THOUGHTS FOR THURSDAY-TIP OF THE DAY
Digital images are great! Personally, I want the digital images for myself, and I provide those for my clients as well. I mean, we live in a digital age, we share our pictures all over social media. We want the likes and the hearts and the comments from our social media friends and followers, it feels good. Digital images allow you to do whatever you please. You can email them, print them to hang on your walls, build a photo album, either one for your table or a digital one, create cards, so many different things. From a photographer to client point of view, the turnaround time is faster to receive your digital files. You don't have to wait for the images to be printed and mailed. They show up in your in box. These things are great!
A few short years ago, I provided CDs, which are about obsolete now, then flash drives, and now we have the cloud. That seems safe, but what happens when you download your images to your computer and it crashes, did you save them to the cloud? Can you access the images on that CD or flash drive now? Not so many years ago, pictures were created on film, and it was developed at the local drug store. When was the last time you saw one? Getting filmed developed now is a process most are not willing to do or wait for. As technology changes, so does the way we give and receive photos. Who knows where we will be in the next 10 or 20 years?
When you print photos, you have something to see and feel. It evokes emotion, unlike looking at a picture on a screen. Printed photos, regardless of the type of print, is an heirloom to be enjoyed for generations to come. Do you go back to look at your wedding album or your wedding flash drive? Odds are you look at the album. Your photographer might have included it in your wedding photography package, or you created it yourself. Photos printed at a professional lab can and will stand the test of time. The prints will last much longer than the current technology. Your children, grandchildren, even your greats and beyond, will be able to glimpse into the past at their loved ones, whether they knew them or not. It's their heritage, where they came from. It's a memory, history frozen in time for generation to enjoy.
When my grand aunt Olga passed away, she left some photos to my mother, as Olga never had children of her own. When my mom passed, I inherited the photos. These are photos of my grandfather as a baby, my great grandparents and I even have some of my great-great grandparents and 3x great. It's amazing to look at my ancestors and hold the photos they held and took so much pride in. Family photos were important in my family, for more than a century. I didn't find out how important my distant relatives thought having portraits done was until after I became a photographer. I guess you can say it is in my blood. I feel so honored to have a little part of the history of my extended family, even if I do keep the photos in a suitcase.
In the photos below:
- Circa 1916...My great grandparents, Martha and Karl, my grand aunt Olga age five, my grandfather Earl age two
- The suitcase full of photos of my ancestors
- A family photo of my great-great grandparents Bertha and Rudolf, with their children, one of whom is Martha. my great grandmother, she is 3rd from the left, oldest daughter.
- The last photos are of my great-great-great grandparents. If you notice, their photos are hanging on the wall of the house in the 3rd image. How awesome is that?
Now I am not asking you to print every photo you have on your computer, but think about printing some of the really fun, or important ones.
XOXO,
Amy
