I stumbled upon an interesting blog while researching packaging options for photography. The author brings up the point that even though we now take far more photographs than ever (thanks to digital cameras), only a very small percentage of them actually make it to print. When I read it, I realized I am guilty of this myself and wondered how many of my customers who just want a cd of their portraits, realize that disks have a shelf life and will likely be obsolete by the time our children are grown-if not sooner. How will we see all our photographs in 25 years, unless we print them? One of my favorite things to do is to look at old photographs (big surprise, I know) but I think a lot of people enjoy looking at their parents’ and grandparents’ photographs. Photographs are like unwritten stories, they tell so much. Don’t we owe these stories to our children and grandchildren and even to our older selves? I think we all would agree that we do, that’s why we take the photos to begin with!
Which brings me to another point, if you want your photographs to last a lifetime (or even more than a few years) be sure to have them printed professionally. I cannot stress this enough! There is no way to get the longevity of professional prints from a typical home printer. No matter how decent you think that home print may look now, within 6 months it will start to fade. There is a reason professional printers cost thousands of dollars and home printers don’t!
Here is the article I stumbled upon, it’s a quick read:
http://www.photopackaging.com/?p=131