The process of thoroughly documenting our lives

Digital photography has revolutionized the way we document our lives. Not too long ago photography was a much more involved process. First, we had to buy film. Since this wasn’t exactly inexpensive most of us were fairly picky about our shots, making sure to save them for the most special moments. The instant gratification of the LCD screen didn’t exist, and we had to be either skilled photographers or hope that our camera’s automatic setting would be sufficient. Then we had to develop the film, and hope that our precious family snapshots turned out as we hoped.

In the world of film photography, images of our loved ones were preserved in print. Most family photographers would take the time to arrange photos in albums with the intention of preserving these memories for generations to come. Albums were passed down from parent to child and were treasured heirlooms.

While digital photography most definitely has its advantages, those advantages have come with a steep price. The vast majority of us no longer prints our family photos and arranges them in albums. For most, digital photography has turned preserving family memories into a virtual process. Our children’s adorable birthday parties are stored on our hard drives, or uploaded to our Facebook galleries for storage. Weddings, graduations, and vacations are all relegated to the virtual world and shared via email or in slideshows on our monitors.

It’s easy to get complacent and feel that our images are safe, and that our computers are infallible. However, countless people have lost years’ worth of invaluable memories with a hard-drive crash. Truly, each and every computer system will one day eventually crash. If those photos have not been printed or stored in another location such as an external hard-drive, they will be lost for good. This would be the equivalent of losing the family albums to a house fire and is equally devastating to those it happens to.

A professional photographer can be invaluable, in that they will do all of the work of documenting your important family events for you. Not only will they take the images themselves and provide the digital files, they can also provide prints. Many will even artfully arrange your prints into albums which will certainly only grow in sentimental value as the years pass.

While it is definitely possible to print our own photos, the quality produced by most desktop printers is truly substandard. These prints may look pretty good for a short period of time, but in a few short years they start to fade and discolor. Commercial quality photo printers, paper and ink are very expensive to obtain. So, unless you plan to do large volumes of printing above and beyond your own needs, it is just not reasonable to do your own photo printing.

A professional photographer will be able to focus on the process of thoroughly documenting your event, which frees you to enjoy yourself and not get stressed over missing an important moment with your camera. Then, you can enjoy the feeling of actually touching your valuable memories and rest-assured that you won’t lose them forever to a computer crash.