the power of holding a photograph in your hands

As I was sitting on the floor of my Aunt's house not too long after my Grandma passed, her and I were looking through her mother's (My Nonna's) box of photographs. In that box were some photos her and I have never seen before. Candid photos, formal photos, wedding portraits. You name it. Along with looking at those photos came stories I never heard before, significant people in my family I have never met, fun juicy details about family I never knew lol and bonding with family.

It made me think that in this digital age we take all sorts of candid photographs of ourselves and others, yet we never print them. Our phones are full of unprinted treasures. Those times that someone takes a photo of ourself and we hate it because of the angle or our facial expression. Those are the photos we and others cherish when we are older. We can hold that photograph in our hands and we can relive the memories of that specific day. Is that not magical?

I photograph families, couples and everything in between. My goal is always for these photographs to be printed and put in an album or hung on the wall. Yes posting on social media is a great time capsule to where we can go back and look at our photographs. But there is nothing like a fresh print that you can hold, feel and smell. A print that your children and their children can look back on and say "is that seriously my mom? She was a babe!" or "who the heck are these random people" and it be the most important friends you ever had in your life. If someone passes away, that photograph may be the only thing you

have left of them.

Not to mention the obvious but technology fails us ALL the time. So having a physical copy is beyond important. So go to your phones upload those photos and print print print. Download that family session from last year that you have been putting off. Make an album or beautiful canvas print or even throw all the photos in a box. These prints are tangible chapters in the stories of our lives.