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By Heather Camlot

One of the best technology ad campaigns in recent memory went something like this:  “Don’t let your kids grow up to be jpegs.”  How brilliant and bang-on. Everyone who has a digital camera also has loads of digital pictures sitting on their computer, waiting for the day they’ll be shared with the world – or at least friends and family.

Rather than let those gorgeous summer photos languish in an unidentifiable “My Pictures” folder, let them tell a story.

Photo book services have become quite popular as an easy and inexpensive way to create wedding albums, but they can be used for any number of occasions, even your summer vacation.  Many of these services let you drag and drop pictures and then write a caption or story to go along with them.

Tell your story

Kodak Gallery offers hardcover and softcover albums of varying sizes and covers, starting at $7 (we like the pocket books that fit perfectly in a purse). Creating a photo book is easy:

1. select your book, cover design and page design
2. upload photos to a new album
3. drag and drop a photo and add text for the cover
4. select a design for the inside page, drag and drop a photo, add a caption or storyline
5. click next to add another page and repeat Step 4 until you’ve added all your photos
6. Select order to preview you photo album, enter the quantity of books you want, click add to cart and continue with the checkout process.

Show your talent

Blooms Design Studio by Renee Landry

Now, if you’re a hardcore shutterbug or perhaps have a teen who’s a budding photographer, you may want to take those photos to the next level and create a hardcover coffee table book.  Blurb.com, a print-on-demand site, makes creating your own books a breeze, and the results are bookstore quality. Hardcover books start at $24, softcover at $13.

1. download the Blurb BookSmart software
2. upload your photos
3. drag and drop photos into the pages
4. alter the page layouts by selecting from the options listed on the left-side of the screen
5. from the same options list, select the caption box to add text, and highlight the text to change the font
6. change the background by choosing a new colour or pattern from the editing palette along the top of the screen
7. when done, click the order book and continue with the checkout process

Print your pictures

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with going the traditional route: printing pictures (at home or through a photo service like easypix), sliding them into a photo album and writing some captions.  For a more creative take, make a photo scrapbook with patterned papers, stickers, borders, die-cuts, tags and more.

Get printing! Don’t let you summer photos live out the rest of their days as jpegs. Because, really, if no one gets to see them, what was the point of taking them?

What do you do with your summer photos? Let us know by leaving a comment below.