If I asked you to show me a picture of your kids, what would be the first thing you would get? Probably your smartphone, right? I would do the same thing! Can you even remember the last time you showed someone a printed photo? Do you even remember the last time you printed your photos?
Look at the camera roll on your phone – how many photos do you have? I have nearly 4,000 photos on my smartphone right now from the last year and a half. That’s a ton of photos! I back them up regularly, but I have to be honest, I don’t print them as often as I should. I wouldn’t even know what to do with all those photos and I’m a scrapbooker! Talk about feeling overwhelmed!
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The ability to easily take photos today is an absolute blessing. More people than ever have access to a camera and are able to take good quality photos. It is even said that this is the most photographed generation ever. But there’s one problem – there is nothing to show for this most photographed generation!
You and I and our children and our family and our friends. We are all a part of this problem and we need to change our ways immediately! We should be printing our photos and it should be on the top of our priority list. So I’m here to tell you 4 reasons why you should print your photos, because if it hasn’t been important to you before, it should be now!
1. Printed Photos = Your Family’s History
Photographs are the artifacts of our life. It’s a huge part our family history and how future generations will try to understand our way of life. But can you imagine those future generations sitting around a computer or other device looking through our digital photos? Heck no!
Technology and our way of life will change, but “passing down” a digital version of our family history is just not going to happen. Printed photos are what will be preserved and saved for many years to come. Have you come across any photos from your parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents? Those photos have likely been stored away or preserved in picture frames or photo albums. They are treasured by you and your family because it’s a part of your family history.
You should print your photos to preserve your family history. No one else is going to go through your digital clutter on your computer in the future. You have to be the one to do this.
2. Technology Fails Us All The Time
Technology has done so many great things for scrapbooking in recent years, but what it hasn’t done is provide a fool-proof, secure alternative to printing your photos. We all know that technology fails us when we are least expecting it. Sometimes I find that I am more worried about backing up my photos in multiple places so I won’t lose the digital copies of my photos that I end up not printing my photos. You have to draw the line somewhere and decide to print your photos.
Now, that doesn’t mean you should never back up your photos. You should always have a backup. When we printed rolls of film, our backups were the film strips given back to us after the photos were processed. Now, we backup copies of our digital photo libraries in different locations.
No matter how you backup your photos, these all should be treated exactly as what they are called – backups! What happens next is the inevitable. Technology shows it’s ugly side and it fails us! Your computer crashes, your external hard drive fails, your USB drive is corrupt, your iPhone shatters, or even worse your phone falls into the toilet! The list can go on and on. Don’t let the safeguarded feeling of backups and technology replace your printed photos.
3. Technology Changes A LOT!
Technology changes all the time and that’s why it’s showing up twice in this list. Not only must we worry about technology failing us, we must also be aware of how technology changes all the time.
When is the last time that you developed film at photo lab? It’s probably been a good 10 years. How about the last time you burned a CD of your images? Maybe you’ve done this more recently, but for some of us, our computers don’t have CD drives anymore. Now, we hear more about digital storage on the cloud. The changes in technology are improving our methods but they are still changing and that’s not good for preserving your photos. Stop and think for a second. How many hundreds or thousands of photos do you have on CDs or older methods?
Like I said before, I’m crazy about backing up my photos because I don’t want to lose the originals. So I feel better when I have my photos backed up in multiple locations. However, those backups that will eventually stop working or disappear should not replace printed photos. The best method to know for certain that you won’t lose your photos is to print them.
4. Print Photos for Your Children
Remember what I said in the beginning of this post? This is the most photographed generation of all time. It’s unbelievable how many photos are taken today. To think we were limited to 24 pictures in each roll of film – this generation wouldn’t know what to do! They would only get one chance at their best “duck face” photo. Or, more than likely, I would only get one chance at the “perfect” photo of my daughter playing with her toys.
All jokes aside, our children rely on us to be their memory keepers and to tell their stories. That means that they also rely on us to print their photos. We can let them look through pictures on our smartphones all we want, but that’s not the same as them having a physical copy of a photo.
Children love to look at photos of themselves and hear the stories behind their photos. Even as they grow up and become adults, they will still cherish their pictures. Heidi Swapp said it best on the ScrapGals podcast in August 2017, “There is something about holding a photo…it’s something that you respect, it’s something tangible.” If not for any other reason, you should do it for your kids.
No More Excuses – Print Your Photos!
Printing your photos is one of the most important things you can do. You should print your photos to preserve your family history for future generations. You should print your photos to avoid losing your photos when technology fails. You should print your photos so the changes in technology don’t prevent you from printing your photos. You should print your photos so your children have something physical to cherish.
I want to challenge you to prioritize one thing on your to-do list this week. Print 20 photos. Take a look at a recent event or group of photos from the past month. Choose your favorites. (Think back to a roll of film – you don’t have to print them all). Upload those photos to your favorite photo printing website and place your order. Get your photos off of your computers, backup drives, smartphones, and cameras and get them into your hands!
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Let me know in the comments below if you are taking up my challenge. What photos are you printing?
Julie
Great article Ju, I am totally on board with this. We wouldn’t have the memories we have if our parents had not taken photos and printed them.
Thanks Aunt Lo! I totally agree, we’ve grown up with always having photos around. We need to continue that tradition so that our children and grandchildren will know that printing photos is important!