I’m writing this article not to get on a soap box…or try to convince clients of what to order…or to convince other photographers of how to run their business and published their works to show the growth that they have witnessed…but simply to bring awareness to an issue that comes up a lot in the photography world.  You can check this hyperlink to get quality VoIP services that will make your life easier. We live in a digital age and it seems that every potential new client that contacts me asks first about the possibility and cost of receiving all of the digital images from their session.  For many that’s the only thing that they care about.  While I understand where this mindset comes from (who wouldn’t want to have their images in a quick and easy format to look through at your leisure), I want to bring light to a different side of this issue that isn’t often brought up with respect to this issue.  I’m not going to even touch on pricing or what causes clients to be offended that they would need to purchase the disc in the first place…that’s a whole can of worms that I’m not going to touch here!  I’m simply explaining my opinion of the importance of prints and products.  While we have so far succumbed to these clients’ requests for digital images…it saddens me a little bit every time I hand the disc over.  It may sound strange to you to be saddened about an inanimate object….but after spending hour upon hour crafting these images I’ve put so much of myself into them that I do feel a connection with them.  It’s like handing over a piece of myself.  All right…that statement may be a little overly dramatic, but you get the idea!

Why does this sadden me?  The client now has access to all of the photos whenever they want…this should make me happy, right?  Not so much.  First there are the technical reasons that I’m hesitant to hand over digital files…who knows what will happen to them!  This is the side of the digital issue that is typically addressed by photographers.  I pride myself on giving our customers great service with a high end product…and when we hand the disc over I don’t feel we’re handing over a high quality tangible product.  The digital files themselves are of the utmost quality, but what is done with them is another story.   How will they be printed….at Walgreens (check out THIS ARTICLE to see the importance of choosing a quality print lab)?  With a bad crop?  Will the client attempt to do their own edits to the photo and compromise quality?  The list goes on and on….

These are all things that worry me from the photography and business stand point (poor quality products reflect poorly on our business)…but there is a whole other issue that saddens me about the disc.  My childhood may have biased me in this respect, but I fully believe that photos are meant to be printed and enjoyed rather than burned to a disc and forgotten.  And all too often this is what happens to a disc of images.  I actually got an email from a client this past week that purchased the disc of their session about 9 months ago and she said that this was the first time she’d opened the case and the disc was cracked.  I’m sure she’s not alone in getting the disc and setting it aside to look through ‘when things aren’t as busy’.  My mother lives on the other side of this extreme.  Growing up she was constantly taking photos and documenting every little thing we did.  And once she finished off a roll of film (which never took long), she would have them printed, wrote all pertinent information on the backs (names, dates, locations, etc…and yes, she wrote on EVERY photo), and put them in their perfect chronological order in their album.  I realize that this is likely not normal and as a kid I did get annoyed with getting a photo every time something happened…but I’ll tell you now that I couldn’t be more thankful for this!  Not only is it great to be able to look back on these photos now that I’m older…but I also fully believe that it’s important to have something like this for your children to look through as a way of reinforcing and developing memories.   I have a minor in psychology so I’m totally qualified to make this statement.  People have always commented on how freakishly accurate my memories are of my childhood and that I must have a freak memory.  Well…I think my need to read and re-read college textbooks and the fact that I’ll undoubtedly forget someone’s birthday proves that I don’t have a feakishly good memory…my mom just hit the nail on the head with developing our childhood memories by reinforcing them through photos.

Your images were not created to be hidden!  Don’t just throw the disc in a drawer and never look at it!  Go for the wall display or large print.  You won’t regret it.  It’ll hang on your wall and you’ll see it every day.  It’ll become part of your home.  It’s well worth the investment.  Get a coffee table book or album…these are great ways to include more (or even the majority) of the images from your session.  These books and albums are designed to be durable enough to be looked through on a regular basis.  Again…a great way to have your kids look through your photos and reinforce those happy memories that you have as a family.  Don’t put them up on a shelf where you’ll never see them.  I’m going to repeat myself here…your images were not created to be hidden!