The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed. – Anne Geddes (1956)
One of my favourite things to do used to be to spot people letting out their inner narcissist in public. C’mon, you know the drill. Everyone probably does it, but the usual suspects are the head-shaking, peruvian-hair-swinging, emoji-to-cover-darkened-armpits-using, Work-by-Rihanna-in-the-background-playing, lip-synching demographic.
Step 1. Find the nearest mirror. Step 2a. Whip out your smartphone (if you use an iPhone, proceed to [3]). Step 2b. Go an buy an iPhone. Step 3…
“But furst, let me take a seh-fee”
You see, those who are fortunate enough to be armed with decent mobile cameras tend to accumulate a ton of great photography over time. Some of it is shared to their social networks. But these pictures are only accessible via social media. It’s not like you can ask your guests to view your pictures on your ‘gram when they come visiting — wait, there’s probably people who do this. Still, that’s what actual photo albums you can hold and thumb through are for, right?
If it’s ever occurred to you to that the pictures from your social media feeds might look good in print, you are the one Fotobrag is looking for. The service allows you turn your social image collections into physical photo albums. But it’s not just the images sitting on your Instagram. A lot of the images that people take with their cameras end up in storage because the hassle of getting them printed is too much for most people who aren’t professional photographers.
How does it work? First, you have to get the images into Fotobrag…you could connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts, or simply upload them from your computer. It lets you pick between 20 and 50 photos, give your “brag” a title, and select one of three frame sizes (all appropriately priced) before pulling your images into a print layout and preview interface that will then allow you customise what the final printed product will look like. It’ll also let you know whether or not the images you’ve uploaded are sharp enough – so you don’t blame them for blurry photos. Once you are satisfied, you checkout, pay, and wait for your prints.
Is this novel? Of course not. Services that allow you print photos from your phone/social media have been around for a while. Social print studio, (formerly Printstagram, for obvious reasons) for instance, has a wide array of formats to choose from. You can even make fridge magnets from your Instagram momentos. Kindred Prints does pretty much the same thing, except that they offer a monthly subscription model. But none of them (as far as I can tell) delivers to Nigeria, the market that Fotobrag intends to serve.
And serve them, they must. Fotobrag promises to deliver your brag in 5 (working) days, for a fee of ₦600 if youre in Lagos, or ₦2000 if you’re in any of the other 35 states in the country. If you’d like to have a physical copies of some of your best mobile photography, do check them out.
