If you’ve got boxes of old prints and family photos you’d like to salvage from those awful sticky photo album pages, SnapHaven will scan them for free. For a limited time, the photo storage and backup service is offering free unlimited scans for customers with an active membership — though you’ll have to pay to ship your own prints.

SnapHaven is still the only dedicated photo backup and storage site. They also offer services for making prints, photo books, and other photo gift accessories.

SnapHaven originally launched last December, but has just re-launched with new membership options. Previously, the company had plans based on upload limits, but membership is now available at a yearly flat rate, starting at $49.99. Now, rather than paying more for more space, annual memberships are straightforward and include unlimited photo backup, protected by the company’s 99 year lifetime guarantee. SnapHaven also assures that even if the yearly membership is not renewed, customers can still have full access to the photos for viewing, printing, sharing, and downloading.

There’s no app for this: Etsy seller Erin Paysse designed this pinhole camera out of an iPhone box. It’s been done before with an iPod box, but Paysse added a clean, retro touch to the camera. She’s selling the camera for $80, as well as some prints produced by the camera for $25.

Check out her store to see more creative pinhole cameras made out of  boxes and books.

(via Boing Boing)

Y Combinator-funded photo startup Picwing started out in 2008 as a typical photo-sharing service that also beamed your photos to a fancy, $249 digital picture frame that you could use to easily share photos (i.e. baby pictures with your parents). Turns out people weren’t willing to drop that much cash on a digital frame when similar products were bigger, cheaper, and similar in functionality.

Picwing then decided to focus on printing photographs, and realized that many people would like to share more physical prints than they actually do. For example, people might want to share photos of their young children with relatives, but don’t have the time to have photos printed and mailed.

Using the Picwing app for iPhone application or Android, you can send full-res photos directly to the service from your phone. Picwing then automatically prints and mails the photos to up to 6 recipients for a subscription fee starting at around $5 a month for each recipient. Photos can also be added to accounts from your computer or through email, and you can choose to have 15 photos mailed up to twice a month (for a slightly higher fee).

We like the business model, and think there’s definitely a need that Picwing meets. Is this a service you would use?

(via TechCrunch)

Doxie is a portable, USB-powered scanner for scanning things on the go. It scans documents and photographs at 600dpi in JPEG or PNG, and has the ability to scan directly to the cloud, sending your files to a large number of web apps. What’s neat is that in addition to documents, photographers can use it to easily scan and then share their prints online:

Scan and share your photos in brilliant color. Doxie automatically straightens and crops your paper photos, then drops them right into iPhoto, Picasa, or Lightroom – just like a digital camera. Put in your favorite photos – Doxie keeps up with fast, stunningly crisp scanning. And Doxie can post your photos directly to Flickr and Picnik, for instant sharing and easy editing.

Weighing in at about half a pound, it’s light enough to be carried around with your laptop if scanning is something you need to do often. Doxie costs $129, and can be ordered directly from the official website.

(via Wired)

The humanitarian organization, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), recently started a supplemental site, Images Without Borders, in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti:

Images Without Borders features and sells donated images by international photographers and artists to benefit Doctors Without Borders:

Each print is offered from Images without Borders at a limit of ten before being pulled from the collection and returned to the artist. This long-term project aids Doctors without Borders in their efforts on the ground in Haiti and the world.

Prints can be purchased for $50-$100, and iPhone prints are $32.

Doctors Without Borders, which was founded by doctors and journalists, has a track record of recognizing the value of photography in spreading and supporting their international cause to provide free medical attention to countries in need.

Last year, Doctors Without Borders published a collaborative graphic novel, The Photographer, featuring the work of the late photographer Didier Lefèvre.

The book combines art with photography gives a unique narrative about the work of the organization since 1986.

Here’s a recent panel talk about The Photographer:

Can’t wait for Polaroid to make its grand comeback this year? You can use your current camera like a digital Polaroid camera with the Portable Photo Printer by Pandigital, announced at the end of last year. It uses Zero Ink (ZINK) technology for ink-less, instant 4×6 printing, and is the first ZINK printer at this print size. The ZINK paper used by the printer has dye crystals embedded inside the paper itself, and is activated by the printer using heat.

You won’t need a computer to use the printer, as the memory card slots, LCD screen, USB ports, and controls are all located on the printer itself. The printer has an MSRP of $149.99, but is usually found online bundled with paper packs for less.

(via Trend Hunter)

Personalized mugs with your mug on it, photo blankets, and good ol’ fashioned framed pictures are all fine and dandy, but they can get old fast.

We posted a few personalized photo gifts in yesterday’s PetaPixel Photography Gift Guide 2009, but here are a few more ideas to get out the old and in with the inspired:

The Old Gift: Framed Photos

I have a few wonderful friends who have gifted me with a growing number of framed photos, but quite frankly, I have no place to put them anymore! And some of the photos are so outdated (visualize: awkward age) that they’re a tad embarrassing to have out in the open.

The Inspired Gift: The DIY Photo Book

Self-published photo books are a modern twist on the photo album, and have a classy look and feel. Even better, they can be stored easily on a bookshelf!

There are a lot of great photo book sites and software out there, and especially around this time of the year, most of the sites have some sort of discount.

These are just a few to check out:

• Mixbook
• Blurb
• MyPublisher
• Lulu
• SnapFish

The Old Gift: Giant Photo Print

Sure, mounted 11X17 prints are pretty epic, but over time, most digital prints can deteriorate.

The Inspired Gift: Canvas Print

Showcase your masterpiece on canvas! It’s pricier, but even more epic. Costco offers photos printed on canvas starting at $29.99 for an 8X10 print.

But remember, if you give the gift of a photograph, pick something that is timeless, iconic, or extremely significant. Instead of framing a posed, toothy photo of your buddy and you, pick a candid photo or one that captures a special moment in your friendship. Or better yet, use one of your favorite still life, landscape, or street scene photos as a gift. Let your photography shine!

The Old Gift: Digital Picture Frame

Digital picture frames are so 2008, but they still make fresh gifts if you spruce it up a little!

The Inspired Gift: Digital Picture Frame — with your own photo project!

Instead of gifting an empty frame, or generic photos, try something unique utilizing the frame’s display. Make a stop-motion film that will loop with the playback feature of the frame.  Use the frame to share a photo story or take photos with a certain theme and make the gift-receiver guess the theme.

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If you’ve got a great DIY photo gift project or idea you’d like to share, leave a comment!

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Image Credits: Photo Arrangement by palindrome6996, Maine spread in Blurb Book by Kelly Gifford, Grandeur by Johnath