Three Ways to Share and Collect Photos with Family or Friends on Vacation
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Have you ever been on vacation with family or friends and tried to collect and share photos with the group? Did it go something like this?
You ask everyone to email their photos, but they forget.
You ask everyone to text their photos - and you get a big group which you then save to your camera roll and realize they are all thumbail versions because everyone has different settings.
You remind the group to send their photos, but they don’t remember which ones they sent so they send duplicates.
You remind people to send them … again.
You finally get the photos and realize they are tiny thumbnail versions or the dates are messed up.
You receive the photos, but you want the whole group to be able to see them and can’t figure out how without re-sharing thus creating a whole lot of duplicates.
What if there was a better way?
As it turns out, there are many better ways! Here are a few of my favorites.
Collecting and sharing photos with other iPhone users:
If everyone in your group has an iPhone, an Apple Shared Album allows you to easily share photos with everyone in your group.
Apple Shared Album
Set up a shared album, and invite everyone on the trip to contribute. Everyone will then have access to all of the photos in the Shared Album. These will not be full size photos, but they will be close. If everyone in your group has an iPhone, and you don’t intend to print larger than 4x6, this is a good option.
Collecting and sharing photos with iPhone and Android users:
There are two options I like for collecting and sharing photos with a group. FOREVER and SmugMug.
FOREVER
Forever is a great option when you have a mixed group. FOREVER is a pay for your storage up front photo solution (no subscription fees!), but it also offers a free 2GB account so you can try it out. With FOREVER you can create an album that all of your fellow vacationers can contribute to from their phones - both Android and iPhone - and all will be able to see and download all of the full size photos contributed to the album. If you have need of more than 2GB, only one person needs to purchase storage. And the nice thing is if you purchase a bit of storage, it is guaranteed for your lifetime plus 100 years. Click here to learn about FOREVER’s storage guarantee. To sign up for your free 2GB account, click Log In in the upper right, then Sign Up Free below the big green Log In button. Use the link to receive a $20 coupon to use towards storage.
SmugMug
SmugMug provides another great option for collecting and sharing vacation photos. I love SmugMug for clients who have a lot of photos and want to easily share them in a beautiful way - it’s essentially having your own photo website. I use it in many ways, including to share my bird photos with the very few people who actually care about them. I also use it for my vast collection of nature photos - I have A LOT - because it’s one price for an unlimited number of photos and videos.
To collect and share with your fellow vacationers, simply create a new gallery and send friends and family the link. They can upload from their phone or computer and they’ll be able to view and download full size photos as well.
SmugMug offers 14 days free, then after that it is a monthly or yearly subscription. Use this link for 20% off your first year.
This can be used with both Apple and Android phones.
Note that whatever method you use, make sure you save the photos you want to your own phone or computer. Never be at the mercy of someone else who may decide to delete them before you have a chance to save.
How do you share photos on vacation? Let me know in the comments!