When was the last time you printed out a photograph?

Yes, don’t be silly. Of course you can still do that. More to the point, you should still do that.

There is something magical about holding a captured moment in time right there in your hands. And that is just one reason to print your photos.

The Lost Generation

Technology is great. It has helped our society advance in so many ways. But, it can also be a major hassle trying to keep up with the moving trends and advancements.

Do you remember when the cassette tape was the height of musical technology? You could record songs off the radio (as long as no one was in the room talking), rewind it with a pencil, and cry buckets when the stereo ate it and you were left with masses of tape and no way to play your favourite song until it came on the radio again.

Kids today don’t even know what to do with a cassette tape.

The point we are trying to make is that technology changes all too fast. Obsolete forms fall into the depths of history, never to be accessed again.

Will this happen to the millions of photos that are floating around in the cloud? In years to come will we be able to access them? Like the cassette tape, this technology will become obsolete too.

Could the unthinkable happen? That an entire generation of photos might be lost with the advancement of technology.

Saturation

People take so many photos these days. But they are different to the photos that were taken 20 years ago.

Back when film was the only option, a photo was precious. You only had 24 shots on a roll, or 36 if you really splashed out. So, you had to make each photo count. Then there was the ceremony of taking the film to the shop to be developed and picking up the photos a couple of days later.

The wait was often excruciating. There was no way to know what the shots had turned out like until you had the prints in your hand. Would they be in or out of focus, would someone have their eyes closed, or would someone have a body part chopped out of frame?

Because you had to make each print count, the photos were real. There was no time to waste on taking 50 shots of the same pose so that you could get it perfect. It was point, click and capture the moment.

Those photos were a true memory frozen in time. Now the photos we choose to share are all perfectly posed, in focus, and with the ugly and messy bits cropped out. They are very staged and not a true representation of real life.

The Beauty Of Something Physical

How many joyous hours have you spent pouring over old family photo albums? No matter how many times you open that album, people will flock to look at the old images and reminisce about the events taking place in the photos.

There is something beautiful about gathering around that album and physically holding history in your hands. Will the next generation get to experience this joy, as photo albums are suspiciously missing from many shelves and cupboards in modern homes.

Even worse than missing photo albums is the potential for completely lost memories. In 20, 30, or 40 years, will our cloud stored photos be locked away from us forever? Or maybe they will sit dormant, hidden away on an obsolete hard drive?

Definitely food for thought and a case for printing at least your most favourite images!