Printed Photographs = Preserved Legacy!

I realize as a photographer, the answer to this question seems really obvious to me.  However, I also realize that we live in a time that is very digital.  There are people who are averse to keeping anything in paper form.  And, I understand the value of having digital copies, but keeping those digital copies of whatever it happens to be, comes with it the responsibility to have those digital files securely backed up in case of hard drive failure or the failure or obsolescence of whatever media on which those files are stored. That is if you value the photographs.

Forgive my soap box - back to what I wanted to share with you.  I received a call recently from a lady who was looking to have a photograph of her mother enlarged.  She went on to explain that her mother had recently passed away and this was the only copy she had of this photo.  (I assume this was not the only photograph she had of her mother, just the only one of this particular photo.)  She then told me that the photo was actually on her cell phone and she wanted to enlarge it.  I explained to her that the enlargement quality would be limited by the size of the image on her phone and the number of pixels contained within the image.  Also, that most cell phone images aren't able to be enlarged very much without degradation of quality, resulting in graininess and some blurring as the pixels were stretched.  I was thinking through any other options for her and suggesting that maybe she could print out a small print from her phone and I could photograph that with my camera to at least have more pixels with which to enlarge it. Then she told me even more of her sad situation.  The image on her cell phone was a photo of a photo and in saying that, she realized that with what we had already discussed, that getting an enlargement of her image, not to mention the poor quality that would likely result, was going to be next to impossible.  

I really felt bad for this lady, and as I hung up from her, I told Randy, this just reinforces the need for printing our images - and sharing copies with loved ones!  

It also reinforces the sentiment I have shared before from another photographer mentor, Michele Celentano - "You will never know the true value of a of a portrait until it is all you have left."   

Let that sink in and don't miss an opportunity to ensure you have printed photographs and portraits of the important people in your life!