Remember when we shared photos of our summer vacation by loading up a slide tray — or pulling out a bunch of photo print envelopes? Now we simply E-mail a photo slide show to a friend in an instant.

Photo sharing via computer is all the rage. And that’s because nothing is faster, easier or more convenient. All you have to do is upload your photos. You get the pick of the litter and you get to send only those you’re most proud of.

photo credit: *PaysImaginaire*

But what happens when you have thousands of photos? That just happened to a friend of mine who came back from her honeymoon. The last thing she wanted was to leave all these precious memories on her computer. What would happen if it crashed?

Well, I told her about these fantastic photo sharing sites. So we checked out a few and chose one that had a mass uploader. Talk about quick! All her photos were uploaded in a matter of minutes. It was incredible! But, best of all, she now knew that they were all safe and secure, and she and her husband would have those precious memories to share for a lifetime.

I can understand my friend’s concern. When I send my photos to family and friends, there are some that I want to share with only a select group of people – not the whole world.

But then I started thinking, what about easy photo printing. Capturing a special moment with a digital camera is fairly easy. Transferring the photo to your computer is a snap. But what if you’re looking for easy photo printing?

When I was a kid, I remember how excited I was when I picked up the photos from the store. It was a real thrill to open the envelope and, there in big, bold colors was a picture of me and my brothers at he ballpark or the zoo, or on vacation with my parents. The only problem was I had to wait a full week to get to see them. And sometimes, well, I’d feel a twinge of disappointment when my favorites came out a little blurry.

The new online photo sharing sites deliver prints right to you, so you don’t have to hassle with going to drug store to pick them up. And you can choose whatever size prints you like. And, of course, the quality is first-rate, as good or better than you’d get anywhere else. As for price, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised. All the sites are very competitive and very reasonable.

When you come right down to it, with easy photo printing you get the best of everything, with none of the drawbacks. You don’t even have to be tech savvy; I’m certainly not. The easy photo sharing and printing sites walk you through it step-by-step.

I have six brothers and sisters and now we email each other all the time. Easy photo sharing keeps us close and keeps us connected, and keeps us laughing.

CJ Carroll writes for a variety of clients, including Hoorray, a photo sharing website that offers a free online photo album to new members and is the easiest place to create a digital photo album, calendar, and more.

photo credit: Dolarz

It’s true that old-fashioned film photography is an art form. In fact, in this day and age, that’s about all it is, which is somewhat ironic. After all, film photography started off in 1837 as something very few could enjoy or do. As it is turning out, people who enjoy film photography are again becoming part of an exclusive club.

The artistic expression available through film is astounding. If you’ve never taken a film photography class, you should. It will ultimately make you a better photographer as you will have a full understanding of the art form in general.

However, unless you plan on investing in a darkroom (water, light, equipment), or if you plan on spending quite a bit of money at photo processing labs, you might concentrate most of your efforts on digital photography. In the long term, it’s generally less expensive than film, since you print only the photos you want. Also, it provides quite a bit of artistic expression of its own.

Digital photography has often been looked at by film buffs as not being artistic. That simply isn’t the case any longer. With the advancement in software programs such as Adobe Photoshop, the digital photographer can take their art as far as their knowledge of the software will take them.

The creativity involved with digitally manipulating an image isn’t reserved to expensive programs like Photoshop (though the price of software will be far less than the cost of setting up a darkroom).

In fact, many digital cameras designed for kids and young adults now come with features that allow changes to be made to the digital photo while it’s still stored in the camera. The picture can then be uploaded to a computer, in some cases wirelessly.

There are easy photo sharing websites that allow the photographer to manipulate the photo after it’s been uploaded to the site. These usually allow for straightforward changes, such as adjusting contrast, taking out the dreaded red eye, cropping, rotating, etc.

Also, digital photographers have the whole world wide web at their fingertips. This isn’t to say film buffs can’t scan one of their photos in and get it out on the Internet. But let’s face it, showing your work to the world is a whole lot easier if the image is already digital.

Once the image is on the Internet and has been enhanced, it’s easy to share it with whoever you want. This is another advantage digital creativity has. In the blink of a camera’s shutter, you can send your artwork around the world to friends, relatives, potential buyers.

Of course, such ease has its pitfalls as well. Unscrupulous types can copy your image, unless you take precautionary steps such as digital or visual watermarking.

Creativity is a very personal thing, and each person must express his or her self in their own particular way. However, given our busy world, and given the relaxation and contentment that creative expression provides, it’s not a bad idea to pick an art form such as digital photography, one that allows you to express yourself quickly and easily.

Matt Smolsky writes for a variety of clients, including Hoorray, a photo sharing website that offers a free online photo album to new members and is the easiest place to create a digital photo album, calendar, and more.