Photolab App Archives - London Drugs Blog

4 Tips for Backing Up Your Photos While Travelling

It’s summer time! For many of you that means it’s finally time to jet set somewhere new and enjoy some much-deserved vacation days. You’ll travel by planes, trains and automobiles, cross countries and continents, experiencing incredible new places and taking hundreds of photos.

It’s important to take precautions while on your travels to ensure those irreplaceable photos are kept safe until your return home. Too often, we hear stories of friends or family members who have lost their precious travel photos due to a stolen phone, lost camera, or a damaged memory card. It’s something you hope will never happen, but it’s best to be prepared.

Before you take off on your summer vacation, our LDExperts recommend these tips for backing up and sharing your photos while travelling!

Invest in a Wi-Fi Camera

Left: Sony A5100, Right: Nikon D7500

Wi-Fi cameras are great for backing up your photos on-the-go while travelling. Depending on your preference, London Drugs offers Wi-Fi enabled DSLRs, like the Nikon D7500, as well as Wi-Fi enabled mirrorless cameras, like the Sony A5100. Mirrorless cameras are a particularly good choice for travel, as they are more compact, taking up less space in your bag, and are less conspicuous when out and about.

Just use the Wi-Fi feature and the accompanying smartphone app to send your photos directly to your phone to back them up as you go. You don’t need to have an internet connection for this to work – the Wi-Fi connection is actually just a wireless network connection between your two devices! Once your photos are transferred wirelessly to your phone, you can rest easy knowing that if anything happens to your camera or its SD card, you’ll also have them backed up on your phone.

Learn more about Wi-Fi cameras from our LDExperts Darren and Janice:

Upload & Order Prints From Your Smartphone

Whether you plan to back up your photos from a Wi-Fi camera, or are snapping all your travel photos on your smartphone, you can then easily upload those photos to our free London Drugs Photolab App! The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play, then just upload your photos and order prints on-the-go, wherever you are in the world. No more sifting through hundreds of photos on your return home – all your favourites will already be printed and awaiting pick-up at your local London Drugs (or you can have them shipped and waiting for you at home!).

Plus, if you create your own LDPhotolab account, any photos you upload to order prints of will be saved to your account. So if you happen to drop your phone in the Mediterranean Sea (knock on wood), you’ll still be able to access all those photos through your LDPhotolab account.

Use Multiple SD Cards or Hard Drives

If you plan to take your laptop along on your travels, consider backing up your photos to your laptop, a portable hard drive, flash drive, or multiple SD cards as an extra precaution. Try to do this every evening if you can, so that if something happens to your phone or camera during the next day, you’ll still have all those precious photos backed up.

Some cameras also have dual memory cards built into the camera, such as the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, so that you can automatically save to both cards simultaneously while shooting. Of course, if you’re going to use this method, make sure to put that second card somewhere safe when you can, to avoid losing both of them in one go.

Share Your Travel Photos in a Photobook

Once you’re back home from vacation, you’ll have a whole collection of beautiful travel photos to share! You can create photobooks, customized with vacation templates, and you’ll also be given the opportunity to add text like locations and dates.

Need a little help creating your photobook? Our Photolab Experts are ready to help you with all of your travel photo projects and prints – just visit us at your local London Drugs. Or you can get started right away by uploading your photos to our Photolab website, our London Drugs Photolab App for iOS and Android, or to our in-store Photolab kiosks.

Grad 2018: Preserve Your Graduation Memories

As the school year comes to a close, many graduates begin to look forward to the end of classes, graduation festivities, and the future ahead. Graduating is an incredible milestone – one that often takes a great deal of blood, sweat and literal tears (and perhaps some sleepless nights studying) to get there. And all of that hard work culminates in that special moment when you – or your child – walks across that stage in their cap and gown. It’s a moment that is most certainly worth preserving.

Graduation Cards

This special milestone is only made better by being able to celebrate it with your closest family and friends. Invite them to attend your graduation, or your graduation party or dinner, with personalized graduation cards.

To start creating your own unique grad cards, choose from flat or folded, single or double-sided cards, and our selection of specialty papers. Then browse our large selection of graduation-themed templates. Lastly, add some personalization with a photo and the details of your graduation celebration.

To preserve this special date, keep one of your grad cards tucked away for yourself that can be added to a scrapbook or memory box. It’ll be a special moment you can look back on years from now!

As a parent of a graduate, you may want to customize your own graduation announcement cards. Is there really anything better than bragging about your kids’ accomplishments? These certainly help. Personalize them with photos of your proud graduate and a personal message that you can hand out or mail to family and friends.

Prints & Enlargements

The day of graduation, you’ll likely be snapping a lot of photos, whether it’s using your smartphone, a point-and-shoot, or DSLR. Luckily, with the help of our new London Drugs Photolab App for iOS and Android, you can order prints of your favourite graduation pics right from your smartphone – or upload your photos to our Photolab website or in-store kiosks. While digital photos are great, for special milestones like graduation, it’s always best to have some hard copies – even if they’re just as a backup.

You can also share this academic achievement with all of your family, near and far, by sending them a few copies of your graduation photos. You know grandma is going to love showing off her super smart grandchildren to anyone who will listen, after all. We ship across Canada, so you can even send them your graduation prints directly when you place your order with our Photolab.

If you had professional graduation portraits taken, we can also create beautiful prints of those images. Order prints or enlargements you can frame, or a fine art print like our aluminum metal panels. We even offer graduation-themed collage templates for our aluminum metal panels, so you can customize a unique and treasured graduation keepsake to hang on your walls.

Graduation Photobooks

When there’s just too many great photos to choose a favourite, a photobook is a great way to preserve all the best moments from graduation day. We even have special themed grad templates so you can just pop in your photos, add text, and voilà! You have a beautiful, professionally printed photobook you can keep front and center on your coffee table.

Need a little help getting started? Speak with one of our Photolab Experts at your local London Drugs! Or, you can make your graduation print order through our Photolab website, at any of our in-store Photolab kiosks, or using our London Drugs Photolab App for iOS and Android.

4 Simple Ways to Organize Your Life in 2018

Hi everyone, Amanda here again from The Mommy Mix.

I’m not going to lie or try to pretend I’m something I’m not, when it comes to being organized I’m a hot mess mom! I’m lucky if I can remember to send in my kids’ milk orders on time and unless I have an appointment written everywhere I’ll most likely miss it. Not this year, 2018 is going to be my year to get organized and stay that way. It can be your year to get organized too if you join me in following some simple steps.

KEEP A LIST

When it comes to remembering things that need to be done you can pretty much guarantee that they’re going to pop into your head at the worst times; while you’re lying in bed, out shopping, sitting at work… Make sure you’ve always got a Notepad and pen nearby so you can start a list and every time your memory decides to start working you can add a quick note about the task you need to get done. You can make your “reminder notepad” super personal to who you are and what (or who) motivates you with your own images and text.

FIND A CALENDAR THAT WORKS FOR YOU

Whether you’re looking for something that allows you to enter specifics or you just want to circle a few important dates, you need to find a calendar that works for you. At the London Drugs Photolab you can create unique and personalized Photo Calendars in a variety of themes and styles with your own pictures that can also act as reminders of birthdays or any other special events in your life. The calendars span 12 months, but you can start the calendar on any month, so you can create new calendars any time of year!

MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDAR ASAP

If you’ve chosen a Traditional, one of the Coil Bound Photo Calendars or even something compact like the Desktop Photo Calendar than I’m sure it’s safe to say you want to be able to track details, and now you can. Remember the lists that you’ve been making; transfer anything from it of importance on your calendar, write down any bill payment due dates plus don’t forget birthdays, anniversaries and appointments. Make it a point to look at your calendar at least once a week.

WRITE IT WHERE YOU’LL SEE IT

You go in your fridge every day, right?! Stick a Magnetic Memo Board to it so every time you go grab the milk for your morning coffee or cook dinner, your bake sale tasks, appointments and special days for the week will be staring you in the face every day!

What tips do you have for getting organized in 2018?

For more personalized organization tools visit the London Drugs Photolab online, in-store, or simply download the London Drugs Photolab App (available for both iOS and Android devices)!

3 Reasons to Preserve Memories in a Photo Book For Your Kids

Hi everyone, Amanda here from The Mommy Mix!

Growing up, my family didn’t take a whole lot of road trips. As a child, this didn’t bother me but as I got older and had a family of my own, I started to think how I wanted things to be different for my boys. I wanted to give them more than just memories of us going to the neighborhood pool or local zoo. I wanted them to experience the different places in this beautiful province we call home. This past summer, my husband suggested we take a few mini road trips to some of the provincial parks he visited as a child and I, of course, thought this was a wonderful idea. So, with no plans as to the exact location our road trips would take us, I grabbed my camera, my husband grabbed the fishing gear (just in case), we packed some road trip snacks and away we went.

As soon as our summer started and the road trips began I knew I wanted the boys to have more than just memories in their heads of our 2017 Summer, I wanted to make them Travel Photo Books from the London Drugs Photolab, not just of our road trips but of our experiences. And here’s why:

THEY WILL APPRECIATE IT

Have you ever sat and watched a child look at a Photographic Album? Even children younger than 2 can sit for hours flipping back and forth from page to page; I swear it’s the only time their attention lasts longer than a minute. And when they’re looking at pictures of themselves or someone they know, the look of “ahh” on their little faces is priceless!

REMINISCING WITH FUTURE GENERATIONS

We’ve all been there before, listening to stories our parents use to tell us about their childhood or the fun places they visited and now we do the same with our children. When it’s their turn to be the storytellers, wouldn’t it be nice if they had photos to show your grandchildren or great-grandchildren? Photo Books are the perfect way to keep memories alive for generations to come!

KIDS OFTEN MISS THE BITS AND PIECES

It’s no surprise that the brain works in mysterious and AMAZING ways! When it comes to remembering a time and place, as well as how we felt, there are so many things that can help without having a visual aid; a scent, the feel of someone’s touch, a song playing on the radio… But, how much of our memory is triggered by these things, especially something that we did during our childhood? Do we remember the little things? The smile on someone we love’s face, the way they used to look… As adults we start to understand and appreciate the value of time, soaking everything in for as long as we can. Children tend to rush through life letting it pass them by and not taking any of it in. Choose a Coffeetable Photo Book with a simple style that matches the memories you’re creating and you can store all the bits and pieces away in a keepsake that will last them a lifetime!

With the help of the London Drugs Photolab, I was able to make a Photo Book with a neutral theme for my boys that displayed the fun we had this summer. Not only could I pick the style but I also had the freedom to pick the layout of each individual sheet, which means I had total control of the amount of photos I used and the text I wanted to leave, in case they needed reminding of where our family was and what we were doing. It was so simple… and the best part is when they’re older they’re going to think I spent hours on it, when in reality it took less than 30 minutes.

MORE WAYS TO PRESERVE WHAT THEY LOVE AS CHILDREN

While we’re talking about the sentimental reasons you should create photo books for your kids, a Recipe Book with their favourites is also a good idea. Let them know in the recipe book how you made their favourite pasta dish or what you put in those muffins that made them taste so good, so they’re prepared to make them when they leave the nest. How else will they know that the secret ingredient for moms is always love?!

For more ways to preserve memories for your kids, check out all the items at the London Drugs Photolab. You can order your very own personalized photo books online, at their in-store kiosks, or even using their London Drugs Photolab App (now available for both iOS and Android!).