Digital Images: Are they your best investment?

Here's the thing. I want you to ENJOY your images regularly. I don't want them to be forgotten on your computer or iCloud. Did you know that seeing images of themselves around the home increases a child's confidence and sense of belonging? How important is that? Printed images can literally change your day around. Imagine you are having a bad day and you then see this beautiful image of your family together on the wall or you pull out the album or prints and it turns your mood from frustrated to happy.  This is why I believe in a COMBINATION of digitals and printed products. I know you want to share on social media and you may want them for small projects later on, but I also want you to enjoy them. 

So, social media went down today and we all freaked out, right?

I've had clients tell me that the main reason they want digital images is to share on social media and I've even had people say, "well, if something happens to my phone, all of my pictures are on Facebook and instagram so I'm all set." NOPE! Guess what? ALL technology is vulnerable, whether social media, your phone, your computer or your iCloud storage.

My boyfriend is a tech guy. He admits this is true. I hear horror stories from people I know whose Instagram suddenly disappeared and was never recovered, a phone that died and all photos were lost, a cloud service that had a glitch and things went missing.

​IF you are good about backing up every photo you have in multiple places (hard drive, external drives, AND cloud, the chances you'll lose them are high. However, even if you do this, they can still be lost. Imagine losing all of those beautiful memories? Sure, we have them in our heads but how do you share them with others, with your children as they get older and don't remember  or your future grandchildren? 

The other thing to think about in terms of digital images is that we take SO MANY photos now. Let's be real. To get that one picture we want (even me in some situations), it takes a bunch of outtakes. I mean, I take pictures of my nephew with my regular camera every week but I also take a TON with my phone. This is just a few screen shots of series of shots I've taken.

SO, what do you think you'll do later on with your images? Hand your child(ren) your hard drive(s) or iCloud password(s) and say "here you go. Here are the 100,000+ photos from your life. Enjoy"? Just thinking about that overwhelms me. So, I have two suggestions:

1. PRINT YOUR PHOTOS, even your phone photos. Sure, they may not be the best quality products, but do it anyway. Then, you will actually be ENJOYING them. You can use apps to print collages, end of the year photo books, and other items. As for your professional images, all of those cheap consumer labs are about quantity OVER quality so they won't look exactly as the photographer has created them (coloring/contrast/etc) and won't stand the test of time. Stay tuned for my post coming up on this. I was going through old photo albums and the professional ones from 35+ years ago are still looking great. The ones we printed ourselves? Blurry, grainy, faded just like those memories. It made me really sad. 

2. When you invest in professional photography, you are investing in an experience where an expert captures your family exactly as you want. You get to be IN the pictures and you are capturing the more special memories of your life. It's not something you do every day, maybe not even every year. So, choose someone who will print them for you on a quality that will last for you to hand down to your children later on.  If you are investing in professional photography, invest in professional products for those images as well. It will be WELL worth it. 

If you have a combination of digitals and printed product of your most important and favorite images, you can be absolutely sure that you will have them 30, 40, 50+ years from now!

​Imagine when your child is grown and heading off to college, how valuable these images will be to you and how easy it will be to put out that album, that keepsake box of prints, look up at that piece of wall art and remember when they snuggled on your lap or held you hand while walking. 

What is the other advantage to having your photographer print all of your products? They design them as well. So, you don't have to do ANYTHING but choose you favorites. I mean, you are BUSY. You have a lot going on and that is one more thing off your plate. It will be done for you instead of becoming a task that could get put off and never happen. Or that takes away from time you could be doing something else. Trust me. It's worth it. 

I just wanted to share these thoughts after that social media crash where I saw so many people freaking out! 

X,
​Nicole