5 Reasons Why You Should Bother Printing Photos in the Digital Age
We live in a time where everything is fast paced (think of the 24h based IG stories), focused on consuming goods that will be outdated or broken within a year (if you are lucky) and tending toward an “all digital” mentality.
So, really, why should we print?
Isn’t that some old fashion way, gone out of trend and often even hard to achieve kind of thing?
Well, I honestly think that by not printing our photos, we are setting our memories to be lost down the road, for us and for our children!
So if you want to be a better parent, read on and I’ll break down for you the 5 main reasons why you should print your photos.
1 – IT MAKES THE MEMORIES COME TO LIFE AND LAST
How many of your childhood memories are somehow based on the pictures you saw as you grew older?
Sometimes it’s hard to recall all the details of our childhood, and some people only remember very little while others treasure many more specific moments. But personally I can definitely attest that a huge amount of the memories that I can see most clearly in my mind are based on photos from my childhood.
Seeing those images over the years as I was growing older helped me remember those moments as time went by and kept them more defined in my mind, as well as allowing me, today, to share them with the people I love most, like my life partner and my kids, in a way that I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.
2 – IT MAKES YOUR PHOTOS PART OF YOUR DAY-TO-DAY
Honestly, how often do you actually look at (and not just quickly scroll by) the thousands of accumulated photos on your computer and on your phone??
How often do you scroll through your Facebook timeline to go back and see photos from years ago?
And now, think at of how much easier it is for you to contemplate the wall prints around your home as you go through your regular daily routine…
So print your photos, make it a screen free activity to enjoy with your kids as you cuddle up on the couch and flip through your beautiful albums, make it a displayed wall art so that you can tell stories to friends and families as they come over for dinner and ask about that picture, turn it into quality time to share with your loved ones, without the distractions of Facebook notifications popping up in the corner of your screen or emails bouncing up in the bottom of your display.
3 – TECHNOLOGY FAILS.
Yes indeed, it does! Not only computers and hard drives crash, and phones get dropped in the toilet (especially when you are a parent of a small kid!!!), but the digital files themselves are at risk on a daily basis: files get corrupted and JPEGs are particularly prone to degradation over time!
The more you open and use your jpg files, the more their quality gets worse and that is something most people have no idea of (which becomes very evident whenever I end up explaining this and people just look at me with wide opened eyes while mumbling a “ARE YOU SERIOUS??”)
And have you put a serious thought to technology evolution? Think of how fast technology is currently evolving. And think of how fast it does day after day. Can you imagine technology in 20 years?
Well, just over 20 years ago we were storing our files in Floppy Disks – how would you access those files today? Of course there was no digital photos back in 1995, but even if you consider a more recent medium for image storage, CDs and DVDs, we are already seeing the decline of their use as they are starting to not install optical drives in new computer models anymore.
So, in just one moment, years of memories could be gone forever. FOR-EV-ER.
4 – IT BUILDS STRONGER SELF-CONFIDENT KIDS
Increasingly, psychologists and parenting experts are saying what parents themselves have known all along: photography plays an important role in promoting children’s healthy self-esteem. Seeing themselves and their family on their home’s walls, seeing the love they share with their parents and the strong bond that connect their family together can only work toward building a strong self-esteem and confidence in themselves. And one day, these will be the photos they will cherish most, and look back at to remember how loved they were.
I think it is really important to show a family as a family unit, one of the reasons why I always encourage all parents to be part of at least some of their photoshoot. It is so helpful for children to see themselves as a valued and important part of that family group, and with that sense of belonging comes a sense of security. They know where they fit and they feel safe there.
Printed images are particularly powerful in reinforcing one’s sense of belonging, thanks to their sensorial nature. Not only can they be seen, but also touched. And today’s digital orientation, makes the printed images even more special, as we only print a few of our photos, not everything makes it to prints, just the most special ones. It is a way to celebrate even further THAT memory.
5 – IT MEANS BUILDING AN HEIRLOOM FOR YOUR (GRAND)CHILDREN: PRINT QUALITY MATTERS!
Most print labs nowadays are adapting to the “cheap and fast” consumer demand, so much that it is often hard to find high quality prints options that are durable and will keep their true colours over the next 5-10 years, let alone be unaltered for your kids and grandkids to see!!!
A professionally printed photo not only indicates durability but it also means a guaranteed colour output (so, no turning your kids into the new Shrek version, although I am sure they would find that hilarious!) as well as sharpness control (so that you don’t end up with a blurred print) and proper cropping of your images.
As far as I am concerned, I only offer Fine Art products, which are quite a rare find here in Spain based on my recent researches. Fine Art is a superior quality printing technique, which means they are printed on museum quality cotton paper and using 11 different inks colours (instead of just the 4 regularly used). This printing method is guaranteed for over 100 years – so that your investment today will truly be there for your children and grandchildren to see and appreciate through their life, the same way that we have been lucky to have from our parents and grandparents (and sometimes even further back).
Could you imagine if it ended up like this??
Passing down a box of CDs or hard drives doesn’t exactly have the same appeal, does it?
So, be a better parent for your kids, and make sure they will too have memories to look back at as they grow up.