What do you do with your PHOTOS?

We live in this incredible technology "era" where nearly everything is in digital format.  Cameras have been replaced with iphones and most things are shared within social media platforms.

This is fabulous in one sense, because it connects people from all over the country and even world.  Friends and family that otherwise would need to wait for letters to arrive via snail mail can now Facetime or Email and get an immediate response.

It's fun to share albums and profile pictures, instagram happenings via filters and captions...It's a wonderful way to network and develop new acquaintances & interactions...

I'm not knocking technology...

At the same time, there is definitely something to be said for a hard copy...

I cherish the hand written letters of my husband over the course of the 3 years that we dated across the miles & miles.  I waited for snail mail to arrive and then I ripped open the letters and breathed in whatever scent may have been left over from traveling cross country and I soaked in every word, over and over again.

I still have those letters up in a hatbox in my bedroom.  (actually a couple of hatboxes to be more accurate)

I'm in the process of learning more about the heritage of my family. My aunt has supplied me with many pictures of my family that came from Scotland and my dad sent me the wedding photos of my grandmother from in the 40s.  My husband's parents showed me pictures of his Nona and Nono in a bakery after coming from Italy...

Holding those pictures in my hands is almost sacred...

I'm not sure if it's the touching of the paper or just having it so close that I can almost hear & smell the scene...it makes me think of Mary Poppins where they are able to jump INto the chalk drawing and they become a part of the story that's going on "inside"...

That's just what pictures do to me...I pretend that I'm on the other side of the camera and I imagine what it was like to BE that person...I move a critical eye over the clothing and the people in the photo and I wonder what was spoken seconds after the "snap" of the camera.  

So often, however, pictures DON'T get printed...they are left to be stored on a harddrive or in cyber space and can only dream of being "clicked" upon when the owner is reminded or has a spare moment to sift through the hundreds of files...

I often wonder what happens to my client's pictures...do the PRINTS ever find themselves displayed in a way that tells the story of that moment in time, or season of life? 

I truly hope so, because their stories are inspiring...

I find myself, during my "down time" in the winter, just going back and looking through folders of their images and imagining how I would arrange them on a wall...to showcase them...to make some images enlarged, as a focal point, and others smaller so that you have to scoot over and get closer to view them..

and I imagine the smiles that will come to their faces when they "go back in time" and remember that event...

the spontaneous piggy back rides, the leaf fight, the walking hand in hand...

I like to call them "Story Walls"

If you'd like more ideas you can FOLLOW my Pinterest Board entitled STORY WALL Gallery Ideas! 

I'm also one of those "freak moms" that loves to format Scrapbooks...perhaps it comes from my years with Creative Memories...

but (and I'll leave you with this...I promise even the men will get a kick out of this commercial) I'm anxious to try Chat books after viewing this: