Yesterday was Father’s Day. I had a wonderful day with Lauren and the kids. And it was also a day to be reflective.
It is no secret, photography has had a massive impact on me.
Sharing photographs and connecting online with others has deeply influenced my professional investments and has enriched my personal life a great deal.
The overwhelming benefits are too lengthy to describe in this post. It’s obvious with the massive rise in photography that many of us feel the same way.
We have figured out how to create, publish and connect. And many have figured out how to back up and archive.
But there is something missing. Backing up is critical but I’m not convinced it’s sufficient. When I leave this planet how will my children and future grandchildren browse my photographs. Will they want to comb through Adobe Lightroom files on my computer? Or go through countless JPEG and RAW files?
It doesn’t feel like they will want to do that.
So I’m thinking backing up is really for me and for right now. It’s less compelling to others in the future.
I think the thing missing are the prints. Photographs need to be printed. Hand someone a print and watch their reaction.
I confess I am out of practice when it comes to making prints with any regularity. Printing is much harder than a quick post on your favorite social network. My closest printing attempt is the annual holiday photo calendar I make for my parents and Lauren’s mom each Christmas
But I’m going to make a new start.
Each month I’m going to pick my favorite 36 photographs. Sometimes it might be less. But not more than 36.
Then at the end of the year I am going to make a photo book with these photographs. And that will be the thing we can have to enjoy, cherish, smile and cry.
I am happy we are all taking so many photographs. It’s wonderful we are getting more creative as a connected society. Just don’t forget to make the prints.