Hi friends, how are you doing?? I can’t believe it is October! 2021 seems to be powering through on full speed.
I’ve been thinking about writing this post for a while now. One of the things friends and clients have all expressed to me is that they don’t have anything printed and their photographs are on their hard drives or on their iPhones. Some have an idea of how to tackle their 128GB of photographs but when I conducted a little survey, most people expressed that they really don’t know how to print their photographs, where to print them, how to back up their photographs (Ahh!) or know where to start in organizing their photographs and in the end, have no time. The crazy thing is that while we spend so much time busting out our cell phones to take these photographs, very few people are actually enjoying these memories on a day-to-day basis.
And to be honest, even as someone who advocates for printed photographs, I still have a big backlog of photos that I am working through to print because I’ve also spent most of my adulthood in the digital age. But let’s get back to the basics, why should we print? In an era where everything is digital, why should we make the time and money investment to print these photographs? Here’s my answer: Because we should enjoy these photographs…we really should. They shouldn’t just stay as jpegs hidden in a computer or on our phones, so that once a year, a few selected photographs may pop up as our “memory.” Our kids, who are the star of these photographs, should also enjoy them. Weirdly a few year ago, there were articles written up about a study that showed the benefits on kiddos when they see themselves in a family portrait…it’s about security and belonging to a unit. And another reason - hard drives can fail, iPhone accidental resets have happened to people I know rendering their trove of phone photographs gone.
So let’s say I convinced you to print. What to print? If I can only print one item for people, it’d be an album. A sturdy, beautifully printed album is the easiest way to keep all of your family portraits from a session in one place..it’s also the best way to tell a story about your session…a snippet of your life. In Ventura, where our homes are often not too big, with limited wall real estate, albums are the most space efficient too. My favorite part though is that kiddos can flip through these albums, laugh, ask their questions, see their younger selves…and feel how much their parents adore them through photographs.
I’m going to be writing a series of post on how to print your photographs soon, so stay tuned!!! I promise it’ll be useful. If you’re interested in a family portrait session in Ventura and its neighboring cities and having your memories printed, contact me here!
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Po Chi Fung is a Ventura Family Photographer who specializes in family portraits that capture your family the way it is. My little home studio is based in Ventura, California but I travel all over Ventura County, Santa Barbara County, and Los Angeles County to document families in their favorite spaces.
If you are interested, contact us here!