pith.org

Travel Pro-Tip: Send Customized Postcards,

published at 1:02pm on 02/09/12

When you’re on the road, send a customized photocard home and be a hero.

Whenever I am traveling, I try to set aside an hour or two to send postcards to my family and friends around the world, and ever since I started shooting digital, my postcards have gotten a thousand times more awesome.

As it turns out, 4×6″ prints send rather nicely through the post.

There is most likely going to be a photo-printing kiosk wherever you end up in the world (if you’re having trouble finding one, try the nearest drug store). Just pop your camera’s media card into the machine and choose the photos you want to print. Most of the time you’ll get your prints back in under an hour and very often, you’ll get them back immediately.

A couple of things to keep in mind as you are printing out your photocards:

Remember your audience. The best photocards are the ones that mean something to the recipient, so take a minute to find something appropriate. When I was in London, the crazy statue in St. Pancras station reminded me of a statue in San Diego, so I printed out a photo of it to send to my sister who lives there.

Add a border. You won’t be sending your image in a frame, so a simple white border will add a bit of polish to the final card.

Matte, if you can. I suppose this is more of a personal preference, but I like to send matte photocards if I can as I think they tend hold up a little better as they make their way through the mail.

Keep it brief. The nice thing about sending a photocard is that the image itself is the message, so you can keep your words to a minimum. Tweet-length is good.

And really, that’s it. Write the address on the back, slap a stamp on it and wait. A few days later, it will show up in your friend’s mailbox, and you will totally make their day.

Filed under: Personal