Technology makes finding an image on our hard drive or the internet relatively simple….but I still encourage all my clients to have prints made. Be it large prints for the wall, desk size prints for your office, or albums to browse through with loved ones, having your digital images made into prints is something I suggest to everyone.
You might be asking why. Why in the world would I pay for prints when I can just get the digital files and upload them to my computer or social media pages to share with family and friends? Well, the answer is this. Social media is about the here, the now. Prints on the other hand are about preserving memories for our future generations. When purchasing a print from a professional photographer, you are purchasing a family heirloom which will be handed down for generations to come. No one pulls out old negatives from 1905 to see what great-grandpa and grandma looked like. We pull out the printed photographs and albums.
Think of digital files as the modern-day negative. Prints made from those “negatives” are the heirloom we hold onto. The item we run back into a burning house to retrieve. Prints are the treasured items that we pass down from generation to generation.
50 years from now, when sitting down with your grandchildren to show them your wedding photos or baby photos of your future children… How will you show the photos? Will computers still be able to read the files? I doubt it. A few perfect examples of how fast technology changes are cassette tapes, VHS tapes and floppy discs. Many of us remember these…but how many of us still have a device that can read the media? With that said, I promise you, 50 years from now you’ll want to pull an album off the shelf, gather the grandchildren around the couch and start reminiscing right away. This is why printed photos stand the test of time and digital media does not.
I know prints may seem like an expensive luxury… but I assure you, the priceless memories the prints contain are well worth the expense. If you’re hiring a professional photographer to take your portrait, you’re hiring him/her to capture this brief moment in time. You should purchase prints from the session. This time in your life meant enough to hire a professional photographer in the first place….why wouldn’t you have prints made?
