In the past we’ve enthused about freeing your photos from your camera roll. Check out Miranda’s post on instagram prints if you missed it. I’m hoping if we haven’t inspired you to get printing and archiving then this post will.
One evening a few weeks ago I was round at my sister’s and there happened to be a few photos hanging around from her husband’s childhood. I say ‘hanging around,’ by this I mean neatly piled and compartmentalised. My sister doesn’t share my untidiness trait.
One of them was a terrific photo of my brother-in-law and his siblings piled on the sofa one Christmas, paper hats askew. From the texture of the paper, the brownish hue of the print and the velour decor it was safe to assume to this was a snap taken in the late eighties. Flipping to the back identified the subjects, location and year, handwritten on the back preserved for us to take a gander at nearly thirty years later.
I probably print about one percent of my photos and I couldn’t tell you the last time I took the time to document anything on their backs. I have an insatiable desire to hoard, keeping trinkets and memorabilia from every trip and occasion. Holding on to memories is really important to me. It was a sobering thought to realise I had managed to overlook the most basic way to record my experiences.
Over the years the memorable faces you once knew become less recognisable. Occasions blur into one and it’s easy to forget the friends of friends you once socialised with. While modern technology might tell me my image was taken on 12th December and perhaps a bit of geographical info it’s not going to tell me, or more importantly, the future generations, who was in the photo. Yep, Facebook tagging is helpful for this but will everyone have disabled their account in ten years time?
In the last few years there have been big birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, funerals and celebrations all calling for displays of treasured photos. The tactile experience of searching through family albums and boxes of photos has triggered far more memories than a digital experience ever could. I’ve been grateful to my mum and gran for all remembering to add the places, the people and the date. It’s been a much less frustrating trip down memory lane!
I’ve just received my latest bunch of Origrami instagram prints. The quality is superb and I love the feature they offer of printing the back with a jazzy pattern and the date the image was uploaded to instagram. Good effort but I’ll be sure to use the handy polaroid style strip to remind me the pic shown in our slider was taken on our 2012 annual ‘Mrs Moet’ get-together at the Mailbox in Birmingham.
I’m really going to take the time from now on to not only print my photos but also to create albums where I can document all the particulars. Anyone else going to join me? When I’m gone I don’t want everyone crowding around a computer screen looking at images from days gone by. I want the wine flowing and the albums being passed around. It’s far more social!
How do you archive your photos? Anyone else wonder how we’ll view photos in the future?
Buy a polaroid camera! My husband was bought a Fujifilm instax for a birthday by his brother which he seemed slightly underwhelmed with and it ended up in a draw unused and forgotten for ages. While packing for our first wedding anniversary trip to Bruges I discovered the camera and chucked it in the bag. We took some brilliant snaps! You do only get 10 photos on a film and the films aren’t cheap so you have to be selective with your shots but I love them so much more than digital photos. Generally I will test shots on my iPhone and then take a polaroid if it’s good. It’s true that we tend to only use the polaroid on special occasions – holidays, weddings, Christmas – but then I find that that is the same as when I was a kid and cameras and film were also expensive and photos were mainly of special occasions. We now have a lovely collection of photos from our holidays this year and weddings we’ve been to. They are not all perfectly in focus and there are some where you only have half of some people’s heads but I still love them more than my digital pics! You can buy lovely albums specifically for the instax film and carrying cases for the cameras – they are a bit hefty which is why it doesn’t tend to get taken to ‘normal’ nights out when I only have a normal size bag! You can get special film too – wedding themed / spotty / coloured. I have bought a film of traveling Hello Kitty film for an upcoming trip to Paris with a friend that I can’t wait to use! You can also buy the white film and then buy cute boarder stickers if you wish – there really are tons of options! And the best thing of all – you get actual photos!
Hi Bryony, this is an excellent idea. I’m putting a polaroid type camera on my Christmas list!
Love that you really have to think about the snaps you’re going to take rather than taking a million of the same thing. x
Ooo just seen this post.
You definitely need an Fuji Instax!
I have the wide one & I absolutely LOVE it! It is pretty hefty but I had it with me all the time in Paris & have some AWESOME shots!
Recently used it at some friends weddings and they loved it. Especially as I’ve given them some to keep 🙂
And I did a fun photobooth at my friend’s hen party. Went down an absolute storm!
Still need to perfect my technique somewhat (especially at night) but it is quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever bought! x
I have started to make photobooks where you can make and order a hardback books with your pictures inside, and you can add notes as well. They are great gifts, my parents made me a book filled with pictures from my daughters christening which was really lovely. My daughter and I often look at it together and I point out all the people in the pictures to her. I’d love to do a scrapbook with photos, maybe that will be my next project!
Tinny, how lovely you and your daughter have a look over the book together. So sweet. x
I have been arguing this point for a while regarding printing photographs. There have been many recent occasions where pulling out the albums has been both a huge comfort and a source of great hilarity. Maybe it’s the sense of sharing those memories which gives us such a sense of enjoyment. A solitary scrolling through ones iPhone pictures surely doesn’t have the same effect..xxx
Absolutely Han, I’m definitely going on the hunt for some pretty albums this weekend x
My husband has made me a photo book (using http://www.blurb.co.uk) for my birthday for the last three years using photos he has taken from the previous year. He’s a keen photographer so his camera always comes with us on trips and he is now the official photographer for any family occasions. Having said that he also downloads photos from his iPhone and mine to add in so there’s a real mix of photos. You get the option to have a digital book as well which means some of my books have videos incorporated into them as well. Although they take a while to produce I love them and can’t wait until my next birthday so I can see which memories he has chosen to preserve and what theme he has chosen. My family joke that he has set himself a mammoth task producing one of these every year but this post has me keeping my fingers crossed he keeps on going.
Sarah this sounds amazing! I’m hoping my husband is reading this 😉 I love photo books but they take an age to create so how wonderful to have someone else create this for you.
I really miss the days of getting films developed. The anticipation of what the pictures would be like. Mind you there was always that disappointment of getting a film back that full of rubbish!!! Although I like being able to check pics instantly now I actually don’t like that you end up taking a 100 of the same shot as I never delete them and end up with loads!! For a long time I didn’t print any pics out or did and then never put them in albums so have piles lurking in the loft! Now I make one photo book a year with all my favourites snaps and top memories from the year. I have to be selective but it really makes me choose just those special few. In the future though I’m going to be adding notes in to the books too so that I remember where they were taken. I do still prefer the actual printed photos but this is a good solution for now and they barely take up any space. In fact I’m overdue on making 2013’s so best get creating!! X
Oh the good old days of getting film developed. My grandparents once spent the whole holiday merrily snapping away only to realise there was no film in the camera!
Creating a photo book a year sounds like a great idea Charlotte. Yep, you best get on with last years! 🙂 x
Despite being a PA I am so unorganised at home and I have a huge box of photos that are all at least 8 years old to sort out. I haven’t printed off any digital photos in yonks but I am a big fan of being able to put together picture books and calendars etc online. It makes it so easy to share memories with people. I need to trawl through my wedding photos to try and put an album together – I was quite disappointed with my pictures so I am not really looking forward to this task. Wish me luck!