Take lots of photos

Digital cameras don't use film, so you don't have to worry about the cost of buying film, or paying to have it developed. Instead, you download the pictures from your camera straight to your computer. Once on your computer, you can crop your photos, touch them up, make collages, and print photos of varying sizes. You have instant, virtually free gratification.

As I mentioned earlier, you need to take lots of shots to get one good picture. A digital camera lets you shoot and review the results as you go. With film photography, by the time the film is developed and you have the pictures in front of you, it's too late to re-create the scene.

With three young children, I never seem to find the time to get photographs into albums. But once my pictures have been downloaded, I find it easy and quite fun to sort digital photos into albums on my computer.

One piece of good news: Digital photography is becoming better and cheaper all the time. I splurged and got a high-end Sony with 3.3 megapixel resolution, but solid, cheaper digital cameras abound (just remember that more megapixels means better photo resolution). I've heard several good things about the Kodak and Olympus lines.

I could go on and on about the wonders of digital cameras, but let me just repeat that I love mine. I have taken more family photos since I bought it and seen the quality of my photos improve. Regardless of which type of camera you choose, whether it's a digital or film-loading model, start snapping. Your kids are changing every day, and they'll never be the same again.