As technology advances and continues to constantly evolve change, the photography world is becoming so digital and everything is streamlined, fast, and easy. It seems now, you would be hard-pressed to find a photographer who doesn’t offer digital files to clients. On the same note, you’d be hard-pressed to find a client who wants anything other than digital files. It seems clients are trained to ask their photographers if they include the digital files. Some clients have even been coached to ask for the raw files, although I don’t believe they even know what that entails or fully means.

Now this article may come off a bit salesman and marketing sounding beings I’m a photographer and I offer tangible goods including albums, photo books, and framed prints. However, I am writing this based off of my belief in the tangible and if anyone knows me and how many pictures I print off, frame, scrapbook, and keep ever since I was a little girl, you will know this is coming from a genuine standpoint. There is nothing like seeing an image you love and in print and getting to walk past it every day in your home. Once you get all the digital files you wanted so bad, it’s great for sharing on social media, but don’t underestimate the power of print. I just want to urge people to print their images and make them into a tangible item you can literally hold and look at every day. If you just share them on social media and then never look at them again, what point are they serving you? Staring at them on a computer screen is not the same, and let’s be real how often are you going onto your computer and sifting through your special moments, whether it be engagement photos, wedding photos, or family photos.

I know from personal experience how great it is to see these moments every day and to hold them and remember how you felt in that moment. I constantly walk past my printed photographs and smile. Ever since I was little I was obsessed with printing pictures. I printed them at the local convenience store or on our home printer and made my parents go through some serious ink quantities. I’m a believer in practicing what you preach, so trust me I’m not just encouraging printing tangible products because I’m a photographer and I want to make a sale or take more money from you, it’s something I truly believe in and practice myself and have practiced my whole life.

I printed all my photos and obsessively plastered them all over my walls and scrapbooked them elaborately (which I will to this day deny due to the glitter overload in those albums). My family and close friends can testify to my obsession with prints and frames.

Overall, what I’m encouraging and why I am writing this post is to encourage people to turn their precious images into something tangible because photos are meant to be see and held in person. I’m not arguing that having the digital files is wrong, I include digital files because I know they are convenient, easy to store, and great for sharing online. Just consider in addition to those digital files, turning your images into something physical that can be appreciated and passed down throughout generations.