What to Do with All of Your Cool Pictures
Before deciding which pictures to keep or delete, always look at them on a large computer screen. After you’ve chosen the ones you really like, you can erase the others with the camera’s delete button 
. It’s wise to take more than one picture of your subject so you can try different perspectives and so you can make sure to get at least one good photo. Not every picture will be worth saving, though; less is more, as they say. If you tried to save all of your pictures, your computer’s memory would run out, and you’d lose track of the pictures you like.
What Should I Keep?
Now it’s time to decide which pictures you’d like to save. It’s not just a matter of deciding which pictures turned out the best; you also need to consider what each picture means to you. Imagine you were only able to take one picture of your friend blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, and unfortunately it turned out blurry. You wouldn’t want to delete this picture because it captures a moment that you’d like to remember. So hold on to it because it’s important to you, whether it’s blurry or not. Out-of-focus pictures can be exciting, especially if you’re photographing something that moves.
What Should I Delete?
If you’ve taken a series of ten portraits of your friend, and she blinked in five of them, the choice is easy: erase the ones with her eyes closed. Sometimes you will have photos that are almost exact duplicates because you took one right after the other. You can delete these unnecessary copies without worrying.
Don’t delete pictures until after you’ve looked at them on your computer’s large screen. Sometimes pictures that first seem to be mistakes actually look really cool. Use your instincts to decide which pictures to save.
Saving Pictures: Where and How
It’s important that you save your pictures in a way that allows you to easily find them again. You shouldn’t just dump them somewhere on your hard drive without thinking about how to organize them. Open the My Pictures folder on your computer and create new subfolders for each year. Within each year folder, create other folders based on different themes or events. You might have a folder named Yellowstone Vacation, for example, or Jenny’s Birthday, or Self-Portraits. Some people choose to organize their pictures by month instead of by theme. Choose the system that seems easiest to you. No matter how you end up saving your pictures, talk to your parents about backing up your files, because if your computer crashes, you’ll be really sad if you lose all of your pictures.
Your camera records the time and date of every picture that you take, and many computer programs allow you to search your pictures for this information. If you have trouble finding a picture from your birthday party, for example, search your files for pictures that were taken on that specific day. Make sure that the clock in your camera is set to the correct date and time. You can read about how to set the clock in the instruction manual for your camera.
Sharing Your Pictures with the World
Sharing your pictures is almost as fun as taking them. It’s not possible to see all of your friends every day, but with e-mail, you can easily send your pictures to them. Your friends in different states and your friend across the street can receive and view your pictures on their own computers in just a matter of seconds. And if you have a cell phone with a camera, it’s even easier; just send a picture from your cell phone directly to your friend’s cell phone. This service can be expensive, though, so check with your parents before using it.
If you have friends who live far away, you could send them a picture once a week to show them what you’re up to.
Your Pictures on the Internet
You probably already know your way around the Internet pretty well. There are countless websites—like Picasa and Flickr—that allow you to make a public gallery of your pictures. It can be a lot of fun to share your best pictures with the world, but there are a few things to consider before making your pictures public.
After a picture is published on the Internet, it can be difficult to delete it. In addition, other people will be able to download your pictures onto their computers without you knowing it. Talk it over with your parents to decide if you really want to make your pictures public. If there are other people in your pictures, be sure to ask them what they think about it, too.
Printing Your Favorite Pictures
If you view your pictures only on your computer screen, you’re likely to get bored. Sometimes it’s nice to hold your favorite pictures in your hand or frame them and hang them on the wall. You may even want to carry a picture of a loved one around with you. Printed pictures also make good gifts. If your parents have a good color printer and photo paper, you can make your own prints at home, but usually it’s less expensive to have a store print pictures for you. Drug stores, supermarkets, and photo stores have special machines that will print pictures on demand. You can also order pictures on various websites. Have your parents help you, and in just a few days you’ll get your pictures in the mail.
Have five of your favorite pictures printed so they are the same size. Then find frames that are also the right size, and make sure it allows you to change the pictures easily. Now you can hang up and change your favorite pictures whenever you like.
Today’s Photo Book Is Yesterday’s Photo Album
People used to put their pictures in photo albums. Thanks to new technology, it’s possible to make your own printed books that look like this book. If you want to have a book printed about your fun adventures during summer vacation, there’s no reason you can’t make that book yourself. Everything can be made into a book. With a little practice, you can use a free computer program to create the book yourself and then order prints of the book from a website. As always, it’s a good idea to find someone who has already made a photo book to help you out.
