The Deletist

Every once in a while I see a new app that really makes me wonder about a lot of things. Recently I read about a disposable camera app by Photojojo for your smartphone. The app allows you take 27 exposures and submit them for printing, all without seeing any of the images.  Then you have to *gasp* wait ~10 days to receive the hardcopy printed images.  The app is free, but you have to pre-pay $12.99 for printing and delivery.

The advertisements appeal to our sense of nostalgia for the good old days when we took our time to take an exposure and then had to wait and see how the pictures turned out.  I suppose the element of surprise and anticipation is mixed in too.  Here’s where I really start to wonder: Does anybody miss waiting for pictures to get developed?  I thought people enjoyed the instant gratification of seeing the picture right away.  Additionally this is useful to ensure you captured the photo you need.  And people who care about taking time to take a picture will do that regardless of a disposable app.

As a child my parents always restricted the number of pictures we could take on vacation, mostly because of the cost.  I was excited about digital cameras because all of a sudden I could take as many pictures as I wanted.  I certainly wouldn’t appreciate using a digital app that limited my picture taking.  Definitely not something I ever feel nostalgic for.

Some of the promotions also push DIY projects you can do with the printed images.  I’d just like to mention that I’ve seen my fair share of physical photo chaos and disorganization.  Who doesn’t have a shoebox, drawer, bag, box, etc. of old printed photos still in the original envelope from the store with all the negatives?  I sincerely doubt the novelty of receiving printed photos from a disposable digital app is going to motivate people to get creative with their photos, or to start organizing them properly.  And if you did want to get creative with printed images, wouldn’t you want to pick and choose which ones are worth the money to print?

As I mentioned in an earlier blog on Digital Scrapbooking, numerous apps are available for DIY digital photo projects.  Other than marketing to nostalgic hipsters, I’m not really sure why this app would be appealing.

Now that so many devices come equipped with cameras, it’s easy to capture moments anytime, anywhere.  However, the ease with which we can now take photos creates some new challenges:

• Volume – time consuming to sort and organize photos/videos. (posted previously)
• Synchronizing – being able to access all the photos in one place, or from multiple devices.

Synchronizing photos can be complicated and depends on a number of factors.  This posting focuses on using My Photo Stream to sync photos between Apple products using “Camera Roll” and “My Photo Stream.”  Apple recently introduced another way to sync but it’s still in Beta so I’ll figure it out later.

I should also note that the following described here only works when you are hooked up to wi-fi all the time.

The main players:

• Camera Roll is unique to your device (iPad or iPhone) and can be organized into Albums.
• My Photo Stream* is in the iCloud and contains the last 1000 photos you took for 30-days so you can “sync” them (aka download) to another device and/or computer.  Must have wi-fi to upload. This is NOT back up for your photos.
• iPhoto is photo storage on the computer.

When My Photo Stream is activated and you have a wi-fi connection, photos taken with an iPad/iPhone are automatically saved in the Camera Roll and My Photo Stream.  From iPhoto the My Photo Stream photos can be manually or automatically imported.

Synching from iPhoto to Camera Roll is pretty similar.  While in iPhoto, drag photos from Events or Photos to My Photo Stream in your Shared iCloud.  Now the photos will show up in the My Photo Stream on the device.  At this point, you must select the photo and add it to an Album within 30 days to keep it on the device.  No option to add it to Camera Roll directly.

As The Deletist, I also experimented with deleting photos.  Please note: this table is only accurate when you’re hooked up to wi-fi all the time.

*In order to use My Photo Stream, you will need to:

• set up an iCloud account with an Apple id; and
• activate the option on each device and your computer through Settings.

Stay tuned for my next posting documenting my actual experiences using My Photo Stream to sync photos between my iPad and MacBook.

I love making scrapbooks, but until now I’d always done them the old-fashioned way with printed pictures, other items I wanted to include, glue & scissors.  I recently finished my first digital scrapbook and opted to get a printed version (see below).  While constructing the digital one, I kept comparing the pre- and post-digital process, feeling frustrated at times by some of the differences.

The printed version came out great, despite some of my frustrations. One friend remarked that it looked like a Taschen coffee table book.

I enjoy being able to use my hands when constructing a physical scrapbook.  I know this also means it’s messy, involves glue, annoying little paper scraps, and careful planning.  But I like being able to mix different types of textures and make collages out of different materials.  I wasn’t able to replicate this easily with the digital scrapbook.  Additionally, I often prefer working with paper instead of being tethered to the screen, especially for late night scrapbooking sessions.

On the digital side, I enjoyed how easy it was to change things.  A few mouse clicks easily performed tasks such as adding another page, changing photos from one page to another, or even adjusting size.  These types of changes can be challenging with a physical scrapbook, especially if the glue is dry and you didn’t plan things out properly.

Another perk of digital scrapbooking was being able to add in typewritten text on any page.  In a physical scrapbook adding in typewritten text has a lot of steps. I have to create a document on my computer, print it out and then cut it to fit the page.  It’s a lot of steps and also requires careful planning.  Whereas the digital scrapbook allowed me to be more spontaneous about where to place text.

The printed digital scrapbook looks awesome, but every page feels identical. With a physical scrapbook it’s much easier to include ticket stubs, brochures, maps, pamphlets, postcards, etc. Each added item offers different textures to experience and can accommodate booklets or other items like pamphlets that open up.  This can be somewhat accomplished with a digital scrapbook by scanning in all the items and pages, saving them in a pdf or jpg format and then uploading them into the scrapbook.  But it’s not the same.

I’m definitely going to keep making digital scrapbooks, but I think it’s interesting to observe how many differences there are between the two methods.