If you're feeling left out when you lug around your ancient traditional camera, you're not alone. Get in on the digital revolution! We'll examine the many benefits of digital cameras.

Instant gratification
Let's start by looking at what you can do with a digital camera that you can't do with a traditional one.

You get instant feedback from a digital camera. You can view your pictures the moment you shoot them, select the best, and delete the rest. This way, you won't waste money developing film and printing photos that don't make you smile.

And because your photos are already electronic images, you can e-mail them, post them to a website, or enhance them right away.

So should you throw your traditional camera away? Of course not. A film-based camera is still better for some jobs, like taking really detailed pictures, especially photos you plan to enlarge. But unless you're preparing for an upcoming photo exhibition, the degree of detail that a digital camera offers is just fine for most photographers.

One last thing before we move on: You can still take pictures the old-fashioned way, and then enjoy the benefits of the digital darkroom (a.k.a. your HP Pavilion PC) with the help of a scanner.

The digital darkroom
Now for the good stuff. The magic begins when you feed a photo into your computer, and become the master of your own digital darkroom.

You can crop your photos to really focus in on a subject. You can make flaws magically disappear, or remove a distracting object from the background. You can even transfer your pooch's face onto Mount Rushmore if you like, or tone down Grandma's glowing red eyes.

Look at it this way: Digital technology gives you the opportunity to live the glamorous life of a darkroom developer, only without all the darkness and smelly chemicals. That's all been replaced by the PC and its faithful photography assistant, the digital-imaging program. And from click to print, you control the entire process.

Creating and sharing digital memories
Once you've "developed" the photos you like, the real fun begins. Share vacation memories with friends and family by creating a website. E-mail photos of the new baby. Or, let's say you're having an anniversary party for your parents. You can immediately print photos to send to guests the day after. Even better, you can print the photos before your guests leave. Presto! Instant parting gifts.

Just as e-mail and the Internet have allowed us to share information with anyone in the world, digital photography lets us make an instant visual connection. That's what this technology is all about: enriching our lives through enhanced communication.