Best Way To print Your vacation Photos and unbury them from the photo app abyss

TravelLifestyle

Aug 23

print vacation photos, cell phone over city

Time To Print Your Vacation Photos

Click-click-click-snap-snap!

You’ve collected an encyclopedias worth picture on your camera card or cell phone, but where are the PRINTS of your mountain hike? The ALBUM with your once-in-a-midlife-moment of your Greece vacation photos?

Nothing printed?
Nothing printed, YET, you mean?

Whether you toted a “real” camera or your cell phone on your trips we have to get them on photo-paper, canvas, metal, or a big FatHead of your favorite child {at the moment} above your fireplace.

Okay, maybe not that last one, but you need to get them off your digital camera.

It’s fun to cheese it up for the lens 327 times on vacation {said neither of my children EVER growing up}, but if they stay imprisoned on your mega-size digital SD card or cell phone you might as well save your ears from the family groans when you ask for a posed, “CHEESE! face”

Just kidding, don’t ever ask them to say, “Cheese” it doesn’t get a good smile or laugh.

Instead, get creative with your words and say, “Show me a runway model look!” or, “Everyone fluffs, it’s ok.”

Say something they’d never expect from you and get ready to click away in front of Mount Rainier.

Organize + Print Your Vacation Photos

Then, on your way home, to distract yourself from sitting in the middle seat, organize all of that trips photos on your phone into one album so you can find and print the ones you want EASILY and QUICKLY. {Travel Tip Reel helps you organize on your phone}

Don’t Make Me Bring Back Film!

Remember the excitement of film days when we had no idea what facial expression little Margo had on her face when you snapped her flying down that muddy hill on that old grocery store cardboard until you got the roll of film back from Kodak?

You couldn’t wait to tear open that super-stick Kodak envelop to see what expressions you snapped or how all the pictures turned out.

Digital and cell phone cameras have erased that anticipation AND urgency to print our vacation photos. 😔

Now I miss those days.

The Doom of Digital

Digital camera tech is a rockstar today with our camera and cell phone capabilities.

But they’re also the place where our printed memories go to die. One layer of photos snapped on top of the last like dirt being thrown over a coffin.

{that snaps a picture in your head doesn’t it? DEATH OF THE PHOTOGRAPH!}

When was the last time you printed your pictures for your wall or album?

How many unprinted photos would you have to scroll through on your phone or SD card from your trips? And I’m not judging - I’m guilty too.

Right now I have 7,532 photos on my phone! 🙈

Why not print some out TODAY!

Let’s help Moira {and ourselves} out with two ways to prep photos for printing so you can feel the happy on your walls and avoid the endless scrolling abyss looking for your favorite photos.

Ready ~ Set ~ PRINT

Printing large {or super large FatHeads} prints can be easily prepped for your walls.

Using a big girl camera or your cell phone photo you can edit and sharpen your print in photoshop this way::

Step 1/ Image > Image Size > Resolution + (Resample Bicubic Smoother)
Step 2/ Filter > Noise > Despeckle
Step3/ Filter > Stylize > Diffuse (Anisotropic)
Step 4/ Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask ( try 200%)

You’re doing marvelously! Almost there

Step 5/ Filter > Noise > Add Noise… (try 2%)
Step 6/ Duplicate Layer; [Layer 2] Filter > Other > High Pass… [Layer 2] Blending Options > Blend Mode > Overlay
Step 7/ Save + download to your print folder

I know, Photoshop can be overwhelming.

Kind of like being dropped into the middle of Antarctica, without a furry warm coat, and saying, “Good luck in finding your way outta here”. It leaves you shaking, lost, overwhelmed and you think, “forget it - not worth it”, and exit your way out of the app.

Alright, a bit dramatic, sure, but it gets me to the next part…

Easy print method without Photoshop

This method is better for smaller prints, making a quick album, or picking your 12 favorite photos for a wooden calendar.

Printing Directly From Your Phone

There are a lot of companies now that let you print from your phone or your instagram photos. These four have easy edits and get’s you printing faster than you can finish your first cup of coffee.

Foxprint print stickers, magnets

Postagram send postcards with your photos

Print Studio allows for printing from your phone album and Instagram. Prints, photo books.

Mpix all sorts of printing options for you

Artifact Uprising for that cute wooden calendar I mentioned above

I can be a wordy-writer, but if you're skimming this blog post and take only one piece away from this, please…

PA-LEASE…Print your photos!

The cold, windy, below-zero winter season is always around the corner. You can be happily sipping coffee turning through that vacation album you printed all Winter long.

Or a BIG PHOTO WALL - YES, let’s design a big photo wall of your favorite vacations! I’m going to design a big photo wall for the new vacation rental {#thehouseGrandpabuilt}

Let’s Do One Together!

Get a Mid Life Refresh with all sorts of swanky glimpses –

{well, not swanky, but that word sounds fancy and important, just like you!}

Where was your favorite trip to this year?

💖xo Andrea

P.S. It’s never too soon to start looking for your next fun vacation::

Check out my Travel Guide page for places to visit this year or into next
Haven’t organized your photos on your phone yet? Check out my Travel Tip #31