away friends and family members up to date with what's going on in your

life.

Today, the Internet has opened up a whole new way of sharing photographs

with your friends and family through Web pages and e-mail.

If you are looking to send just one or a few photos at a time, e-mail may be

the best method for you. Before discussing the procedure, it is important to

remember that attaching photos can often mean long downloads when the

recipient checks their mail.

I recommend keeping attachments at 100 to 200 kilobytes (k). However, never

attach a file or group of files whose size is over 1 Megabyte (Meg).

Another thing to consider is the file type. Most of us have received files

or pictures but have been unable to open them once they arrive at our

computer. This could be because your computer doesn't recognize the file

format or doesn't have a program capable of displaying that file type.

For images, I recommend converting them to JPEGs before you send them. This

format is standardized on the Internet, so any computer capable of

displaying Web pages will be capable of displaying JPEG images. Furthermore,

digital cameras already save images in this format and most image editing

programs have a save as .jpg option.

Now, to actually attach the image is fairly simple. With your e-mail program

open, address and begin your message like any other time you send to that

friend or family member. Once you have composed your message, you want to

attach the image by clicking on the "attach" button. Most e-mail programs

use a paper clip as the attachment icon.

Next, a window will appear to allow you to navigate to the photo saved on

your computer. Select that photo and click "send" to complete the process.

The second option for sharing your photographs is to do so over the Web

instead of e-mail. This is a much better option if you have multiple images

you would like to share or if you want to start collections of images and

archive them over time.

In the past, this meant learning technical html code and hand-building Web

pages. Today, there are resources that are specifically built for sharing

photos on the Web.

One new resource is Adobe's ActiveShare.com (http://www.activeshare.com/).

Look for one of the Sharing & Fun links which will take you to the

instructions for setting up an eCircle where you can post images for free

and share them with your friends and family.

In addition to sharing photos, the eCircle service allows you to plan

events, share music and start discussions.

To start sharing photos, click on the "create photo album" link. From here,

I used the Web site to easily select the images I wanted to share from my

hard drive. Next, I was prompted to name my photo album and I got to preview

my images. Remember, they must be JPEG's or GIFs.

Because I was a first-time user, I was required to create an account. This

step took less than 30 seconds. From here, I supplied the e-mail addresses

of the people I wanted to share my album with (you can always add more

later), and that finished the process!

Once your album is live, there are simple links which allow you to invite

more people, add photos, add news, add events, add discussions, add

announcements and even have your photos printed.

Another great resource for sharing images over the Web is PhotoHighway.com

(http://www.photohighway.com/). This site impressed me because of its clean,

professional look and feel and the abundance of resources in addition to

creating online photo albums. Even the terminology throughout the site

revealed that this was a well thought out resource created by photographers

for all levels of photographers. They tout themselves as being the No. 1

source for information on digital photography and show an emphasis on photo

albums, camera reviews, chats and contests.

One final, popular resource worth mentioning is PhotoIsland.com

(http://www.photoisland.com/). This site seems to be geared toward the

average user but features workshops, custom eCards and other photo-related

services in addition to electronic photo albums.

Don't be afraid to search around for the resource best suited for your

needs, and let the Web help keep your friends and family close in your life,

even when they are far away.