One More Reason You MUST Print Your Photos

This post was updated 2021.

If any article were to catch my eye, it would be one called "Photos Go Missing After [Computer] Upgrade." 

Guys, this is exactly what I'm talking about!!  This is exactly why I'm a photo pusher!  Digital photos can definitely be stored digitally, but it's a fickle choice.  This {article from the Seattle Times} is a Q & A.  The man asking the question about why all his photos disappeared from his hard drive has just "upgraded" his operating system.  Definitely worth the read.

You may remember {my experience a few years ago}:  after a similar "upgrade," my whole computer crashed!

Technology is always changing, and it's also fairly unstable since computers crash and files become unreadable without warning.  Remember floppy discs?  Remember beta videotapes?  The latest trend is computers without disc drives.  Does that mean all the photos I've saved on discs will be inaccessible 10 years from now?  Or will external disc drives be available?  Or will disc drives come back?  Or not?  We don't know!

And this is why I preach what I preach:  The best way to store your photos isn't digitally.  It's in print.  A printed photo can last about 200 years.  We just don't know how long digital photos last.  A printed photo has a place to write names, dates, memories, and other details that make the photo significant.  A printed photo gets {seen and loved and interacted with}.  It's the interaction that refreshes the memory.  It's the interaction that makes connections.  

Backing up your photos is obviously a good idea.  But never forget that {the backup is a backup}!  It's not the main attraction.  Digital photos are a great backup, like film was in the olden days.  But the real treasure is the actual photo, the printed version, complete with its stories and details and memories.

This is in large part why my chosen method of preserving photos includes both STORAGE and PRESERVATION.  I recommend these two companies, both of which offer me a way to preserve my photos in heirloom-quality printed books and other products.  For digital photo storage, both companies save my photos in full resolution with free download ability (not true with all cloud storage services), and they keep my photos private.  Again, not true with all cloud services.  Privacy is a big deal to me!  

However, between the two companies, Forever is the only one who triple-backs-up my photos and guarantees their privacy and security for my lifetime + 100 years.  (And they also include file migration, meaning if my current photo files, jpegs, some day become obsolete, Forever will change the files to a new format so they're always accessible and never become unreadable.)

Saved photos are an awesome back-up, but it's the printed photos that get seen and loved.  Printing my photos like this gives me two important benefits:  I have a high-quality way of printing my photos and telling their stories (either books or scrap pages), AND I have all those completed projects (books, scrap pages, etc.) saved in my account *forever.  That means everything to me! 

I get the interactive, tactile version of my photos and memories, plus some digital backups just in case.  And the digital ones are so easily shareable with friends and family right from my phone!  I love that I can store and share way more pictures & videos using my phone than my phone actually has storage space for!  Here's what I mean.

Don't be distracted by hard drives and external hard drives and flash drives and clouds.  {Printing photos is where it's at.}  Yup, it's kinda old fashioned.  

Another term for "old fashioned," though, is "tried and true."  

Print works.  Printed photos are what's real.  They're what get seen.  They're how you preserve the story that goes with the photos.  "IMG_3489" isn't a story.  It's not really even a photo.  It's a digital file.

The {benefits of memory-keeping don't happen with digital files}.  They happen with photos.  

#dontletyourbabiesgrowuptobejpegs  {Get started here.} 

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Stop Wishing Your Scrapbooking Was Done and Do It (with 3 options)

This post was updated 2022.

Are you one of the many people who WISHES your scrapbooking was done?  Would you really like to have your photos in a book instead of languishing somewhere in the cloud?  Do your kids ask to see pictures of themselves, but you don't have anything significant to show them because you can't find them on your phone?  

You've come to the right place!  Today I'll show you three completely do-able ways to stop wishing your scrapbooking was done and do it!

 

Solving Photo Organization Woes First

If you have some hurdles you need to get over before you're ready to start memory-keeping or scrapbooking, here are some videos and articles I've created that may help.  Have a look around, click on whatever you need help with, and then you'll be ready for the 3 digital scrapbook solutions I have for you. 

If you don't know how to get your photos from your phone to your computer, here's how (5 minutes):

Or, for my favorite solution, read "Help! My Photos Are In Too Many Places!"  There's even a 13-minute video tutorial on how to upload and organize your photos using my favorite solution (which also has an app so I can access all my photos from my phone without taking up storage space.

For a very thorough and in-depth look at photo organizing (and why storing and preserving are not the same thing), watch my 3-part series!

Part 1 is "Organizing and Decluttering Photos"

Part 2 is "Solutions for Storing and Preserving Photos"

Part 3 is "Strategies for Consistency"

Three Options So You Can Stop Wishing Your Scrapbooking was Done 

And now on to the 3 options I suggest to help you stop wishing your scrapbooking was done and do it!

It's very important to find a high-quality method to preserve your photos, but it's equally important to find something you love.  If you don't love it, it feels more like a chore instead of something to look forward to.  

Putting your photos and memories into something you can hold and look back at for years and years to come is good for the heart and soul.  In fact, I've called it {The Secret Ingredient to Self-Care and Wellness}.  So you should find something do-able that fits your needs and preferences so that you can enjoy all the {personal benefits of memory-keeping}.

So let's explore!!  These 3 different options really offer something for everyone.  Truly.  If you are an "I love creative Me Time" for scrapbooking, there's something here for you.  And if you're a "who has time for THAT?!" person, there's something here for you.

See which one you like best: 

Something to consider as you create digital scrapbooks, no matter which of those 3 high-quality options look the best to you, is a yearbook! If you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed, I really believe a yearbook is a genius way to get up and going again, preserving your photos and memories.

A yearbook is a home for all the photos and memories from one year.  This video gives a few ideas and examples (and shows how easy it is with [free] Design & Print software). 

You saw there that you can add pages beyond the 21 that a book comes with (for a per-page fee, which varies depending on book size), but you could also try the Yearbook Method!  

The Yearbook Method is one that helps you just preserve your favorite photos from one year in print.  Start with page 1 as a "highlights" type page, and then each two-page spread moving forward is dedicated to just one month.  This helps you narrow down your pictures by only preserving your favorites in pages, which makes scrapbooking take less time.

Which One is YOU?

You can create something simple and quick but still top-quality using either of the first two options from the video, AutoPrint and Design & Print.  For a more creative, flexible digital scrapbook, Artisan is easy to fall in love with.  

To learn more about Artisan and what you can do with it--expanding on what you saw in the video above--read What to Love About Digital Scrapbooking.  The first part is about transitioning from paper scrapbooking to digital scrapbooking, so start reading at "The Best Digital Scrapbooking Company and Why."  You'll find additional (short) videos and several photos of my own Artisan scrapbooks.
   

What do you think?  Which method do you think would work best for you?  Which one will be THE ONE to let you stop wishing your scrapbooking was done?  Let me know in the comments below.

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your favorite social media platform.  

2023 UPDATE regarding references to Heritage Makers and/or Evolve (live.grow.give):  

• Heritage Makers and Snap2Finish became YPhoto under Youngevity (which purchased Heritage Makers in 2013).  YPhoto uses only templates, so the creativity showcased here is no longer available there, and they also no longer have capability to print previously-created projects like these from the old system. YPhoto is not a photo storage site like Heritage Makers was. Best-in-the-industry quality and permanent cloud photo storage with guaranteed privacy are required for anything recommended here by Photo & Story Treasures, so we highly recommend Forever.  
• The Evolve website was a lovely one I wrote for from 2017-2019 before the owner of it had to retire it.

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What Do You Tell Yourself about Preserving Pictures that Isn't True?

Everyone has pictures!  Unfortunately, not everyone preserves them.  In the “olden days” as I like to call them, we would take a pictures on film and not see them for weeks or months until we printed them when we got the film developed.  We’re in a funny place now where we take pictures and see them immediately but don’t print or preserve them, so we often never see them again.  

What happened?  Why the disconnect?  What is it about digital photos that has made us forget to preserve them?  I find that there are several myths surrounding memory-keeping that are preventing the majority of us from preserving pictures.  What do you tell yourself about preserving pictures that isn’t true?

So What Do You Mean, “Preserving?”

My quick answer to this question is usually, “Preserving a photo means getting it out of digital form into a place where it can be seen and loved, complete with its story (your memories).”  While I stand by that definition, I think it’s important to look a little deeper.  

“Preserving” means “saving.”  So if you’re preserving your pictures, you’re saving them.  Saving them from what?

Now that’s something to think about!  Digital photos come with a whole set of potential problems:  computer crashes, corrupted files, phones dropped in water, etc.  Another problem with digital photos is that they don’t leave us a place to write thoughts or memories or details about the photo.  (Unfortunately, this will eventually make them worthless.  I know that’s a hard pill to swallow!  #truth)

Digital photos also come with an even bigger problem:  overwhelm.  Digital photos are so easy to take that many people just amass them instead of mindfully taking them.  With thousands upon thousands of digital photos, it’s no wonder that preserving them can be daunting.  

If you’re overwhelmed with just the amount of photos you have, help yourself out by reading {When Photo Overload Becomes Photo Overwhelm}.

Why You Should Care

Photos, memories, and family stories have been shown to increase self-esteem, lower rates of depression and anxiety, foster a sense of purpose and belonging, reduce stress, increase present happiness, and contribute to greater resiliency, healing, and coping.  

As time goes on, we are in more and more need of the things that memory-keeping provides:  connection, grounding, peace, comfort, and happiness.  We need to take time to process life, and there’s not an easier way to do that than sitting down with your pictures and writing a little something about them.  Reminiscing is powerful for the mind and the heart.

If you’re still not sure why preserving photos even matters, read {The Secret Ingredient to Self-Care and Wellness} as well as {The Importance of Memories to Personal Growth}.  There is some astounding research and information there!

Start there and then you’ll be ready to tackle the four common memory-keeping myths.  I’ve busted them all for you, in fact!  (Click to read each one.)

• {BustingMyth #1:  “I’m not creative.”}
• {BustingMyth #2:  “I don’t preserve my photos because I’m not a scrapbooker.”}  Think about this one.  Photography has been around for 200 years, scrapbooking for about 30.  This one is obviously a myth!
• {BustingMyth #3:  “I don’t have time.”}  We say this one so much that you probably don’t believe me when I say this is a myth!  Read on!
• {BustingMyth #4: “I can’t preserve my photos and memories because I don’t know what to write.”}

How to Actually Do It

We tend to make things complicated with too many pictures and visions of Ultra Creative Scrapbooking.  It doesn’t need to be that hard!  

Here are my three favorite suggestions to help you go from suffocating under your photos to enjoying them and letting them be {the best kind of retail therapy there is}!

1. {Declutter and organize your photos} (or use this {video tutorial on organizing digital photos}).  Either way, organize then just choose your favorites to preserve so you’re not overwhelmed.
2. Set aside time.  Here’s a suggestion for {making it a family tradition} instead of an item on Mom’s to-do list, and {here’s a HUGE collection of ideas for making time for yourself and getting together with others for memory-keeping}.  (I even have an online group you can join–it’s free, and you can find the information at that link.)
3. Do what you love.  Whether you like printed pictures or digital ones, there’s something for everyone.  Choose a high-quality photo album (make sure it's acid-free and lignin-free) for your printed photos, or try digital books (again, quality matters) for your digital pages.  Digital scrap pages are literally the reason I’m caught up preserving my memories and photos!  No joke.  And for people who are really overwhelmed with the amount of photos they have, digital yearbooks are my go-to, hands down! 

Here are a couple of videos that can help.  

This first one is the fastest way I know of to preserve your photos and memories digitally (and you'll get a PDF version of your book for digital sharing, too), and your books are printed using the highest quality inks, papers, and bindings in the industry.

And for awesome digital photo organizing, preserving, and sharing (guaranteed for your lifetime plus 100 years with no monthly fees), this tutorial can get you started.

Whatever you do, #dontletyourbabiesgrowuptobejpegs!  Don’t tell yourself anything about preserving pictures that isn’t true.  Let pictures and memories and life’s stories be the therapeutic benefit they can be for your heart and soul.

Get started here!

Find many more tips for catching up on your photos {here}. If you need a memory-keeping buddy, {contact me here}.  I can even collaborate with you, working to make parts or all of your digital books or scrap pages {for you}!

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This post was originally published at www.livegrowgive.org on October 12, 2018, by Jennifer Wise.  You can read more #familyhistoryfriday posts about photos, memories, stories, connections, and family by clicking the hashtag below next to Labels.  This post was updated in 2023.

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11 Reasons Preserving Your Photos is One of the Most Important Things You Can Do

I recently came across some meaningful words about memory-keeping that I think could be summarized as "11 Reasons Preserving Your Photos is One of the Most Important Things You Can Do."  This statement was shared by Rhonda Anderson, the retired co-founder of Creative Memories, and now the founder of Heritage Makers' sister company, Our Memories For Life.  This is the very real experience of Tiffany A. Parker.

Before I share her words of wisdom, I have to say that the question Tiffany answers, "Why do you scrapbook?  Don't you know eventually it will be thrown away?" is something I've never heard before.  I was actually quite stunned (maybe even horrified) to think that anyone would ever consider throwing a scrapbook away.  I'm a really quiet, non-confrontational person, but I'd fist-fight somebody over this!  ;)  Scrapbooks are some of the most precious things you will ever own--for all the reasons Tiffany mentions.

And please be sure when you read her words of wisdom that your definition of "scrapbooking" is broad enough to include all memory-keeping, whether digital, paper/traditional, or simply putting photos and their stories in store-bought albums.  In fact, {here are four excellent options}, each one different from the other, all with the same meaningful end result.

Here are 11 reasons preserving your photos is one of the most important things you can do.

"I've been asked a million times:  'Why do you scrapbook? 

Don't you know eventually it will be thrown away?'

Well, I finally have an answer:

I scrapbook because people break into houses and steal flash drives with your whole 10 year relationship on them.

I scrapbook because computers crash.

I scrapbook because technology fails.

I scrapbook because flash drives can get lost.

I scrapbook because life is precious.

I scrapbook because sometimes you lose an important person and a picture is all you have left to hold.

I scrapbook to remember.

I scrapbook to preserve stories that my brain doesn't think are important, when my heart knows they are.

I scrapbook so I can introduce my future children to someone they may never have gotten to meet, or can't remember, that loved them so deeply.

I scrapbook to help focus on the positive when the depression and PTSD start their lies again.

I scrapbook so that during the worst parts of my life I can look back on the best.

So the next time someone belittles, degrades, or find fault in your "waste-of-money," "silly," or "pointless" hobby, tell them why you scrapbook.

Because these albums are the only pictures that remain of my entire marriage, the only pictures of grandma, the only graduation photo that I have, and the only thing so "worthless" the robbers didn't steal-- that meant everything to me."

-Tiffany A. Parker

#dontletyourbabiesgrowuptobejpegs

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Think Outside the Scrapbooking Box

Pictures and memories are some of the most precious things we have.  Unfortunately, many people think that preserving them requires "scrapbooking."  Our modern-day definition of scrapbooking entails a lot of supplies, a lot of space, and a lot of time.

But think about it--it doesn't make a lot of sense that something EVERYONE needs is something doable (or enjoyable) by a very few.  

There are actually a lot of reasons that we need our pictures and memories.  They include:

• lower stress
• lower depression and anxiety (especially among teenagers)
• healing benefits (as from grief)
• coping benefits 
• increased happiness
• increased self-esteem (especially among kids)
• increased sense of belonging
• increased perspective
• increased sense of gratitude
• increased connections among family members

So let's think outside the scrapbooking box!!

There are lots of other ways to preserve photos and memories!!  Nobody should ever feel like they can't do anything with their photos and memories because they aren't a "scrapbooker."

Today I bring you FOUR articles I've written showing four different approaches and styles to preserving photos and memories and telling your own story.  Each of these articles includes a list called "you might like this option if..."  So explore each one at the links below until you find a solution that works for you.  There are easy, simple, creative, digital, and paper options.  There's really something for everyone.  Which one will be YOUR solution for your memory-keeping?

• {Digital Scrap Pages} (my personal favorite--it's what I use, so this post actually includes a video tutorial so you'll see how fast digital scrap pages can be)
• {Easy Pocket Pages and Kits} (this is totally what I would do if I didn't love digital so much and I already had pictures printed)
• {Digital Storybooking} (Combine this post with my Family Yearbook video tutorial and plan, and you've got a really simple way to easily preserve your pictures.)
• {Traditional Paper Scrapbooking}  (Even if you're not a paper scrapbooker, this fun post gives some very interesting information about the history of scrapbooking!  It's a lot older than you probably think.  If you ARE a paper scrapbooker, or want to be, you'll enjoy seeing some fun new tools!)

2022 UPDATE:  You can see my favorite memory-keeping options at this video.  It's so important to find something you will love doing (and, therefore, DO)!  And it's vital to find high-quality ways to do it!  I love that these are high-quality print products with options so that there's something for everyone.  Whether you want simple, push-of-a-button books or fully creative and flexible digital scrapbooking (or somewhere in between), you're sure to find something that you love that fits your style and available time.

As a bonus, I'll share one more article (and ebook) with you:  {What Your Pictures Have to do with Self-Care}.  It can help motivate you to turn your good intentions into something you can hold!  There's no time like right now.

Get started here.

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How to Print Your Pictures

It’s {estimated} that we take 1.2 trillion pictures a year, and 85% of them are taken on smartphones!  We all know that taking a picture is really easy, but what about getting that digital image into a form where it can be seen more readily? 

As you know from previous #familyhistoryfriday articles, {accumulating a stockpile of photos isn’t really the goal}.  Having gigabytes upon gigabytes of photos that remain untouched and unappreciated don’t do the heart and soul good– seeing those photos does.  The whole point of taking a picture is to see it, not to store it.  

We’ve all mastered Step 1: how to take a digital picture.  Now let’s conquer Step 2: how to see those pictures from our phones and cameras.

Decide on a Home for Your Photos First

Where you want your photos and memories to live will determine the right way for you to get your photos off your phone.  While a traditional photo album from a local store is certainly one method for preserving your pictures and the stories that go with them, there are a lot of options.

heirloom-quality digital books, scrap pages, and other digital products {available here}

In March, we explored four additional ways here at #familyhistoryfriday which can help you decide, plus I have two more bonus options to share with you.  These vary by style, cost, creativity, and time.  I suggest looking at each of these six methods to see what works for you.  In most of these links, I actually give recommendations on who would like each method.

1. My favorite method, digital scrap pages.
2. Digital Storybooking, which– like digital scrap pages –allow you to skip the extra step of printing digital photos before putting them in an album, and the books are heirloom quality
3. Yearbooks which are a simplified version of heirloom-quality digital storybooking, complete with a method to help you really pare down and get a handle on all. those. pictures.  (I love this method and recommend it to anyone who is overwhelmed with their photos!)  
4. Traditional Paper Scrapbooking, great for those who like hands-on memory-keeping
5. Simple Digital Photo Books–and I recommend this company because the quality of the products is much higher than the run-of-the-mill online photobook company (like options 3 & 4) but with a cleaner and more simple look, plus the ability to click a button and "auto-fill" pages in your book

Each of these methods has their own perks, so choose something that fits your style, available time, and budget the best.  Most of all, though, love it.  I always say, “If you don’t love it, you won’t do it,” so find something you can get excited about.  Looking forward to sitting down and putting your photos in a HOME and jotting down some memories of them is a great way to help you DO IT. 

Memory-keeping is cathartic and is an excellent method of self-care!  There are additional benefits to it, too, like increased happiness and a greater sense of purpose!

Did You Choose a Printed Photograph or Digital Photo Product?

You may have noticed that each of those six options, along with the regular photo album from a local store, all fall into one of two categories:  a product that you’ll put printed photos into, or an all-in-one (a digital product that is printed with your digital pictures already in it).

If you choose pocket pages or traditional scrapbooking as the home for your photos and memories, you will first need to print your photos so you’ll have physical pictures in your hands.  If you choose digital storybooking, simple digital photo books, or digital scrap pages, you will already be printing your photos in a product.  So I’ll show you how to print your photos both ways.  

If you also want to save your photos onto your computer–which I recommend–be sure you don’t miss the #familyhistoryfriday post from two weeks ago, {How to Get Your Pictures Off Your Phone}.  

To save them offsite (outside your house, for safety), the best online photo and video storage I've ever seen is right here--and I call it "best" because it's private (some storage services reserve rights to sell your photos) and permanent (some storage services reserve rights to delete your photos).

How to Print (Physical) Photo Prints

Various big box stores and drug stores have photo processing centers, and all of them allow you to upload photos online.  

Or use Forever (which is that "best photo and video storage" I just mentioned--print them in a snap at the same place your storing them).  You can even Order Photo Prints from your Phone. With Forever, you can even edit your photos once they're uploaded in your Forever account.  I made a little video about that for you here:

Once your photos are printed, you can put your photo prints in albums, pocket pages, or traditional scrapbooking.

How to Print Photos in a Digital Product Instead

If your preferred method isn’t a hands-on memory-keeping one, you get to skip a step!  Printing your digital photos IN a digital product is a pretty cool and simple way to do things.

If you choose to preserve your photos in the digital storybook or digital scrap pages I suggested (options 2, 3, and 4), Photo & Story Treasures recommends these four impressive heirloom-quality options.  Look around and see what you love--I love that there's something for everyone.

Digital storybooking (left) and digital scrap pages (right) are wonderful options for preserving
photos and memories, and both are available in multiple sizes {here}.

If you chose this digital method because you will love it, then you’ll have a great time doing it!  I always say, "If you don't love it, you won't do it."  Choose a method you will love!

Why It’s Important

Getting your photos off your phone is really important!  In a world without as much face-to-face contact as we once had, connecting with your own life experiences is a way to {stay emotionally healthy}. 

Every picture you’ve taken means something.  You felt that THAT moment should be captured.  You wanted to remember the experience, the view, the person, the occasion.  So letting the picture rot on your phone like yesterday’s garbage doesn’t do it the justice it deserves.  It doesn’t honor your desire to preserve that moment of your life.

Seeing your photos is what makes them matter.

#dontletyourbabiesgrowuptobejpegs

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This post was originally published at www.livegrowgive.org on May 25, 2018, by Jennifer Wise.  Find more #familyhistoryfriday posts about memories, photos, stories, connections, and family by clicking the hashtag below next to Labels.

How to Order Photo Prints from your Phone

If you are a traditional scrapbooker or if you use simple photo albums, there's a quick new way to order prints straight from your phone!

UPDATE 2021:  This post was originally about a company called Snap2Finish, which will eventually be part of a new company called YPhoto (in 2022 or 2023, probably), but here is an equally fast and photo-privacy-promising company called Forever, and it has a lot of extra perks.  

Here's how to upload photos directly from your phone to your Forever account, but stay tuned for information about ordering from your computer, too:

1. Open your Forever account at https://www.forever.com/ambassador/jennifer-wise.  Your photos there are private (not true for most photo storage companies), and there's no fine print about reserving rights to your photos (either deleting or selling!--also not true for more photo storage companies).
2. Next, get the Forever app.  There are directions here on how to get the Forever app, but please note that it's not just an app.  You can auto-sync, backup, organize, etc., right from your phone.  Forever isn't like a traditional cloud sync to your phone (meaning, whatever happens on your phone happens to the app).  With traditional cloud sync services, you can't delete a photo from your phone without deleting it from the cloud.  Forever isn't like that.  You can free up space on your phone by "syncing" with Forever (or just uploading photos from your phone to your Forever Storage)!!

Here's how to order photo prints from Forever on your computer, and cool options for editing your photos right in your Forever account!

1. If you haven't yet, open your Forever account at https://www.forever.com/ambassador/jennifer-wise.  Again, your photos there are private (not true for most photo storage companies), and there's no fine print about reserving rights to your photos (either deleting or selling!--also not true for more photo storage companies).  You can upload photos to your Forever account from your computer, external hard drive, flash drive, etc., not only your phone.
2. Optional, but very cool is the ability to edit your photos right in your Forever account.  I made this little video to show you how: 
   
   
3. Once you've uploaded your photos into your Forever account, click the "Create & Print" button along the top near the center, then "Photo Prints" from the drop-down menu.  Or find it here:  https://www.forever.com/ambassador/jennifer-wise/autoprint/photo-prints
4. Choose your desired size and style (glossy or lustre/matte), and order away!  

Printing photos is the most important way to preserve them.  PRINT is how photos get seen and loved!  So whether you print photos physically and scrapbook them, or you print them in digital photo albums or storybooks, you are truly PRESERVING them!

#dontletyourbabiesgrowuptobejpegs

Why Taking Photos is So Important – And What to Do With Them

Taking photos used to be more of a treat than it is today.  In the 1800s, a small percentage of people had photos taken of themselves, and it was a big affair.  It took a lot of time and money.  If they were lucky, they had more than one photo of themselves taken during their lifetimes.  

Today we can have 100 pictures taken of ourselves in a single weekend.  We take pictures of sunsets, animals, and food.  Because photos have become so commonplace, it can be easy to forget how important they really are.  Unfortunately, digital photography has led to {photo overwhelm}, and most often people take pictures but don’t really know what to do with them.

Why Taking Photos is So Important

Life is full of a lot of regular old events, but there are always special ones scattered in.  We go to weddings, take special vacations, make new friends.  There are always things we want to remember. 

Right now, I have a friend who is moving to an older house down the street because it’s on some land. The new house will be wonderful in time, but for now leaving the house they’ve called home for ten years tugs at their heart strings a little.  They made so many memories there, brought 4 babies home from the hospital there.  

My friend’s mother-in-law asked her recently, “Aren’t you sad to be leaving all the memories of this house behind?”  She said yes, she was, but that she had photos of all their good times with their written memories {preserved in a book} that they can pull out and enjoy and remember any time they want.

Create heirloom-quality, fully personalizable products {using any of these options}.

I read a beautiful article recently by Laura Mazza called {“Why Taking Photos Will Mean So Much More To Your Family Than You Realize.”}  Mazza talked about a friend whose father had passed away.  She told Mazza that when she misses her dad, she pulls out his picture–a picture of him before cancer, a picture of him the way she remembers him.  This is exactly why {photos are so powerful}.  They bring back moments in time that are otherwise gone.

In fact, pictures have been shown to increase happiness!  Gretchen Reuben’s {“Happiness Project”} found that viewing photos help us remember happy times.  This makes us happier in the present! In addition, a picture can “bring back” people, places, and things we love.

Looking at pictures has been found to both lift mood and increase relaxation.  {Dr. Peter Naish’s} study compared the result of looking at photos to the result of common things we use to try to increase our happiness such as eating and drinking.  His study showed that those things actually only increase mood by 1%. After looking at photos, people reported an 11% increase in happiness! (By the way, his study also found a 22% increase in relaxation after looking at pictures!  Pictures even beat out chocolate for relaxation, which only came in at 8%.)  

Take the photos!  Ask a stranger to take a photo of your family on an adventure day.  Capture little playful moments at home.  Moms, get in the photos.  No excuses.  These are the times you’ll want to remember later.  Your family will want them, too.  

Just don’t forget–you can’t stop there.

Next, Do Something With Your Photos

Once you’ve decided to take the photos, capture the moments, and be in the photos, there’s another important thing that MUST be done!

Remember the classic “This is your brain on drugs” television spot from the 80s/90s?  I wrote a blog post once based on it called {“These are your photos on a flash drive.  Any questions?”}  And it’s an important thing to remember.  Photos in digital form aren’t actually photos–they’re just files.  

In fact, photos left in digital form are like they were never taken.  

Think about that.  They’re rarely seen, and when they are seen there aren’t any details or memories recorded with them.  I’ve heard of siblings looking at old unmarked photos, unable to tell if that baby is themselves or their sibling.  Sometimes moms can’t even remember!

Photos must be published or printed in order to be seen and interacted with and loved.  Those photos must be accompanied by recorded memories and details.  Otherwise, you have nothing. 

Aside from the fact that {digital storage can be pretty fickle}, you don’t really want to just STORE your photos.  You want to SEE them.  That’s why you take them.

What to Do With Your Photos

There are so many great things you can do with your photos!  There are options that don’t take a lot of time, options that don’t take a lot of money, and options that will fit your needs and style.  

If you don’t really know what to do with your photos, peruse these ideas and see which sound the best to you.  Click the links for more in-depth descriptions and photos: 

• Create just two pages per month in this {digital family yearbook}.  Publish at the end of the year.  (I LOVE this option!)
• Save some time by creating {digital scrap pages}.  (This is what I personally do since I like loose-leaf pages.  It's such a huge time-saver!)
• Get a partner who will make your goal reality with {Digital Scrapbooking For Hire}.
• Try one of these {Four Creative Ways to Share Family Stories}.

And here are some {Tips For Bringing Your Photos to Life}, too.  

Click here for some photo organization helps if you need them.  

If time is the main thing keeping you from doing something with your photos, you can find {lots of ideas for making time} here! 

Taking and preserving photos is an important way to remember, and a precious way to strengthen your family.  As I always say, #dontletyourbabiesgrowuptobejpegs

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This post was originally published at www.livegrowgive.org on April 27, 2018, by Jennifer Wise.  You'll find more #familyhistoryfriday posts by clicking the hashtag below next to Labels.

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