My public service announcement for the day…
PRINT YOUR PHOTOS.
A typical conversation with a client for me usually goes something like this:
them: “you must have a ton of photographs of your kids, huh?”
me: “yes, but only a few on the walls!”
Yes.. I must admit.. I am just as bad as the rest of the population with remembering to back up and print my family photographs… the digital convenience gives you that thrill of seeing the image instantly, but eliminates the urgency to actually print the photographs out.. and so they sit. On your computer. Just waiting for a hard drive crash or an accidental deletion. This isn’t a sob story about something like that.. I have thankfully not had any catastrophic equipment failures recently or lost years of my children’s lives due to one wrong click of the mouse.. it can happen.. but it didn’t, at least not yet. What prompted this post?
I printed my pictures.
I sent them away to the lab and actually drove to the store to pick them up. I held those sweet little expressions, those lost moments in time, in my hands and felt the WHOOSH of emotion come back. I was there again.. I could hear their giggles… I could feel the sunshine on the beach and the snuggles on the bed. Then, I took those pictures home and put them into albums, nothing fancy, but secure and safe from fingers but easily accessible. And then I sat on the couch with my girls for hours as we pawed through the pages.
Remember that face the baby used to make?
Remember when you won that award at school? We were so proud!
Remember your granddaddy? Just a few years ago he was there for everything.. I miss him too.
Remember that day? That absolutely nothing day, when we weren’t doing anything special and wasted an hour making silly faces for the camera? That was a good day.
The start of school always makes me nostalgic for the years flying past as my girls grow up. I know I can’t stop time, and I can’t turn it back. But I can take a picture and bottle up a moment… a laugh… a day… and print it out to remind me of all the wonderful times we’ve had, and all the exciting unknown that lies ahead. Taking the pictures is only half the battle.. a photograph that’s stuck in the computer is like a tree falling in the forest… what good does it do if there isn’t anyone to share in the joy of the memory?
And speaking of sharing… had I not printed my eons of photos, I would have missed images like these, which I had completely forgotten ever taking and now can’t stop staring (and laughing!) at. Just think what hidden jewels you’ll find in your own files! 
