The kids have officially started school around here which means homework projects are starting to come rolling in. One of the first things each year my kids’ teachers ask them to do is put together a collage of images showing their life up until now. That way the students can all get to know each other. They then get to hang them in the hall for all the students to see.

Up until now I have hated this project and have dreaded it every year. I mean let’s be real people, who prints photos anymore? All we do is post things on social media and then the overachiever mom is ordering Chatbooks. No one prints images, myself included and I am a photographer! I did, however, print images of my first, golden child, and then stopped once the second one came along. Judge me if you will, but now I am the printing machine!

HP Tango

I went to Best Buy cause I was so upset with my lack of pictures of my kids and I bought myself the HP Tango All-in-One Printer. Now here’s the thing, locally I have a great print shop — Square 1 Printing — however, they only do 8×10″ or larger. So when printing a small 5×7″ I usually have to use Walmart or Sam’s Club, which I am not a fan of for two reasons. First, I don’t want to drive into town just to pick up prints and then when I do send them online to be printed I forget that I’ve done so, and don’t pick them up till months later. Two, the whole thing is just a hassle and I am lazy. :)

With the Tango I can sit in the comfort of my own home and print as many images as I would like directly from my phone. I can print images from Facebook, Google and Instagram. I can even print or scan documents all from the app. The printer itself came with two ink cartridges, a color and a black and white one. It also came with one packet of 4×6″ Ultra Premium Photo Paper which allowed me to print my first 10 images. Right after that, I went straight back to Best Buy and bought more paper. I was hooked.

Paper choices

Now as a photographer, I believe that the paper has just as much effect on your image as doe the settings you take your image at. I had to see what other options of paper they had, and let me just say this, they did not disappoint. I was able to find soft gloss, semi and high gloss paper in a variety of sizes ranging from a 2×2″ up to 8×10.” I bought a handful of them and went back and started printing images like crazy.

I truly love this machine and wish I would have gotten it earlier. I have printed images from years past that I would have probably otherwise would have let move down the Instagram chain and would have forgotten about. It is super convenient and very user-friendly. It only took about five minutes from setup to my first print, and for $149.99 plus about $20 for the paper, you can’t beat that.

So not only do my kids have the coolest about me posters — my walls are now covered in cherished memories. I can’t wait to start printing images for my clients!