This is something I’ve grown more and more passionate about in the past couple of years. I offer digitals to customers because that is what they are wanting and what they ask for, but you really need to ask yourself what happens with those files. After having lost more than a few photos in my day and experimenting with numerous methods of backing up files, at the end of the day the chances of your loss of printed photos is far less than digitals. The longevity of a printed photo is a no brainer. There are photos you find all the time in antique malls that are literally hundreds of years old. With a wedding under our belt and a baby on the way I felt a hyperventilating feeling of wondering how our future daughter would be able to view those photos. I used to sit for hours pouring through photographs my mom had in a closet in our hallway. I would just sit on the floor and go through boxes and albums of pictures. Of course I would rip some off of me and my dad or my grandpa, but isn’t that what they are for?? It’s really “snazzy” at the moment to pull up photos on your phone to show off or fancy slideshows all synced up to your televisions or computer, but what about in 20 years or even 10 years when your kids want to see them and facebook isn’t around anymore? Who knows what the hot thing will be then. Think even further….your grandkids! That’s pretty neat your photographer gives you a CD, many computers are coming without the CD/DVD drive now! UH OH. That’s okay…we offer USBs now. That’s cool for a few years probably. I envision my child looking at a USB in 15 years how I look at those reel things my grandpa plays on the wall in his basement to watch home movies. Where do you get something to view what’s on a USB in years to come?? At any rate, this is my solution I’ve started for our family. Believe it or not, not all of the photos we have are professional and I don’t have all the digitals of our photos. You get photos from other family members of events that have happened through the year, and what do you do with them? An album is kind of out since you don’t have the digitals. And what about those few super sweet cards and drawings and event stubs you want to save that don’t fit in a slip sleeve album? What do you do with them? I decided to design pretty much a “fancy shoebox” by the year to put all the momentos I want to keep. My daughter can now flip through and take whatever she wants. I can show her grandpa and grandma, and lo and behold even tape them up in her room! Chances of a fire hopefully are fairly low, and even so the images and prints given to us would be lost anyway since I don’t have the digital copies so I’m going to play my odds with good ole’ fashion prints. I’m excited to do this every year now. I would encourage everyone to PRINT PRINT PRINT!! While I offer the super swanky custom wood USBs and they are awesome, PRINT what is on them! Better yet, forgo the digitals and order a collection with all your proofs or order your prints! I think people feel they are getting more of a value by getting a flimsy CD with files on it, but when your kid snaps it in two you are kind of out of luck. No one plans on their computer crashing and no one plans on being so busy they don’t have time to back them up, but it happens all the time.
