Three easy steps to archive your portraits to ensure you never loose your portraits, your memories! As we welcome a brand-new year, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the memories we’ve created and captured with our loved ones. And what better way to protect and preserve those memories than to archive them, ensuring you have them to delight in for years to come! Yep, it’s time to archive your family portraits!
Ok, mom shame me if you will but I never did a baby book for my kids. I kept thinking about it and saying I’d get to it. And honestly, in the moment, I never thought I’d forget the exact day they walked or said their first word. A decade later, I don’t remember. What I did do, was annual portraits (this was before I owned the studio). And I did make an album. Actually, I have an album for every year! I might not have a baby book, but I do have their albums, their memories.
Time gets away from us all. We hear it all the time: the days are long, but the years are short. Every January you should take one hour and archive your memories. First, years down the road, it will save you from looking for the images from when they were little for hours and hours but also, you won’t have to worry about it.
Three Easy Steps to Archive Your Portraits
- Save all photos onto a USB and put it in a fireproof safe
- Save all photos to the cloud
- Print images (either in a proof box or album)
1. SAVE ALL PHOTOS ONTO A USB AND PUT IT IN A FIREPROOF SAFE
Ok to be honest, my computer doesn’t even have a USB port anymore. But the point is to have a duplicated copy. This is a just in case. Just in case the credit card with your cloud service was compromised and you forgot. Just in case there is a fire. Just in case your basement gets flooded. Let’s be honest, there are so many just in cases! PS: If you need us to put your image on a USB for you, we totally do that!
2. SAVE ALL PHOTOS TO THE CLOUD
This one is pretty easy; just download your images and save them to your cloud. This will ensure you have them forever. But here’s the deal, similar to saving images to a USB, how often do you go to your cloud and look back through your photos?
3. STORE IMAGES SO YOU CAN ENJOY THEM
Print your photos! Ok, I’m going to say that again for those in the back. Print your photos. Yes, it’s one thing to get the digital images and post them for all your friends and family to see. It’s amazing and if you follow me, I totally do this! But, and be honest, how often to go you back through your cloud. For me, it’s been years. Instead, I use my images three different ways.
- On my walls
- Keepsake Box (with USB)
- Albums
On My Walls
I know I’ve shared images of my ladies through the years collection but I just remodeled the house and found the perfect wall to display 15 20×20 images! I literally stop and look at my ladies every time I walk through my living room. I get to look at their growth every day.
For my home black and white images were the right way to go, it also ensured the image collection was cohesive. BTW, did you know that one reason all our backgrounds contain an ivory element is so that images look cohesive together year after year!
Keepsake Box (with USB)
This is a small 5×7 box, it can be customized with either a linen or portrait cover and contains a 5×7 print of each image along with a USB. This is an amazing way to display images, in a compact way. I personally use this for holiday cards and bring it out every year. It’s also perfect if you have limited space and an amazing grandparent gift!
Albums
My favorite, albums. I build one each year with all of the images from the year. I personally create them using the ivory suede cover and then display them on a bookcase in my home.
Yes, people do look through them.
Yes, my kids look through them. Yes, they are a cool design element.
Yes, I totally love them.
I’m in my 40’s (cough, cough) and grew up with the picture albums that you pull the plastic back and stick the picture in. Well, our albums aren’t those. But I also know that I’ve received boxes of pictures from my mom with my grandparents, my sisters etc. and I don’t want the girls to miss out on memories because they don’t have my cloud password.
In Review
Ok for those of you who skip right to the bottom to get to the point, here’s the point. Digital images are amazing, I love them and use them literally every day. Printed images, whether they are framed and displayed or preserved in albums or keepsake boxes, are memories displayed, shared, and passed down!
So, each January, archive your portraits by saving your images to a USB and putting it in your fireproof safe, ensuring your cloud is up to date and printing your images (either for your wall, in a keepsake box or in an album) to share with your loved ones.
xoxo
PS: Need help to archive your images, we’re here for you! Click here for how we can help!
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