As moms, we take a gazillion photos. How dare we not? Though we’ve managed to capture our kids’ first steps through their final steps out to college, we often miss the part of doing something memorable with all these precious moments through the years. As a newborn, child and family photographer, I’m just as guilty! You’d think that I would have the dreamiest Pottery Barn-esque picture wall you could ever imagine. Sorry to disappoint but I struggle to keep up with my candids just like most of you. So cheers to some honesty! Let’s do our best to get those images from our iPhones to our big kid cameras, out of our devices, and into something special this year.
First round of business: Download images by year/month and sub-folders for special events. That goes for iPhone images too!
If you’re a holiday photo-taker: Zip those images over to your favorite professional printer and get your top 5 photos printed as 5x7s and designate a few frames just for your holiday snapshots.
If you’re an ‘everyday is a holiday’ mamarazzi: At the first or end of the month, upload your iPhone pics directly to a mobile printing service each month. There are tons of apps that give away 100 free prints per month for you to sock away in some old school pocket photo albums.
If your big kid camera only comes out for special occasions or vacations: After you’ve done the first round of business (above), let’s get these family photos into a printed photo book! There are shelf-worthy designer collections that you can build on year after year.
If you’re a milestone photo lover: Gifts, gifts, gifts. If you recently had your child’s photo taken at any age, I recommend and produce Bay Photo’s accordion books. They are great gifts for grandparents, relatives or to keep in your purse or office. They are portable, palm-sized books that pull out showing each image from your photo session.
If you’re an Instagrammer: You’ve spent the time to edit and filter your favorite images. Why not create a minibook of just that? Don’t let these images die on last years’ Facebook feed. Make sure to give them some love with my fave, Printstagram too.
If you would rather leave the yearly images to the pros: I can’t tell you how many creative ways I’ve presented my yearly family photography. Printed canvas is one of my top pics because the presentation is gorgeous. But if you’re running out of wall space, a replaceable custom framed large professional print is the way to go. Let me repeat … professional color- corrected matte print. Let’s leave Walgreens, Walmart and Target to what they’re good at.
Well, these are some of my go-to’s to keeping my images alive. It important because these are the moments that make you smile. Why not smile daily instead of the next time you go through your computer files?
A Vend Raleigh Directory Member
- Your 2014 Go-To Raleigh Fall Family Photo Guide - September 30, 2014
- 10 Quick and Dirty iPhone Photography Tips - March 12, 2014
- Don’t Let Your Images Get Stuck - February 6, 2014