I’m disciplining myself into uploading my images to Snapfish, the moment I need to empty my memory card. It’s hardly laborious but it’s a failsafe for me as I like the idea of my images stored on both my own computer and on Snapfish’s generous servers. Imagine having just one set of images on your hard drive only for the gremlins in your computer to lose them at any given moment?! Well, that’s not a risk that I have been willing to take after suffering a computer crash and External Hard Drive meltdown in the space of 18 months. My prize photographs and subsequent memories were all gone in a snap; it was truly devastating.

Now, with your images uploaded to Snapfish it’s a great excuse to have some fun with them.  You may have seen the photo books that you can create at the Snapfish store and if you haven’t, I highly recommend you try them out as they make wonderful gifts (and if you are really arty, you could create your own story book for the kids too!).  My photo books, however, are made entirely out of paper craft and printed photos (I know, how old fashioned of me!).  My hobby solely rests on creating memories by way of modern scrapbooking where I dress a cardstock page with beautiful papers, ephemera, embellishments and then rounded off with a photo to complete a piece of art and storytelling in one fell swoop.  It’s an incredibly enjoyable hobby and one that will serve a purpose to my future generations to come.  No more looking at old photos and guessing who was in the photo or what the occasion was.  My simple story telling from each decorated page invites a feeling and emotion that normal photographs cannot often detail.

So I say “Free the Hard drive” and make those photographs really work for you and your family.  There is nothing more valuable than sitting with your loved ones and striking up interesting conversation from your photographs and albums.  Its good old fashioned story telling at its best.

By Kirsty Wiseman