Printing Your Portraits Will Stand The Test of Time
Choose Permanency And Outlast Technology
My first camera that wasn’t a kodak disposable model, was a little digital point-and-shoot camera that I shared with my sister as a teenager. I had so much fun with it! I took it with me every where, on family trips or just when I was out and about.
To get the photos off the camera, I would often put the SD card directly into the computer at the store to print and make a CD to store the photos. CD photo storage was trendy at the time.
But today, I don’t even have a CD reader on my computer. I don’t even use a DVD player at home anymore!
The Pitfalls of Digital
The only photos I still have from my first digital camera are the ones I printed to submit to my high school photo contest, or for homework in my photography class.
After CD’s came USB thumb drives but now thumb drives junk up my desk drawer and it’s hard to remember where exactly they are.
Back in college, when I had my first professional camera I was shooting photos all the time. With all of my money going to rent and tuition, I couldn’t afford to pay for cloud services like Dropbox. So when my computer died, so did my photos.
In this case again, some of the only photos I have from that time in my life are the photos that I took the time to print.
Photography is nearly 200 years old, yet physical photographs continue to surpass the practicality of digital storage.
Enjoy Your Photos
Besides the storage issue, when I think about how I want to look at my photographs it is always going to be a print in my hand, framed on the wall, or in an album that is grouped in my collection of photo albums.
Growing up, every year for Christmas my Auntie Susan would gift each of the kids in the family a photo album that encapsulated memories from that year. Today, these albums are my most treasured possession.
It’s Okay to Have Backup
Now, I am not totally abandoning the idea that storing photographs digitally is useful. Because when it comes to digital photography, digital files are pretty much the same concept as the film negatives for film photography. It’s great to have a backup supply in order to print more copies later on.
Prints are Giftable
Finally, which would you rather receive? Which would you rather gift to someone you love? A printed photo or a link to a digital folder? When grandma is enjoying a cup of tea in the evening on a cold winter night, and wants to look at photos of her grandkids she isn’t going to enjoy logging on to her laptop and finding a photo folder. She is going to want to pick up a photo album off the coffee table and flip through page by page to see the little humans she adores.
Prints are giftable and digitals are forgettable. I’m being corny now, but what I hope you take away is that the photos that are going to serve you the best and bring you the most joy are physical prints.
Are you ready to have photos taken that you'll love forever?
Say hello and request a photo session at hello@evelynmaephoto.com. I am a portrait photographer located in the Bellingham, Washington area.
