These days everything is digital. We’ve got a camera we are hardly ever without built into our phone, and we consume digital information non-stop. You’ve got all your photos saved on your phone/tablet/cloud, etc., so you can just look at them there…right? Why even consider printing digital photos?
But let me tell ya – feeling the album in your hand, seeing it on the wall, or taking the picture out of its sleeve is nostalgic and just plain fun. Much more fun than crowding around a screen, in my humble opinion 🙂
Why take up physical space with printing your digital photos?
Several years ago, I was on one of my annual visits to see family in Oklahoma. I was spending the day with my Grandpa while he was working on his latest restoration project – a 1964 Volvo. He worked on sourcing the parts he needed to rebuild the engine and the interior to make it new again. I had my camera with me and took some pictures of him working on it in his shop.
The next time I went to visit, he took me on a ride around town in his finished car. He showed me all of the pictures he had taken along the way, and I got an idea. I told him I would put together an album for him to take to the car shows to display all the work he put into it.
There is something very special about going through photos in an album compared to swiping through their digital form.
When he got the finished album in the mail, he called me to say thank you and that it was more than he’d imagined it would be. It was so fun to hear his excitement over the phone!
A few years later, the book came back to live with me because he was no longer around to show it off. It sits on my dresser next to a picture of him and I when I was about a year old, riding their 4wheeler in a parade.
When we were preparing for my Grandpa’s memorial service, my family sat around my aunt and uncle’s table going through boxes of pictures and albums. We passed them around, listened to stories, laughed and enjoyed each other’s company.
Every time I glance at that book in my room, I smile. Every time I walk down my hallway, sit in our living room, I see pictures that make me smile. That happens a lot more often that if those pictures were just tucked away on the depths of my hard drive.
Printing your digital photos takes up space – but they’re worthy of every bit of it.
We often take moments for granted, and don’t realize how special they will become one day when we can no longer relive them with that person.
Having a printed, tangible representation of family memories is the starting point to a story I’ll tell my kids one day – that’s simply invaluable.
I don’t have every picture that means something to me printed and displayed at all times.
I’m a practical person and space constraints are a thing. But, I do have pictures behind pictures in frames. I get to take a trip down memory lane whenever I update them.
I have small photo books from big trips, some albums with daily pictures of each kids first year.
Printing digital photos and finding creative ways to display them in your home is something you’ll never regret.
We have our yearly photo albums and old scrapbooks that are out an accessible for us to pick up any time.
Lately my kids have been grabbing some of them and thumbing through the pages. I’ll hear “Mommy is that me when I was little?” – and it’s so fun to talk to them about whatever was going on in the picture.
Bottom line – please print your digital photos.
Sincerely,
Photographers everywhere 🙂
OTHER BLOG POSTS YOU MAY LIKE:
My thoughts on why you should always keep backups of your photos
I’m big on organization – see how I keep all of my photos organized and find-albe in this post (coming soon!)
Don’t wait to preserve the season of life you’re in right now. See how lifestyle photography can capture your family in a real, down-to-earth way.
Need to update your family pictures? Adding a new member to the family soon?
I know someone who would love to get those memories captured (and printed!) for you 😉
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