This can be an easy and cheap way to share pictures with distant family members or friends. If you use a 1M pixel or better digital camera, try printing the photos on special photo printers or at photo printing services that specialize in digital prints. The results can be very good and although the cost per print can be higher than conventional photography you can be more selective in what you print. Usually the prints are mailed to you in a few days and look exactly like traditional prints. When you upload to the print service try to upload the maximum possible resolution.
Digital cameras are ideal for taking panoramic images.
You can take a series of shots of say a large landscape scene and then use special software to stitch the images together into a much larger picture. The results can be very impressive. To do this you will need software such as Ulead's COOL 360 product to perform the stitching functions. Digital cameras with over 1M pixel sensors can capture a page of text from a book, magazine or newspaper very well and much more quickly than a scanner. It can also be used to capture white boards in meetings.