Print Those Pictures!

A few years ago I had a good system nailed down. A system that worked for me. It had all the qualities of KISS (keep it simple stupid). Every month, I would download the photos I edited to Costco, order prints and then put them in a photo album. Can't get much simpler than that.

Sometime in the last year and a half, I got off track and I'm kicking myself. KICKING myself.

In March I finally did something I've been wanting to do since I started taking pictures with my Hipstamatic App in September of 2011. I ordered 4 x 4 prints from their Print Lab. I am SO happy that I did. I love, love, love the results.

My plan was to order a set of them each month so as not to break the bank. I didn't follow my plan in April or May. I might not have done so in June either except that I read a really good article about prints. I wish I could remember where I read it because I want to give the author credit.

The author was recalling a time when he and his family gathered at the house of a relative that had passed away to go through the things that were left behind. This relative had boxes of family photos and they had a wonderful time going through the pictures together laughing and reminiscing over the memories the photos touched. It made him realize the importance of printing pictures. "No one is going take the time to go through a box of CDs the way they do a box of photos".

So sad because it's so true. I look at the photos I've printed, at the photos I've included in scrapbooks and there is much more of a connection then the ones on the computer screen. It's silly I know, but I want my grandchildren and hopefully, my great grandchildren to see the world I see.

I think about the talent of Vivian Meier and know with great certainty that had her pictures lived only on her computer, she might not have made the impact that she made today. I'm not saying I'm the next Vivian Meier, but I'm saying this thing I do will, without a doubt, be lost when the next big technology wave breaks through unless I take the time to print my pictures.

Printing my photos also helps cultivate creative emergence. Some of them I simply put in a plain old fashion photo album. Others, I add to a scrap book. And still others, I put into a photo journal. Touching the photos, holding them, combining them with my handwriting, placing them on paper, stirs something inside me that a digital copy just doesn't do. The digital copy is too momentary. too fleeting. It's a flash in the pants.

If you haven't printed any photos in a while, I would encourage you do to so. Print them, put them in frame, an album or even in a box. You.will.not.be.sorry.