At the beginning of this year, I sat down to reflect upon my first year in business and set goals for the upcoming year. Something that kept coming up was how passionate I felt about printing your photos. I knew this in my gut and in my heart, but wasn’t sure the reasons why printing your photos is so important.

Currently, I have my office set up in the corner of my dining room. Three professionally matted and framed photos of my girls, taken when they were just 2 and 3 years old, are hanging up at one end of the room. I don’t recall who the photographer was, but I do remember how patient she was with my girls.

My girls wore little white dresses and had a tea party at the beach.

The photographer captured some nice posed shots of my little girls. (I’m even in a couple!) As I sit at my desk I often find myself gazing over at these photos. One of my favorites is the one where I’m holding my sweet Caitlin and the light is hitting the back of her hair. You can’t really tell just from looking at the photo, but my daughter wouldn’t look at the camera. When I look at that photo, I can vividly remember trying to coax my 2 year old into looking at the camera.

Another favorite is the one of my precious little girls pouring their tea. Notice that Kelly isn’t kneeling all the way down. At 3 years old Kelly didn’t like to get dirty and she didn’t want to kneel down in the sand in her white dress. Kelly was such a princess in every way and this photo reminds me of that sweet, magical time.

When I look at these photos I can remember that warm August afternoon like it was YESTERDAY. These photos take me right back to that beach and that is what photos do for us. Looking at old photos jogs memories of precious moments, boosts your mood and makes you feel happy.

Of course, life is different then when these photos were taken over 20 years ago. Digital photography wasn’t around yet. A professional photographer took these precious photos and from the negatives I chose which ones I had framed.

I can honestly say these framed photos are among my most treasured belongings. 🙂

With the proliferation of mobile phones, people now take approximately three photos per day – that’s over 1000 photos per year! These photos are typically stored on hard drives or in the cloud, or shared on Social Media apps. What’s sad about this is these photos won’t survive beyond the year they were taken. Why is this? Because technology is changing at lightning speed and all those photos you took and stored on technology devices will be obsolete in ten years. Today’s technology no longer supports photographs taken even five years ago, on CDs, DVDs or even USBs.

Printing for archival reasons is the logical thing to do but the real reason you should print your photos is emotional. When done correctly, seeing a high quality image you made can be mesmerizing. There is just something about holding a finished print in your hand that is infinitely more satisfying than seeing your photo on a screen – especially a pocket sized one. Printed photos serve as tangible, permanent memories that can be displayed in your home, and passed down for generations. Just like I have in my dining room. 🙂

To get in touch with me about a session of your own, click below. I’d love to chat!

Linda Sobolewski is an on-location, natural-light, professional photographer specializing in seniors, baby, family & children photography.

Linda Sobolewski Photography is based out of Old Saybrook, CT and serves the Connecticut shoreline and surrounding areas.

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