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Ted Kritsonis
Digital photography and the evolution of the Internet now allow people to view and order prints from the comfort of their own homes. But printing photos remotely is only part of the allure. Protecting those precious photos from a potential computer catastrophe is part of the package that online subscription-based services offer nowadays. Here are three unique ones that do the job:
Cost: $11 U.S. per month for a Premium account, unlimited photos,unlimited video
$9 U.S. per month for a Classic account, 2,500 photos and 30 minutes of video
$5 U.S. per month for a Standard account, 1,000 photos and 5 minutes of video
The brainchild of a man who wanted better access to photos for his family abroad, The Family Post certainly follows its namesake. The idea here is that viewing photos, along with video, should be part of an experience that also includes a calendar of family events, chronological timelines and the latest family news to keep everyone up to date.
Though you can't customize your Web page completely, you're given a varying level of options. For instance, you can choose among 15 different themes as your wallpaper, like a cruise ship or even something that looks like a scrapbook. You can choose music to go with it too, except that set tunes are provided for you to pick.
Adding contacts to your directory is a good idea if you're one to send out blast e-mails. When a newborn has just entered the family, for example, you can upload the photos to your page and then let everyone know that the photos are up. You can also password-protect your page and allow varying levels of access for visitors.
This saves time in re-sizing the
images and finding specific
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people in your regular e-mail address book. Visitors can also type in messages in a public message board (only on the Classic and Premium packages), which might be nicer for those who don't like going through dozens of e-mails. The Family Post will also backup your photos, so that you don't lose anything should your computer crash.
Bell Personal Vault
www.bell.ca/personalvault
Cost: $7 for 3GB of storage (about 3,000 photos), $5 for each additional 3GB.
Prices are $1 less if you're a Bell Sympatico subscriber.
Bell launched Personal Vault last year as a means for people to backup precious data, with photos topping the list. But it's also a showcase for photos and video.
While it was never meant to be tailored specifically to photos, the layout of the site and the somewhat limited storage capacity of 3GB are both earmarked for photo backup. Music or other important files like financial documents can also be backed up using Personal Vault.
Displaying your photos and video clips is pretty simple after you¹ve gone through the initial setup. You can issue specific passwords for family members and friends, which also means that you get to decide who sees what in your vault. For instance, you might want relatives to see specific photos from a camping trip, but would rather keep them private from friends. Or maybe a night out on the town got a little crazy and you'd rather not subject your more conservative relatives to those images.
This is a time-saver, mainly
because it precludes you from having to send different e-mails to different groups.
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A simple friendly reminder sent from Personal Vault to specific contacts within an address book is enough to do the job.
But a key is that friends and family can download photos and get them printed through a retailer like Black's online or at one of their retail locations.
Kodak EasyShare Gallery www.kodakgallery.com
Cost: $50 U.S. annually for Picture Protection service
Kodak is synonymous with photography and their Gallery Web site is meant to give consumers more options for viewing and printing. The design of the site is very much in the same vein as a lot of other online photo services, but there's more emphasis on printing here.
Part of the reason for that is because Kodak can get you your prints quickly. You can expect to receive ordered prints in no more than three or four days. But you can also expect Kodak to tinker with the photos in order to enhance the quality of the images. This is nice, but you might not like the results each and every time, which is why you also have the option of printing at home or at a Kodak retail kiosk.
It's free to use the service for the purpose of showcasing photos, except when buying prints and other items, of course. But if you're willing to pay for Picture Protection, Kodak will also keep an archive of your photos, so that you don't lose them. It's really the same insurance policy offered by the other two services.
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