Picasa Rocks

Photobucket's ads....and I contacted them repeatedly....finally pushed me over the edge. I'd HEARD that Picasa made you PAY for storage and PB was free....true...HOWEVER...the big busted lady laying across my upload screen had to go. I have a son that likes to blog and we were both done with trying to bounce our eyes from her image. He hadn't blogged in weeks due to the ridiculous ads. They refused to play nice. They'd remove her and then put her back up there....with the text "Play now, my Lord"...give me a BREAK!

Mike told me to pay for Picasa and be done with ads. Yes.....you can STORE your photos and have NO ADS whatsoever! NONE!!!! On blogger you CAN upload them through blogger - but I find that to be clunky. I can also go to the web album and grab a link (just like PB) to install in to a blog post. I discovered that it is ONLY $5 for 20 GB of photos...that's CHEAP and certainly worth ditching the obscene ads. I've seen the blog as "my hobby" and determined it would be free - templates, photos etc. Mike sees it as a family history and now wants me to figure out how to print it (OUCH) and said I should not worry about paying for photo storage. I love that man, all the time...but you know. LOL

I also downloaded Picasa 3. This is a free editing/storage photo program. I like it. I'm not sure how to get it to organize the way I'd like...but check out the buttons at the bottom of this shot....

After my photos are loaded to my computer and edited....I can hit the email button and the photos are emailed....I share the photos in a variety of ways right from my photo storage/editor....

I can simply hit the little blogger button and it takes me to a blogger post form.....with photos loaded. I no longer HAVE to store photos online, I don't have to go get a link....this is a huge time saver. I've played around and can do at least four photos in a post this way. If you see the above logo at the end of one of my posts, it means that that those photos were loaded via the free software and not from a web album.

My blogger/Picasa albums were at 98%. I figure I could load another 6 - 10 photos before I had to pay. I'm not sure I NEED a web album.....as I can post from the software...BUT Jared uses the same photos and if I sync the album to the web, he can access them from any computer. I didn't mention THAT feature. I don't have upload photos....I can load the photos to Picasa on my computer, click "sync to the web" and all the photos are THERE, ready to be linked or used or viewed by others. It's very quick. This works well for us. I could have created another email address and gotten another account for free...but for $5....I'm so thankful not to deal with the PB ads....and this is much quicker than PB. I'm happy. I'll PAY $5 a YEAR to avoid ads. After Christmas, I'll read some tutorials and find out how to get the most out of the software. I figure I'll limp along through December and figure it out so that 2010 photos are organized correctly.

Tags- names, dates, locations...and they'll map your photos on a google map if you want...lots of fun thinks I COULD do, but for now, it lets Jared and I blog without the smut. We like that.

Now, I really better get ready for Akiko and company tonight.....and maybe I should figure out where we're going to sleep four big children. LOL

Bre will be home in 1 days
Krista will be home in 4 days
Jamin and Josiah will be home in 6 days
Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...