Digital Photo Hoarding | How I use and love my prints!

We are ALL guilty of hoarding!  All of us… maybe not television status but we are all guilty of hoarding something!  Most people don’t even realize it but every single person is a digital hoarder, especially of our images!

It is just sooo convenient and awesome that we can take pictures digitally, we can upload them all to our computers and we can share with just one click of a button!  It’s also awesome as a photographer that we can do the exact same thing for our clients!  We can upload the images to a gallery and with one click our clients can send that gallery out to family and friends, download those images right on their own computer and even share them on Facebook!  It’s just so easy!  It makes our life easy and I do love it!  A LOT!

In all this online sharing… printing is something that seems to be fading away.  We share our lives now on the web when we used to share our lives in albums and prints!  Times have changed so much since Facebook has made it’s way that now if I want to see what’s going on in my friend’s lives, I just check out their images online and I can see how big their kids are and how things are moving and shaking for them!

I LOVE having all my images on my computer!  I am so guilty of hoarding all my images on hard drives and in folders!  I have hard drives that fill a drawer and I have to buy a new hard drive each year:  one for clients and one for just family!  See… total digital hoarder.  One thing though that being a photographer has taught me is the value of images and seeing them in print!  Taking them OFF the computer where they just aren’t appreciated as much or seen as much as they would be when they are given a special place in frames on the walls of your home.While I LOVE all this new technology and this instant connectedness, I will say there is absolutely nothing… nothing like seeing your family and your loved ones around your house in print, in frames!  

Tuck and I always joke before people visit our home that our house is a shrine to Linc.  We have so many pictures of him all over the house and I am constantly changing them out with newer ones or more seasonally appropriate ones!  This is the beauty of printing your images:  there are some that you will find that you love seeing every day.  Some that you will never want to change and they will find a permanent place or spot in your home.  Then there are others that will have their shining moment and, when the time is right, make their way into albums or keepsakes boxes.

You are investing so much already in your images when you hire a professional photographer, so why not truly appreciate those images by giving them a place around your house where you can see them while you are doing every day tasks?!  I LOVE when I’m doing the dishes and I look over and see the image of Linc and Tuck snuggling with Wink around Thanksgiving time.  It was right before Tuck deployed and it has and will always have a special place in my heart.  Every morning and evening as I stood at that sink with soapy hands and washed dishes while Tuck was over seas, that framed image gave me peace of mind and hope.

I have i phone images framed of times when the moment was so perfect and I just had capture it but had no camera on hand!  They have amazing print labs for instagram images and even some that come in stickers or magnets for the fridge!

Another huge bonus of prints is finding the right pieces that fit the theme of your house!  This was a big project of mine while Tuck was away.  These book shelves were a big task for me.  I’m great at capturing moments and stories.  I’m great behind the camera.  I even found out that I’m not too shabby with a paint brush and a hammer!  I am not great a visualizing how a room or a space can all come together for the greater aesthetic good of a room.  My photographer BFF Elizabeth Friske however is a genius!  The two of us spent many nights together just working out the details of this one space.  She rearranged all the little odds and ends (even brought some of her own beachy magic over) and I supplied the goods, frames, images etc!  I even painted and crafted a bit too!

There are so many ways to honor your memories!  Printing is an incredible way to enjoy your images and your memories every single day!  It’s easy, it’s not expensive (there are so many amazing printing options out there now) and it’s FUN!  I LOVE searching for the perfect frames and you don’t have to look for expensive ones either.  Let me just share a not so secret, secret with you… TJ MAXX has the BEST  frames around and they have fantastic prices!

You can even be creative and search on pinterest for out of the box ways to display your prints!  I have two different window pane frames in my house with two differnt styles of print displays:  one where the pictures are transferred onto the glass (permanent) and another where we just switch the pictures out on a monthly basis using tape.  Yes… tape!

Where do all our prints go when we switch them up?  On a bulletin board, in albums, and even in a keepsake box with letters I have to Lincoln for when he’s older.  Don’t be afraid to print for fear you might want to change them around and aren’t sure what to do with the “left overs”.  Trust me, that’s what pinterest is for right?!

So stop hoarding your digital files TODAY and go print right now!  There are some amazing labs out there just waiting for your upload!