would make a great gift for any family member, friend or just as a keepsake of this time of your child's life.

With the internet being so easily accessible these days, you can save lots of time and money by taking shots with a digital camera, uploading them to online photo galleries and then in no time at all, you have a photo album at your fingertips. Editing, cropping and other changes can be made easily by accessing this wonderful tool. This makes sports photos fun and easy to share.