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Ottawa Lifestyle Photography - 5 Reasons Why Printing Your Photos Is Important

When it comes to printing photos it can feel overwhelming and daunting as the process from capture to print has multiple steps. Nowadays we feel too busy to perform any of these steps that lead to resulting in prints. Why? Because I feel we are just too excited to be able to show our images instantly. The new digital world has focused the importance of sharing our work in the now. What we don't realize is that our memories today need to be enjoyed in the future. Our social browsers may not exist in some future year and the access to our cloud platforms will most likely change too. What I have learned over the last decade is that digital media is constantly changing, I started university when floppy disks were cool. Today, I don't even have a computer that will access any of the work I created during that era. The same will soon apply for CD's and USBs ~ the truth is we need a better way to save and share our digital projects. Because one day soon our children will very much want to see the younger version of their parents and get to know their family history! Without surprise, I experienced this scenario with my own kids who recently discovered a few baby photos of me. They could not believe I was ever that small! Thanks to my parents who printed and kept these images in albums, today they are being talked about and a past is re-born.

This could be one of the main reasons I introduced an all-inclusive collection this year. I want each family to have a printed record from our session. To walk away with a physical product they can share for generations, to have access to their images any time they like, to not worry about technology changing and most importantly to have a complete photographic experience from shoot to print. I've felt this new direction to be important as my duty as your photographer. To bring a deeper awareness to the simple fact that digital data can be lost or misplaced. To solve the worry of where to get prints, how to organize and display, but rather walk away with a custom designed album and prints to be proud of. I simply do not want your jpgs to remain jpgs!

Here are my 5 reasons to why printing your photos still matters!

Creates a collection of key moments:
For every one good photo you like there’s probably a hundred similar ones you don’t like.  Make your collection more organized and easier to view by printing your prime photos so you don’t have to scavenge through slides upon slides of photos on your computer. Better yet, you can put them in an album!

Great conversations are born:
Everyone appreciates the inviting look of a print on display, it is a conversation starter and brings a warm feeling to a home. Plus it is a daily reminder of the wonderful people in your life, instant smiles!

Physical link:
The power of a feeling is always imprinted in photos. Freezing the moment is how most of us understand it! Now imagine if you can physically hold a moment in your hands! Reflect on it and see it linked to a series of images from that day, it bring a much more enjoyable experience than digging through digital file archives on a computer.

It’s human:
Printing is a way of sharing – for the beholder and for the giver: sharing a memory or a story, sharing a feeling or an emotion, and sharing the gift of a common point in time that triggered something that is worth recalling proactively: every time one sees that print. 

Technology can fail:
Technology is not always reliable and has been known to fail. Hard drives can malfunction, flash drives can break, software updates can fail, and you might even run out of space to save your photos. Also, over time, if you are copying, duplicating, opening and closing photos, the .jpg will decline in quality from the original image. Making the process of creating an archival print ever so important. It is the only way you can outlast the technological changes we have been experiencing. Prints are known to last a 100+ years as the chemicals used lock in the image in a permanent state.

 

 

a move with a change - Ottawa Family Photography

Greetings dear friends,

This journal had been put on mute as I've been transitioning through a move and business change these past months. With two young children in tow, time simply slipped me. Now with a better routine and my office setup, I am feeling a bit more balanced to write.

Let's begin with a personal change and how it also triggered a professional one too....

Last Winter we made a firm decision to move a lot closer to my parents and receive some much needed help in managing our schedules with kids. As a self employed mom of two it had become harder to balance a household and a business without extra help. Many know my husband works long hours and when home he will spend every spare moment with the kids but our time together as a family was becoming more difficult to organize, as when he was home I would be out working. We truly needed to change our lifestyle and become more family orientated, as there is nothing more important to us than to be present in our children's lives. Living closer to my parents would give us the extra help I required during the week and give the kids a much more vibrant relationship with their grandparents. It was a win-win for all. Now we have our primary home in Ottawa where my parent live and I travel to Toronto for work assignments to which I very much enjoy. To all my Toronto families who still allow me to capture their loving families I appreciate you dearly. My photography career wouldn't be where it is today without each and every one of you. I am truly grateful for all the wonderful people who have supported my journey as a photographer. Welcoming me into your lives with the same respect you show each other. You are all amazing souls and touch my heart.

During the same time, a professional change began to blossom as I began digging deeper into understanding the artist I was evolving to and how my views and ideas where changing. I am certain any photographer or artist reading this knows exactly how hard it can be following your heart and questioning the creative mind. Today, I am very grateful for the support I have received during my capture transition, thank you!

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All the images you see below this post where taken on film ~ yes a method you may of heard of, most likely talked about by your parents or grandparents. Of course, in today's world, it may feel uncommon to hear of a photographer using this medium to create work as we are accustomed to referring to photography as instantaneous and fully digital. But in truth, the root of my studies in university where all in film and I assure you that was only 13 years ago ;) So digital is really just a baby in how our predecessors learned and worked in preserving the "moment".

What I am enjoying most about this process is the honest ability to slow down, and connect more authentically with the people in front of me. It connects the technical side with the human side of memory in a more meaningful way. It also makes me happy to offer a more nostalgic piece of work in a world that has more pixels than prints. This slowed down process makes creating and capturing more fulfilling for both myself and clients as we patiently wait the arrival of the negatives.

Today I am capturing most of my baby and family sessions using film. I do bring my digital equipment along too but I find its is not my main tool anymore. I would love to hear your feedback on how you see film and what your understand of it is compared to digital. Send me a note or leave a comment!

Hope you enjoy these images of my little family ~ my daughter is 7 months old here and her last cheeky smile at 16 months!

Film: Kodak Portra 400
Scanned: Canadian Film Lab