What To Do With Your Photos

OK, so in my previous post about how to take better pictures of your kids, I mentioned that I would give you some ideas on what to do with your photos. I have here, just a few ideas on what you could do. Some ideas are for fun and some are functional. My hope is that, at the end of the day, you find time and get those pictures PRINTED!!

I cannot stress enough how important it is to print your photos. Technology is always changing and it’s so easy for time to go buy and have your phone die or your computer crash just to have all your photos lost. “Well, I have all my photos on Facebook and Instagram.” you might say. Yes, I’m sure you do – and so do I, but when you upload your images to these sites they automatically get compressed (made into a smaller file size) and when you go to print that photo years down the road, you will only be able to print a 4×6 at best and even then it may be fuzzy 🙁

I have 7 photo boxes of our family photos from when I was growing up. Usually around holiday time my family and I will gather round and open a box or two and reminisce about how much things have changed. I LOVE showing my boys the childhood I went through and all the horrible haircuts I had (lol, not). We even still have a lot of the negative proofs from the printing labs. I get a kick out of showing my boys those and explaining how we had to get our film developed. And I want to be able to do that with them and their kids 20-30 years down the road. I won’t be able to though, unless I print them! Keeping photos on a flash drive is a great idea and all, but just a few years ago everyone was putting their images on disks. Now desktop computers don’t even come standard with a disk drive (I learned that the hard way). So what is going to happen in another 5 years? Those flash drives maybe obsolete in another 10 years. The best way to ensure you have your photo forever is to print them 🙂

Ok, Im going to tell you my favorite places for you to print your photos. I, being a photographer and all, tend to print most of my photos through my professional lab. But sometimes I like to try new things and print from other places. I have found that Mpix and Artifact Uprising are my top two places. Their quality is good. They have great papers to choose from and good printers ensuring that your photos are pretty accurate in color. I also love Chatbooks because it’s just so stinking convenient, but I will say that my photos came out a little dark – but I’m picky so you may not even notice.

Whatever you do, DO NOT take your photos to a drugstore or Walmart! Just don’t you guys. Their product is absolutely horrible and will NOT last. When my first son was born I started a scrapbook as so many mommies do, and I went to one of those lame drugstores to print pictures for my scrapbook (this was before I was practicing photography and naive to this information). Now, nine years later, I have half a scrapbook full of very dark images – some you can hardly see the image. It truly breaks my heart. What are my photos dark? Because these places use cheap ink that fades and doesn’t stand the test of time -not even a few years 🙁

Ok, enough of that. Here are some things you can do with your photos if you don’t want to just throw them all into a photo box and stored on the shelf.

I am currently obsessed with square prints. A fun thing to do with square photos is to make a photo grid for your refrigerator using magnets. I’m also very partial to black and white photos. I’m a little OCD when it come to having multiple photos displayed. Unless they all have the same color profile and are visually cohesive, then I usually just convert them to black and white so it looks more uniform.

Here is the supplies you will need: 9 photos ( I got mine from Mpix ), and a magnet sheet – you can get these from any craft store.

So, first step to make your refrigerator photo grid is to cut magnet squares that will stick to the back of your photos. I can never find my adult scissors because my kids always steal mine (eye roll) so I have to use child scissors for this demonstration.

Peel off the film…

Stick it to the back of your photo. I know, complicated stuff.

Once you have all your photos ready place them in a fun grid on your fridge so that you can see them and ENJOY them 🙂

And lets not forget the humble picture frame. You might be rolling your eyes right now, but seriously y’all – have often do you print your photos and frame them?! Photos are meant to be enjoyed. My home is covered with framed photos all over the house. 5×7 and 8×10 photos are perfect for desks and bookshelves. I also feel very strongly about having your photos matted when you frame them. Have the matt in the frame makes a huge impact and looks so much more elegant than just the photo by itself. I am also kind of obsessed with these glass frames. This one I picked up from Target and is a part of the Hearth and Home line by Chip and Joanna Gaines – ah #lovethem ! The prints are from Artifact Uprising.

Another way to store all your photos is with a photo book. I usually do one big photo book at the end of the year, but I have recently decided that I am going to start doing several though out the year instead. I find that when I do that, I print more photo in the books 🙂 Chatbooks is a super fun way to do this. They have the cutest little books and covers to choose from. And whats great about them is that they have an app you can download to your phone and upload your phone photos straight to the app to make your book!

They have soft and hardcover books to choose from. I would go with the hardcover, though as you can see from my anniversary book that it doesn’t seem like it will withstand the long haul.

And one last idea is to use an open back frame, some string and a few clips to make a funky way to display photos. I like this idea a lot because you can change out the photos whenever you want and its easy to do it.

For this I used a frame, some twine, little screw-y thingies( that’s the best I could do y’all), clips, and of course some photos 🙂