Give digital images a life and commit to print

Kids of this generation are the most photographed ever. The abundance of images began with digital photography. No longer limited by the number of exposures on film and the expense of developing photos, there was nothing stopping the snap-happy photographer.

Now we can capture an image with a phone or a tablet. It’s so convenient that everything is a subject, even our dessert and of course, our kids.

Decades ago, photography was not as accessible and if you’ve ever looked through old family photos, you realize that our grandparents possess only a small collection of photos from their childhood. When my father-in-law passed away recently, we gathered the faded black and white photos to create a PowerPoint presentation and photo display boards.

He was born in 1928. There is one baby photo, a toddler photo or two and some group shots with his three younger brothers, taken when he was a child. As he grew older, the number of photos multiplied and filled several photo albums. Those albums are family history books that have been studied many times over.

Now instead of albums, we fill hard drives and Clouds. Instead of wallet-size photos we flash smart phone screens. Despite the convenience and the abundance and the economy and the ease of sharing, digital image “keepers” need to be printed.

External hard drives and high tech storage systems may preserve the images for eternity but they can only be viewed with an electronic device. Images live as photographs –framed prints, photo books, albums and scrapbooks. Family portraits are treasures, as my recent experience reminded me.

It’s been several years since I first read this sage advice “don’t let your kids grow up to be jpegs” and I’ve repeated it more than once. Prints are so easy to create, as are photo books, calendars and more. There are some great keepers in those vast digital photo libraries, so start printing.