May 3, 2010
I am a photographer and I take a lot of photographs. Not just when I get paid to do it either, I am always shooting. Somedays I travel with my tripod and pretend to be a nature photographer. I also keep a point and shoot with me almost all the time, looking for a scene that catches my eye. Heck, even my iPhone takes a mean picture. I know I'm not alone in this, ever where I go people are carrying cameras and using them - but that is not what this is about.
I've often wondered what everyone does with all of these photographs. It seems like with the inexpensive price of digital photography, cameras are everywhere and the cost to take a single photograph is practically nothing. When we used to shoot film, every exposure had a cost. Things have changed, now everyone is a photographer (many with great equipment) and is able to afford to take lots of photographs. But as the cost of a single photograph has diminished, its value has as well. What is everyone doing with all of these photographs? Does anyone make prints anymore? Is Facebook the final resting place for our shared moments?
Last weekend, as I was preparing to have guests visit, I was cleaning out the guest bedroom and found a stack of brand new frames that I had purchased at least six months ago (some older than that) intending to put pictures in them and display throughout our house. I bought them on sale, planning on taking some new photographs of our family to put in the frames. But life moved on and that never happened. The frames sat untouched, between the guest bed an it the nightstand for months.
So I immediately went to my computer, selected photos that Katie and I had taken over the past year or so and made prints right then. From there it was straight into the frame and hanging on the wall on fresh nails. I didn't wait to ask Katie if she liked the pictures I had chosen or not (she loved them), I just did it. And to be sure, some of them are not technically the best photographs taken, but it didn't matter - this is my house not an art gallery.
For the past few days, as I walk down the hallway I have to stop and stare at the pictures that now hang there and the memories that they bring up. Was that wall really bare just a few days ago? What was I thinking...?
I strongly encourage you to right now, and I mean right now, print a photograph of yours and hang it up (I'm talking to you professional photographer). They take on a new life that way, the life that they were supposed to live.
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That's so true!... I am doing it right now!...Print at least , I got to get the frames still!...