‘Way Back When’…great fun but something to think about

Well here it is, my contribution to #waybackweek. Yes, this is me at the age of 5, having just got home from my first day at school, so I’m led to believe. Apart from having slightly less hair these days, but being four times taller, some things haven’t changed. This could so easily be me now when I return home from most weddings…and still with the same lovely legs. Ahem. We’ll move on shall we?

I don’t know about you but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone’s old photos of themselves on Facebook over this past week. No doubt your reactions as well as mine have been a mixture of ‘ahh’s, ‘wow’s, ‘really?’s, ‘blimey!!’s and ‘oh dear’s. Yes, some of us have been braver than others.

But have you noticed that they were ALL photos of prints – whether they be loose prints, mounted prints, album prints or framed prints? “Of course they were, that’s all we had” I hear you say. “Thank God” is what I say. I bet you, like me, have thoroughly enjoyed rummaging through the attic and old boxes trying to find your gems. And I wonder how many memories were stirred up just in the pursuit of that one single photo to post up and share? Do you remember how you felt and how your smile spread across your face when you held those prints in your hand?

So ask yourself this…where will your children or Grandchildren go to find photos of themselves to share with everybody during ‘Way Back When’ week in the year 2052? Social media or a memory stick? Perhaps…but if you stop and think for a moment about how technology has changed since those old photos of you were taken, you’ll soon realise that to rely on the technology we enjoy today as being your next generations’ solution in 36 years time is at best extremely hopeful and at worst….well, lets not even go there.

It therefore follows that a printed photograph is the only visual medium through which your family memories can be preserved. It doesn’t depend on the uncertainties of technological advancements and it’s trail of obsolescence. It has been said by many observers that one of the biggest ironies today is that the current generation of children are the most photographed in the history of the planet and yet are the least well represented in print. There are exceptions of course but it is a trap we can all so easily fall into in this digital age of convenience and super-quick consumption of the things that really matter.

Do you really want to deny your children and grandchildren the pleasure of them also one day being able to sit down ‘offline’ and sift through all those old photographs, being drawn into them in a way that only the printed format can really achieve? One of my clients, Linda, once said “we already knew our photos were superb, but they took on a whole new life in hard print”. I truly believe that an image doesn’t become a photograph until it’s printed.

With all of this in mind I am therefore pleased to be able to offer a whole range of tangible products that will truly stand the test of time. Whether it be for a wedding or a family lifestyle portraits session, along side digital images I put a lot of time into sourcing and creating beautiful pieces of wall art, sideboard products and albums – like those below.

If you’d like to discuss your wedding photography or family portraits then please do get in touch. Who knows I may even show you some more old photos of me…not that I want to put you off or anything!