Saving families one print at a time.

Saving families, one print at a time.

So, my Aunt Bette has been scanning and archiving family photos for a few years now, and every once in a while, I will receive through snail mail or sometimes email, an awesome photo from years past. Some images I remember, and some are from well before I was born. I can’t say how much I appreciate this small kindness, and I have a nice album at home of all these photos so one day, when he asks, my son will be able to see some of our family history. I find myself looking forward to any mail from Aunt Bette.

As a photographer, my goal is to make prints of the images I create so that clients will cherish and hang them in their homes for years, not furnish them with a digital file that will sit on a hard drive that may eventually fail or more likely, become obsolete.

I get calls all the time from people who erased a drive, dropped their phone, or just can’t find the pictures on their own computer. If there was a print of that oh-so important image on their iPhone, it might not hurt so much to lose that file…..

Yes, I know, photographers are expensive and the prints from a session can be costly. But, can I put a price on the family photo from the 1800s where my ancestors are posed in a field like this?  No. I can’t. Crazy, right? Would anyone take an image like this today? I’m thinking no.  This photo was PRINTED so many years ago, found so many years later, emailed to me by Aunt Bette, and then reprinted by me! What are the odds that an image on a hard drive will be found in 100 years? Not too promising I think.

So everyone, we as photographers are trying to preserve family memories one print at a time. Even if you don’t hire a photographer, take your camera, your iPhone, or your Android phone to one of the few camera shops left and get the most important pictures printed.

Better yet, make the investment; commission a professional photographer to make a family portrait for you at least once before the kids go to college. Print the pictures for your wall, a small frame on the piano, or on the shelf, you won’t regret it, I promise! You might even want to come back for more!