That's all fine and dandy for the moment as it occurs, but what about a year from now? Or two or five or ten years? I know that my grandma has awesome photo albums full of pictures of all of us that we love to look through when we go and visit her. Those photo albums are so special to my entire family. Now that my girls are getting a bit older, my Grandma actually sends them old family photos in the mail - with Christmas cards, birthday cards, etc. They get such a kick out of it. So do Kyle and I. Sometimes she includes pictures of me at the same ages our girls are now and we look at the resemblances. I'm terrible at looking at a child and their parents and seeing resemblances, even with my own. So it's fun seeing me at their age and picking up the resemblance then. Receiving these photos has reminded me just how important it is to have hard copies of our pictures. Media changes on what feels like a daily basis lately. I know, no one likes hard copies of things these days. Workplaces are going paperless, stores are emailing receipts instead of giving you hard copies, it's all the rage to rid ourselves of papers. But remember pictures are more than just papers. They are a link to the past, and an easy way to look back and reminisce. Old sayings are often rooted in the truth, and "a picture is worth a thousand words" is one such truthful saying.
All that being said, I have been using Shutterfly for years now to print photos and photo books, when I actually get around to uploading my pictures from my devices, which is like twice a year. I'm going to TRY to commit to doing this on a monthly basis going forward. This will allow me time to quickly review the pictures, delete ones that I don't actually want, and then sort and start putting them in place to print a photo book through Shutterfly. My plan is to do four books per year, so that they remain manageable in size. Maybe even a couple of extra ones for special trips or events, for example, our upcoming Disneyland trip. I recently made a small one for M's 4th birthday party and she loved it. I paid the extra few dollars for the extra pocket you can put in it to save other memorabilia related to the photos in the books. In the future, I think I'll just attach an envelope or even a heavy duty ziploc bag, as I think they would probably be just as effective. But hey, you live you learn. If you are interested in printing a Shutterfly book, be sure to check out this current sale. Up to 40% off on photo books, through July 9th!*
I would be interested in hearing from my readers about how you organize hard copies of photos of you and your families. Do you do paper scrapbooks? Digital scrapbooks? Regular photo albums? My only concern with a digital scrapbook is the matter of what I would do if I ever wanted to do something with just one picture from the scrapbook (for example if one of the girls needed to bring a baby picture to school for something, as I recall doing from time to time growing up). Assuming that our media options remain somewhat stable, as long as I still had the digital image, I could print a copy of just that photo. But what if the media changes? Am I thinking too much about it now, as I often do? Probably. Over-thinking is one of my downfalls. Right now I guess I will rely on keeping them on Shutterfly and on my computer until there seems to be reason to start thinking that the media options are drastically changing.
So moms and dads, keep taking the pictures. Keep uploading to social media because your friends and family do love seeing your fun pictures. But don't forget to print them from time to time!! So much joy will be brought to you, your kids, your grand kids, your great-grand kids and maybe even more generations beyond that with your photo albums.
*DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I may earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.