Family photos are priceless. These days go by so quickly, and before we know it, our kids are grown up and don’t want to hug us in public. I personally hire a professional to take photos of my family each year (because I’d like SOME photos with me in them). I always have the best intentions – I’m going to print them and hang them in beautiful frames around my home! Then I get emailed a gallery link, download my digital files, post a handful on Facebook… and forget they even exist.

Confession time: I’ve lost almost all my daughter’s newborn photos. This is the first session, other than our wedding, we ever paid for. We had about 100 images. I think I have 4 left. They were on a computer and in a Google Drive folder. We got a new computer, I switched my email address, my MacBook crashed. Four. That’s it. Her tiny days are little more than a blur in my mind and I have almost no photographic evidence that wasn’t snapped from a cell phone.

I don’t want this to be your story. Instead, I want you see, display, touch and experience your beautiful images every single day. It’s tempting to think that it’s best to get all the digitals so you can do whatever you want with them, but I want to share a different point of view with 3 reasons your family photos deserve to be printed instead.

1. You won’t print your family photos

Take it from me. We’ve had nine family sessions in 4.5 years between maternity, newborn and just family. I always think I’m going to blow them up. Finally, 4 years after my daughter was born, I printed a few 8x10s and put them on my wall. And it took a pandemic and a lockdown for me to find the time to do it.

I always said when my family was finished, we’d hang a newborn image of each of my children above our master bed. But, by the time I had my third child, I had lost most of my daughter’s and all of my son’s newborn photos. My daughter’s through just not paying attention to where they were saved and my sons through a technical malfunction. I fortunately still have Fresh48 images of him. We have the best of intentions, but we’re busy moms and have so many other priorities. You don’t have time to print your photos, pick them up, find a frame and hang them. And I don’t blame you.

2. Photos to hand down to your kids

I’ve always loved history. My own and anyone else’s really. I remember sitting in my mom’s bed and flipping through photos of her as a baby. I remember looking through albums of me and my sisters from infants through school age, and even finding my Grandparent’s wedding photos to pour over.

But since the world has gone digital, the vast majority of our images are online on Facebook. When my kids want to see a photo, they grab my phone. Personally, I want my kids to one day sit down with their children and grandchildren and flip through a book. I want them to point to images and hand down their story to the next generation. Instead, by the time they get there Facebook and Instagram will no longer exist and my phone will be recycled. They’ll be a generation without a documented history, with nothing to pass down.

3. Photos make a house a home.

When you have high quality, beautiful, personalized wall art around your house, it makes it into a home. It makes your space feel more intimate, lived in. Your walls tell a story of a happy, loving family who are walking through life together. When your kid hits a certain age and starts questioning his or her value, you bet seeing photos of them being loved on by their parents is going to be a positive thing. Even more so if your family is a blended one. Nothing says “we’re a family” like having a photo of you all together hanging over the fireplace.

There are countless reasons to have your family photos printed and framed or put in an album. These are just three. The truth is, no one needs 80 digital images from a family session sitting on their computer taking up space. What you want when you get family photos done is beautiful memories, hung around your home. That’s why I offer ready to hang custom framed images and heirloom albums, so you can actually see and experience the beautiful images of your family.

Learn more about the family photo session experience and art work.