If your family is like ours, and most military families are, you have a wide net of family and friends spread all across the country. We currently have family on both oceans, the gulf and sprinkled all in between. Modern communication options like Email, Facebook and Skype make keeping in touch easy, but if I corresponded with everyone on a weekly basis, it would be a full-time job. And so I find myself with a very common Mommy dilemma.
How do I share photos of the worlds most adorable child (my own) with all of my friends and family without much effort on my part or annoyance on theirs?
My solution: The Photo of the Week.
Every Monday I pick one photo I’ve taken recently, and I send it out to everyone at once. There are rules though…
Make it Easy for You:
- The photo doesn’t have to be in the last week, just one you haven’t sent before.
- Don’t worry about writing an accompanying article. Just a caption. (see sample above.)
- Set up an email group so you don’t have to add each email each time.
Use Proper Email Etiquette:
- Don’t send huge files! Send a small pic that can easily be viewed and sent. (See my article on image size and resolution if you need help here.)
- Don’t spam people you hardly know with pictures of your kid. Don’t send a blanket email out to everyone you’ve ever had contact. Narrow it down to those people who know you and your kiddo and who genuinely want to keep in touch.
Photo organizing programs like iPhoto for the Mac make organizing, sending, editing and resizing photos easier than taking the photo!
At the end of a year, even if you skipped weeks, you have a photo record of your child as she grows, and you have kept in touch with just a few clicks a week.
Recently I have been rewarded in my Photo of the Week effort! My fabulous sister-in-law has taken up the practice as well. So now every week I get rewarded with the smiling faces of my nieces and nephews in my in-box!
What photo sharing solutions have you used to keep those far away grandparents, aunts and uncles up to date as your kids grow and grow?
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