Those things still require a either a data plan or a phone with a browser/email client. MMS (thanks for the correction) is familiar and every phone made in recent history can use it with no login, sign up or password.

My father has an email account solely because an Android phone makes you get one. He definitely doesn't know the password and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't know the address either. However he is very comfortable taking pictures and attaching them to text messages.

He can easily save a contact in his phone on his own. I or my brothers would have to help him set up a bookmark in a browser. Now my father may be somewhat of a Luddite but keeping the barrier really low for family members who aren't texh savvy is a good idea for this.

And as far as quality I can almost guarantee my grandma doesn't care what is in the pictures or how blurry they are. She is going to care that I am sending her something. That's the important part not HD images.