You've booked a photographer to document the memories with your most beloved people in the whole wide world. The session goes amazing, the images are stunning as you scroll through your files the photographer just delivered. You're obsessed!!
You save all the images to your phone and your computer. You share your images on online across your social media accounts where they get a billion likes and all the grandparents gush about how gooooorgeous their grand-babies look (it's true, they're adorable)!
You order holiday cards, order a print via an online company which you pick up at the local grocery store or have them shipped to your home, maybe you ordered an extra photo frame for the grandparents.
Once a year you view your images off your computer for a few minutes and marvel at how much time has passed by.
I'll admit this, it sounds so much like me; does it sound like you too?
"Can I get all the digitals?"
You feel like you're really getting a better value when you have loaaaads of digital images. Right? More is not necessarily better.
I've personally received huge 100+ galleries from my own family's portrait sessions, only to having to narrow it down to my favorites, from 96 images to 14 images. I didn't need three images of the same pose, with nearly identical positioning. I don't need all the duplicates and digitals, and neither do you. Getting every single digital file from a session is honestly overwhelming.
Moving onto digital image storage, I hate to say it but you've essentially just paid money for something that can easily be deleted, lost or corrupted.
Technology eventually becomes obsolete. Please tell my collection of DVDs where I can even find a DVD player anymore to view my favorite movies. In the not too distant future, technology will change and how you've stored your images will be an artifact.
Technology fails. Poof! Your hard drive can get wiped, USB drives can become corrupted or lost. Who knows what happens in the Cloud or what might become of your images at the hands of a large company's server.
When technology fails, your photos are gone.
End of story.
Your most special, beautiful photographs you share online have an incredibly short lifetime. Content is constantly being created and uploaded. The amazing post you're sharing isn't going to be appreciated for long. The images you've shared are quickly forgotten and moved down on your feed as we share more, more, more!
Don't get me wrong, sharing digital images can be super fun, I do it too! But the happy feelings of sharing is fleeting. Be a little more selfish will you? I'm giving you permission. You spent energy finding your photographer, you took the time to plan, organize, and make it to your session...so why in the world aren't you actually enjoying your investment, daily? The digital files is a secondary focus, the primary focus is how you want to enjoy your photographs.
Digital photos aren't photos. They're data. A digital photo is the raw materials that a photographer uses to create a photograph. It's like having Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night painting, covering it and putting it in a box, and never hanging it up to admire. Sad, right?
Printed photographs are actual pieces of art. Printed photographs in your home will be enjoyed every single day. They'll remind you of that happy little moment or a happy BIG moment. You'll see your images daily, filling your heart with joy over and over again.
How we display and use our images in our homes matters. Do you have a blank wall just screaming for some wall art? Need an album for your coffee table or portrait for your bookcase? I have you covered! Products like canvases, mounted images, photo album, that have a lifetime guarantee.
These are items only photographers have access to, high-quality artifacts, that that you can enjoy daily. Your images are a one-of-a-kind piece of decor that no one else has, you cannot buy it in a store, it's not mass produced at bargain store. Products you chose through your photographer, are gone-over with a human eye, and created by hand.
