Of photos and Belgian expatriates

After my trip to Rome to visit a friend there recently, I was talking to him about the fun we had (Don't ask about Japanese flags...).
Despite having lived in the Eternal City for a number of years, he still takes photos of everything he sees: the Fontana di Trevi, the Basilica of St. Paul, a shop selling ice-cream, Italian traffic jams, his meal in a restaurant, even road signs… if he agrees, I might post a couple on this blog when I write about Rome.
I once asked him what he did with all his photos, apart from filling his friends’ Inboxes when he emails them. The answer is, not much - which is a shame, as some of his photos are actually quite good.

Photos are supposed to be printed. Like a caterpillar metamorphosising into a butterfly, binary code stored on a memory card can be turned into a print of your favourite photo. It’s the natural order of things. You can keep them on a CD, store them on your hard-drive, even view them on your mp3 player… but that’s like leaving the Cabbage White trapped in its cocoon in the nettle patch. Unnatural, and cruel. If you brew beer you don't leave it in the barrel, you drink it. As the Germans say, "Ordnung muß sein." ;-)

Some people print their own photos at home, but by the time you’ve paid for the printer, the paper, the ink, and the two or three attempts at getting it right, the time, cost and stress of this means you won’t want to print more photos than necessary. Instead, it makes far more sense to get them printed professionally.


There are a few good companies out there which will print them: I personally recommend Snapfish, formerly known as Pixaco. And for my Belgian friend who lives in Rome, I recommend visiting the company through this link which, at the time of writing, gives you 50 free prints with your first order in Belgium. ;-)

Happy printing....