Friday, October 07, 2005

Online Photo Lab Perks

By Christina VanGinkel

With the ease and availability of photo printers, one might wonder why someone would use an online photo lab. When I discovered what the Kodak Easy Share Gallery had to offer, I knew why I would use it. For one, their pricing is cheap! Cheaper than even printing on my own photo printer at home, as they have recently lowered their everyday price to only fifteen cents a print.

They also have the added advantage of allowing you to upload your photographs to share with family and friends who may live around the corner, or around the world, seriously! You can snap a picture of your newborn daughter, and in a manner of minutes, you can be showing you sister on the other side of the globe what her niece just did so brilliantly. This feature also allows others to order prints of the same pictures if you give them the option to do so. This saves you both time and money when sharing your photographs. The features from Kodak Easy Share Gallery do not stop there though. They have a wide range of gifts that can be personalized with the photographs of your choosing, from mugs to calendars, even posters and books. I actually discussed these features in much finer detail in a previous post.

What is so compelling about using an online printer, specifically the Kodak Easy Share Gallery though is that I can now upload pictures of my own picking directly to my cell phone to be used as wallpaper on my phone and to share with friends and family via my phone. While this feature may not be a draw for everyone, it thrilled me. I could have a picture of my grandson to view every time I opened my phone instead of some generic picture of a seascape! In addition, the very best part is that they offer this as a free service, at absolutely no charge. Depending on your carrier and the specific phone you have, this and other features may or may not be available, such as ordering prints directly from your phone. However, if your carrier and phone support these features, they can be quite convenient, not to mention fun to have. How does convenience come into something like this? This is a very handy feature if you happen to be visiting someone who does not have Internet service and after looking at your pictures, decide they would love to have a few. (Think of an elderly relative) Instead of waiting until you get home, where if you are like me would probably forget to place the order, you can order them on the spot.

If you are looking for an additional way to print your photographs beyond your personal printer, consider an online photo lab. Be sure to check out several, including the Kodak Easy Share Gallery, which can offer you perks that you never even knew existed, or that you would have a need or wanting of, until you found out what they all had to offer that is!

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