Everyone has a job.
Yours is the pot. Theirs is the photos.
The tamaleada is the day in December when the whole family turns up to make the year's tamales, and it is the day that marks the start of the Costa Rican season, ahead of the Festival de la Luz, the Tope, the Fiestas de Zapote and Navidad itself. The abuela directs from the head of the table. Somebody has been softening plantain leaves since morning, somebody spreads the masa, somebody lays the pork and the rice and the carrot, somebody folds, and whoever is trusted with the string ties the piñas. The hosting house is a production line for a day and nobody in it has a free hand for a phone. Meanwhile the son in New Jersey and the daughter in Los Angeles who could not fly home want to see all of it. One QR code by the leaves collects the day, and puts them at the table.
One-time. No account needed to buy — about a minute.
The moments guests actually photograph at tamaleadas
Why tamaleadas work better on Picsui
Written for the person hosting this one, and checked against what the product actually does.
The ticos abroad sit at the table
Every family has someone who could not come home this December. Live Broadcast runs on a stand at the abuela's end of the table with sound, on a private link, so the relative in the United States hears her correct the masa and the family argue about the raisins, exactly as they would if they were there.
The technique, filmed by whoever is not folding
A tamaleada is the one day of the year the recipe is taught, and it is taught by hand, not written down. Short video clips of the abuela folding a leaf or tying a piña, uploaded from the table, keep the method for the cousin abroad who will one day have to run the tamaleada herself.
The originals, for the prints on the wall
The photo of four generations around a table of leaves and masa is the one that ends up framed in the sala. Every upload keeps the full-resolution original, not a forwarded copy, so the picture the tía in Heredia prints in January is as sharp as the phone took it.
No app. No account. One scan.
Guests point their camera at a QR code and are uploading in seconds. Nobody installs anything, nobody creates a login, and the grandparents can do it as easily as the teenagers.
unlimited photo and video uploads
Every guest can send as much as they like: phone photos, iPhone HEICs, short videos, up to a fair-use bound of 25 GB per event. Originals are kept at full resolution.
Broadcast it to the people who couldn't come
A private live broadcast is included with the Event Pass: stream up to 90 minutes to 100 viewers on a private link, with sound, and keep the recording afterwards.
Video messages, recorded on the spot
A 30-second video toast recorded in the browser, no editing, no re-uploading. The guest who would never write in a book will happily talk to a phone.
Live photo wall on any screen
Open the slideshow on a TV, projector or laptop and new uploads appear as they arrive. Grid and collage layouts, transition presets, and a phone remote to control it from across the room.
Full-resolution downloads
Download any photo, or the whole event as one archive, at original quality. What guests uploaded is what you keep — no compression, no watermark on paid events.
How it works
Set up in a minute. Collect for the whole event.
Create the event the week before the tamaleada and send the link to the family abroad with the hour the leaves go on, so they know when to open the stream.
Print the code on a card and prop it where the leaves are stacked, and another by the pot outside, since those are the two places everyone passes.
Whoever is not folding films and uploads. Start Live Broadcast on a stand at the abuela's end of the table, and put the slideshow on the TV while the tamales boil.
After the first tamal is tasted with coffee, download the originals and send the gallery to everyone who folded and everyone who watched from abroad.
Try uploading as a guest.
Scan this with your phone the way a guest at your event would. Choose a sample photo and upload it from your browser, then open the demo gallery to see it land. Photos pass a quick AI check first; videos wait for a person.
- Scan the code with your phone camera — it opens straight in the browser.
- Upload a sample photo. Look for the upload confirmation so you know it reached the host.
Use a sample you are comfortable sharing with Picsui. Please keep personal or sensitive photos out of the demo.
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This is the same kind of code your guests scan at your event.
Getting the most from tamaleadas
Put the code where the hands are clean. Everyone at the tamaleada table has masa to the wrist, and nobody will pull out a phone mid-fold, so the uploads come from the people between jobs: the one softening the next batch of leaves, the one minding the fire under the pot, the teenagers who have been told to stay out of the way. A card propped against the stack of leaves and another by the fire outside catches them. Ask the abuela to announce it once when the table is set, because a request from her is the only instruction anyone follows that day.
Film the hands, not just the people. The tamaleada is where the family recipe actually lives, and it lives in the abuela's fingers: how thin she spreads the masa, how she lays the pork and the rice and the carrot, how the leaf is folded and the second tamal is tied against the first to make the piña. Ask one cousin to take short clips of each step from her side of the table and upload them as they go. The daughter in Los Angeles who will host her own tamaleada in a rented kitchen one December will replay those clips more than any photo of the finished plate.
Keep the gallery open for the rest of the season. The tamaleada is the first gathering of a Costa Rican December, but the same family then goes to the Festival de la Luz in San José, watches the Tope on the twenty-sixth, ends up at the Fiestas de Zapote for the toros and eats the tamales on Nochebuena. Add each as a sub-event under the same code, or simply let the uploads keep coming, and the relatives abroad receive the whole December in one link rather than a tamaleada gallery in the first week and silence after. The tamal eaten on Christmas Eve belongs in the same album as the day it was made.
Common questions about tamaleadas
My brother in the United States cannot fly home. Can he watch the tamaleada?
Yes. Live Broadcast is included with the Event Pass and streams up to 90 minutes with sound on a private link to as many as 100 viewers, opening in any phone browser without an account. A tamaleada runs most of a day, so choose the stretch he most wants: usually the abuela starting the first leaves, or the pot being uncovered and the first tamal tasted with coffee. Send him the link the night before with the hour in his time zone, and the gallery link fills in the rest of the day for him.
Everyone's hands are covered in masa. Who is going to take the photos?
The people between jobs. At any moment of a tamaleada there is someone waiting for the next batch of leaves, someone tending the fire, and someone who was sent to the pulpería, and those are the phones that upload. Put the code where they stand rather than at the folding table. There is nothing to install and no login, so a nephew scans it once and uploads all day. The slideshow on the TV as the tamales boil shows the family what has come in and reminds the rest to add their own.
Can the whole December go in one gallery, not just the tamaleada?
Yes. Create the event for the tamaleada and add the Festival de la Luz, the Tope, Zapote and Nochebuena as sub-events under the same code, so the season from the first leaf to the tamal on Christmas Eve lives in one link with each day in its own section. One Event Pass covers all of it with unlimited uploads. Relatives abroad get a single gallery they can keep opening through the month instead of a fresh link each time somebody remembers to send photos.
Is the gallery private? It is our family in our house.
Yes. Only people with the code or the link can open it; it is never listed publicly and is blocked from search engines and AI crawlers. If you want to check photos before the wider family sees them, turn on host review and each upload waits for you first. You can close the gallery to new uploads after Nochebuena and keep the archive private after the 365 days of hosting, with the full-resolution originals downloaded for whoever prints the family photo.
What does it cost for one tamaleada?
An Event Pass is $29, paid once for the event. It includes unlimited uploads from as many relatives as turn up, short video clips of the folding, host review, the slideshow for the sala, full-resolution downloads and 365 days of hosting, and Live Broadcast is included for the family who could not fly home. There is no subscription and no charge per person at the table, and the sub-events for the rest of December cost nothing extra.
Every photo from tamaleadas, in one place
One-time Event Pass, $29. No subscription, no per-guest fee.
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