Haven’t gotten around to scanning and digitally archiving some of your old photos, even though you know it’s the right thing to do (or, at least that’s what certain magazine editors and other industry pundits keep telling you)? Well, stop making excuses—after all, if LIFE magazine can manage to scan and upload 10 million of their most personal images, surely you can clean out that snapshot-laden shoebox sitting in your hall closet.

In what is being touted as one of the largest professional photography collections on the Web, LIFE is making available its photo archive through a new hosted image service from search-engine behemoth Google. Even more amazing than the sheer bulk of the project itself is that 97 percent of the images have never been seen by the public.

Viewers can check out handsomely mustached Civil War hotties on display in the 1860s section; browse through iconic photographs of Pablo Picasso, Franklin Roosevelt, and Marilyn Monroe; and travel back in time to see photo documentation of the 1930s oil boom, Vietnam War, or the World’s Fair. And web surfers trolling for photos can hail from all walks of life from all over the planet: the search keywords have been translated into 16 different languages.

Plus, if you’re in the market for some high-end artwork (if only to impress your high-falutin’ friends), you’ll also be able to purchase fine-art photographic prints through Qoop.com, an online sales portal.

LIFE also announces the most comprehensive offering to date to purchase fine art photographic prints online. The general public will now have access to buy LIFE’s famous photography through QOOP.com, a leader in online art sales.

The project is far from complete—at last count, LIFE had only posted a few million of its archived photos (the staff hope to have all 10 million up in the next few months). But it’s yet another masterful melding of art and technology, joining two powerhouses in their respective industries. Photos are meant to be shared, and what better way to share them globally than by tapping into the Google machine?

Now get to work on that shoebox of yours.

“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.”—Pablo Picasso

“Orange is the happiest color.”— Frank Sinatra

If colors, like features, mark our emotional fingerprint, what does your camera say about you Mr. Serious Photog shooting with a charcoal-black body? Huh?

Granted, there aren’t many pro cameras on the market today that come in Vintage-Violet or Pumpkin-Pie Orange, but you should never say never… Especially when never came this year at photokina in the form of a G1 DSLR by Panasonic—the new G1 offers photogs a choice between black, red, or blue. And though professional cams don’t come in as many colors as their point-and-shoot counterparts, the new Panasonic designs are one step in a colorful direction; however they aren’t the first…Hasselblad released colored camera bodies almost a decade ago with their 501 series, which came in black, yellow, red, green, and blue. They haven’t continued the trend in recent years—which brings me to my next question…Is there even a professional market for colored cams?

The jury is still out on whether lens color effects capture and exposure…Do Canon’s white lenses make that much of a difference in solar heat absorption? I’m not sure, but I can say with ease that the lighter lenses probably made more of a difference in Canon’s marketing campaign than anything else. So what about the colored bodies? With the success of colored point-and-shoots, companies are trying to take advantage of a good thing. As the women’s market expands, will colored pro cams become all the rage? Or does the color craze begin with point-and-shoots and end with bridge cameras? Surely there isn’t any real technical advantage worth noting other than, well, the fact that they’re easy on the eyes; and if they’re prettier, maybe more people will want to look into their lenses? We can only hope, right?

So what’s your favorite color cam? Are you more traditional—do you have a soft spot for the standard black? Do you like to mix it up with blue? Or are you willing to stand out with red…On our homepage, you’ll find a survey asking what camera color you prefer—check it out, and give us your opinion…