I Got My Family Photo Session Images back, Now What?

So you got your family session all wrapped up, you spent a few weeks waiting and anticipating and the exciting day comes where your gallery is delivered to you. With jittery anticipation you look through all of your amazing photos, hearting the ones that you love. With each photo that scrolls across your screen a new level of excitement builds up in your chest. You scroll further and the excitement builds further. You scroll, you heart, you laugh. The excitement grows more intense with each passing second. And then…and then…aaaannnnndddd tttthhhheeennnn. (Cue the Chinese take out scene from “Dude Where’s My Car”) “No ‘and then!’”. You post a few to social media and maybe go back to look at them a few more times over the next month or so. After that, the amazing session and your beautiful gallery fade from memory. Totally anti-climatic right? What if I told you it didn’t have to be that way? What if I told you that despite your photographer delivering you your images in digital form, they are not meant to be enjoyed or appreciated digitally? Would that be news to you, would it be surprising? Because I can tell you, that is 100% true. Regardless of how your images are given to you they cannot be truly appreciated on your phone or as a screen saver on your computer. So, how are they to be appreciated?

Last week I touched on my thoughts on the true value of photography. Essentially, I contend that the value of photography cannot be measured by the dollar and cents of the session cost but rather by the emotion locked within the memories captured in each image. The dangerous thing about memories is that they are fragile, consistently fading with each passing day until one day they are gone. To capture them is to immortalize them, protecting them from the brutality of time. 

That leads me back to the question I posed previously; How are photographs meant to be appreciated? Simply put, print them. Photos need to be seen to be appreciated and to have the effect of spreading joy into your life. By having the photos hanging up throughout your daily spaces you are inviting those joyous memories to spread happiness into your day. You offer yourself an opportunity to smile when you are feeling down or fill your heart with love after a difficult day. Those emotions are powerful tools that can positively effect you and your mental health when you need it most. Ultimately that is the whole point of getting your pictures taken to begin with, right? You wanted to have a photo session so that you captured those memories of significant life stages so as to look back at them as the years go by, unlocking the memories and joy if only for a moment. What is the real chance that you will do that if you only keep them digitally? Speaking from experience, both my own and from past clients, about zero. By allowing those photos to sit stagnant on a hard drive in the closet you are essentially locking away those memories and the emotions held within them.

So when it is all done and said what you do with your images is, of course, up to you. You can choose to archive them with the soft intent of doing something at an undefined point in the future, or you can seize the opportunity from day one and ensure that your images are able to inject joy into your day on a routine basis. So why not print them and hang them throughout your life as a gleaming reminder of those special moments that define the love you have for your family? What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that keeping your photos exclusively digital is enough or do you feel like they should be printed to be fully appreciated? Let me know below, I would love your hear your thoughts.

-Dan