Options for printing picture

When I started out writing a post this morning for today it was on a completely different topic but as the day progressed my thoughts and energy was consumed by a lack of options for printing pictures. You know the one hour kind that was part of growing up and pretty much most of adult life until recently.

We used to get films printed at our local grocery stores and then at some point the service and quality of grocery store prints got so bad that we started using mail service. I forget the name of the company but it was Oregon based and had most beautiful metallic and pearl paper print options. The best thing about them was that they stored the digital version of the film on their web server so that you could order prints from them or even share them electronically. As digital cameras became more popular, the film processing and the uniqueness of storing film digitally wasn't a unique feature at all. Needless to say the company went under… 

So in the recent times, I have been using three services for my basic picture printing needs. 

I used to have extensive albums on Costco but since their servers were hacked a couple of years ago and the website was closed for quite some time, I stopped maintaining my albums on their site and now I just upload the pictures that I need printed. Because of their limited hours they aren't a good option but if I can plan in advance it works out pretty well. 

The other option that I use very regularly is Shutterfly but they become expensive with 2-day shipping so I usually use their standard shipping which including printing times can be upto two weeks delivery from when you place the order. I get a lot of my photo books done from them and print pictures for scrapbooking when I know well in advance. 

For my quick picture needs I used to rely very heavily on Walgreens but based on my past four experiences with them and three different locations, I'm loosing faith in their ability to continue doing a good job. I dropped off a disposal camera with them and since they now process film remotely it will take them 4-6 weeks to get my pictures back. Since I was not in a hurry I went with it but what concerns me most is their one hour print service that they advertise so much and then don't deliver on it. Sometimes I get the message that my pictures are printed and they are actually not done when I go to pick them up. Or sometimes they ignore orders all together. One time a store clerk changed the aspect ratio on my print and when the well edited pictures came out wonky he said who gets 4x6 pictures anymore, its all 4x5.5 these days with digital prints. Mmm… well I do print it 4x6 specially when I said so on my internet order. The other time I placed an internet order to print a picture collage on poster board for a friend and when I went to pick it up on my way to her home, my order wasn't ready although I got the email confirmation that it was ready to be picked up. Worse still they couldn't print it right away and asked me to return in an hour. Guess what, I ended up taking wine and flowers for my friend that night. And today was another one of those times when my prints and enlargements weren't ready. Luckily the store manager was proficient and printed out the entire order in 15 minutes which was wonderful except that the family waited in the car for all that time and our carryout pizza got cold in the meanwhile.  

That leads me to ask the question, where are we headed when it comes to printing pictures. Is a home printer our best bet or are there services out their that can still do the job for us.

Evolving memory keeping methods...

Back in 2006 when I started this blog, I had still to make the transition to a DSLR and was getting a steady stream of pictures printed at the local pharmacy shop from my film SLR and scrapbooking was my only method for memory keeping.
As time passed, more and more of my pictures were digital and scrapbooking was a creative process more than a tool for memory keeping; and as we all know creative processes are often slow, evolving, and subjected to moodiness. I realized that my family wanted to see the trip pictures right away and not wait for over a year to be documented into a very fancy books that has to be handled with extreme care and treated as family heirloom.

Out of the necessity of a memory book which is easily shared with kids, doesn't take long to produce and easily recreated, I turned to digital photo books.

Memory Keeping Prompts by HS, Day 24 thru 30

Day 24: The Good Stuff…

I am thankful and touched by Heidi Swapp's courage to share her personal tragedy so openly with the rest of us. I'm sure there are many things that she's not sharing but one can feel what she and the rest of her family must be going through even without explicit words. She made me realize that sharing true life matters even if it is messy. I'd not have dared to share this picture a few months ago but something has shifted in my psyche and the unpacked boxes, TV on the floor, lumpy poufs, unadorned mantle don't disturb me as much, even though I do notice them all. What matters is the perfect moment of peace and joy with all of us present (two of us are in the reflections on the window pane), happy, healthy and surrounded in love… that is 'the good stuff'.

Day 25: Don't mind if I do…

Spend the entire day on the hammock reading a book. We have had this hammock for almost two years but never had the time or the weather to really enjoy it so now that I am enjoying my time off from work, it seemed like a perfect idea to spend the day under the tree. Once the girls got home from school, they took turns reading in the garden.

Day 26: Shine down on me

I've a strong faith in the universe and that everything happens for a reason but there are some days when extra prayers are needed to go through the day. This picture was of the Janamashtami festival, celebrating the birth and life story of Lord Krishna.

Day 27: Having the best time…

On the pool side enjoying our respective drinks, Root Beer Float, Sprite Float, Brandy… having the best time!

Day 28: Say yes to 'Sleeping in'

After a hectic work week, it feels wonderful to allow myself to sleep in and not feel guilty about it. 

Day 29: Hello! Love

Maggi noodles is the equivalent of ramen noodles of India, only a spicier version and we all have fond memories of it from our childhood, including my girls, they absolutely love it too. After the recent food controversy in India where the lead content in the spice packet was found too high and it was banned from Indian markets, we were shocked and hesitant to eat Maggi. I tried but couldn't throw away that last packet and ended up making it just for the old time sake...

Day 30: Note to Self

After 30 days of memory keeping, looking through and taking new pictures based on prompts by Heidi Swapp, I'm sold on the idea that memories are mine to keep and to share. 

Pictures are tangible memories of the fleeting moments, and I want to hold as many of them as possible.

HS Prompts for memory keeping, Day 14 thru 23

Day 14: #Dreaming… 

I think that our current adventure to California came about to existence since I dreamed of Bougainvillea, of Gardenias and of warm winters... 

Day 15: Reality Check

After the physical transitions and mental transformations, as I shifted my focus on myself, I wanted to know if I still have it in me to walk/run 5k on trails and this picture was taken at the neighborhood park as my own reality check for body's strengths and weaknesses... 

Day 16: Perfect Day
Setting up a new residence is perfect opportunity to bring color and freshness into the living space. We all are equally involved in the design process and here's a proof that painting day is 'perfect day' in this house hold.

Day 17: EPIC
Its hard to believe that the picture of a kitchen can constitute for an 'Epic' as an adjective but we started the prompts 'Ready get set go' with a huge stack of cartons waiting to be unpacked and this unpacking and organization was an epic progress...

Day 18: One and Only
DH and I often talk that our love would not qualify for a Bollywood type Yash Chopra (Director who specialized in cheesy romantic movies) movie but the journey that we have made together so far with its ups and downs, triumphs and disappointments, fights and growths have molded each of us around the other and we are the perfect fit for each other. We are at a point in life where we can have a heated argument in the morning and sip brandy together by evening like nobody's business… it just works and I'm thankful for it.

Day 15: Simply Breathtaking
On a drive up north we wandered to Lassen National Park. It was totally unplanned and breathtakingly beautiful. We caught this calm and peaceful sunset view at Lake Manzanita as we were getting ready to head out of the park...

Day 20: Enjoy Today
These cousins don't get to meet often but when they do they enjoy their time together and talk about it for days to come. So I tweaked the prompt to serve us a reminder that along with enjoying today, we need to cherish the togetherness that these moments create...

Day 21: Welcome to the weekend

Biking is our favorite outdoor activity together as a family and weekends give us opportunities to ride longer and farther and explore new trails. This weekend we explored the lake Natoma trail in Folsom. 

Day 22: This summer gave me an opportunity to spend some time with my brother and make up for the long intervals that went without seeing each other. It is wonderful to connect with my brother on a new level and discuss our dreams and our fears. He is out to conquer the world and I'm rooting for him...

Day 23: Selfie
We are one of those annoying family that is constantly taking selfies to document together moments and it was difficult to chose just one picture for the prompt… Its our thing, you know!

Memory capturing with Heidi Swapp's prompts

Heidi Swapp's 30 days of memory keeping prompts (#30days30prompts30reasons) have ended but my journey with my memory keeping continues…
I'll in time list all of my 30 pictures with their respective memory prompts. Here's a few:-

Day 8: Relax
Recently our Sunday afternoons have been looking like this and when they don't we wish that they would, lounging together on 'Mamma-Daddy' bed, chit chatting and sometimes watching a movie together to unwind for the upcoming week and 'RELAX'.

Day 9: Be Bright
This little one is our ray of sunshine… she thinks that it is her duty to make other people smile and for that resaon she often doesn't express her own true feeling and those buried emotions show up in frequent meltdowns. It is my job as a mother to teach her that its okay to express your opinion even if its not liked by everyone and that is the true path to BEing BRIGHT.

Day 10: Like Never Before
The girls are exploring new grounds with the beginning of this new school year, not only that its a new place and new school but also we as a family don't have a village around for our safety net. Its uncharted territory for all of us but specially for these little ones as they are finding their comfort zone among new friends and neighbors and teachers all at once, LIKE NEVER BEFORE...

Day 11: "Today was totally about me"

This prompt was perfectly timed. If you follow my instagram feed, you possibly know how I was grappling to find a grip on my life #RandomSortOfDay. It is difficult to go from a stressful, full-time, well paying, engineering job to staying at home in a new place with no friends around… It was time that I focused my attention towards myself and explore the possibilities that my new found freedom held within. 

Day 12: FUN
For our recent weekend excursion we went to Six Flags amusement park and I went on a thrilling roller coaster ride with my daughter. It seems like in finding entertainment for a family with young kids we had forgotten how much fun we had in amusement parks and this ride "Boomerang" was a wonderful reminder of the FUN we used to have and the FUN that lies ahead.

Day 13: and Just Like That…
You know when you recently move to a new place, it takes your subconscious to re-orient itself. You are looking for your familiar coffee shop when your turn the corner and you realize you are on a totally different road in a new State; or in your kitchen you open a drawer in the middle of a cooking spree looking for spatulas and find knives instead.
Well after a lot of such moments, when the other day I woke up from a cat nap on my sofa and saw these photo canvases and familiar flowers, I knew it was home, JUST LIKE THAT...

Memory capturing continues...

Day 4: Best Ever… 'Summer'!
This is my first summer break since I graduated from Grad school so needless to say spending time with my girls, time to re-evaluate goals, and of course change of scenery all rank high in my book of 'best ever'.

Day 5: Being in California is an adventure for us, it was a big decision and it comes with its ups and downs… driving distance to this beauty (Half Dome at Yosemite National Park) is definitely a plus.

Day 6: Lucky! I am… This summer we were able to spend a long weekend together with my entire family and I thought that was incredibly lucky, I felt blessed :-)

Day 7: prepare to be amazed… 

The transition from Minnesota to California this summer meant our stuff ended up in storage for more than two months and that took a toll on our family bike rides. So as soon as we all got our bikes and punctures were fixed and air pressure filled, we hit the trail with a lot of anticipation for the journeys to come, we are prepared to be amazed...  

Saving memories…

I'm trying get back into a regular blogging habit and it is difficult to re-start something when you realize that life passed on fine even without it but memory keeping was the reason for starting this blog and now is a best time to document the crazy-ness which will be forgotten as soon as we settle in the new place and I'll look back and wonder what was the hoopla about…

Getting back to memories, I am using Heidi Swapp's prompts #hscapturelife for documenting memories. Mostly going through my phone pictures and finding stories based on the prompt of the day. Today is day 4 so playing catch up and posting the first three. I used #abmapp (a beautiful mess photo app) for adding words to these pictures on my phone.

I had initially thought to make scrapbook pages as I go along but in order to remain nice to myself and not add more to my task list, I've kept it simple….

Day 1: Ready-get-set-go…

My mum and dad helped pack and my dad being the meticulous list keeper labeled and numbered each box and made a list of its contents. Now I am going through the lists to decide which box to open first and start settling down. I was overwhelmed to see my rooms filled with boxes so the 'Ready-get-set-go' prompt was totally apt to motivate me to get through unpacking them all.

Day 2: Perfect day to wander…
Our first Kayaking trip selfie was the perfect shot for this prompt. We have been canoeing on Red Cedar river in wisconsin with friends but this was our very first adventure on our own. We basically wandered on water trying to get a handle on our rowing and it was absolutely fun. We plan to do it again…

Day 3: #Raddest
This puppy turned 1 today and he has been through a lot in this short time, from leaving his puppy and first human family to become a member of our family to a couple of cross country travels and now settling down in his new hotter place as a home… he is the raddest family member, a constant support, our stress buster and of course the best greeter.