what's a granny to do.

[mysteryscribe]

I had some test prints made at York photo lab on line the other day.(Dont ask). With my two 5x7s they sent along a list of their services. They have one that absolutely shocked me.

I mean I am a huge advocate of flim and of the pns for people who aren't into photography. (They needs pictures of their grandson to) My own wife is like that. Fortunately my son and law and I can both make images from computer files. My wife refuses. So here is the senario and I imagine. It is true for the majority of older and probably a lot of younger people as well.

Since everyone says film is soon to be hard to find and labs even harder, Granny goes out to buy a camera to make pictures at billy's birthday party. She had a 32meg card in the camera. Granny is a real shooter so her card is almost filled when she leaves the party.

Off to a photo kiosh because granny doesn't know how to print her own.. (Neither do I).. She takes her pictures home and erases the card to use again.

You guessed it, aunt sarah just adores the picture of Billy with cake all over his face. Granny looks at the picture then at the empty card. Curses foiled again.

I don't know, but imagine that the kiosh will, but York certainly will make you a photo cd of your media card when it prints your pics. They charge of course, but at least you have a digital negative equivalent to make more copies of Billy and cake.

I Had never thought about the lack of a negative before frankly. For me sure I know i can digitalize and burn a cd but what about my wife when I'm gone. Off to the kiosh to make a photo cd. But look at all the convenience and savings she will have.

 

[ksmattfish]

You guessed it, aunt sarah just adores the picture of Billy with cake all over his face. Granny looks at the picture then at the empty card. Curses foiled again.

But that's not the way Granny thinks. She knows how the kiosk works, it'll print from file or print. She just runs back to the kiosk, and copies the print; who needs negs and files? Not Granny, she's technically savvy! Sure the quality goes down a bit, but she doesn't notice. In fact, next time she visits the kiosk, she copies a copy of the print. The quality is going to heck by now, but she doesn't care. Content is king! As long as you can barely recognize Billy, it's good enough for her.

The Grannies in my family are all shooting digital, and all have their own computers and inkjet printers. They go home and make their own prints. Of course they have no clue what they are doing so the prints look horrible, and the print life span is maybe a year, less if they expose it to daylight. I keep trying to convince them that the corner photo lab will do a better job of printing, at a much lower cost, and the prints won't start fading for at least a decade. I even upload the family pics I take to an online printing service where they can order high quality prints for cheap. But what do they do? They scan the print I gave them, and print it themselves. It drives me crazy, but they like the convenience of printing at home. In fact, they show up at family gatherings with atrocious quality prints of my photos, and make sure everyone gets a copy. Then I have to order real prints for everyone, and quietly arrange to swap out the Grannies' prints.

 

[terri]

In fact, they show up at family gatherings with atrocious quality prints of my photos, and make sure everyone gets a copy. Then I have to order real prints for everyone, and quietly arrange to swap out the Grannies' prints.

:lmao: Oh, the subterfuge!!

Ah, this is when I get misty-eyed for the days when Polaroid was king. I have original Polaroids hanging on my walls that my parents took of and my siblings and were given to me in a shoebox, and they continue to amaze me with their longevity. I know they were taken - and taken care of - with the same cavalier, aren't-they-cute-right-now attitiude of people who never gave a thought to preservation of those precious moments. And yet the archival quality is still proving itself.

I'd like to say today's Grannies would be better served using yesterday's 600 series P-cams, but of course, they'd still be scanning them and passing the prints around at family gatherings, so it's a no-win situation.

 

[Jeremy Z]

ksmattfish,

I have a solution for you.

Go to Walgreens' page and upload high res versions of your pix into your own album. You can share the photos with the grannies via email if they have it. The thing that sets Walgreens apart from Snapfish is that with Walgreens, the grannies don't even need a computer. You can look up their local Walgreens and arrange for prints to be ready to be picked up. You can choose whether to pay yourself, or have them paid for upon pickup.

This is great for us broke people whose grannies are a bit better off. We have all the digital pictures & the computer. She goes to pick up the pix & pays for them.

I just sent 40 prints to my granny in Floriday. She can pick them up in 2 hours, will pay $11.42, and that includes the $3 photo CD, in case she wants to share them.

There will be no excuse to scan the pix, because the CD is easier to work from.

 

[mysteryscribe]

ksmattfish,

I have a solution for you.

Go to Walgreens' page and upload high res versions of your pix into your own album. You can share the photos with the grannies via email if they have it. The thing that sets Walgreens apart from Snapfish is that with Walgreens, the grannies don't even need a computer. You can look up their local Walgreens and arrange for prints to be ready to be picked up. You can choose whether to pay yourself, or have them paid for upon pickup.

This is great for us broke people whose grannies are a bit better off. We have all the digital pictures & the computer. She goes to pick up the pix & pays for them.

I just sent 40 prints to my granny in Floriday. She can pick them up in 2 hours, will pay $11.42, and that includes the $3 photo CD, in case she wants to share them.

There will be no excuse to scan the pix, because the CD is easier to work from.

Ah but the point wasn't what will we do. It's what will the computer challenged people do. My sister my wife my nephew ect.. See everyone isn't as deep into photography as us. I'm talking about the replacement for the kodak point and shoot market share. There will always be those folks.

I know let'm eat cake.

 

[ksmattfish]

Go to Walgreens' page and upload high res versions of your pix into your own album.

Better than Walgreen's, I use mpix.com (mpix is a local biz here in Kansas/Missouri), and the grannies go to the website to see the photos. I guess they just have fun printing the the photos out themselves.

 

[ksmattfish]

Ah but the point wasn't what will we do. It's what will the computer challenged people do.

Back when digital photography was still a novelty (before many people actually knew the term "megapixel"), I worked at a full service photo lab. A huge chunk of our business was making prints from prints on our Fuji Pictrostat machine. Grannies came in all the time for it, and every time I explained that not only would the quality be better, but the cost would be about 1/3rd if they just brought me the negs. They had the negs, somewhere, but they still paid three times as much for prints from prints. I guess my point is that the behind the scenes action for film was just as arcane for the grannies as digital. As long as they have prints, and can get them copied, they have little use for files or negs.

 

[Jeremy Z]

Ah but the point wasn't what will we do. It's what will the computer challenged people do.

That was actually my point too. You can have them printed & waiting for the non-computer people to pick up at their local Walgreens.

We do all the computer "work". They just drive to the store and pick them up.

 

[mysteryscribe]

You still missed it. GRANNT SHOOTS IT not us. When she does the kiosh thing she has no negative to make more shots for uncle jake when he sees them next week. Of course you and I would have a digital file to use.

But Matt also made a good point even with negatives most people couldnt find them a month later. Or didn't want to be bothered saving them. However we also hear of people with boxes of negatives to be digitalized so somebody kept them. But they would probably keep digital files as well.

Its hard to say but I'm sure of one thing my wife won't keep the digital files but she would have kept the negatives. She has am almost religious zeal about negatives of my grandson.

Oh well....

 

[ksmattfish]

Another thing that drives me nuts is when the grannies download the web friendly sized photos on my website, and print those out, instead of using the high res files I gave them on CD/DVD. They'll enlarge a 400x600 pixel image to 8"x12", and make sure everyone sees it, and try to give my photo biz a plug. It's killing me inside!

 

[mysteryscribe]

Glad im not in business..... glad i don't do digital so they can't do that....

My b88ch with film was they take the negs to walmart without taking the sample prints I provided. Of course the color was terrible. Same church different pew.