Has printing your images become a thing of the past? The last time you had a professional photographer capture your family photos did they print them for you? Make beautiful framed archival pieces to display in your home? Or did you download them on your computer or phone only to look at them from time to time until you get a new computer? As social media has grown, so has the want for professional digital images. But what happened to printing those images? Displaying your family, showing off the beautiful images the photographer took so long to create for you. If you don’t print those images then where do those images go after you’ve downloaded them onto your hard drive? Maybe a Christmas card? Maybe you upload some to Facebook and Instagram? But then what?
I’ve done both digital and full-service photography (offering prints, albums, and art) and there are pros and cons to each. But if done right I think full-service photographers who offer printed art work are the way to go. Here’s why I switched. Before the pandemic, I was a digital-only photographer. I would rely on my clients to print their own images that I provided them. This ended up coming back to me in the worst way possible. During the pandemic about half of my clients reached out to me, asking, “do you still have the files for the photos you took for Jack when he was a newborn 4 years ago? I want to get them printed now.” Well, yes, I do have them…somewhere. That was maybe 3 computers and 6 hard drives ago.” Digital files corrupt, get lost, or are saved on a hard drive or your phone from 4 years ago. Now that there’s finally some time to get them printed, framed, or made into an album, most of my clients have no clue where those digital files are. But they still want to enjoy those images.
Something I treasure is a photo album of my grandmother when she was in her early 20s back in the 1940s. There are pictures of her with her friends, family, and what maybe was a boyfriend before my grandfather. I love looking through this album and seeing her life back then. I still have photos and albums from my teens and early 20s. I know exactly when I stopped putting photos in a tangible album. It’s when Facebook started the photo album page during my senior year of college. Now everything is online. Most of my photos I put online from college I can’t even get access to because I had to shut down that account and make a different one! So yep, all my digital photos from 2007-2011 are gone. Nowhere to be found.
Back in the day when I was even younger, the mid-80s-90s, printing your images was the only option available by professional photographers. My mom still has beautifully framed images of us as children from 30+ years ago in her house. (Also all of our graduation photos are in huge frames on the wall). Photographers who run their business with product sales have their client’s future in mind. They will have their client’s favorite images printed, matted, framed, put into an album or on a canvas to enjoy for 10,20,30 years to come. In 5 years from now, on Jacks’s fifth birthday, don’t you want to be able to pull out his beautifully handcrafted album full of those newborn images and be able to show family and friends his tiny baby hands and eyelashes? Trust me, you do.
At Van Epps Photography I hold your hand through the entire process. I handle not only your session design but also your images from start to finish. I can put your images in frames for your gallery wall, canvas for your nursery, and albums for your coffee table. If you want an even more custom design I highly recommend taking your prints to a framer. In Tampa (where my studio is located) I love Four Corners Frame Gallery. They have taken such amazing care of prints and unique pieces of art that I have brought in. I’m happy to create custom pieces for you as well! Taking care of a newborn is hard enough, let me take care of putting your memories on display for years to come.
