I’ve loved photography since I was a kid. I processed film and made prints in the “fruit cellar” under our front porch. The magic of capturing light in a box will never disappear for me. The box has changed many times and will continue to evolve over time. But that magic will always be there.
I’ve been thinking about what’s happened to photography over the span of my professional career. This graphic kinda sums it up!
This morning, Lianne asked me a question. “Is what’s happened to photography good or bad?” I must admit, I had a hard job answering that question.
Has it made photography more accessible? You betcha. Almost everyone has a camera at the ready, built into their “smartphone”. (It probably holds more images than it’s made phone calls) . But is all that quantity good for photography?
There are now millions of images stored away. They’re on phones, memory cards and hard drives. They’re in “the cloud” or on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. Ninety-nine percent of them will never see the light of day. They’ll never be looked at again.
Is it better to have 10,000 photos on your computer that no one will ever see… OR 100 photos in an album that you can hold in your hands?
Did you know that young children love looking at photographs in an album. Clients tell us stories about this all the time. A stunning family portrait that’s displayed in your home is a family focal point.
To us and our clients, those ‘hold-in-your-hand’, ‘hang-on-the-wall’ images are PRICELESS.
That’s WHY all our portrait sessions include REAL finished portraits. We know these images are special. We create family portraits that portray love and connection. Future generations will cherish these visual treasures forever.
Sure, we know people love to share on Facebook and that’s why we include sharing images too. But photographs disappear on Facebook so fast. They become fleeting images, glimpses of life that are gone in seconds.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – leave a reply below and I will get right back to you.
P.S. For all my professional photographer friends, here’s another graphic. This may be a bit of an ‘in’ joke. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle!
