What to Do With Those Cruise Trip Photos

Given the choice, most people wouldn’t want to give up their digital cameras and go back to film. Yet, part of me looks back wistfully at the days when I didn’t come home from a trip with 2,000 photos to go through.

On a recent cruise, upon seeing that my spouse and I were about to go into a port with five cameras between us, a woman said to us, “We don’t take photos any more. What do you do with them?”

 
Good question.
 
To give purpose to the drudgery of going through digital trip photos, a few years ago I scouted around for ideas and have since put (some of them) into action. Below are the ones I’ve come up with. If you’ve got others, do share!
 
Calendar—I’ve been creating one every year from Costco’s photo online service, but there are many places that do it—Shutterfly, CVS, Walgreen’s—to name a few. Calendars are cheap to produce and you get to relive your trip all year round

 

Digital picture frame—We’ve got a bunch of these now at home and work, each with different photos. They’re easy to use and you can swap out individual photos or whole SD cards when you get tired of the same images. For me, the mother of all digital frames is the Nix 15” X15B. The resolution makes pictures pop and the screen is big enough to really bring the Caribbean to life right there on your desk
 
Photo books—Someone I know has created many of these—hard-bound, coffee table-worthy books of travel shots from digital pictures. They’re really an updated version of the old photo album but much better. She did them through Shutterfly and they’re reasonably priced
 
Computer and cell phone wallpapers—Take your best photos and turn them into wallpaper or a screen saver for your computer and cell phone. Much better than downloading someone else’s
 
Other stuff—Then there’s Christmas cards, prints for the wall, mugs, mouse pads, magnets, key chains…And photo contests. Or, you could do what I did—start a blog!

Alas, you’ll still have to go through your 2,000 photos when you get home. But, at least you’ll have something to do with them!

P.S. You can even get started while you’re still onboard—Holland America and Celebrity both offer digital photo workshops (availability may vary by ship).