Why should you book a family portrait session?  If you’re like most other families you have a smartphone, maybe even a fancy camera and you take tons of photographs of your family adventures.  Why do you need professional portraits too?  It’s a great question and I’d love to share my thoughts on professional family photography with you.

More than a couple of decades ago when technology in your pocket was still a novelty, the vast majority of photographs were taken on ‘proper’ cameras using film.  This meant that most homes had photo albums filled with happy memories and a family history that everyone could hold and see.

Over time, as technology became cheaper, we have become accustomed to our photographs existing as digital files somewhere on a device.  Maybe they’re all on your phone, in the cloud or on USBs.  Family photographs have become much easier to take, but much more difficult to enjoy.

What do I mean by ‘photos are more difficult to enjoy’?

When you were little do you ever remember flicking through family albums, or tins of photographs your Grandma kept? Everyone would laugh at the retro hairstyles or the fashions of weddings and family gatherings.   Maybe as a teenager, you had photos of yourself and your friends on a pinboard on your bedroom wall.  Every time you glanced up from your homework a happy memory would flood your brain.

Compare that with how we enjoy photographs now.  Are your Facebook memories that pop up and remind you of ‘this day two years ago’, the equivalent of that pin board in your bedroom?  When you upgrade your phone and download your content from the cloud, do you call your kids over and spend a little time flicking through your memories?  We no longer have the enjoyment of physical photos in our hands – somehow making those memories more real.  

How the selfie changed your pictures

The arrival of the ‘selfie’ changed everything!  We suddenly didn’t need to stop strangers and ask them to take our family snap outside Buckingham Palace or in front of the view from our holiday hotel.  We had the selfie!  This brought with it distorted faces, chopped off limbs (or even heads), and generally lowered the quality of the photographs in our digital albums! 

Selfies definitely have their place.  Some of my happiest memories have been caught in selfies – but let’s face it, they usually aren’t wall-worthy!  Selfies also really only work best when there are only a couple of people in them.  Squeezing your entire family into the picture is a challenge!

Your Family in Photographs

If you take nothing else from this article, decide right now that you are going to print your favorite digital photos.  Technology changes all of the time – imagine all your family photographs were on a floppy disk (remember those!).  Printing your photographs ensures they can be enjoyed for generations to come.  Your children will love helping you choose the ones to print and if you’re looking for summer holiday activities, it’s a brilliant task to create family albums together.