Stop looking at your phone. Print Your photos.
I got my first “real” camera back in 1987 from my then-boyfriend now husband. He loaded up a Minox rangefinder with a roll of black and white film and I took off running. I learned how to process black and white film and print the images in the makeshift darkroom we’d assemble in the bathroom of our apartment.
Watching my photographs appear through the bath of chemicals was like a little spark of magic. I could look at my images on the small grid of a contact sheet but there was nothing like the feeling of printing an image on a piece of paper to see the results of my efforts.
It’s been probably 25 years since I put my film camera down in favor of a digital one and honestly, I haven’t looked back since. I can barely remember what it feels like to shoot in film.
Now, instead of being the person with boxes and boxes of slides, negatives, contact sheets, and prints, I am that person with hundreds of thousands of digital images scattered all over the internet and housed on hard drives that live in piles in my office. I am also the person who lost hundreds of images when two of my drives – a main drive and its backup – died on the same day. I lost two years of photographs of my kids and countless other memories.
A certain sense of satisfaction comes with scrolling through the countless images I have stored on websites, drives, and on my phone. But the more I think about it, the transience of those images scares me. How will anyone be able to access these scattered files when I am gone? Who will view my images when I am no longer here to share them?
While digital images are convenient and easy to share, the process of transforming a digital file into a physical print can elevate a mere image into a piece of art. In fact, the process of transforming a digital file into a print is an art form unto itself, much like the work that photographers put into transferring film negatives onto paper.
When done well, a high-quality print brings out the subtle details in shadows, highlights, and midtones. It gives an image weight on both a physical and emotional level.
A well-printed image has the power to tell stories. The right print, well placed, can transform a space and add character to your environment.
Unlike digital images, printed photographs can be handed down through generations, to become treasured family heirlooms that tell the stories of our lives.
When you make the investment in a portrait session, whether it is a pet portrait, family photo session, maternity or newborn, consider investing in some prints or an album and give yourself a gift that keeps on giving.
