The value of printing your artwork
We here at the studio love the times that we live in. Digital photography is our favorite medium, and our culture is saturated with it. It seems like everything’s turning more digital these days, and it’s a great time to be alive, but… do you give something up when you trade physical for digital? Sure, there’s the obvious exchange of the texture of, say, a polaroid for the smooth glass screens of our smartphones. Perhaps you don’t hang as many of your photos on walls anymore, but now you’ve got more than you could have ever imagined traveling with you in your pocket everywhere you go. There’s pros and cons that we can go over all day when it comes to physical vs digital, but in the end, you need both. Here’s a few reasons why you shouldn’t abandon the physical side to your photos completely:
1: Displaying your photos has never been easier
These days, we have digital picture frames that can display hundreds of photos all in one continuously playing album, that you can prominently display on a coffee table or on your mantle. The problem is, they’re expensive, so you’re most likely limited to just one or two to put in select places in your home. You miss out on having your most precious printed memories hung up all along your walls and throughout your house, all for about the same price of a digital frame. Then your whole house is filled with all of your cherished memories – and what’s better than that?
2: They won’t just sit on your computer
With computers having unbelievable storage capabilities now, we can store millions of photos on our hard drives for a reasonable price. With all of that potential, we can feel so much freer to take photos far more often than we would have before. But with that freedom, we tend to favor quantity over quality, and let most of our pictures sit on our computers for years. Sifting through and organizing your photos will let you really nail down your favorites, and those favorites can then be printed out, so you can look at them anytime you walk by. There’s something really special about having your house decorated with your favorite pictures!
3: They’re heirlooms to pass down for generations
Family is one of the most important things in life. It’s the tight-knit bond that makes the relationship so special, and each family has their own unique way of doing life together. One of these ways is passing down heirlooms throughout the generations. It could be dish-ware, grandfather clocks, jewelry, but one of the most common ones from the last century is photographs. The old photos we have today come from an era where photography was just getting started, and it’s a wonderful thing to see what your ancestors looked like. You can keep it going by passing down your own portraits to your grandchildren, and as the generations go by, eventually your line could have an incredibly accurate family tree, complete with pictures of every member, and you’ll preserve your name for centuries to come.
We live in a wonderful time where we can have the best of both worlds. Physical and digital photography both work together to make our lives so much better, and each have their own unique, inherent value. Both are timeless, and the extra time printing out your digital photos will only benefit your home, your family and yourself.