After hearing about two of my relatives pass away in the past two months, I have to say that life is unpredictable. R.I.P. aunt Dory; 49 is much too young for an unexpected heart attack. And R.I.P, uncle Ron; who knew a case of pneumonia could bring you literally from one world to another? It just goes to show that you don't know what is going to happen from one week to the next.
When we fly our little family of four down to MN to celebrate my dad's 60th Birthday next month, we're having our 3 present generations photographed at my parents' 575 acre 5 generation farm by Katie Jeanne Photography. She has kindly offered to travel 90 miles (one-way) out into the boondocks to capture some memories for us. I figure if we're going to capture some memories at the farm, what better time to do it than right now. No one in my immediate or extended family has to my knowledge ever been custom photographed. Don't get me wrong; my mom's side of the family takes a lot of photos. In fact, my grandmother left us an entire walk in closet full of them. But, the problem with this is that the people who take the photos never get to be in them.
Until then, I've been working on some projects of my own. Let's be honest, we don't always have the money or want to allocate the money to hire a professional custom photographer. And, after 6 years in Alaska and 3 years in my new home, I've come to terms with the fact that we're staying, so I might as well decorate those pretty walls . . . or at least send out some Fall Equinox or Winter Solstice greeting cards:
Something is better than nothing. Even if you don't have a camera at all, you can always go to Sear's Portrait Studio. They continually have Free Offers with little fine print. Online there are coupons for a free session and a free print (or more) at absolutely no cost. You can go back as many times as you want for free as long as you bring a coupon each time. You may not be able to get your whole family in the scene for free, but you can do individual shots if nothing else. All you have to do is print the coupon, make the appointment, show up, and order your free print. It's true, the resolution is not great, and the paper quality is very poor, but you have to keep in mind that it's free. Even if the product is not nice enough for your wall, start an album or even just a 3-ringed binder and save them. It's nice to have large prints to look back on. Here're two, our baby learning to lie on his belly and toddler eating a cookie so that he'll stay in the photography room long enough to be photographed, I liked enough to hang in the kids' play room: $30 ($15/10x13 frame)
Capture memories yourself and print. We get together with my parents who live a day away by airplane several times a year, and I always love the photos that they take of our family because they are completely candid. Events like my son unscrewing his play table, climbing out of the dog kennel, or peeing off of the front step are memories that should be taken and printed if nowhere else at a place like Shutterfly, where a 4x6 print is only 9-10c. There's nothing worse than not taking any photos than taking them and letting them sit on a hard-drive unseen. Stick them in a photo album. If you have the memory space, keep your camera at the highest pixel setting because you never know when you will fall in love with one of the photos that you take and want to blow it up really large. After filling 6 albums (almost 1500 photos--really), I had these images blown up and mounted on metal, so that they will be durable enough to live by our woodstove for years to come: $100 ($50/16x16 metal print)
Buy a nice frame. It doesn't matter if I'm buying a carseat or a picture frame; I ask myself the same two questions. Is it easy to install? And is it easy to clean? You will notice that you have to pay just a few dollars more for frames that are easy to dust (1 piece of glass and few ledges, nooks and crannies) and that have mounting hardware. Yes, it's hard to believe but if you're not getting a custom frame you should always look on the back because it doesn't always have the basics! And trust me, it's worth the extra because frames are reusable and will last pretty much forever. Most photos I take would not look any good blown up. Either the baby's drooling or the toddler has a snotty nose. There's a blade of grass in front of someone's face or the light isn't quite right. But, you know, in a nice collage frame, they look okay together, and as the boys grow older, more collages will be made. In fact, this is already the second one I've done in the past 6 months. It costs essentially nothing to update your frame so your guests have something new to look at from time to time, in our case, when they first walk into our home: $30.80 ($30 frame, $0.80/8 prints)
Leave room to grow. An absolutely amazing natural light family photographer, MachC Photography, recently gave me some great advice. 1) Before you order prints, canvas, standouts, buy frames, or whatever, cut out a piece of paper the size that you think you want and tape it to the wall where you want it. You may be surprised that you have been thinking too big or too small. You want to make a statement and you want the faces to be big enough that they can be seen. That said though . . . 2) Leave room to grow. And this can mean 2 things if not more. Don't necessarily print as big as your pixels allow or as big as your wall can handle right off the bat. You may want to add more images later or you may in the future want to print a different image even larger. For example, we have a giant wall in our master bedroom and I plan to fill it with prints on black standouts (a cheap alternative to canvas--neither require frames) for years to come . . . below, to the right, to the left, and beyond . . . memories of every age, every season, everyone: $40/16x20 standout
You get what you pay for. Just like most things in life you truly get what you pay for. A professional photo lab like Black River Imaging or a semi-pro lab like Mpix (easier uploading software than BRI) is going to give you a much better result if you're printing your own images than any of the well-known consumer labs. They have the right paper, the right printers, and the right mounting products to make your image look great and last longer than you. But, they're not miracle workers. You need a properly developed high resolution image to start with. If you don't have the time or don't want the stress, leave it to the professional custom photographers. You pay them to capture timeless high resolution images in perfect lighting and make them into products that you will treasure, well, forever.
Photos are for people who want to be reminded of specific moments in time, who are not afraid to see or share who they really are, or appreciate creativity and art. Nothing's stopping you. Capture this moment before it's gone.
