Living with Littles presented by The Dance Academy: Time to capture some moments

By Nicole Loughan

My son’s baby book still isn’t finished. He’s four. I filled in the parts where I just had to write something. For example the questions like, “what did the nursery look like?” or “who were your first visitors?” But the big gaping holes in the book are the parts where the book asks for pictures of first foods and birthdays, well those are blank. The pictures exist, but only digitally. I have transferred files from three different computers since my children have been born and their photos still exist in the hard drives of history, but there is hardly any physical evidence that they were here. I even have a roll of old fashioned undeveloped film from my wedding. When I got married digital conversions became popular and the grocery store in my hometown no longer developed that type of film. There are places that process film now, as a cozy nostalgic thing. But I’m not sure if the film is even good after 9 years at the bottom of a drawer so I haven’t bothered to take it in.

At least when my first child was born I was still using a camera to take pictures, with a photo card that could be developed at the pharmacy. But now I’m a little ashamed to say all of last year’s pictures exist only on my phone, not even in the cloud.

I could lose them at any minute, I know. So I’m working to get real copies out into the world. I’ve been checking for the best ways to get real photos back into my hands. Read on for a few ideas on how to capture the moments and keep them:

From the store – National chains like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid and others sell 4 x 6 prints, with prices averaging around 12 cents per copy of standard sized prints. The only downside is you have to go through each and every picture making a little checkbox for every picture you want, clearing out the ones you don’t. My phone currently has about five thousand images so if I go this route, I’m going to be standing at the kiosk for a while.

AirPrint – While researching options to print I found different apps and drivers which I could download to sort through my images and send them to stores or online companies for delivery, but iPhone users have another option. Apple’s AirPrint. In order to do this, you need an AirPrint compatible printer, which I don’t have. Airprint compatible printers start at around $60 and are available in stores or on Amazon. According to Apple the AirPrint is built into most popular printer models and can print high-quality photos in seconds straight from the phone, no need to go through a computer first.

Photo books – My favorite way to capture images, and the one I’m working feverishly to create now, is photo books. I love them because I can make several copies for relatives and the companies that make photo books have pre-made templates which make placing photos easy and visually beautiful. Groupon often has deals on photo books. I have picked up nice hardcover books with up to 100 photos for around $20. There are several companies which offer photo books but my personal favorite is Shutterfly. I downloaded the Shutterfly app to my phone which allowed me to upload my pictures directly from the app. But putting together a whole book from the app was complicated. I was able to log-in at my laptop computer using the same name I did on the app and see the books on a larger screen.

Nicole Loughan Utter is a professional writer and author that living in Bucks County.

Living with Littles is presented by The Dance Academy. Since 1987, The Dance Academy in Holland, PA has been offering professional dance training with a personal touch, instilling the love of dance to students and families throughout Bucks County. Under the direction of Miss Donnajean Kline (BFA in Dance, Temple University) and staffed by a group of highly-trained instructors, The Dance Academy has acquired countless awards and accolades each year at local, national, and international competitions. Through recitals, competitions, advertising publications, professional companies, and tours; Dance Academy students are spreading their passion for dance both here in the States as well as on international stages. It’s not too late to register for their 30th Anniversary Season!