Thank you all so much for coming to my aid with all your suggestions for getting my photos printed. I so appreciated the encouragement too. You gave me plenty of sites to check out such as these:
Snapfish
Kodak Gallery
Winkflash
Future Shop
Shutterfly
Creative Memories
Save on Foods
I had no idea there were so many places but unfortunately most of them are in the States which means that, although they do ship to Canada, I’d end up paying custom and broker fees on top of the printing and shipping costs. That could really add up. So when I saw the Save on Foods suggestion (we have a Save On in the next town about an hour away), I remembered I had a coupon for 10 cents off the price of each picture making it only 12 cents a picture! That sounded pretty good so I decided that yesterday I was going to go for it…..my plan was to print pictures up to Sept of last year. Something manageable and not too overwhelming…..or so I thought……
For two hours I carefully selected, amongst multiple folders, over 400 pictures for printing, adding them as I went along to the Save On site. Then after all that I clicked on upload pictures and waited, and waited and then waited some more. THREE hours later and 12:00 at night, my pictures were finally uploaded. I was almost there….only one final step stood between me and euphoria. I held my breath, wanting to get this done once and for all. I clicked on “complete my order”, that’s it, that’s all I had left and just like that the darn thing crashed and booted me right out. I sat speechless. All my carefully selected pictures gone from the site, vanished into thin air just like that. Five hours of time I didn’t really have, wasted! I was back to square one. I was tired and it was late and victory was not to be had. I went to bed in tears.
But today was another day and not one to give up, I took another deep breath and tried again. This time I’d learned my lesson though and created some folders on my hard drive called “pictures to print”. Then I dragged and dropped all the ones I wanted to print, 100 to each folder. This allowed me, on the Save On site, to select an entire file at once and because I was uploading in 100 picture batches the uploading only took one hour for each file (although this still seemed like a long time to me). Also the coupon didn’t take so I ended up paying 22 cents a picture but I don’t even care at this point. I’m just thankful I have made progress. So now I wait 1-2 days……I’m anxious to see what the quality is like.
I’m not sure if there is an easier way to do all that but it feels so good to have accomplished something that has been dragging me down for so long. I still have 8 months of pictures to go but I’m definately making headway. Once I see whether or not I like the pictures I will complete the printing of the rest of them. I like the idea of using this as my own type of organizational challenge and so my goal is to have it completed by May 2nd along with everyone else.
Wish me luck….I’d hate to fail my own challenge!
Quietromance says
Well lets hope that the pictures turn out well! I’m excited to hear what happened after all your hard work and troubles.
Have a great friday!
~Haley
ChupieandJ'smama says
Oh my, good luck!! I haven’t sent any pictures to be printed since January and if you came over to read me lately, you read that I just downloaded some Christmas pictures from the old camera (shame on me). I better do this too or I’ll have 400 pictures too. As it is, I probably have about 100-200. My next org project: all of my pictures from summer 2005-now are in folders upstairs waiting to be put in a picture book. HOW SAD IS THAT? That work load may kill me. Maybe you need a “get your photo’s organized project”?
Debi says
Oh my, how aggravating! I feel like crying in frustration for you! I hope the prints come out well though, so you’ll at least know you’ve got a solution.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Sarah says
And here I was proud of myself for, after reading about pictures, printing 30 of my last favorites. I can see I was not even on the same level. I hope they turn out awesome.
Patty says
Gimme a L “L”!
Gimme a A “A”!
Gimme a U “U”!
Gimme a R “R”!
Gimme a A “A”!
What have you got? LAURA
GO LAURA!!!!!!!!!!
Cindee says
This might sound a little complicated but it really works well for me. In order for this to work you need two things:
1.) You need to be able to take your camera’s memory card to the store to have the pictures downloaded from it.
2.) You need a jumpdrive that can read AND write to your camera’s memory card. Something like this.
Then you can
1. Copy all the files you want printed onto the jumpdrive.
2. Take the memory card to the store and have the pictures printed.
This way you don’t have to spend hours uploading the pictures or have to burn the pictures onto a CD. It’s so fast once you have the necessary tools.
Good luck!
Cindee
org junkie says
Hi Cindee,
I actually have one of those jumpdrives but have never figured out how to use it. Yet I think when I take it to the store I’d have to plug it into a kiosk of some sort, right? That might be a problem because I live in such a small community that I don’t believe we have any of those. Pictures always have to be sent away…except for Walmart but I wasn’t happy with them.
Can you tell I’m not that computer savy.
Laura
Cindee says
I haven’t found a place that will let me plug the jumpdrive in but when I use the jumpdrive writer that allows me to remove the memory card I can usually plug that in (the memory card). You could always call and ask if that is possible.
I know that first sentence is impossibly long but I’m too tired this morning to fix it. I hope it’s understandable!
Gwen says
Laura, you may want to invest in a photo-printer. They are coming down in price and then only print the pictures you really like. We have most of our pictures on our computer and we have it set up so that we have an external drive both in the house and off site (in case of disaster.) It is nice to have some pictures printed but how often do you look at the pictures you have printed? Other than the ones that are always out in frames we hardly ever look at what are in picture albums. The pictures that are on our computer however we look at all the time. You can download Picasa for free and you can organize you pictures in to folders, you can lable them as you see fit. There are also some really neat desktops you can make like a collage. FutureShop is in Canada and they also make other things with your photos like calendars and photo-books. They do deliver as well, or if you are going to be in a town with a Futureshop you can get them delivered to a store. Hope this helps.
Andrea says
I feel your pain. I do the folders of photos, which makes it go easier. I hope you like the quality. I’m the same that I don’t care about the price after hours of work.
Hope it all works out. And.. it never takes 1-2 days. Atleast for me. It’s more like 7-8, which is annoying, but what can you do?
let me know if you find a better place.
Kara says
I hope the pictures turn out good! I’m afraid to even get started on getting mine ready to print out!
Jaime says
Laura, I create a “digital prints” folder right on my desktop. Then, when i have time, i will go through my folders & folders of digital pictures, and copy any that i like to that folder. Then, i can just upload that folder to the online service.
This way, even if the site crashes, i have a backup of all the stuff i wanted to print. I also have those pictures in an easy-to-access location so that when i get the prints back i can write the date on them right away (with a photo safe pencil!!)
HTH a little. 🙂
Thea says
Isn’t that the worst when the system crashes? So aggravating!
And I just KNOW you can conquer this challenge. It was a great idea to only do 1 month (much more managable, baby steps, right?)
The only way you can fail is if you give up totally which we all know you would never do!
Kimberly says
How frustrating!
I played around with Shutterfly yesterday and made calendars for each of the mom’s and grandma’s in our life for Mother’s Day. No matter what I did it wouldn’t save or go into the cart. All that time wasted. Definitely can empathize.
Didn’t know Save-On let you do it online! We have one in town, but it’s such a hassle for Neil to drop of the camera card on his lunch break, since he only get about ten minutes to eat, etc…Definitely going to check out the website. Thanks!
Annie says
Hey Chickie,
I’m trying Future Shop. You actually create albums before you send them to print…so you don’t have to upload them again. It is .19 cents a print and $2.95 shipping…I’ll let you know the quality. I just had some done at Wal Mart and they were the worst…some were even cut off on the sides.
Love ya tons…and when you pick up the pics call me!!
org junkie says
Hey Annie,
I almost went with Future Shop too but because I had this coupon for Save On I went with them. After all that the coupon didn’t even work so I ended up spending more than Future Shop’s price anyway…uggg. Don’t ya just hate that. After I see your photos from Future Shop maybe I’ll use them for my next batch.
Mercy says
Oooh, yeah, I’ve been there before. Well, not exactly THERE, but well, you know. I’ve had that same type of thing happen to me. And, yes, it is very frustrating to spend SOoo much time working on something to just have it DISAPPEAR right before your eyes. Yes, it can send a girl to bed with tears…
But, what a way to rise up again!
Hope they turn out great for you.
~Mercy~
Katie says
Shutterfly is my FAVORITE!! I have tried about 5 different companies on your list, and I love their Prices, their fast Shipping, and their GREAT quality. I was very disapointed with Snapfish, and periodically disapointed by Kodak Gallery. Shutterfly has scored highest among them all in my book!!
Just wanted to add my 2 cents!
Katie says
Oh yes, and I agree with annie that Walmart was really BAD! Also, I forgot to say that I bought an annual savings plan through Shutterfly, it cost 29.99, BUT, you get a free photo book (a 29.99 value), and you get ALL your prints 30% off for an entire year. It makes my 4×6 prints only 13 cents each. Then I usually try to wait until they send me a free shipping offer in my email, and order them in bulk to get the free shipping.
Anonymous says
We’re looking at being overseas in a year and 1/2, so I was asking another missionary about having stuff sent over. She said it was cheaper to have someone in U.S. send it over to you (rather than order directly from say amazon.com). Is there someone in the U.S. who could ship a photo order to you in Canada? Maybe while you’re doing “catch-up”?
Just a thought,
Jennifer
P.S. I’ve also been in tears (or close) over trying to upload! It’s VERY frustrating.
Naomi (Urban Mummy) says
I’m also in Canada. I use bonusprint.com
Prices are good (especially for larger sizes). Variety of sizes is good.
I think it’s down to 14 cents each at this point.
Overwhelmed! says
You want to hear something sad…my son’s birth mother has more printed pictures of Snuggle Bug than we do! We’re committed to sending her pictures and an update every 6 months and I never skip this. So, I go through my digital images, pick out my favorites, and make prints for her. I really need to get double prints done!
Good luck on all of this. I know you can’t use Snapfish, but I use it and it’s great. They have a feature where you can mark prefered images as a “favorite” and those pictures are automatically filtered into a separate “favorites” album for easy ordering. I love that!
UKZoe says
that would have had me in tears as well.
Erna says
I’ve just scanned this and saw you went to Save On. I don’t really know what that is but a great place I use (fellow Canadian here) is Zehrs (they have a bunch of affiliates so I don’t know if Save On is one of them out there) or Wal-Mart. I find the Zehrs pictures nicer. I do all mine on-line and like to wait for their deals. The only hint I would give, if doing them on-line is to view them in the viewing window to make sure it’s centred the way you want. I learned this AFTER doing all of Rachel’s baby pictures and only a small amount weren’t focused the way I’d want to do them. I realize this is late as I’m catching up here.
I’m sorry you had to face some frustration with the whole thing. I make something similar to a “pictures to print” folder too. :0) I hope your pictures turn out nicely. :0)
Katie says
I have chosen you for the Thinking Blogger Award, come see!!
Kim says
I am so glad that you found an option that works well for you. I really need to start getting pictures developed soon or I won’t be able to afford getting them all started at the same time.
EmmyJMommy says
Just a quick note to let you know that I have updated my blog with challenge pics!
Melissa says
Kudos for ordering the pics. That’s always been an issue for me too. I made a few albums for family members at xmas and I was so darn proud of myself. I found Shutterfly while we were living in the US and I’ve continued to use them since we;ve moved back to Canada. Never once been charged duty and the quality is just amazing.
Blessed Beyond Measure says
I’m planning to focus on photos this summer – nice way to spend the hot days inside with the AC going, and a glass of lemonaide! I learned the hard way too, to not send so many to print, not because they didnt work but the woman in line behind me was ready to tar and feather me. Smaller amounts next time.