Get your pictures out of JPEG Jail and share a great gift!

As every photographer knows, a good picture makes a great gift! With over 68 million digital cameras projected to be sold this year, digital photography is exploding! And, with "free film", digital camera owners are snapping pictures at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, most digital pictures remain locked up on hard drives all across the country, in a "JPEG Jail", never to be printed or shared at all.

This holiday season is the time to set your pictures free! So, unlock those digital treasures. Share your pictures over the Internet. Create beautiful hardcover photo books. Make a masterpiece by turning your picture into a photo canvas. Digital photography offers more exciting choices than ever before. What I offer here are a few ideas for getting your pictures out of "JPEG Jail" so you can share them and give great photo gifts.

Get the pictures out of your camera!

If you don't get the pictures off of your camera, you can't enjoy them. The biggest barrier to transferring pictures is that most people still use the clumsy and slow USB cable. If you don't already have a Flash Card reader, get one.

For about $15 this snappy device will make life a lot easier. If you watch the sales and rebates, you can actually get one for free. Some cameras also come with docking stations that transfer the pictures to your PC and recharge the battery, too.

Share your pictures online!

Once pictures get onto the PC, they're likely to be locked up in "JPEG Jail". Those candid shots and magical moments become trapped inside a file folder, collecting virtual dust. Don't these pictures deserve a better fate than to be locked in solitary confinement on a remote sector of your hard drive?

Release them!

Share your pictures as online photo albums so friends and family can view them over the Internet. Don't bother with cumbersome email attachments. Even when bulky emails don't clog up mailboxes, they aren't any fun to look at. Photo Web sites and photo sharing software offer great ways to share your pictures as online slideshows and, even better, many of them are FREE!

Try online photo sites.

Just upload your photos to one of the many online photo-sharing sites available today. Once your pictures are on their Web site, you can put them in albums, edit them, and send email invitations so your friends and family can visit your online photo albums.

Try innovative photo sharing software.

If you don't want to take the time to upload photos to a Web site, try one of the new photo sharing software products like our Qurio Home Photo Center. Qurio can be downloaded free from our Web site.

The Qurio Instant Photo Server allows you to keep all of your pictures right on your own hard drive and share them over the Internet with friends and family. Guests click a link on their browser or visit your personal photo web address at http:\//yourname.quriophotos.com to view a slideshow of your album, which is being "served up" right from your PC. Photo sharing software lets you say goodbye to email attachments and time consuming uploads.

Get high-quality prints and enlargements!

Simply put, there's no replacement for high quality prints. Take your flash cards to in-store kiosks, order prints directly from your PC by using online photo sites, or use software products such as Qurio, that have digital print making built-in.

Prints can cost as little as $0.20-0.29 each. Some sites offer free prints as part of a trial promotion. It's estimated that 40% of the digital photos purchased each year are bought in November and December. Figure A shows a closer look at some of your choices in getting quality prints.

Order prints online

Millions of people are choosing the convenience of ordering digital prints online and having them mailed to their home. Online photo sites like Ofoto, Snapfish, Shutterfly, and even Walgreens, allow you to upload your pictures to their site and buy prints online. Qurio also allows you to order prints from home, but has print making built-in so you can order prints directly from your own PC. This eliminates the need to upload to a website. After you finish your order, Qurio automatically connects to the Internet and sends the order for processing.

Get prints retail

For people who want to pick up pictures at a local store, most mini-labs can either take your flash cards and process your pictures, or provide you with a self-service kiosk that makes prints. A few chains, such as Ritz Camera, allow you to send your photos over the Internet and pick them up at the local camera shop. [Ed. note -- WalMart Photo also offers this option.]

Create professionally bound, coffee table-quality photo books.

New digital imaging software and online photo sites allow you to turn your pictures into a beautiful, coffee table-quality photo album in minutes. Add captions to "tell the story" of your album and change the layouts to make each page just the way you want it.

Prices generally start at about $25 to $30 dollars for a 20 page book that can hold upwards of 80 pictures. These books aren't just eye-catching. When you consider the cost of buying all of your prints and a traditional photo album, these new Photo Books are a great value. Figure B is an example of a Qurio Photo Book.

Just in time for the holidays, Qurio is offering a $9.95 Mini Photo Book. Each book is 5 1/2" square, with a soft cover and 20 pages. Unlike many pocket books that simply bind 4"x6" photos together, this book lets you choose page layouts and add captions. Both photo books can be made right on your own PC.

Make a masterpiece and other photo gifts.

The shot of the grandchildren piled under the Christmas tree is one of the best you've ever taken. Honor your photographic genius by turning it into a literal work of art. While most of the photo sites don't yet offer this feature, Qurio gives you the tools to create personalized photo canvasses, like shown in Figure C.

You can turn your digital picture into a beautiful photo canvas that looks like a photo-realistic oil painting. In addition, you can use Qurio, or many of the photo Web sites to create other fun photo gifts such as: playing cards, coffee mugs, puzzles, T-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, coasters, mouse pads, and big posters.

Let's all commit to giving our digital pictures a "Get out of Jail Free" card over the holiday season and start sharing them and creating fun photos gifts so our pictures can touch the people we care about.

Rick Thompson has over 15 years experience with leading technology and consumer products companies. Before joining Qurio, he was Chief Marketing Officer of Global Knowledge, a worldwide leader in Information Technology training and e-learning software. Prior to Global Knowledge, Mr. Thompson was an executive at IBM where he led IBM's Direct and Consumer PC businesses. He began his career at Procter & Gamble where he managed several national brands including the Tide Brand. Rick has a B.S. in Chemistry from The University of Maryland and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.