When was the last time you printed a photograph you’ve taken? Did it involve a disposable camera? Was it 10 or more years ago? Maybe it was right around the invention of Digital photography? You may be thinking, “What for? It’s all here on my phone and computer, nice and neat. I like it this way.” It grieves me to think that my generation is quickly becoming one with no actual photos of their lives. I’m here to tell you why you should print your pictures.
.jpg)
1. Nostalgia
Have you ever been spring cleaning or preparing to move and stumbled across a few photo prints of you or your family in much younger days? Or been looking for something in your attic and happened upon an old heavy photo album, only to sit down and sift through the memories? Somehow it seems a little harder to accidentally come across that folder of ‘Christmas 2005’ buried deep in your personal files on your computer. With prints you’re creating physical family heirlooms.
2. Technology is unreliable
You may or may not hear this question from your grandchildren: “What’s an ipad?” Confusing, right? We tend to convince ourselves that technology is forever and will never change, even though we know it’s the opposite. Things are changing, and fast. It won’t be long before your pictures are stuck on some piece of technology that’s as useless to us now as the floppy disc. Also, how sad would you be if you lost everything on your computer tomorrow? Computers crash everyday. Think of it like this: you writing a term paper and not pressing save before the power goes out.
3. You’ll become the best gift giver in your circle
I consider prints my secret weapon in gift giving. I’m always snapping pictures of my friends and family and when those special occasions roll around, I have them there in my holster as a killer present. Here’s an example: My mom’s birthday was coming up one year and I realized I hadn’t yet gotten her anything yet. My grandfather had recently passed, so I got the idea to print a picture of him and put it in a nice frame. When looking through my grandmother’s old albums I found two beautiful black and white pictures. Both of my grandfather playing with my mom, at different ages, on a beach in the 1950’s. I printed the photos and put them into plain black frames. My mom cried when she opened them. She explained these pictures had been therapeutic for her as she had often wondered if her dad had loved her as child. They sit on her dresser today. You may not get this much of reaction, but physical prints that people can decorate their homes with will never be a bad gift.
So, give your grandchildren something to physically hold as they laugh at our crazy hairstyles and out of date clothes. Protect your memories from being wiped away in a second by a computer virus or a phone reset. And become everyone’s favorite person at Christmas time because your presents are better than everyone else’s. Print your pictures everyone. You won’t regret it.
– Leah
.jpg)
