Taking pictures used to be a big deal. It wasn't all that long ago that the primary source of those random-but-intriguing shots — grandfather snoring in his favourite armchair, a Labrador gazing quizzically into the lens or maybe a flame-red maple leaf on the pavement — was when you were trying to finish off a roll of film so you could take it in for processing.

Photography was an expensive hobby and experimental shots were either the domain of self-confessed shutterbugs or the professionals. Otherwise, people didn't muck about much with photos. Pictures were considered keepsakes, a record of a moment in time — a wedding, a graduation ceremony or a trip through Europe — and relegated to large photo albums.

Not anymore.

Digital photography changed all the rules. No more added expense of developing film rolls. With instant replay on the LCD screen, do-overs are a snap. And, with memory cards that offer gigabytes of space, you can literally take hundreds of pictures at an event if you want to, rather than 36 carefully considered frames at a time.

However, digital cameras have also added to the clutter crammed on computer hard drives. Photo albums that used to be hauled out and dusted off when visitors came over have suddenly become an anachronism. Instead, people are now invited to lean over someone's shoulder as they play a slideshow on their computer, or scroll through snapshots on their camera's screen.

So, what to do with all those photos sitting on your computer or backed up onto CDs or DVDs?

Photo sharing

The most popular option is to share photos online, and there's a growing range of services out there, catering to both casual and avid shutterbugs.

With the internet, you can literally share your photos with the world using online photo management sites. Flickr is easily the most used, although there are many options including Photobucket, Google's Picasa and Yahoo! Photos.

A great example of Web 2.0's participatory nature, Flickr allows you to upload 100 megabytes of photos for free per month, or you can buy unlimited uploads and get permanent storage for $24.95. But it's not just about storing pictures — Flickr has cool features such as tagging and mapping your photos, if you want to participate in the Flickr community. When you tag your photos with keywords or map them by geo-tagging, your photos show up when someone searches for those particular tags or maps.

Also, online photo management systems not only allow family, friends, and, if you wish, the whole world to check out your photos, they also give them the option of printing a picture or two, if they feel so inclined.

Blogs

Then there are photoblogs or moblogs. As the name suggests, photos are used instead of text in these online journals. There are many free photoblog hosting sites, as well as photo blogging software available on the internet.

Photoblog communities range from universal blogs such as the Flickr blog, to localized ones such as Toronto Area Photoblogs. Or, you can find localized Flickr communities, such as Flickr's blogTO community.

Private showings

There are some who don't want to share their photos, especially people who don't want their photos filched — which can happen when you post images online. Others want to keep their personal images private rather than displaying them for the world, but still have an easy way to view them so that they don't sit forgotten in digital storage.

One option is a digitally savvy way to display your photos on your mantelpiece: A digital photo frame. All you have to do is insert your digital camera's memory card into the frame, and you can view a single photo or a slideshow of all the pictures on the memory card.

The frames also have internal memory that allows the user to store some pictures permanently, along with narration or soundtracks.

Although digital photo frames have been around for some time now, high prices have kept them from finding their way on to many mantelpieces. But the plunging price of LCD screens in recent months has made them more affordable, and they can be found starting at less than $100 for a five-inch screen. Larger models are also becoming easier to find if you have a bigger budget.

The latest trend in digital frames, however, is WiFi or Bluetooth wireless technology. You can connect the frame to your home or office network, and send it your latest photos. You can link the frames to the internet and use RSS feeds or tags from photo-management sites such as Flickr to create random slideshows.

Portable viewers

A similar, if low-end, product is a digital photo viewer keychain. The 1.1-inch wide screen and 42 digital images capacity isn't the perfect way to showcase your wicked photo skills, but at $50 it's a handy slideshow in your pocket.

Most new portable video players, and many portable music players with colour screens, double as photo viewers. You can load photos onto them and view them on the road, and some have a video port so that you can use them to run a slideshow on a TV screen.

There are also photo viewers that are designed specifically to play images on a TV screen. They have slots for the memory cards used in cameras, and come with a remote that lets you set up an automatic slideshow or run things manually, flip and zoom in on photos, and so on. Smaller than a softcover book, they're easy to store and take with you to grandma's house, simple to hook up (typically a power cord and a single video cable), easy to run, and start in the $50 range.

Plain paper

Of course, there's something to be said for being able to pore over photos on paper. Just because they start out as digital files doesn't mean you can't print them and slide them into old-school photo albums.

Like LCDs, the price of photo printers has plummeted, and you can now find high-quality photo printers in the $75 range that will pump out images that rival what you can get from a professional photo- finishing lab.

The downside is that the cost of ink and specially coated photo paper can become high if you're printing large batches of shots at home. If you have big collections of images to print, there are services that can produce hard-copy photos for a few cents each.

Better yet, you can now create your own customized photo albums, turning them into uber-cool coffee table books. Stores such as Black's and Futureshop offer photobook services, just as Apple offers its iPhoto 6 book feature. Black's allows you to create a variety of sizes of photobooks, ranging from memory books to coffee table books, in soft, linen, suede or leather covers. Futureshop offers medium sized (8.5 by 11 inches) photobooks that are bound in leather, suede-like or linen covers. You simply upload your photos and wait for the photobook to arrive — printed and bound. Prices ranges anywhere from $10.99 to $74.99 for the set number of pages. Additional pages can be added for extra price.

So, whether it's a random shot or a perfect pose, there are more ways than ever to display your photos now. There's no reason to let them languish out of sight in storage.

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