The Power of Printed Photographs
Reflection During A Global Pandemic | Jillian Faulkner Photography
It’s been almost six weeks since Alberta identified our first case of Covid-19 in the province. This past month has been like no other for our family. With schools moving to an online platform to teach our children from home and the mandatory closure of all non-essential businesses, our world has been shaken for our family (like so many others) having no choice but to adjust to a new normal.
While this has been a struggle for so many of us, it has provided our community an incredible opportunity to take some time to reflect on what is important in our lives. With stay at home orders in place, we have been given additional time in our day to spend connecting with our spouse and children! We now have time to snuggle next to the fire and share stories with our children about when they were younger, about how mommy and daddy met and (hopefully if you are like me!) pull out those printed photographs and albums to help illustrate those incredible moments that you don’t ever want to forget.
Tangible photographs help connect us to experiences, memories and emotions.
I have been very fortunate to of had parents and grandparents that have kept an extensive collection of loose prints and albums throughout their homes, where they were always easily accessed. I myself have an entire closet dedicated to loose prints categorized by month and year along with numerous coffee table albums in our living room and throughout our home. When I see our boys faces light up when we grab one of those albums to flip through, it fills my heart with so much joy. Having tangible photographs to show our children what their great-grandparents looked like or the room in our first home where they took their first steps, there is nothing else like that feeling. Those photos help to identify who I am, where I came from but more importantly, to illustrate to our children the past stories of my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
Your children will be so grateful you printed photographs for them.
The photographs you print are truly heirlooms that will be passed down to future generations. They hold the power to start conversations about the past but also to bring back a particular moment in time that might otherwise be forgotten. These photographs communicate special times in our family’s history, they are gifts for our children and their children. My social media feed does not tell the full story of my family, and frankly might not even be around in the next 10 years. My phone is the same, digital snapshots not able to tell the entire story. Have you ever gotten truly excited about viewing photos on a device? To be able to touch, feel and hold a photograph can evoke a lot of emotion related to that experience or memory.
67% store their photos solely on a computer or phone.
WHY IS THAT A POOR DECISION?
An estimated 4.5 million smartphones are lost or stolen each year.
Less than 33% OF PEOPLE, actively back up their photos and data on their phones.
Our children are by far the most photographed generations due to technology that is readily available to parents to photograph all those special moments. That being said, they will also be the generation with the least number of tangible photographs illustrating their history unless we make that change now. Not for us, but for them. Digital files are temporary. Millions of memories are currently being stored on phones, servers, USB drives and on “the cloud”. Did you notice I didn’t mention CD’s which are already an outdated storage mechanism? Most new computers don’t even come with a CD drive anymore. What happens when technology fails or becomes outdated and you can no longer access those important memories. Do we want our children to be part of a lost generation?
Computers Fail. Technology Changes. Printed Photos Are Forever.
You might not want to print all the photos in your camera roll, but that’s okay! Select your favourite photos, the ones that really matter to you. The ones that were worthy of you taking the photo in the first place. The photos you never want to forget and want to be able to access and share with your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren.
So, while we wait for our world to return to normal consider spending some of that newfound time going through your camera roll, selecting those favorite images and have them printed. There are so many incredible ways to print and display your photos. If you aren’t sure where to get them printed or don’t know where to start, please reach out and I would be more than happy to suggest how to get started and recommend some consumer labs that are closest to you.
Printing everyday photos is important, but printing photos of those milestone moments like your first pregnancy will hold an extra special place in your heart. There is a San Francisco Bay Area Photographer and Twin Mom Blogger that I know who wrote an incredible blog post this week on 5 surprising things you need for your pregnancy. Please consider reading and sharing her blog post with someone you know that might be expecting during these crazy times we live in right now! Some really great tips in her post for all you expecting mamas out there!
Calgary Family Photographer
Jillian Faulkner Photography is located in Calgary, Alberta and offers family portrait photography in studio, outdoors and on-location. All photography sessions are customized to each client to ensure you get exactly what you are looking for in your final images. Jillian Faulkner Photography is an active member of the National Association of Professional Child Photographers and the Professional Photographers of Canada.