The Problem With Digital

Yes, it's the digital day and age. We love our electronics and we have an extreme desire to have everything at our fingertips electronically. But when it comes to your photos... is digital really best? Far too many times now, I find that people are wanting to get their photos taken professionally, and then all they want is the disc of electronic files. 

So, what's wrong with this? Well let's look at what happens when all you get from a photo session are the digital files.

More often than not, the disc gets put away, likely in a drawer somewhere, to be totally forgotten about. Of course we have high hopes for our photos. We tell ourselves that we will get them printed out and we put it on the long to-do list in the back of our mind. But then we just keep putting it off, and we never really get to it. And we think to ourselves, "oh it's fine, we've got them on disc so our pictures are safe." Maybe they will be safe. But guess what... your pictures are stuck on a piece of plastic that may or may not break at any time. Discs fail for all kinds of reasons, so can you really consider your pictures safe?

Plus, what is happening to our pictures that are tucked away in that drawer? They are just being ignored and hidden. I am so guilty of this myself. I take tons of pictures that make it to a file on my computer, but go no further. Why do we do this? Having the digital files gives us some sort of false sense of security. We feel secure in the fact that our pictures are "safe" and will be around when the time comes that we will actually decide to do something with them. But if I had a dollar for every time I had an electronic device fail me and I lost all of my photos and videos trapped inside... I'd have like 10 bucks!

Of course I back everything up now and I fully recommend that everyone else backs up regularly as well.

Now, let's talk about why we even hire a photographer to begin with? I mean, let's be honest, we all have cameras on our phones that take decent enough pictures for Facebook. So why put in the time, energy, and money for a professional photographer? It's because we want a better quality of photo taken of ourselves and our loved ones. We want something better than what we can do ourselves. So don't these images deserve to be displayed proudly in our homes and shown off to friends and family? Of course they do!

The digitals should simply be a backup, not the only option.

We should be printing our pictures and hanging them on our walls.

We should be enjoying our images, rather than hiding them away for "future use" that may or may not ever happen.

Check out my favorite way to show off your photos with mini albums

Or go to the We've Got Something Special Photography homepage to learn more about the unique experience offered by this High School Senior and Wedding Photographer serving Massillon and Canton, Ohio.