You did not coordinate everyone's outfits for these photos to die on your iPhone.
We need to talk about something.
You planned the outfits. You got everyone dressed. You fixed everyone's hair. You bribed your kids, maybe you threatened your husband with bodily harm if he starts complaining one more time about having to go take family pictures. YOU SHOWED UP and somehow, together, we created a little bit of magic!
Then I spent hours carefully editing your photographs. Your gallery arrived. You opened it, fell in love, sent your favorites to Grandma, posted a few on Instagram...
THEN YOU DOWNLOAD THEM TO YOUR PHONE AND THAT’S IT?!
Where they now live alongside 14,000 other photos, screenshots you don't remember taking, school announcements, pictures of things you needed at Target, and there they sit.....
ABSOLUTELY CRIMINAL.
YOUR CAMERA ROLL IS NOT A FAMILY HEIRLOOM.
Don't get me wrong—I love digital galleries!
They make it easy to save your photographs, share them with family, post your favorites, and keep a backup of some of the most important moments in your life, but digital was never meant to be the final destination.
Because there's something different about walking past a photograph of your babies every single day.
Especially when your firstborn is now in HIGH SCHOOL. —insert sobs—
Oh! Sorry. Got a little personal there. Anyway... back to the topic at hand.
Having an album your kids can pull off the shelf and flip through until they know every page. Seeing a photograph from your wedding hanging in the hallway ten years later and remembering, for just a second, exactly what that day felt like.
THAT is what photographs are supposed to do.
One day, that photo you printed of your newborn won't just be a picture of your baby. It'll be a photograph your grown child gets to hold of themselves in your arms.
And I think thats the part that we ALL forget!
THEY WON'T STAY THIS LITTLE.
And frankly, that feels incredibly rude.
One of the hardest parts about watching your kids grow up is that you usually don't realize something was the last time until you look back at it - like through photos!
The last time they fell asleep on your chest. The last time they asked you to pick them up. The last gummy smile. The missing front teeth. The baby curls. The tiny hand that automatically reached for yours.
There is NO announcement.
Nobody taps you on the shoulder and says, “Hey, just so you know, this is the last time they're going to do this. You might want to pay attention.”
Instead, you're busy packing lunches, driving to practices, folding approximately 47 loads of laundry, answering “Mom?” for the 900th time that day, and generally just trying to keep everyone alive.
And somewhere in the middle of all that... they grow up.
That's what I love so much about photographs.
They give us a way to keep a tiny piece of a season alive that otherwise would have passed right by us.
Not just what your family looked like, but what your life felt like.
And THAT deserves more than a spot somewhere between a screenshot of shoes you saw on IG and the picture you took of your parking space so you wouldn't lose your car.
MEMORIES DON'T JUST START WHEN YOU BRING THEM HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL.
Okay, well... I guess for some of you, they do. But your story starts long before that, and there are so many chapters worth remembering along the way.
Maybe it's a cute couples session when you're just the two of you. Then an engagement. Your wedding day. Maternity photos. That brand-new baby. Their first birthday. Family photos as they grow. Senior pictures. And all of the beautiful changes that take place in between.
But here's the really cool part.
When you actually print those photographs, they stop feeling like separate galleries delivered years apart. They start becoming a physical timeline of your life.
The two of you before the kids. The day you got married. The belly before the baby. The baby who somehow isn't a baby anymore. The family you built.
That's your story!
THATS WHY WE PRINT!
Because years from now, you shouldn't have to open five different devices, dig through old hard drives, or remember which cloud account holds which chapter of your life just to see how you got from there to here.
You should be able to walk past it on your walls.
Pull it off a shelf.
Hold it in your hands.
Your story deserves to exist somewhere outside of a screen. 🤍
NOW PLEASE DON'T RUIN ALL OF THIS BY PRINTING AT WALGREENS!
Now... have I convinced you to print your photos yet?
No?
Well, more on that in a minute. I have something even more important to tell you!
If nothing else I've said sticks with you,
LET THIS BE WHAT YOU REMEMBER.
There’s something no one really talks about, that most people don't know, and really good marketing has convinced us we don't even need to think about.
And thats WHERE you print your photos actually matters!
I know.
Walgreens is convenient. Costco is convenient. Walmart is convenient.
You can upload your photos from the couch and have prints waiting for you before you finish your Target run.
But remember those hours I mentioned earlier that I spent editing your photographs?
There’s a reason for that. I carefully adjust the color, skin tones, exposure, contrast, and all of those tiny details so your finished images look exactly the way I intended them to.
And then you send them through a random one-hour photo lab and suddenly everyone's skin is a little orange, the shadows are weird, the crop is questionable, they're a little hazy or grainy and I'm somewhere feeling a disturbance in the Force.
Okay, dramatic? Maybe
.
But there really IS a difference between a convenience print and a photograph printed through a professional lab.
OKAY, I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING...
Why do YOU think you're so qualified to give me advice on what I should be doing with my photos?
And listen, that's fair.
Yes, being a photographer probably makes me look at photographs a little differently than the average person. BUT ALSO... I am a 15+ year veteran of the “no printed photos on my walls” fan club.
And when I say no printed photos, I mean NONE!
I spent the better part of — let's just say my ENTIRE ADULT LIFE — with basically nothing hanging on my walls. Not photos. Not artwork. Not cute little signs from Hobby Lobby telling everyone to live, laugh, love.
NOTHING.
My walls were so bare that the mirrors hanging above my bathroom sinks — THAT CAME WITH THE HOUSE — were the extent of what my interior decorating consitsted of.
So you know what?
When you've spent THAT many years living in a house with walls so empty they look like you just moved in... and then you finally start printing your photographs, hanging them up, and realizing how completely different it feels to actually SEE the people and memories you love all around your home every single day...
THAT MAKES ME AN ABSOLUTE EXPERT IN WHY PRINTING YOUR PHOTOS IS SO GOSH DANG IMPORTANT.
Not because I'm a photographer.
Because I spent 15+ years doing the exact opposite.
Now, this would normally be the part where I show you a side-by-side comparison to prove just how much of a difference there is between a professional lab and one of those quick, convenient printing options.
Except... I don't have one.
BECAUSE I DON'T PRINT MY IMAGES AT THOSE PLACES.
I know, not exactly helpful for the visual demonstration. But there's a reason I don't use them—and there's a reason I don't recommend that you use them either.
YOU DID ALL OF THIS FOR A REASON.
You picked the location.
You blocked off the evening.
You got everyone showered, dressed, brushed, curled, buttoned, tucked in and out the door.
You drove there.
You showed up.
You made time for this.
And that's the part I don't want you to forget.
Think about everything that had to happen just to get those photos taken.
You found a photographer. You coordinated schedules. You picked a date when somehow everyone was available at the same time. You spent way too long figuring out what everyone was going to wear. You probably ordered something, returned something, ordered something else, and then told at least one person in your family that NO, they could not wear that.
Because in a life where everyone is busy
you intentionally stopped everything for an hour and said:
THIS is worth remembering.
Your family, exactly as it is right now, was important enough to rearrange schedules for. Important enough to plan for. Important enough to get everyone together in one place and document.
So why should the end result of all of that effort be a folder on your phone that you stumble across every once in a while?
Those photographs were never supposed to be something you occasionally find while scrolling.
They were supposed to become part of your home.
Part of your family's story.
Part of the things you see every single day.
You’ll be thankful you made the time, even if it is only once a year.
Thankful you have photographs from when their hand still fit inside yours.
Thankful you captured the milestones you knew were important.
Thankful for the little things you didn’t realize you’d miss.
And sometimes
Thankful you got everyone together one last time.
SOMEDAY, YOU'LL BE SO THANKFUL YOU DID.
Thankful for every photograph that lets you look back and remember not only what your life looked like, but all the people who were there for it.
Because when you look back at all of those photographs years from now, you won’t just see how everyone changed.
You’ll see where you started. Where you’ve been. Who was there. And just how far you’ve come.
And maybe the best part?
You’ll be even more thankful you didn’t wait until then to appreciate them.
YOU PRINTED THEM!
You put them on your walls. And you got to spend a lifetime walking past the people and moments you love most, seeing them every single day.
AND WHEN YOU DO DECIDE TO PRINT...
Please don't overthink it.
It's easy to get overwhelmed deciding which ones to print.
What sizes do I print? Where do I put them? Do I need an album? A gallery wall? What if I pick the wrong one?
So they decide they'll figure it out later... and later becomes NEVER.
THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE TO YOU
Start with the photographs you can't stop looking at.
The one that feels the most like your family. The one where everyone is laughing. The one where your child is looking at you in a way you already know you're going to miss. The one from your wedding that instantly takes you back to that exact moment.
Print one BIG and put it somewhere you'll see it every day.
Put the whole story in an album you can pull off the shelf.
Print a few smaller ones for your nightstand, your desk, the hallway, Grandma's house, wherever they'll actually be seen and enjoyed.
There is no wrong way to fill your home with the people you love!
The only mistake is waiting for the “perfect” way to do it for so long that your photographs end up exactly where we started...
Sitting on your phone.
So do me a huge favor...
And print your damn photos 🤍
