During recent years as I attend my kid's various school activities, I find that not only am I taking photos, but so is a large number of other parents. Several hundred photos are likely being taken at each event. Even videos -- also probably numerous.

As a participant in this event, I'd like to see all of those images. It's likely that someone else is a better photographer, maybe they have a better position than I, maybe they have a better camera -- or, maybe they simply remembered their camera.

This scenario extends way beyond school events. Any sort of group gathering these days has numerous such photographers. Class and family reunions, city and music festivals, car shows, weddings and retirement receptions, professional conferences, scout campouts.... The list goes on-and-on.

Certainly, there are many ways to share your photos; Flickr (owned by Yahoo) is probably the most popular. But, there is also Picasa (Google), and Shutterfly, Snapfish, and countless others. What these various sites do is allow individuals to establish their own photo galleries, and then to share them either publicly, or with a limited set of friends and family.

As I look around at my kids' events, it seems that using those sites to share photos surrounding this particular event would not be practical. First-off, we would all publish to our own private galleries - likely on multiple services. Then, we would have to communicate the location of each of our galleries to all of the other attendees, and each would have to visit each of the other galleries individually. In order to accomplish this we would need to exchange email addresses so that we could communicate this information. Upon visiting each of potentially hundreds of galleries, I would need to determine the photos I want to keep, and then figure-out how that particular site provides for access to the original image (if it does at all).

Then, we'd have to do it all over again at the next event -- because that would be a whole other group of participants. The process is difficult and cumbersome -- at best. As such, it simply doesn't happen.

Now there are event photo exchange depots. They can be found easily by doing an online search using a major search engine. These services are designed to address this specific need -- and typically do so in a manner that overcomes the various problems. Here's how they typically work;

An event participant (doesn't matter who) registers the event at the online depot. This process assigns a unique eventcode to the event. The eventcode can then be easily commuicated to event attendees by way of the event program, or by handing-out small cards that contain the information. If the group is small and known, it could be distributed via email.

Attendees can then use the eventcode to browse and select photos from other event attendees -- and also to upload their own. The depot (depository) of photos is available to anyone who knows the eventcode, and usually remains online for a pre-determined length of time. Individual user-registration is typically not required.

So, finally I am able to share my event photos with a host of other people who's names I don't know. And, I'm able to see and save their images of the big event as well. We don't need email addresses or even an account -- it simply works.

For your next event, I recommend an online event-specific photo depot. Register your event, and then exchange and share event photos with everyone there.

More photos -- more memories! Enjoy!