Travel Photos: What to Do With Them When You Get Home
Every trip I take I come back with no less than 100 photos per day (but I usually run 300-500). On a two week trip that makes for 4200 travel photos on average. Now, after my computer almost dies from over exertion, what in the world do I do with all those photos?
Travel Photo Safety & Storage
FIRST of all, I don't take my travel photos off the memory cards until they are backed up on an external hard drive and have been uploaded to Facebook, which I use as a free cloud basically. I've heard way too many horror stories of people losing all their photos from a once in a lifetime trip. While I'm on vacation, I upload photos off my memory card to my laptop almost daily, in case my camera gets stolen/lost/broken. PS I did this before I used Instagram; taking travel photos was important to me long before the 'gram existed.
Printing Travel Photos
After my photos are safe, edited, and posted to Facebook, I'm often tempted to stop there. Recently, I have started to print some of my favourites. For bigger prints that are frame-worthy, I send them to McBain Camera here in Edmonton. They're a little more costly than Walmart, but you can't beat the quality. McBain's prints do my beautiful Olympus camera justice that's for sure. For the snapshots that are less likely to be framed (maybe they're goofy, not as timeless, or not as great quality), I've recently been gifted this handy little device.
The HP Sprocket allows me to print 2x3 phone-size photos right from an app. It's almost like a Polaroid but better, because I can see the photo first and edit as needed before I decide to print. The printer has an inkless technology and runs off battery, able to print up to 30 photos from one charge. It's super fun to use in the moment, and to give snapshots of the night to family and friends. I'd even love to take it with me on the road so I can share snaps with those I'm traveling or meeting up with.
The sticky backs allow me to put these pictures just about anywhere, but I kind of like just throwing them into a collage board. (They're also wallet size for all those dads out there). For my full size prints, I can hang them up around my house, making for meaningful art.
You can purchase an HP Sprocket and the photo paper on Amazon, here and here.
Travel Photos on Screen
Another thing I love to do after my travel photos are ready to go, is setting them as my computer or phone background. Every time I pick up my phone I get taken back to that one time in Scotland...the best memories.
Umm hey you from five years ago...why is that image still your profile picture? The great news is that after your recent adventure, you now have so many new photos of you to choose from! So go ahead, pick the best one, and throw it up there until after your next vacay.
Have too many great photos to choose from? Spend the next couple months highlighting your favourites on Instagram. No one INSTAgrams anyways anymore, so why not share all the Latergrams? Your passionate story-telling and obvious joy from the memories makes for the best posts.
Other Ideas
Some other ideas I don't do but you could do: make a Scrapbook, online photo book, print a book, make a wood or canvas print, or sell your travel photos online.
I hope you've enjoyed these ideas for what to do with your travel photos after you get home. Do you have any ideas that I missed?
