Four years. Four. That's how long it took me to finally create my wedding album. Our wedding photographer was great, and we got three beautiful images printed from here that are still on display in our living room, even five years after our wedding. But I am a perfectionist, and I did not want to subject her to my craziness when it came the album! But last summer I had some forced down time after my gallbladder surgery, so I made one of my to-do be to start working on our album. I knew once I started, it would get done. But getting started is the worst! But now, I have an album I absolutely LOVE and treasure that lives on a table in our entryway, along with some of our wedding flowers, cake topper and sand ceremony container (which also contains a picture!).
With the ability to keep photos on phones and memory cards, fewer and fewer people are actually printing pictures. With technology, it's so easy to snap a picture, or two, or 10. But then what? Do those photos just live on your phone or camera? If so, there are so many good reasons to start getting at least some of them printed!
Please note, I am all for digital images! I keep everything digitally. Even my backups have backups, and I love taking and storing pictures on my iPhone. What I hope you'll consider by reading this is the importance and benefits that come from printing some of your images, in addition to keeping all of the digital copies!
This beast lives above our mantle in the living room. It's a map of the US, with a picture of us in every state we've traveled to (minus Indiana, which I'm still working on!). It's a great way to see where we've been and not only track our travel, but our relationship.
Prints have a presence
Prints bring your photos to life! Look at your favorite picture you took on your phone ... in that little 4x2-ish inch screen. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone! I love having access to all of my favorite photos at any time. But picture that image as, say, an 8x10 print that you've printed and put in a small frame on your bookcase. When you look at your bookcase, it's going to stand out. Now, image that image hanging above your fireplace, as a 30x40 inch print sitting in a stunning frame with a beautiful matte. It will be the first thing people notice in the room. People are drawn to images, and, no matter the size, they are a presence in your home, and they make it a lot cozier, too!
Our wedding album, accompanied by the sand we combined during our ceremony, our cake topper and some of the candy we gave out at our wedding. (Yeah, it's old! We don't eat it!)
They stand the test of time
When you first post an image of your vacation on Instagram, you are sure to get some likes and maybe even a few comments, but as days go by, new posts come in, pile over that picture, and, eventually, it gets lost in all of the other posts. And maybe you'll revisit it every year on Facebook when they send you your memories ... that is until Facebook goes the way of MySpace, and those memories and reminders disappear.
But when you print that image, and display it in your house, you have the pleasure of seeing it every day. Remember the look on your face the first time you went to the beach? You can every day when you print that picture! It's fun to relieve those moments. And maybe you update that image in a few years and are reminded of when you got to pet a baby tiger at the zoo ... keep that photo! Save it and store it in a keepsake photo box.
In addition, these prints are a keepsake for your family and/or kids. When you chose to pass along your memories, will it be in the form of an old, scratched cell phone that is generations behind the current version (or possibly even obsolete, a la' floppy disk), or will it be your treasured wedding album? And when your grandchildren, or their grandchildren, get it, it'll be so much easier for them. Technology perpetually changes, but how a book is looked at doesn't. Which brings us to ....
Digital destruction
This is personally one of my biggest fears ... losing all of my photos. I don't take my phone to Six Flags in the event that it falls out of my pocket on the Batman. Before leaving on vacation, I back up my phone to iTunes and create three backups of all of my picture and business files. In the spring, which has the potential for nasty weather (and a tradition I now carry after any big image upload), I send one of my backups to Jared's office, which is far enough away that a tornado, flood or other disaster (including break in), shouldn't effect all of my backups. And, outside of natural disasters, there's technological disasters ... I could drop a drive, the technology to access the drive could change and I can't get to my files, the files themselves could deteriorate over time ... there are so many things! Why not protect at least some of your favorite memories by making hard copies of them.
Now, I know that if some terrible natural disaster hits, my printed pictures aren't necessarily guaranteed to be safe either, but at least it's a backup, and maybe that frame they live in or archival box they are stored in will keep them safe from, say, water damage, more than we can hope for a drive.
One of our favorite pages from our album.
Image collections are easier for viewing favorites
How often do you really go back through all of your photos? I don't really go through the ones on my phone, unless I've taken a photo for reference, or something comes up in conversation and I want to show a picture. And, if it's from even a few weeks ago, it can take forever to get to. But what if you printed some of your pictures and put them in an album, or created a photo book. Create a favorites collection of your most-loved images. There are so many resources online that will help you design an album — all you need to do is pick and theme and your pictures! And if you put that book on your coffee table, or even in a shelf, it's so much easier to just pick it up and look through it than it is to scroll through thousands of pictures, looking for just one. I'll admit that this is one of my big goals — to create an album for each year, and maybe separate albums for our bigger trips or other big events.
One of our shelves at home ... it has one of our wedding pictures, our wedding invitations (I am still so proud of them!), a few trinkets from our trips and a couple of pictures we've had printed.
Prints are personal
Remember those 8,000+ pictures on my phone? There are a lot of wonderful memories there, but imagine what it means when you pick out a favorite or two and print them. How special must those memories be for you to have picked just a handful out of thousands. Those images were made just for you. You took the time not just to take them, but to edit them, print them, pick them up (or wait for their delivery!) and then put them in a frame, hang them on the wall or store them.
Miscellaneous
Consultations
If you are looking for wall art for your home, we are happy to consult with you on what style and sizes will look best for your home!
Prints for Sale
We also sell photographic images, that include landscapes, animals and more. See some of those images here. Contact us if you're interested in learning more.