Here’s some ramblings on the importance of photos, and why we should print, share and love the photographs we take.

The importance of photos become more evident the older we get.  We can send a thousand images across the world in minutes, our inboxes are crammed with attachment after attachment.

But there is something so magical when you take an image file and have it printed, whether that be at a high street lab or at a professional printers.

In my opinion, images are taken to be turned into photographs.

Photographs that can be held, looked at in the pages of an album and shared with loved ones.  There’s nothing wrong with an electronic image, but for an image to have the power to change emotions, to provoke a reaction and to sometimes produce a tear, then you can not beat a beautifully printed photograph. It has a longevity, it can be the foundation of a history, to some one that photograph can mean the world.

I see this every time I give my mother photographs of her grand daughter.  I see this every time my wife flicks through an album of pictures of our dog Elsa when she was a puppy.

On a recent trip to visit my parents in Northern Spain, I was handed an old proof book album.

It had a red cardboard cover, and it was bound by what looked like curtain cord.  Instantly, I remembered this book, although I hadn’t seen it in about thirty years.  I opened it, and each page contained a black and white, hand printed portrait of me.  I was four years old, yet I remembered the photographs, remembered the sittings and incredibly remembered the two lovely ladies who photographed me in their studio in Cambridge.  This album was such a treasured item, my mother truly realised the importance of photos.

I remember the two portrait sittings, because the photographers were so lovely to me, and let me play with all the toys in the studio while they snapped away.  They produced a series of images that evoked all those memories in a stressed out 42 year old, thirty eight years later.

When a bride asks me about my services I try and encourage them to have an album I know that life is expensive, we’re all in a recession and they’ve just paid a fortune to plan their perfect wedding. Off course, they get the electronic files of the images, they get the images re-sized so that they can share them on Facebook…but they also get something that will last much longer than their bridal bouquet and their cake.

They get their special day recorded and presented in such a way that when they open their book, it will evoke the same emotions they felt on their day.  They get to present their loved ones with photographs, with something tangible that to some will mean so much.  Through photographs, their day will be shared for long after the event its self.

So, don’t just keep your photographs in a file on a cluttered desk top, choose one that will mean something to someone.  Have it printed and send it to them.   I promise it will mean the world to them.

This post is dedicated to Ramsey & Muspratt, of Post Office Terrace, Cambridge, the two lovely ladies that captured the photographs, that continues to give my mother so much joy, 38 years later.  In her eyes, money very well spent.  Thank you ladies, wherever you may be.  You made me appreciate the importance of photos.

And if you’d like a pre-wedding, an engagement or a family shoot, click here.

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And if you are looking for a Family Portrait Session, visit my dedicated website here.