“Can I just have the digitals?”

“All I need is a CD of images”

I hear these questions all the time and I get it.  We live in a digital world! In fact, right now you are probably reading this post on your computer, smart phone or iPad. Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, blogs, text messages and e-mails it’s hard to image NOT being digitally connected to the world.  BUT let me ask you this question – what happens if every memory, every vacation, every smile you have is in digital form and your computer crashes, your lose your iPhone or that CD of images gets lost or broken? Then what? Will there be proof that you even lived? Will your great-grandchildren know what you looked like? Will your children get to see your gorgeous wedding dress or flip through photos of their childhood?

No one comes into your home and asks to look through  your computer files to see images from your latest vacation, browse through your wedding pictures, or reminisce about those high school adventures.  But, they will admire the framed images on your wall or flip through an album on your coffee table.

Let me tell you a story: 5 years ago I was busy planning my destination wedding in Key West, FL. The hotel was booked, the flights were paid for and everything was coming together wonderfully! I feel like I was fairly laid back about the whole planning process (my husband, family and friends might tell you a different story) but there was one thing that was more important to me than anything else….the pictures!  I wanted to make sure the day was captured perfectly so I could re-live it anytime I wanted. I searched for the perfect photographer and ended up winning a contest for free photography from a great photographer out of Chicago AND she was going to give me a disc of all my images! Perfect…right?!?

The big day arrived and 30 of our closest friends and family gathered on the beach to watch us get married under the palm trees with the sound of steel drums playing in the background. It was a dream  and our photographer was there to capture it all. A couple of weeks later, a CD arrived in the mail with all of our wedding photos on it. I printed off a few at a quick 1-hour lab that we displayed at our wedding reception back home and then put a couple of my favorite ones in a frame. That CD went into a drawer where it would be “safely” kept until needed again.

Fast forward 5 years and I cannot for the life of me tell you where that CD is. We moved and had a baby, so most likely that CD is sitting in a box somewhere with the other items we didn’t feel were important enough to unpack right away, and are now forever living in that box. My “oh so important” wedding photos are living on a CD in a box! Not on our shelf where I can one day show our children. Not hanging on our wall for us to look at and reminisce over….they are in a box (most likely in the attic)! And this isn’t the only CD of pictures that is living in a box somewhere or in a folder on my computer. We have had several family photos taken since my daughter was born, including her newborn photos, that are hidden on my computer or locked away on some CD.

Some of my favorite memories are sitting around the table at family reunions, looking through old photo albums and hearing the stories of all the moments captured in those images. We laugh, we cry and we become closer as a family. It wouldn’t be the same if we all sat around flipping through pictures and files on a computer.

Last year I made it my goal to print our photos. I found a lab that I LOVE (www.artifactuprising.com) that prints small paperback albums perfect for everyday photos. Every couple of months I go through my digital images and choose the ones I feel best represent our lives (holidays, birthdays, vacations, etc) and put them in a mini-album. I keep them in a basket on the bookshelf in the living room where anyone who wants to flip through them can. I also started creating Family Yearbooks each year which gives us a nice, thick album to keep on our shelf and look back on anytime we want. What I love most about them is that one day, years from now, my daughter will sit down and flip through those albums, re-live the moments, re-tell the stories and laugh all over again. One day when I am gone, those moments and memories will live on. Not on some disk hidden away in a box, but in print!

So here is my challenge to you: PRINT YOUR PICTURES! Don’t wait for the perfect portrait session. Make a mini-album from your weekend trip to the lake or the zoo. Don’t balk at the photographer who (like me) has chosen to provide more than just a CD of images. Look at your memories as pieces of artwork that will one day become family heirlooms. Don’t hide them in a drawer, display them proudly on a shelf or wall.

I found THIS article posted to a photography group’s Facebook page and thought it was a great post about how “the most photographed generation will have no pictures in 10 years” – it’s sad, but true!

 

 

 

TRUE BEAUTY I  SENIORS I  WEDDINGS  I  FAMILIES

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*Kendra Swalls is the photographer behind Paisley Layne Photography, and is a boutique portrait and wedding photographer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She specializes in, beauty, senior and family portraits as well as wedding photography. Kendra’s style is fun and personality-driven while still retaining the timeless features of photography that create family heirlooms. She currently lives in Justin with her family: a husband that will need to win the lottery to afford all the ‘big boy toys’ he has on his wish list and a two year old daughter who asks daily if she can ride a horse when “I get a little bit bigger”.  Kendra is currently booking 2015 & 2016 Portrait Sessions and Weddings in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Denton, Flower Mound, Southlake, Keller, Lewisville, Argyle and all of the North Texas area. 

 

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