*this is an sponsored article
I´m a big postcard collector and buying postcards has always been a tradition for me ever since I started traveling 8 years ago. I´ve always loved to keep a photograph of the destination I traveled to and I even used to have a wall with more than 100 postcards from all different kinds of cities sorted by country, region and continent. However, it has been more than a year now since I bought the last postcard and still, my collection hasn´t stopped. On the contrary, it has even become larger and has better photos now. Let me tell you what I do, so you can start doing it too.
My first postcard was probably from my first trip during my exchange year in Germany. I went to Amsterdam with my language class for a weekend and when I saw these colorful photos of 6`x3` I thought this could not only be a great present to my friends and family, but also a nice thing to collect to keep some travel memories on my wall. My photography skills weren´t so good at the time and getting such a great printed photograph for less than 1 Euro sounded like a good deal to me. From Amsterdam I went to Brussels, London, Berlin and Prague; of course, whenever I traveled to one of these magical cities, I made sure to get a postcard for myself and one for my parents back in Colombia. Collecting postcards became a tradition.
After some years my photography skills improved, I got a better camera and I was photographing more interesting situations in every destination I visited. I was still collecting postcards, however, I started liking the photographs I took with my camera more. You probably know what I´m talking about: No matter how nice these postcards look, you always appreciate more that photograph you took yourself and that brings you back nice memories of these travels. I started losing interest in the postcards I saw in the souvenir stores and finding the right postcard for my collection became more of a challenge rather than a fun task to do before departing. I wished I could have my photographs as postcards instead of buying them.
I started using MyPostcard almost 18 months ago. I was trying out different apps for printing photographs and I simply loved the idea of getting my pictures sent home as a postcard only a couple of days after ordering them. MyPostcard offered me a possibility for creating my own postcards and not only sending a copy to myself for my collection, but also to my friends and family all over the world. All that while avoiding the sometimes-annoying process of finding the right postcard, getting stamps and finding a mailbox before leaving the city (a task which probably many of you are familiar with).
I stopped buying postcards at souvenir stores and started sending home postcards of the same photos I was sharing on Facebook or Instagram. I was even able to give a personal touch to each photo and send a personal message to my loved ones in a creative way. My family was able to see amazing destinations like China or Iceland from the same perspective I had at the time and I had the feeling my photographs started coming to life. My nice little collection of postcards hasn´t stopped either; and with my photography skills improving every day, I am now happy to be able to send home photographs that I´ve taken with my drone or underwater cameras.
Postcards are a wonderful travel souvenir and with mobile phone cameras taking excellent pictures, editing apps which work perfectly in a matter of minutes and apps like MyPostcard that send postcards within just a couple of clicks and for less than 2 Euros, I think I have a good reason not to buy postcards anymore.
