This is probably the most personal post I’ve ever written, and was inspired by Kathleen Trenske’s excellent article, “The Case Against Good Enough“, in which she extols the virtues of owning physical copies of your wedding photography, instead of allowing them to languish on a disc tucked away in a dusty draw. I recently saw the fantastic Jerry Ghionis at the SWPP convention back in January, and he echoed those sentiments by saying, “If your house was on fire, would you rush back in screaming, ‘Oh my God, we need to save our wedding jpegs!’ Of course you wouldn’t – whereas your wedding album would be one of the first items you’d rescue.”
And he’s right. Of course, some couples request a disc-only package because they intend to print out the photographs themselves, either individually or as an album. Or they may come back in a year or so and ask me to design an album of their images for them, which is great. As wonderful as it is to be able to view your photos on a computer, laptop, iPad or smartphone, you simply can’t beat holding and connecting with an actual printed photograph.
Which brings me neatly to the crux of this article. My parents Pat and Alan celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year, which is an absolutely incredible achievement. They also have physical copies of their photographs, taken by a Colchester wedding photographer (whose name I can’t recall but will find out) and they’re kept in a small card box. They still look as if they were printed yesterday, such is the love they’ve been afforded over the years.
Looking at them now, the true value of them shines through. There are photos of family members that are sadly no longer with us – most notably, my mother’s parents Bob and Violet, her sister Maureen, my father’s parents Albert and Hilda and my Dad’s brother Mick. In other words, everyone in that main photo except my parents.
It seems strange looking at this photograph now, knowing they’re no longer here. However, this image will always be a reminder of them, and as a result they’ll always be with us in our hearts.
