To me, vacation means rest. To my husband, vacation means he can live behind the camera and drive me crazy with his "artistic" candid shots. This year, he's in heaven. Why? Because he's discovered how easy it is to share photos with friends and family—in real time. When we're on a trip, here's how he keeps everyone up-to-the minute, every few minutes.

Before starting, you should check to see if Windows Live Photo Gallery is on your PC. Click the Start button , type Windows Live Photo Gallery, and see if it appears in the list of results. If it doesn't, you can download and install it for free.

First things first: get some photos. Are you the family shutterbug? If so, do what you always do: take pictures. Lots of them. That way you'll have a ton to choose from when you select the best of the batch.

The next step is to get the photos from the camera to a PC. Here's a tip: As long as you can connect your camera to a computer, you can share your pictures from wherever you are—so it doesn't even matter whether you've lugged along your laptop or you're relying on computers in a hotel or beachside Internet café. Just bring your camera cords.

To transfer your pictures to a PC, connect your camera and turn it on. Open Photo Gallery, click the Home tab, and then click Import. Choose your camera from the list.

When you connect your camera to your PC, AutoPlay give you the option to import your pictures

Get more details on how to import photos and videos into Photo Gallery

When you're importing your pictures, you can tag them with descriptive words. Then when you're looking for the photos later, you can search for the tag name. My husband and I usually go with a simple and basic method of tagging our vacation photos with the name of our destination—but you can tag your images in whatever way makes the most sense to you. When you're done, click Import.

You have the option to tag your pictures when you import them

We use Photo Gallery to edit our pictures; it's quick, does everything we need, and—best of all—it's free. (Don't have Photo Gallery? No problem—it's a quick download.)

For instance, I really like this shot but it's crooked and a little washed out. To get started, I just double-click the photo. I’m automatically on the Edit tab and can see all of my options at the top.

You can edit your photos on the Edit tab in Photo Gallery

I'm pretty lazy and tend to default to the magical Auto adjust, which fixes everything automatically. My husband, on the other hand, likes to labor over each shot and adjust them manually. When he's feeling particularly artistic, he'll crop them and choose interesting effects, like black and white or sepia tone. No matter how much—or how little—you change, all your changes are automatically saved. (You can change your mind later on by opening the photo and clicking Revert to original.)

Get more details on using Photo Gallery to fix and edit your photos

With just a few quick adjustments you can dramatically improve your pictures

When you're sharing vacation photos, there's nothing quite like showing a sweeping panoramic shot. It can be hard to create one without standing waaaaay back to squeeze everything into the photo…until now. Just take a bunch of individual pictures and Photo Gallery stitches them all together for you.

Find out how you can make a photo like this in just a few steps

A panoramic photo of the Grand Canyon created in Photo Gallery

Sometimes when we’re on vacation I’ll ask someone to take our picture so we can both be in the shot. Of course usually one of us looks great while the other one is looking away, blinking, or has weird-looking hair. Now I just ask the nice stranger to take a few extra shots. After I get the photos into Photo Gallery, I use Photo Fuse to combine the best pictures into one perfect memory.

You just pick the face that works best for each person from each photo. Photo Gallery magically blends them together.

Learn how to use Photo Fuse step-by-step

You can combine the best parts of two so-so photos to make one great family portrait

Don’t stop with just static shots. Photo Gallery works great with Windows Live Movie Maker so you can turn those pictures into slide shows (complete with music, titles, transitions, and special effects). You can download and install Movie Maker for free.

And when you’re back at work, you can keep dreaming about your vacation by using your photos to spiff up your desktop.

Learn how to make your own desktop theme

Your photos are taken, you've made all your adjustments, created a slide show, and fixed some faces—now it's time to share them. But where's the nearest Wi‑Fi? Truth to tell, it's a little shocking how many places offer free wireless service. Coffee shops. Hotels. Even many fast-food chains. And I find it both wonderful and weird to pull into a freeway rest stop—you know, the kind with a park, bathrooms, and free coffee—and find an Internet connection.

We generally upload photos to Windows Live SkyDrive, but you can upload to many popular photo-sharing sites including Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, SmugMug, and more—right from Photo Gallery. Highlight all the photos you want to publish, then click Create and select one of the sites. You can even post your videos to YouTube.

Now your friends can see how much fun you’re having on your vacation while you’re still there. Let the jealousy commence!

If you haven't worked with Photo Gallery yet, download it (and Movie Maker too) and try it out. Then you can share all your vacation photos practically as soon as you take them. And trust me, if my technologically challenged husband can do it, anyone can.