For the love of print: The importance of a family album and prints

Is it just me, or is it much easier to let our photos get lost inside the computer and phone than actually printing them or turning them into a family album?

But let’s be honest for a second. The experience of seeing our images on a screen versus feeling them with our hands is just not the same.

It is so easy to take dozens, if not hundreds of photos in a short period. And then simply forget about those precious moments as images accumulate in our phones or computers. Yes, posting our baby and family snapshots on social media is a fast and easy. But engaging with printed images, in particularly a family album, in our everyday life is definitely not the same experience as scrolling down our phone’s photo gallery.

As a professional family and baby photographer, I am guilty of taking hundreds of photos of my family’s everyday life. Yet, I let them sit inside my hard drive for months and months. The process of organizing and printing images is VERY time-consuming. And even for me, a professional photographer, the process can feel pretty overwhelming when it comes to my personal work.

Can you relate?

A personal story

But I would like to share a story with you that has helped me to appreciate print at a very personal level.

When my toddler was 16 months, I decided to frame some small prints and spread them around our home. He was going through a stage that he was becoming more and more aware of his environment. So I wanted him to start seeing our family as a unit. My desire was to foster in him a sense of belonging and safety. I wanted him to see joyful moments of our family life spread around the different rooms in our house. I also wanted to remind myself of those special moments. Like when I was pregnant or when my son was just a little baby. So, I spent a few hours choosing the images and ordering the prints. Then, I forgot about it.

Just a short few days later, when I was least expecting, we received our prints in the mail. I felt really surprised at how exciting was this mundane occurrence. To be fair, we were in the middle of lockdown. So nothing else interesting was really happening! But still. Because almost everything is online nowadays, it is such a joy to experience the surprise of getting something that you are not really expecting in the mail.

Anyways, as we opened the envelop and started going through the prints, I watched my husband and toddler’s face. The images produced a reaction that I don’t normally see when we look through the same photos on a screen. The ability to touch and feel those prints brought the entire family experience to a whole new level.

I then spread our photos in different rooms of our house. As I felt inspired by seeing our prints, I decided to place a couple of a family album in my toddler’s library.

What I did not expect was what came next.

Ever since I set up those prints around our home, not a day goes by without my toddler pointing at the photos in the frames and calling ‘daddy’ and ‘maman’.

His new favorite book is the family album that is now sitting in his playroom. He brings us the book EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Multiple times a day. He then sits in my lap (or my husband’s lap). And he waits for either of us to go over the album with him. We then flip through the pages again and again. Because of this daily ritual, he has now learned to point to ‘grandma’, ‘grandpa’, and his uncle ‘Juju’. He has even learned how to say his uncle’s nickname and ‘vovô’ – grandpa in Portuguese. He also points to his ‘daddy’ on every single page, and to his ‘maman’ occasionally. Yes, he is crazy in love with his dada! Then we talk about each of the images. We tell him stories behind each photo, and what daddy and maman’s life was like before his arrival.

The importance of print and a family album

Why am I sharing this story, you might ask?

Because I want to illustrate the importance of printing your family and baby photos, and making a family album. None of these daily, little occurrences would be taking place in my family life if I had simply let our images sit inside my computer or phone.

What I have learned from this experience is that the simple act of turning digital images into tangible prints has the power of bringing new life and experiences into our everyday life. And these experiences are especially important for our little ones. A family album and printed photos young children to develop their sense of belonging and language skills. It teaches them about their own family history, and on recognizing familiar faces and names.

Print at the center of my family and baby photography work

With all of this in mind, I created an experience for the families who work with me that is entirely around print. I know that everyone out there offers print products to their clients. But to me, albums and prints are not products. They are an experience. And not only that. They are an experience that I truly, wholeheartedly believe as our responsibility as parents to gift to our children.

For this reason, EVERY single collection of my family and baby photography sessions includes a custom-designed album that I artfully design. My purpose is for the story of your family to be preserved and be part of your everyday life. Because of the storytelling nature of my family and baby photoshoots, your final set of images will showcase your family’s unique story.   

While I only offer the absolute high-quality albums, I also work with durable materials for the little, less-careful hands of young children. Because I want your family album to last a lifetime and be passed into new generations. 

As I understand first-hand the busy life of a parent, I created an album-design process that is easy and enjoyable for you. My process relieves any stress or feelings of overwhelm that might come from designing an album. As such, I guide you through a simple two-step process that results in a masterfully and beautiful work of art that will leave you completely happy.

You will also have the option to turn your images into small and large art pieces that you can display around your home. During an optional one-on-one design consultation, I will guide through a simple process of selecting your favorite images, identifying those that work well in print, and learning which sizes fit well with your home’s décor.

Here is the main takeaway

When I was in the process of designing and setting up my family and baby photography business, my purpose was to create something genuine, based on my personal values. A business that really came from my heart. As a result, I decided that print simply had to be at the center of it. Not only that, I wanted each family to walk away from the experience with at least a beautifully designed, heirloom family album. Because I believe that your family’s everyday stories, like my own, deserve to be felt, touched, seen, experienced again and again. 

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Life belongs in print.

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How important is a family album to you and to print your family photos?

If it is something that you truly value, I invite you to select a few of your favorite images today and order some prints. But if the process feels overwhelming, and you would like to have it done for you instead, I invite you to consider hiring a family or baby photographer to do it all for you instead!

I also invite you to learn more about the benefits of my unique approach to family and baby photography. You will learn about my documentary photography approach and why I include an old fashioned analogue film camera in